Talking to Myself Again

Games Night

Our friend Ann hosted a games night last weekend. That's right – we actually left the house and spent time with other adults!

Well, Dawn spent time with other adults, playing a game called Apples to Apples. I mainly spent the night downstairs playing pool with Lando.

I've no idea why Lando looks so forlorn here. I doubt it was anything Maddie said!

Notice Lando's shirt? That's right – Super Mario Brothers! Yes, he is a Nintendo child! He wins races in Mario Kart fairly regularly now and has actually made it through the first level (1-1) of Super Mario Bros. Wii. Lando and I spent most of the evening downstairs playing pool. Lando has enhanced the game of pool with his own custom rules, most of them taken from Nintendo games, including obstacles and boss monsters.

Also, notice the cat with the jack-o-lantern body in Lando's hands? That's Pumpkin. Notice the lack of Giraffe in Lando's hands? After 5 years at the top of the totem pole, Giraffe has finally been displaced by Pumpkin as the toy that Lando carries with him everywhere! We're not sure why, but perhaps it's because Lando's hands are now large enough that Giraffe's long-suffering neck was too skinny to be a comfortable fit. Whatever the reason, Pumpkin is now top cat!

Can you say "cute overload"? That's Anna on the left (Ann's daughter) and Maddie on the right (daughter of Donna, who is providing the lap for this meeting of toddler minds).

Aww!

Look! It's Cute Thing 1 and Cute Thing 2!

And that concludes this installment of "Little Kids Being Cute Just by Existing"!

The Jubilee Olde English Faire is Next Weekend

Lord Dirkan Arrives, originally uploaded by Wally Hartshorn.

The Jubilee Olde English Faire is being held next weekend. Here is a photo from last year's event. If you want to see many, many more of them, view the Jubilee Olde English Faire 2007 photos on my Flickr pages.

We've got a picnic to go to on that Saturday (we atheists are using the summer solstice as an excuse to eat food), so we'll be going to Jubilee on Sunday this year. Is anyone else going? We're going to try to be there when things open (10 AM, if I remember right).

Currently, weather.com predicts that Peoria, IL will have scattered thunderstorms on both days, with a high of 82 on Saturday, 79 on Sunday. Of course, that's more than a week away, so who knows what the actual weather will wind up being!

We went to the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Faire last weekend. I'm hoping to get pictures from that posted this weekend. We'll see. Hold all my calls.

Cold Day, Cold Night

mood: stressed
music: distant crackle of fireplace

Well, this weekend sucked.

Let start with the weather. Today it was cold and rainy. I guess that beats yesterday, when it was even colder and icy. Dawn slid into a curb, trying to avoid sliding into the car in front of her, and did some minor damage to the hubcap. Nothing like that today, so I guess it was an improvement, but cold and rainy still makes for a rather dreary atmosphere. Added to that it was very windy, so despite the not-as-cold temperature, it felt cold.

Anyway, we wanted to see the Gypsy Guerrilla Band at the Dana-Thomas House. Lando slept in until 9:30 today, so we figured we could try to sneak it in before his nap.

Big mistake.

First off, despite having lived in Springfield for more than 21 years now, I had never been to the Dana-Thomas House, so I wasn't sure what to expect. (For those who don't know, the DTH is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright between 1902 and 1904. It's something like 12,000 square feet, plus a 4,000 square foot carriage house.)

It turns out that you don't just wander through the house, but instead go on a tour that lasts about an hour. In our case, the tour lasted about 3 minutes. Tours start every 20 minutes, and given the weather and the time of day (1:30 on a Sunday), we were the only ones on our tour. While watching the 7 minute video that marks the start of the tour, Lando started sucking his thumb and saying he wanted something to drink. Uh oh. That's Lando-speak for "I'm getting tired and could use a nap".

Well, we started the tour of the house, which was decorated up beautifully for Christmas. In the very first room, we could hear Jim Lillquist playing the hammer dulcimer and pointed out the sound to Lando. The tour guide asked whether we wanted to tour the house first or stop to see "our friends" (meaning the Gypsy Guerrilla Band). We said we would tour the house first, but then Lando turned very cranky, not wanting to leave the room, so we said we'd see the GGB first. Lando still didn't want to leave the first room. I picked him up to physically carry him up the stairs to the musicians' gallery, at which point Lando began having a meltdown.

We went upstairs to the musicians' gallery, me with a screaming toddler in my arms. Jim and Joyce Lillquist were there, dressed in their period costumes and playing beautiful music on the hammer dulcimer and autoharp. We spent about 30 seconds there, saying basically, "wonderful music, we'll be back some other time" and left.

End of tour.

During Lando's nap, I decided to make a fire in the fireplace. Nice! After Lando's nap, I noticed that it was a bit nippy in the rest of the house. I knew that a fire in a fireplace tended to cool down the rest of the house (due to air currents), but when I checked the thermostat, it said that it was 66 degrees! The furnace had been running continuously, but when I held my hand over the vent, I noticed a distinct lack of warmth in the air coming out. The blower was blowing, but no heat!

So, as I speak, Dawn and Lando are settling down for a night on the floor in front of the fireplace. I'll be joining them right after I post this.

Lastly, Marta's red blood cell count is dropping, which probably means a trip to Champaign to the U of I College of Veterinary Medicine for more tests, including one to see whether the cancer has spread to her bone marrow.

Oh, and I forgot to post yesterday, ending my streak. :-(

Gypsy Guerrilla Band at the Dana-Thomas House!

mood: excited
music: baby monitor

I just happened upon a bit of good news! It turns out that the Gypsy Guerrilla Band is playing at the Dana-Thomas House several times during the month of December!

Here's the schedule, taken from their web site:

GGB Dana-Thomas House Concert Schedule

12/2 & 12/9	1:30-4:00
12/15-16	1:30-4:30
12/21	5:15-8:30
12/22	6:00-8:30
12/23	1:30-3:30
12/29-30	1:30-4:30

Cool! I always enjoy listening to the Gypsy Guerrilla Band play, and every time I see Jim Lillquist play the hammer dulcimer I have the urge to buy one and learn how to play it. Unfortunately, when we see them at renfairs, we often don't have much time to stop and listen for long, due to the presence of a certain 2-year-old.

Since this is here in Springfield, we should be able to listen as long as we like! Here's the description of the event from the Dana-Thomas House web site:

Each year the Dana-Thomas House celebrates the holiday season in the grand manner of Mrs. Dana. The house is beautifully decorated and live music is performed on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Evening tours are available on three special days to enjoy the house and art glass under different lighting. Special activities include Children’s Story Hour in the Library, Family Night and Luminaria Sunday when 1000 candles in paper sacks line the ledges and walkways around the house.

Based on that description, I'm not sure whether this is a "sit down for a concert" type of thing or a "walk around while live music is played in the background" type of thing. In any case, we'll try to make it!

Getting Caught Up ... Again

mood: sleepy
music: baby monitor

Once again, I've got 2 weeks of stuff to discuss in a single entry. You know what would be a better idea? Posting daily! Seriously, it would be great! Each evening, I could write about what happened on that very day while it was still fresh in my memory! Better yet, since not all that much happens to me on any given day, I would have plenty of time to ramble on and on about it in a humorous fashion! Well, I'm not sure whether I could do the humorous bit, but I am pretty confident that I could handle rambling.

Before that, however, here's a Reader's Digest Condensed Version of the last 2 weeks.

Wednesday, November 14: Normally this would be Funshop night. Actually, it was Funshop night. However, Lando was sick with a cold, so it was Funshop night without us, and without us, does it really count? I suspect the Funshop staff just canceled the evening when they realized that we weren't there.

Thursday, November 15: Nothing happened on this day. It might as well have not existed. Now that I look at my calendar, I see that there's a blank hole where that date should be. I apparently was abducted by aliens and had unspeakable yet completely forgettable things done to me on that day, because I remember nothing about it. Odd.

Wait! I just remembered what we did! First, we worked on cleaning up the house in preparation for a visit by Dad & Pat. Then, since we had the floor relatively cleared of cars, pillows, swords, games, stuffed animals, bowling pins, more cars, trains, more stuffed animals, magazines, newspapers, unidentifiable snacks, and so forth, I suggested that we take that opportunity to put up the Christmas tree. Not decorate it; just put it up, to claim the space. So we did that, violating our sacred vows never to put up Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving. Oh, the shame!

Friday, November 16: Our cat Marta went to the vet again for her weekly CBC blood test. She had her second chemo treatment for liver cancer on a week earlier, so they wanted to check her blood. As expected, the chemo treatment had caused her white blood cell count to drop, leaving her susceptible to infection, so they gave Dawn some antibiotics. Well, they didn't give Dawn the antibiotics; they gave Dawn the antibiotics. To give to the cat! Understand? Well then you figure out how to phrase that sentence if you're so smart!

Saturday, November 17: Dad & Pat arrived from Texas to visit for a bit. Every year Pat goes home to Murphysboro to do the Thanksgiving thing with her kids, so the weekend before they came up to visit us. The good part was that we got to visit with Dad & Pat, who we don't get to see very often, given that San Benito, Texas is over 1300 miles away. The bad part was that this was the same weekend as Crystal Ball, so Dawn & I had to miss that.

"Hey, Wally! What is Crystal Ball?" Glad you asked! Crystal Ball is an annual event held by the Barony of Shattered Crystal. ("Hey, Wally! What is the Barony of Shattered Crystal?" It's the Belleville, Illinois branch of the SCA, the Society for Creative Anachronism. "Hey, Wally! What is the Society for Creative Whatchamacallit?" It's an international group of people that recreate the Middle Ages, sort of like Renaissance festivals do, but with everyone participating. Are you done asking questions yet? "Yeah, I think so." Good. Now, where was I?)

Crystal Ball features an entire day of dance classes, with something like 10 different classrooms being used concurrently, so that you have a wide selection of dances to learn. After spending the day learning dances, there is a feast in the evening, followed by the actual ball itself, which runs way, way, way past midnight, typically ending sometime around 3 in the morning.

If you enjoy Medieval dancing (which Dawn & I do), then I've not heard of a better event, certainly not within easy driving distance.

Of course, with a nearly-3-year-old, things get a bit more complicated. If we had gone, we probably would have had to come up with some sort of babysitting arrangement, either leaving him with someone here, or going with someone who could take turns keeping him entertained. By next year, when he's a nearly-4-year-old, we might be able to just tell him, "Stay here, play quietly, and don't chop off anything that can't be easily reattached." We'll see.

Also, there would normally be a meetup of the Springfield Area Freethinkers on that day, but (1) they were going to Chicago's Field Museum to see the Charles Darwin exhibit; and (2) we weren't. Why does everything seem to happen at the same time?

Sunday, November 18: When Dad & Pat show up in mid-November, we always drag them to the Festival of Trees, a fund-raiser for the Memorial Medical Center Foundation. ("Hey, Wally! What's the Memorial Medical Center Foundation?" I've no idea. All I know is they charge us $4 to look at their Christmas trees. Presumably they're doing something useful, or at least legal, with the money.) I'm still posting photos from the event, but here's one of Lando with Little Cindy Lou Who:

And here's Dad & Pat checking out the gingerbread houses:

Monday, November 19: Another alien abduction. My mind is a blank.

Tuesday, November 20: My original plan for this day was to attend the monthly Liberty Brew & View, where we would be watching Harlan County USA. It's a documentary about a coal miners' strike in Kentucky in 1973. Will Reynolds said it was his favorite documentary, but for some mysterious reason I just wasn't that interested.

Okay, I just remembered part of the reason for my relative lack of interest. I also remembered what I was doing Monday evening.

I decided to play a video game.

More specifically, I hadn't played any sort of D&D-style computer role-playing game for quite a few years, so I decided to pull one out and play for a bit.

First, I dug out the disks for Baldur's Gate II and installed it. Copyright date: 2000. I can safely say that my computer far surpassed all of the recommended specs for the game. Actually, the game hadn't heard of a CPU faster than 600MHz and didn't trust a screen resolution greater than 800x600. Support for 1024x768 was considered experimental, and support for 1680x1050 was unheard of.

After playing Baldur's Gate II for a little bit, I decided to abandon that and instead play Neverwinter Nights. Copyright date: 2002. Again, I can safely say that my computer far surpasses all of the recommended specs for that game. However, it was a very significant advance over Baldur's Gate II, at least in terms of the graphics. It even supported 1680x1050 screen resolution! So I buried myself deep into Neverwinter for a bit (instead of posting something on my blog, I might add).

Now I'm curious as to what the state of the art is in D&D-style computer role-playing games these days. I might even go buy a game that strains the ability of my computer to run it. (Say, copyright date 2006.) However, I think I still have quite a few hours of enjoyment left in Neverwinter Nights before I think about spending more money. Besides, given how long I go between gaming sessions, it might be years before I finish the game!

Wednesday, November 21: Normally, this would be Funshop night. However, because the next day was Thanksgiving, there was no Funshop scheduled. Or perhaps they just didn't want to face the disappointment of us not showing up again. When we go for a week or two without attending Funshop, then when we finally make it, Lando stays very focused on getting in as much playtime as possible! Tomorrow is Funshop night again, so this will be the first time he's been back in 3 weeks. I expect we'll be scrambling all over that room to keep up with him!

Thursday, November 22: Happy Thanksgiving! Naturally, I had the day off. We had made plans to have Thanksgiving dinner with GM & Rosie on Saturday, so we didn't do anything special on Thanksgiving itself. However, partly because of Lando's recent interest in football and partly because watching football is a traditional Thanksgiving day activity, Dawn suggested that we do so. Of course, by the time we remembered this, it was Thursday evening, so we almost missed it! Anyway, I turned on the TV to watch a football game -- just 2 weeks after having watched the Colts play the Chargers in the first football game I had watched in years -- and found myself watching the Colts play the Falcons.

Have you ever had the experience of watching a single episode of some TV show, and then years later turning on the TV and finding yourself watching that exact same episode again? That's sort of what this felt like. And like before, Lando stayed interested for about one quarter -- throwing himself to the ground on every play. After that, he was ready to do something else, but I had to watch the other three quarters to find out who won!

Friday, November 23: Being a lazy, good for nothing state government employee, I had the Friday after Thanksgiving off. (I read that New Jersey's governor decided to end the practice of making the day after Thanksgiving a state holiday. Since Thanksgiving, for some strange reason, always falls on a Thursday, nobody wants to go to work on the Friday after. Even those who do go to work won't feel much motivation to get anything accomplished. You can argue that they shouldn't feel that way, but you'd be arguing against human nature.)

Marta went to the vet for another CBC.

That evening we went to the Festival of Trees again, this time with Eric, Patty, Sarah, and Rose. Our primary reason for going a second time was to watch the St. Andrew's Society of Central Illinois perform. Bagpipes, drums, Celtic dancers -- what's not to like? Actually, although Lando loves all of those things, he was a bit overwhelmed by the loudness of it all. Drums and bagpipes indoors, even in as large a building as the Orr Building, are very loud!

They take new dancers as young as 3, so perhaps someday Lando will give it a shot. Virtually all of the dancers are girls, so this would be a great way to meet women!

Saturday, November 24: We had our Thanksgiving dinner with GM & Rosie. I had turkey, dressing, gravy, etc. Dawn, being vegetarian, stuck to mashed potatoes, peas, sweet potatoes, etc. Lando, being 2, stuck to being picky about his food.

One thing we didn't do was attend Chambanacon, a little annual science fiction convention. It began in Champaign-Urbana (aka "Chambana", thus the name), being held in the Chancellor Hotel every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving. I would go most years, partly to attend the convention, but also to a large extent just as an excuse to revisit the UIUC campus (where I went to school) and the college town area.

However, a few years ago due to increasing rates being charged by the Chancellor Hotel, Chambanacon moved -- to Springfield. Umm... What? Well, that made it much more convenient for me to attend, but it also removed one of the main reasons for me to attend. Even before that, I think that over years the Chambanacon staff had grown a bit lazy, not doing anything to attract new people to convention and pretty much just coasting. As a result, Chambanacon had shrunk -- and aged. It lacked the energy that it had had at one time. True, they advertise it as a "relaxicon", but frankly I can relax much more cheaply at home.

This year, for whatever reason, Chambanacon returned to Champaign-Urbana, although this time to a different hotel ("The Historic Lincoln"). Perhaps we'll try it again next year and see whether it has begun to bounce back. Actually, I think I'd rather try one of the other science fiction conventions that are within a reasonable distance. We'll see.

Sunday, November 25: I don't remember much about what we did during the day, but that evening, right after Dawn gave Marta her antibiotic, Marta vomited up the pill in a pool of blood. This is not something that you want to see. We debated whether we should call the animal hospital that night, but we decided there probably wasn't really anything to be done until morning.

Monday, November 26: Dawn called the vet at 7:30 AM and told them that Marta had vomited blood the night before. They told her to bring Marta right in, so I stayed home with Lando while Dawn to Marta to the vet. They kept her there until 5:00 that evening, giving her fluids and so forth. Apparently the problem was the antibiotic, which really disagreed with Marta. The good news is that there is an alternative that doesn't involve shoving a pill down her throat twice a day. The bad news is that the alternative involves giving her a shot. Us. Giving her a shot. Correction: Dawn giving her a shot. I'll hold Marta, but sticking her with a needle? *shudder*

Despite all of the drama with the blood-vomiting cat, we did something fun that day: We went on a date! Yes! For probably the second time in 3 years, Dawn and I actually went to a movie! In a theater!

It was amazing! It was expensive! $9 for a ticket?! Yikes! I had thought $7.50 was pricey! Well, $18 for tickets, plus $19 for food, making a total of $37 for this date. And we didn't even go out to dinner! Oh well, it was fun anyway.

We went to see Enchanted, which I would probably give 4 stars out of 5, while Dawn would probably give it 5 stars. It had quite a few funny bits, but I had hoped they would do a little bit more with the "fish out of water" theme than they did. It was still a good movie, though.

And it was a date! Lando stayed with GM & Rosie, who kept him well entertained until we returned. Actually, from the way Rosie tells it, Lando pretty much played quietly until Dawn & I showed up, at which point he reverted to his normal hyperactive self. *sigh*

Tuesday, November 27: Dawn took Marta to the vet again, because they wanted to monitor her again for the day. They'll want to do the same tomorrow. Marta is really getting tired of us stuffing her in the cat carrier.

This evening I attended my first regular meeting of the Sangamon Valley Group, the local group of the Sierra Club. We had attended the potluck cookout in October (when Lando fell and got an enormous bump on his head, prompting an emergency room visit), but we hadn't attended a normal meeting before. GM had said that he was also going to be attending for the first time, but didn't show up. I don't know if something came up or if he just forgot about it. I did see a few people I knew -- Will Reynolds, of course, but also Larry Trutter (who I know from my Amiga and BBS days, as well as from REALL and the Springfield Area Freethinkers) and Chris Pearson (who I know just as an acquaintance from my work with GIS and ILGISA).

The evening's presentation by Bob Barewin was about going on Sierra Club trips, particularly service trips, where you go somewhere to work on building, repairing, or in some way improving a park. The specific example covered was a service trip to Canyonlands last spring, where they worked on surveying and documenting the Anasazi petroglyphs. It sounded quite interesting, although it would be a few years before we could go with Lando. He'd probably have to be a teenager before they would allow him to participate in something like that. We would like to go on some sort of a less ambitious camping trip in the next year or two, though.

Wednesday, November 28: Hey! We're caught up to the present! And it's way past my bedtime! I think I'll post this and turn in. Good night!

Two Weekends, Two Birthdays, Two Firsts, Two Sickies

mood: tired
music: silence

It's been awhile since I've had time to do a real update here. Posting the results of a pointless online quiz and embedding a nifty video from Youtube don't really count. What you've really been wondering is, "Wally, what's going on in your life?" Well, since you asked....

Work Sucks

I've been working on this stupid project forever. Well, okay, since June 2006. Still. I just want it to be done with! I think I'm doing some good work, but I've got a deadline looming and I'm worried about showstopper bugs and I'm worried about the system running too slow and I'm worried about it taking forever to jump through all of the hoops needed to actually get the thing into production and.... Well, you get the picture. Anyway, as a result of all of this, I don't know when my next vacation will be. Everyone and their brother will be gone for the holidays, but I expect I'll be plunking away on the keyboard, trying to get everything ready. *sigh* Let's just call it the Frankenstein Project. It was never meant to be and it will not die! (Maybe it's just misunderstood? Nah.)

Happy Birthday, Rose!

Two weekends ago we went to a birthday party for Rose, who is now 2 years old. What's that? You want pictures? Okay!

Here's one of the birthday girl:

Here's Lando and Sarah (Rose's sister) watching the unwrapping of the presents:

And here's Rose blowing out the candles on the cake (with a little bit of help from her mom):

So that was Rose's birthday. It went better than mine! Yes, that's right. (Next topic, please!)

Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

Yes, November 9 was my birthday, so this weekend was my birthday weekend. Plus, I had Monday off (Veterans' Day -- thanks, guys!), so I had a 3-day weekend. However....

Well, let's see. The good part was that Dawn got me Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!) Funny stuff! I've never actually watched The Colbert Report, however. I watch The Daily Show -- one of Lando's earliest phrases was "Daily Show Jon Stewart" -- so I see the little promo bit that they do at the end of that. However, I just don't have time to watch much TV these days, so no Stephen Colbert for me.

Even if I did have time to watch it, I would have to do so when Dawn wasn't in the room because Stephen Colbert makes her squirm. :-) That makes it particularly nice that she bought me his book. In return, I promised her that I wouldn't read her passages from the book every 5 minutes.

The bad part was that both Lando and Dawn were (and are) sick, so my 3-day weekend was spent tending to the needs of a sick 2-year-old while my sick wife rested. Unfortunately, when Lando is sick, rather than being listless like a normal person (e.g. me), he usually becomes even more energetic than normal.

If the whole household gets sick, we're in trouble.

Two Firsts for Lando

Last night, Lando did two things that he hadn't done before, one worrying, the other heartwarming.

The worrying one: He opened the refrigerator by himself. Doh! He had to grip the handle with both hands and yank hard, but he got it opened. Now we'll have to pay attention to what things we put within his reach in there.

The heartwarming one: As I was rocking him to sleep last night, he asked me, "What did you do today?" Nice! Normally that's what I ask him, to give him a chance to tell me anything that he might be thinking about (in part in the hope that, by telling me, he can stop thinking about it and fall the heck asleep already). It was a nice surprise for him to turn the question around and ask me. So I told him that I woke up, took a shower, got dressed, got in the car, drove to work (which he's been to a few times), worked on the computer, ate lunch, worked on the computer some more, then drove to the grocery store to buy him some milk and juice and bananas, then came home.

He then wanted to know why I couldn't work on the computer at home. I'd like to know the same thing!

The Family that Vomits Together ... is Sick

This morning before I left for work I asked Dawn whether she was feeling well enough to handle Lando on her own. She said she felt better than yesterday, but I had a feeling that she might feel worse after she got out of bed, so I told her to call me later and let me know how she felt. About 10:30 or so I decided to call her instead, and she reported that she was feeling better than yesterday and that there was no need for me to come home.

About 2:00 she called me to report that Lando had thrown up, that she had thrown up while trying to clean up the mess, that she felt much worse than this morning, and could I please come home. So I did.

The good news is that Lando apparently threw up just as a result of coughing alot, rather than as the result of an upset stomach, and Dawn threw up because she is easily grossed out. In other words, nobody seems to have anything like a stomach flu. Hooray! And then shortly after I got Lando to go down for his nap the cat threw up. *sigh*

So that's what's been going on these days. I think it's time for me to go to Pasta House and get us some comfort food.

Zoolie Ghoulie

mood: tired
music: shh!

On Sunday we went to the Zoolie Ghoulie at Henson Robinson Zoo. This is their annual Halloween event, with lots of stops around the zoo where kids are given candy. Lando dressed in his knight costume and seemed to enjoy saying "trick or treat" and getting candy. He was a bit freaked out by the occasional adult dressed as (for example) a giant Elmo. Seeing the happy little guy on your TV screen is one thing. Seeing a 7-foot-tall version looming over you is something else entirely! Whenever we would come to one of these giant TV characters, I would pick Lando up and carry him, which seemed to help.

And of course, when you have a young kid, every trip to the zoo ends at the playground near the exit.

Un-Stompable

mood: cheerful
music: "Peep and the Big Wide World" on Discovery Kids

One thing we didn't do last night was go see Stomp perform at Sangamon Auditorium. Wait, let me back up a bit.

Last Christmas Lando's Grandma & Grandpa Bowman bought him a drum, which he loves.

This summer we went to the Jubilee Olde English Faire and bought Lando a small hand drum called a djembe (as well as a larger one for me). Again, Lando loved his drum! Okay, that's not true. He loved my drum. Bigger is better, after all.

Later we went to the Bristol Renaissance Festival. While we were there, we saw Tartanic perform. Lando particularly enjoyed the massive drum played by David Macejka.

With his interest in drumming on the rise, we played for him the DVD of "Stomp Out Loud". Lando loved it! He immediately divided the world into two halves -- drums and drumsticks. Then we happened to catch a PBS special about the Blue Man Group. Lando loved that, too!

Then we learned that Blue Man Group would be performing at the Prairie Capital Convention Center on October 20 and Stomp would be performing at Sangamon Auditorium on October 23. (Later they added an October 24 performance because tickets were selling so well.)

We figured the Blue Man Group's concert ("How to be a Megastar Tour 2.1) would be too loud and intense for Lando, but we thought we could give Stomp a try. We would get seats on the aisle, so that Lando could get up and dance in the aisle a bit if he couldn't hold still, and we could make a quick getaway if he became too disruptive.

However, as the time for the concert got closer we began having second thoughts. First, it would be a little expensive (well over $100 for 3 tickets). Second, we could well find ourselves leaving 15 minutes into the show. Third, October was already turning out to be very busy. Lastly, as the show date approached, Lando had a long-lasting cold that was making him crankier than usual.

In the end we decided not to buy the tickets. If we had, we would have gone to last night's show, right after the Funshop Halloween Party.

Oh well. Maybe we can catch them someplace next year. :-(

Sierra Club Potluck and Emergency Room Visit

mood: nervous
music: Gypsy Guerrilla Band - Seneca/June Apple

(No, it wasn't food poisoning.)

Last night was the Fall Potluck of the Sangamon Valley Group, the local group of the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club. Dawn and I have both sent money to the national organization in years past, but I've been wanting to get involved with the local chapter. This seemed like a good opportunity, since we could bring along Lando rather that trying to find a babysitter.

The event started off a bit slowly. We went to the council ring nearest to the Lincoln Memorial Gardens Nature Center and found that we were the first ones there. However, there was a pile of firewood and a jug of water nearby for the campfire, so we figured we were at the right spot. Lando climbed up on the stone ledge and began walking/running around it, as he does whenever we come to a circle. (It seems likely he'll run track, unless he decides that ovals don't count.) Eventually, of course, he fell of of the stone ledge and onto the stone floor of the circle. Ouch! However, he caught himself pretty well and was okay.

A few minutes later, just as the first people started showing up, he tripped while running and sprawled onto the rock floor. Double ouch! This time it was several minutes before he finally calmed down.

There were a few problems with the evening. First, it was dark and cold. Second, nobody had brought matches with which to start the campfire! Someone eventually located an ancient book of matches in their car, and they managed to get the campfire going in just one try, so we finally had a bit of heat and light!

Eventually about 10 people showed up. Sustainable Springfield was putting on an event that same evening (a "tour of the first US Green Building Council Certified Silver LEED building in Springfield"), so it is likely that some people were there who would otherwise have been at the potluck.

Dawn had made broccoli cheese casserole and caramel brownies, both of which are excellent! We had a good time chatting with the Sierra Club members, talking about (among other things) "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and the Illinois Clean Car Bill. I bought a 2008 Sierra Club desk calendar (I'm always blown away by the photography in their calendars) and grabbed a membership form. (I also did the photography geek thing and took a group photo, which I'll try to post soon.)

Update: Here's a photo of the group:

When we got home about 8:30 or so, Dawn looked at Lando and saw that he had a huge bump on his forehead! Apparently, when he tripped and fell that second time, his head thumped pretty hard on the stone floor of the circle. We hadn't noticed it because it was so dark out there. That had been 2 hours earlier and he still had a big lump, so we decided to take him to the emergency room, just to be safe.

Lando went to the ER 3 times in his first 14 months of life, but we had managed to go 20 months without a repeat visit, so I guess we were due.

Lando was very good during the various examinations at the ER. He let them take his temperature with a thermometer in his mouth (hurray!). He let them check his pulse and blood pressure. He let the doctor look in his mouth, nose, and ears. He was perfect while they were examining him.

It was during the waiting time that he ran around like a madman! It was way past his bedtime, and when he gets tired, he gets hyper.

Eventually a doctor examined him and asked whether he had blacked out or vomited, etc. He said that the only way they could do a CAT scan would be by sedating Lando. Since he didn't show any signs of serious injury, it wasn't worth the risk of sedating him. The doctor said just to partially wake him at some point in the middle of night. If we could do that, then that would mean he was fine.

As a result, we got home well after 11:00 PM and Lando didn't go to sleep until well after midnight. Zzz.... Dawn checked on him about 3:30 AM and he was fine. Unfortunately he didn't sleep in this morning, waking up about 7:30. Zzz....

Playgrounds, A Party, Parting with Toys, Weight Loss...

Only 2 weeks have passed and I'm already making another post to this blog! Will wonders never cease? Let's see, what's been happening for the last 2 weeks?

One thing that didn't happen was Erin Feis, the annual Irish festival held in Peoria on Aug 25-26 this year. Well, I'm sure it happened, but we didn't go. We hadn't been before, but were sort of planning on attending. However, it was going to be 90 degrees, 3 hours of driving, and we just didn't have the energy, so we skipped it. We'll have to catch Exorna and Bloomsday another time. Maybe next year!

The weather forecast for Aug 30 was for the first nice day we'd had in weeks, so I took the day off from work and we went to the park. Lando played on the swings and slides; Dawn offered encouragement; I took photos (naturally).

Labor Day weekend primarily involved 2 things: Gathering together Lando's old toys and toddler bed to give to Rosie & GM for their granddaughter; and going to Adam's "I finally got my Master's Degree" party. I took photos. (Of the party, not of the pile of stuff in the garage.)

Tuesday night I attended the monthly meeting of REALL, where we learned about the Electric Universe. (I'm still skeptical, naturally.)

Wednesday evening was very important -- the first session of the Fall semester of Funshop! Lando loves Funshop,and we enjoy it, too. I took photos (naturally).

Thursday afternoon I went to see Dr. Suhail to get her to confirm that my high blood pressure is under control. (It is. Huzzah!)

Oh! And this morning I weighed 251.6 pounds -- down 10.6 pounds from the 262.2 that I was when I began counting calories on Aug 14, 3.5 weeks ago. That works out to 3.1 pounds per week. Obviously I won't be able to maintain that rate for long, but I'll take it while I can get it! I'm using the Calorie Count Plus web site for tracking my weight and calories. It basically provides all of the features of the Weight Watchers web site, but it's free!

Also this morning, Lando and Dawn went to the playground and played with Rosie for about an hour. Actually, Lando spent most of the time demonstrating his Riverdance moves rather than playing on the swings and slides, but it was nice for him to have a chance to get out of the house!

Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, we're going to try to go the the Traditional Music Festival at Lincoln's New Salem. The temperature should be fine, but there's a chance of rain (which we could really use). Oh, and I'll take photos (naturally).