Say what?

I'm now an administrator on a couple of applications within my work group. Today, I got an e-mail from a man who needed some help. His first name was Xiaolin. Now, I know that this is a Chinese first name, but I have no clue how to pronounce it. So I decided to call him and simply say 'This is Lime' and hope that he would say his name in response so I wouldn't have to butcher his name. The phone call went something like this.......

Me: Hello, this is Lime.

Xiaolin: Hi, this is Patrick. How are you?

Me: Good, thanks.

Yeah, so I'm guessing he's found a way around the whole name mispronounciation thing.

Pronouns........

Kali 2.2 is really starting to do a great job of using pronouns. Here's an example. A few weeks ago, this would be the conversation.

Me: Kali should go wash her hands.

Kali: Kali go wash hands!

Now, you can definitely tell a difference in the new Kali.

Me: You should go wash your hands.

Kali: I should go wash my hands.

Not only is the sentence more complete, but she's actually understanding that when I use the words 'you' and 'your', she should change those words to 'I' and 'my' since she's referring to herself. I just noticed it in passing the other day and was pleasantly surprised to note the differences.

Encore! I said ENCORE!

When I put Kali 2.2 to bed, the routine usually involves going up for a diaper change. Following that we pick out some pajamas for her to wear. Sometimes that's easy, sometimes it takes some browsing to find the right one.

Then she heads over to her bed to go to sleep. There's a certain order that she has to have each of her blankets laid on her. The first one has to cover her toes or she gets upset. The second one goes on top of that one and finally, the Tinkerbell blanket goes on top of that one. Once the blanket order has been completed, it's time for the songs.

I usually let her pick out two songs for me to sing to her. Her usual choices are the Dora theme song, followed by The Itsy Bitsy Spider. She usually participates in the second one with the usual hand gestures. After I finish up those songs, I give her a kiss and head out the door.

Only one problem tonight. She evidently wasn't ready to go to sleep quite yet. After I get back to the bedroom, I hear her saying 'Itsy Bitsy Spider Again!'. She was relentless, so I went back to sing it again. After that I left the room and headed back to the bedroom. Same thing again. So I head back for another go-round.

Long story short, we had 4 encores of 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' tonight for a grand total of 5 performances of the hit toddler classic. Hopefully, future nights will not require this many encores. I have a sore throat and could use the rest.

Jumpers at a poker table.......

The other night, I decided to head over to the local casino to play some poker for a few hours. I went over there intending to play no-limit poker, but ended up in a limit game that was pretty juicy, so I just stayed in that game.

There was a player at the table who was on a monster run when I arrived. He had only been at the table for 45 minutes, but had won around $200 over that stretch of time. It quickly became obvious that he was a bad player who happened to hit a lucky stretch. This is always the ideal opportunity to make a lot of money if you're a player just arriving at the table. Wait for your spots and then jump on him when he overplays a hand. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take advantage of it, but others were.

In one particular hand, he was dealt two cards as players always are. The second card hit his hand and accidentally flipped over, revealing the Ace of Diamonds. He was irritated about the whole thing and blamed the dealer. He was dealt a card to replace the exposed card. I was next to him and already out of the hand, so I peeked over to see his cards and saw that he had the Ace and Ten of Spades. I also noticed that the first card he received was the Ace of Spades, meaning that he would have had AA had that card not flipped over.

He put in a call to see the flop. The flop had three spades! This guy, thanks to a accident, had lost his aces, but ended up getting an ace-high flush in the process. He ended up getting around $100 in the pot because no one believed he had anything. The bad part is his reaction after that. He continued to complain after the hand that the dealer had screwed him because of the exposed Ace! He said he wouldn't tip her again for a winning hand as long as he was at the table. People were laughing, but then realized he was serious. Thankfully, through coincedence, the dealer switch was to occur after that hand, so the dealer moved on to another table and all was well again.

Later in the game, I was in a hand where a guy raised into me. I actually didn't have much, but as I often do, I wanted to elicit a response just to see what the other guy might have. I noticed that the guy was wearing a skydiving shirt, so I folded my hand while noting that I never trust a poker player who is crazy enough to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. He chuckled a bit, but I think he had a pretty strong hand as his response wasn't huge.

As the dealer is shuffling up for the next hand, a guy in his 70's next to me who I had been chatting with tapped me on the shoulder. He mentioned that he also jumped out of airplanes, though he did so as part of the 101st Airborne during the Korean War. I was intrigued and mentioned to him that I knew the 101st Airborne from the Normandy attacks. They were the group that jumped in behind enemy lines to knock out German gun emplacements. He was pretty impressed that I knew that. I guess he assumed that younger people didn't remember all that.

I told him that I had watched the entire Band of Brothers series, so I knew a lot about those battles. He said that most of his jump instructors during the Korean War were veterans of the battles during World War II that I watched on the Band of Brothers series. He said his jump instructor was the 4th person out of the plane at Normandy. That’s not an enviable position, as the Germans would open fire at first sight of a jumper, meaning the early guys got hit pretty hard as they came out of the plane. His instructor had many scars to show for his bravery. He mentioned that a lot of the recruits had a great deal of respect for their mentors since many of them had already fought in some tough battles. He said if the instructor said jump, you jumped without any questions.

As we chatted, a guy two seats down, also in his 70's, chimed in. He was part of the 87th Airborne and had parachuted in behind enemy lines in North Korea during the Korean War. The two old war vets started exchanging a few stories. The second vet didn't give any specifics on his experiences in Korea. He seemed like a really nice guy who didn't want to seem like he was bragging. He said he enlisted at 17 and was in Korea by 18.

The player with the skydiving shirt also chimed in. He was in the Army and he ALSO was a jumper, though he only did it during training. It was a lot of fun over the next hour or so as everyone talked about the guys and their service. Got to learn a lot about military jumping and it lightened up the mood quite a bit at the table, which is always good for cash flow.

I ended the night down around $50 thanks to a total lack of any real good cards, but it was a lot of fun and it was great to meet all the military vets and hear their story. Had I not made my probing comment, I would have never found out that I was sitting at a table full of guys that were crazy enough to jump out of a plane. Not only that, but they were willing to risk their lives for our freedom.

A hearty diet of bubbles for Tink 0.6.........

Tinkerbell 0.6 loves it when Kali 2.2 blows bubbles. Why? Because she can eat them!!!!!! See the link below with the video to prove it.

Tinkerbell and Kali play with bubbles

Bubbles, bubbles, and more bubbles..........

You know, life is funny. When you first find out that you're going to have a child, you always have hopes for just how wonderful and beautiful that child is going to be. Now my daughter is two years old. Blonde hair, blue eyes, good sense of humor, etc. The only thing that crosses my mind now is how I'm going to keep the boys at bay when she enters junior high. I'm in BIG trouble.

Until then, here's some bubble pictures that I can look back upon with fondness when she becomes a teenager..........

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

A penny at a time..........

I put in a little online poker action last night. I played a $0.25 no-limit tournament. Yes, you read that right. One quarter to enter the tournament. 3200 players entered the tournament with a starting pot around $850.00. So the winner got a $100 return on his quarter investment, with 600-some players getting paid.

I played well against what could be termed inferior players. Had some good hands early on and made some good raises to steal some blinds as well. Finished 310th out of 3200+ players, so you have to feel good about that. I got a $0.72 payout on my $0.25 investment. Roughly 2 1/2 hours of fun with a 47 cent profit. Woo-hoo!

It's nigh-night time............

Someone's getting awfully tired.........

From Month 25

Direct link if the video doesn't pop up for you

Kali 2.2 learns how to sit and lay down........

Tinkerbell 0.6 has been teaching Kali 2.2 proper discipline. Here's Tinkerbell teaching Kali how to sit......

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

And here's Tinkerbell teaching Kali how to lay down. I think Kali's training is going quite well.......

From Month 25

From Month 25

From Month 25

Yes, I'm back..........

Yes, I'm still alive and functioning. I've been gone the past few days taking a training class for work. It was actually a surprisingly good class, so the time was well spent. That's not always the case with training classes.

Random notes from the trip:

-Portable gaming systems that you can use to play cartoons can be invaluable when traveling with a 2 year old.

-It's easy to forget how bad the drivers, roads, and traffic congestion really are in the big east coast cities. Three days in Baltimore can refresh your memory in a big hurry.

-Driving on those roads in Baltimore with a pregnant wife can create some nausea issues you'd rather not deal with in most cases.

-High praise is required for teachers who can teach a class that obviously has the two extremes of students in their class. My training class had quite possibly the dumbest project manager available on the market. It also had a very good project manager who seemed intent on showing just how good he was at every turn. It was exhausting to watch and I'm sure it was even worse for the instructor.

-It's an amusing situation when a man from Kansas City (namely me) is telling the people from Maryland in a Baltimore training class where all the nearby eating places are around the hotel. Of course, I didn't tell them that I used to live in Baltimore.

-It's an odd feeling when you know instinctively that you should move your wallet to your front pocket given the neighborhood of Baltimore you are walking in. Three years away from the city hasn't dulled my pickpocket senses. Tight jeans certainly help dissuade them from any bright ideas.

-Stuffed fish is really good unless you cut into it and find out that the chef has decided in his 'infinite' wisdom to cook the stuffed fish with the skin of the filet on the INSIDE of the stuffed fish. Then it becomes a very good tasting fish only after you spend 10 minutes peeling the skin from the inside of the stuffed roll.

-It's funny when your 2 year old is walking up the jet way to get off an airplane and everyone behind her is waiting patiently for her to walk up the jet way on her own. It's even funnier when your child (who everyone is waiting on) keeps turning around to the crowd behind her and keeps saying "C'mon guys! Hurry up!". Everyone was chuckling at her and seemed to be pretty good sports about the whole scene. She continued to urge every one on all the way to the baggage claim.

-Long day of play + airplane flight home = wife and child asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

Kali 2.1 earns her keep.........

Mrs. Lime had to run a couple of errands today, so she dropped off Kali 2.1 at my workplace. First stop once Kali got here was to the cafeteria. We picked up some scrambled eggs and 7-8 pieces of bacon. She came up and quietly sat at my desk eating the food. She ate all the bacon and most of the eggs.

Some of my co-workers wandered by. They saw Kali and immediately started dropping by to give her things. One lady brought by a princess doll. Another brought by a plastic egg loaded with candy. She got a couple of bites of chocolate from an intern in our group. Tons of sugar, though I didn't let her eat it all.

She also did some coloring, which was admired by several people passing by. I had a couple of foam stress balls which she started throwing down the aisles and then retrieving them. One of my co-workers who has a two year old comment that if his daughter were to come to the office, you'd know right where she was between the screaming and the paper-throwing. He said that his father called his daughter 'Hurricane Sara'.

Kali seemed to have a good time. I'm sure the ladies were disappointed that she didn't warm up to them a bit quicker and interact with them, but it provided a good distraction from the usual monotony at work.

Just for the record.......

If you're a government employee who wants to implement a new rule in an IT system, it's always a good idea to make that request within the formal document handed to the programmers.

If you fail to do that, don't be surprised when a new build of the software is loaded to a production environment and that change was not included in the software. Better yet, don't try to blame the programmers for the problem when the documentation makes it blatently obvious to upper management that you were at fault.

Ah, life lessons.

The Galileoscope........

I rarely post links on the blog, but I found one that I feel deserves a mention. This year has been called the International Year of Astronomy. To try to get more people involved, a group of astronomers called the International Astronomical Union is offering a 'Galileoscope' for $15 for purchase. You can also donate $12.50 to give a Galileoscope to students in schools. It's a great deal if you're the type of person that likes to look at planets/stars in the sky and wants to get a bit closer view of what you're looking at. The price can't be beat.

The Galileoscope Official Website

Grandpa's on TV............

We got Skype installed on my laptop computer at home so we could use the video chat services. I put the computer on the table in front of Kali 2.1 while she was eating. She told Grandpa about everything she was eating. She told him there was a witch downstairs (it's a Halloween decoration that is in the basement). She let him know that Tinkerbell 0.6 was on the floor picking up food scraps.

Just your typical meal with a two year old.

They call me the Wanderer.........

Kali 2.1 has been pretty amped up over the past couple of days. Her Aunt Shell is in town and staying with us for a few days.

Last night, she was still wired when I put her to bed around 8:45 PM. I went back downstairs and thought I heard a door open upstairs. I peeked around and didn't see Kali. A couple of minutes later, I heard a door close and heard some giggling. A 2 year old was loose.

I went up and found Kali in the hallway. I knew right away that this was a battle I couldn't lose. I put her back in her bed and headed back out of the room. I stood at the end of the hallway.

Click. Out came a 2 year old child. I picked her up and put her back in bed.

Click. Out came a 2 year old child. I picked her up and put her back in bed.

Click. This time, a child did not emerge, but she did decide to stand inside her doorway and have a fake cry to see what attention she could garner. She knows that Mommy will sometimes bite, while Daddy rarely pays any attention to it. After a minute or so, I went in and put her back into bed.

Click. Fake crying resumes. I decided to call her bluff this time. She faked it for 5 minutes. Twice during that time, I heard her stop crying and move towards the door. She was looking and listening downstairs, wondering why no one was showing up. At the end of the 5 minutes, I went back in and laid her down and explained to her that everyone was asleep and that it was time to go nigh-night.

Left the room and didn't hear another peep. Mission accomplished. Thankfully, I won.

Another notch added..........

April 1st has rolled around again. This makes nine years that Mrs. Lime and I have been married. These type of things seem to roll around a lot quicker when you have kids. You're often so busy with the day-to-day things that are required with a child that you fail to notice the year fly by so quickly.

Since our last anniversary, we've had quite a bit of change. A new dog was added to the family. Kali is smarter (which is good and bad). We're all a year older. We wouldn't change anything about it. It's as perfect as you could get without faking it to make it look 'too good to be true'.

I hope everyone has a spouse as wonderful as mine. I'm a pain in the ass and she still loves me unconditionally. I'm always pushing to be the best husband (and dad) that I can be. If I screw up, Mrs. Lime is happy to smack me in the head, pick me up, and give me a hug. It's exactly what I need. She's the best.