"Shake, shake, shake......Senora! Shake your body right!"

"Work, work, work......Senora! Work it all the time. Jump in line, rock your body in time! OK, I believe you!!!!!!!!!!"

What happens when you mix one part Kali 1.7 and one part Dancing with the Stars? One minute of non-stop dancing!!!!!!!

(Apologies for the shaky video. Kali won't dance unless I dance with her. As a result, I filmed the video while dancing.)

Kali dances the night away!

Note that Kali even makes sure to applaud the dancers and orchestra when the dance is complete. Very well done.

Shoe Man.........

I bought some new shoes Sunday at Niketown in San Francisco. I like flashy shoes of all sizes and shapes and these were no different. They were white running shoes with a black Nike swoosh on the side. The entire bottom sole is neon yellow. The idea is that the shoe stands out when you're a runner and every time you lift your foot, a car can easily see the neon yellow and know you're on the road.

I told Mrs. Lime along with my sister and her husband that I was know as 'Shoe Man' at work because of all the different shoes I wear. I told them that my co-workers would notice the new shoes. I'm happy to report that no less than 9 of my co-workers have already commented about my shoes. The 'Shoe Man' retains his crown.

Wine me a river..........

Yes, I'm back and ready for a full week of work. It was difficult to go out to Sonoma County, CA for the weekend. All of that wining and dining was an arduous struggle. I've never had so much wine in a two day period as I did this weekend. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Now, I sit back in a 6'x8' cubicle working the daily grind of testing web applications. In my head, I hear fruity descriptions of every wine I tasted this weekend. I'm sure that will fade away as the week progresses.

**sigh**

Wanted to pass on thanks for the donations........

As I noted a couple of weeks ago, Mrs. Lime's mother passed away. Their family set up a scholarship fund for female physics students in her honor to try to encourage more women who are pursuing a physics degree.

I wanted to thank everyone who has donated thus far to the fund. As I write this blog entry, the scholarship fund total has reached the $10,000 mark in donations. We're overwhelmed by the response from friends and family and are excited about the possibility that we'll be able to make a great impact in the life of someone pursuing a physics degree. It's absolutely wonderful.

Yes! No! Yes! No!

My mom came into town last week to take care of Kali 1.7. Kali has a new favorite word......"No". Kali says the word in a calm manner, so it doesn't seem terribly negative. My moms said that Kali "says 'No' cutely". Spoken like a true grandparent.

With that said, in recent days, Kali isn't even using the word to actually say 'No'. For example, Kali loves to have a cup of pudding or some pretzels for an evening snack. Now I KNOW that she loves these two snacks. But of late, this is usually how the discussion goes when trying to figure out what she wants for a snack..........

Me: Kali, do you want a snack?

Kali: SNACK!!!!

Me: Do you want some juice?

Kali: Juice!!!! No.

Me: How about a fruit cup?

Kali: Fruit!!!! No.

Me: Would you like some pretzels?

Kali: Pet-sul!!!! No.

Me: How about some pudding?

Kali: Pudding!!!! No.

End result is that she expresses excitement for each option, followed by a 'No'. So I just end up selecting one and hoping she likes it. I usually can't go wrong with any of the above choices, but I can't wait until we get this little communication issue worked out.

Could you play that back again?

There are moments in life where you say things off the top of your head that you can easily replay and realize how silly you sounded. I have been lucky enough to have several of these moments in my own life. Today was my mom's turn. Her computer has gone AWOL on her and I need the system restore disc to fix it. She hasn't found it yet, so I suggested that she call Dell Support to get a new disc.........

Mom: "Well, I called the Dell support people and the guy said that they can't even sell me a replacement disc because it's out of warranty. He said I'll have to take it to Circuit City or something."

Me: "Well, you better start looking for that disc."

Mom: "Your dad said he'd look for it but hasn't found it yet. The Dell guy obviously wasn't any help either."

Me: "That disk is priceless. It's like a computer on a disc."

Mom: "NOW you tell me that."

Me: (laughing) "Oh, now it's my fault that you can't find the disc?"

Mom: "Well, I hate men because they give you the run-around and don't help at all........."

Me: (laughing even harder) "So now it's the men's fault?"

In summary, the line of logic was......

Dell guy can't help due to expired warranty + Dad can't find the disc + I didn't tell her to save disc = My mom hates men.

I wish I had this conversation on tape. It was comedy gold.

I'm obviously a heartless conservative......

I heard stories today in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike about a few thousand residents who remained in Galveston, TX during the storm. The prediction center and the federal government warned over 2 days before the storm that everyone should evacuate the town and anyone ignoring the order would be risking 'certain death'.

Now, there are several hundred residents who are battered, bleeding, and covered in mud trying to get off the island. And of course, they're complaining about the 'slow response time' of the federal government and the Texas National Guard. I'm obviously a heartless bastard, but when does responsibility shift to the individual over the federal government? Methinks these people made a horribly bad decision and have now decided to complain about their situation while the rest of the nation says, "Why in the hell did you stay there in the first place?"

Stupid people are a hinderance to our country.

My American Idol..............

Kali 1.7 has taken on a new career in recent weeks. She's pretty sure that she's a singer. However, she takes on that career in an interesting way.

First, she's quickly learning to sing like Mrs. Lime. What I mean is that she takes on the song by simply humming or babbling through the words that she doesn't know in the song and then every few phrases, you'll hear her actually sing a correct word or two.

Second, Kali has learned to associated volume with higher pitches. When the pitch of the song gets higher, most people adjust their pitch to match those higher notes. Kali doesn't change pitch. Instead, she continues to sing the same note, but she sings it much louder when the pitch of the song goes higher. The result is that Kali sings the same note or two the entire song, but the volume of her singing varies drastically depending on the pitch of the person singing the song.

In other words, she's grasping the concept of changes within the song, but the actual performance leaves a lot to be desired. But the raw talent is there and I have no doubt that she'll eventually be a pretty good singer, recreational or otherwise.

Obama/Biden are between a rock and a hard place......

With no nod to my preference in the upcoming presidential election, I don't envy the position of the Democratic ticket at this point. They have a tough road ahead of them. With the Republican ticket consisting of a war veteran and a self-proclaimed 'hockey mom' with a special-needs child, there's a lot of things that the Democrats could say that may not necessarily be offensive, but could easily be taken as being offensive.

Say something about the qualifications of Palin to be VP and you're likely to be accused of being sexist for attacking a woman.

Say something attacking the Republican ticket not being the best ticket for advancement of special-needs people and you're likely to be attacked for making this a personal situation and the implication could be made that you're not sensitive to the fact that Palin has a child with Downs' syndrome.

Say anything about patriotism and you're likely to get read the riot act about how much blood, sweat, and tears that McCain spilled for his country.

I wouldn't be shocked to see attacks from the Republican ticket each and every day detailing the latest way that the Democrats said something stupid. It may not be because they actually did say something stupid, but they have to have the dance skills of a professional dancer to avoid saying the wrong things in this election. There's just way too many traps to avoid.

Great minds think alike...........

My wife kept saying, "You go, girl!" during the Palin convention speech last week.

Funny thing just happened during the Palin/McCain appearance here in Kansas City. After some fiery rhetoric during Palin's speech, someone in the crowd screamed out, "You go, girl!!!" in the audience, much as my wife had last week.

I'm thinking "You go, Girl!!!" should be the new campaign slogan of the McCain/Palin ticket. Her presence seems to have that kind of effect on people.

Rough weekend............

Unfortunately, Mrs. Lime's mother passed away over the weekend. She had been sick off and on for 9 years. While it's a terrible situation, I prefer to think about the things that she was able to see and do over the past few years, given that she could have easily passed away nearly a decade ago.

1. She was able to come to our wedding. She was very excited about planning the whole event and was so excited when it finally came together. On our wedding video, the videographer went around to the various guests to let them give use well-wishes. When they got to Mrs. Lime's mother, she started crying tears of joy while saying, "I'm just so happy!". She summed it up very well.

2. She lived to spend 18 months with her granddaughter. Kali 1.6 received tons of love (and gifts) from her Grandma during their short time together. She was so happy to have a granddaughter to brag on. Mrs. Lime has a baby picture of her mom in our house that Kali regularly points to and says 'Be-be Ga-ma'. We have plenty of picture of Kali and Grandma together when she gets older. For now, Kali 1.6 loves to point to a picture of her Grandma as a baby and I'm sure that's just fine with Grandma.

Palin!

Rarely do I post about political topic in this thread, but here comes an exception to that rule.

I am thrilled with the VP selection of Sarah Palin today. What a breath of fresh air for a Republican candidate to pick this kind of person to be their running mate. For those that don't know, this woman was on the oil industry ethics board and attacked big oil where she found issues in their corporations. That's a brave thing to do given Alaska's reliance on the oil industry for a major portion of their revenue.

The Alaskan GOP is generally know for being very corrupt. She took on two former governors (one in the primary and one in the general election) and beat them both. In addition, she refused funding for pork-barrel projects that the senior Republican U.S. senator had put into some of the bills passed through the U.S. government. That senator now faces corruption charges, while Sara Palin holds a 80%+ approval rating, which is rare for a Republican governor during the Bush presidency.

This selection is really going to energize both the Republican base along with some women voters. Hopefully it will end in a Republican presidency.

Wild parties, U.S. gov't style...........

Yesterday evening, the people at work had an after-work gathering to celebrate a retirement. One of the ladies at work is retiring after 40-some years. From what I've heard, the employees on the government side party hard. I had no idea just how hard they partied.

They left work at 3:00 PM and headed straight to a bar here in KC to have a few drinks and grab some food. After 3 hours at that bar, they headed to another bar down the street to continue the party. One of the ladies, who is in her 40s, is a single woman who loves motorcycles. She's somewhat of a wild child. My understanding is that she stood up on the table at some point in the night, took off her shirt and danced around topless in the middle of a busy neighborhood bar.

Who knew what I was missing when I decided to skip the party and go home to play with Kali 1.6? Goodness.

She's a dancin', dancin', dancin' machine!!!!!!!

Last night, Kali 1.6 and I got home to hang out for a bit on our own. As soon as we got home, she said she wanted to eat, so we got right down to business and had some dinner. She plowed through a plate of carrots and then finished off some fruit and a piece of pizza to round things out.

After that was all done, we sat down in the living room and read some books. Kali loves to read and she loves to dance. I turned on 'America's Got Talent' on the TV. I had DVR'd a couple of episodes. She ignored it for the most part while reading her books. But as soon as some music came on, she'd chuck the book to the floor and off we'd go. Marching and clapping around and around and around the couch. She can't get enough of it. As soon as the music stops, we head right back to the book like the dancing didn't even happen.

Of course, after 90 minutes of reading and dancing, she was all ready for a snack. She ate a small plate of pretzels and then requested some Dora cookies. She followed all that up with a glass of water. She's even getting good at saying 'peez' (please) whenever she asks for something. I used to tell her to say please, but even that is rarely needed unless she's in a demanding/impolite mood. In that case, a brief reminder usually does the trick.

We played a few games of peek-a-boo and did a couple more dances before bedtime. Welcome to my world.

Kali English 101............

Kali 1.6 is quickly adding words to her vocabulary. As she does that, I've noticed that some phonics issues have developed.

One of the most recognizable things that she does is the fact that she sticks a consonant on the front of any word that has a vowel. For example, in Kali English.......

Ice cream is pronounced 'Cice Cream'
Elmo is pronounced 'Melmo'
Ernie is pronounced 'Nernie'

What she does is she takes the a consonant sound that follows the initial vowel and adds it to the front of the word. I noticed this the other day after doing some word recognition stuff with her using her flash cards. She'll figure it out soon enough.

In other phonics news, she pronounces spaghetti as 'getti'. Forget that whole first syllable.

Eating with utensils...........

Here's some more Kali 1.6 videos. First, Kali demonstrates her use of a fork to feed herself........

Eating with Fork 1

Then, she demonstrates what happens when she gets bored with feeding herself.......

Eating with Fork 2

Wave and clap!!!!!

This video provides a good example of some of the interaction that Kali 1.6 has learned through one of her favorite TV shows. It's called 'Go, Diego, Go!'. In this video, you'll see Kali waving goodbye at the end of the show. After that, the theme music comes on where the kids are suppose to clap. Kali does that in spades. Finally, as I moved over in her line of vision, she viciously pursued me, screaming her name and just after the video ended, she tackled me to the ground. She's quite aggressive as you can see in the link below.


Wave and clap!

OK, this is just getting ridiculous..........

I had a college football preview show on that I was watching. My cell phone rang. My friend Rudy was calling me to check up on a few things. After a minute or two, I heard an explosion of sound from the living room, which totally caught me off-guard.

Kali 1.6 had grabbed the remote. She evidently didn't approve of the show I was watching. I noticed right away that she had managed to switch over from the cable TV to the DVD input. Not only that, she had managed to start up an Elmo DVD. She was smiling and running around, delighted with her sudden fortune.

We sat down and watch the Elmo movie. I could never change it back after all her effort to get to that point.

The disappearing act...............

When I was younger, I could get my hand wet and then run my fingers through my hair to straighten it up a bit. Pat a hair down here, pull one over there, etc. Relatively easy maintenance situation.

Now, it's become so much more complicated. Granted, I have less hairs per square inch, but that also entails other issues. When I get my hand wet and run my fingers through my hair, there's always a chance that some water could drip down to my scalp. When I was younger, it wasn't that big of a deal. The decrease in hair has produced a new problem. That water now runs down my scalp and often drips down my face. Like water off a duck's back.

In addition, even if I use water to tap down a hair, there's a good chance it won't stay there. It will likely start to stick back up because there's very few hairs surrounding it to keep it in place. In other words, a total lack of support.

If I lose much more, I'm just going to give it a buzz. Perhaps even go 'cue ball' and take it all off. I'm crazy like that.

Warning.......she's learning stuff.

Some may remember this post from just a couple of weeks ago.....

Who gave her a brain?

In that post, I detailed that Kali 1.6 knew roughly where the letters went, but she wasn't always able to fit them in.

Fast forward to last night. She completed the puzzle three times in roughly 10 minutes without any issues. Note that this is a puzzle for 3 YEAR OLDS. She started working on it on her own while I was sitting on the couch. I didn't want to say anything or bother her because she was obviously deep in thought. After the third time, I got up and gave her a hug and praised her. She was pretty proud of herself.

Mrs. Lime occasionally takes the puzzle with them when they go somewhere. It's a good distraction when needed. She puts the puzzle pieces in a Ziploc bag so they don't get lost.

When Kali finished the puzzle for a third time and got a hug, she dumped out the pieces again and I sat back down on the sofa and watched the Olympics. After a minute or two, Kali headed my way. I looked down to see her holding the Ziploc bag that was on the table. She had put all the puzzle pieces back in the bag and brought them to me since she was done with the puzzle! Not only is she smart, but she cleans up after herself! I'm thinking she's a keeper.

Best impersonation of a bobber.........

Kali 1.6 and I went to the neighborhood waterpark with some of her friends, Macy and Kaylin. The girls are 6 and 4 respectively, so Kali is a big fan of trying to do everything that the girls were doing. Surprisingly, Macy and Kaylin also wanted to do everything that Kali did. Kali played with a fountain in the shallow area and Macy and Kaylin came over to play in the fountain. Kali and I went over to play with the water cannon and both of the girls came over to play with us. Kali got a big kick out of that and helped shoot the cannon.

Kali also noticed that the girls were walking into the deep part of the water (deep meaning 2-3 feet of water). I followed her several feet behind. Kali followed them into the deep end and got up to chest level when she stumbled and went under the water. I pulled her out after a couple of seconds and she was fine. I knew that babies instinctually hold their breath, so no surprise that she did fine for a couple of seconds.

Surprisingly, she didn't even cry when I pulled her up. She wanted back down and started walking right back out towards the girls again. I followed a bit closer this time. Sure enough, she got up to neck level and fell again. I fished her out again and she was fine again. Over the course of the next 15 minutes, she walked out and went underwater 5-6 times. She did learn that she could walk along the wall and stay more stable. Once the girls came back in, she didn't go into the deep end anymore. She just wanted to play with the big girls.

Next summer should be interesting as I'm sure she'll be taking swimming lessons. Given that Mrs. Lime is a big swimmer, I'm sure we'll have a little fish on our hands.

I think she's trying to tell me something..........

The other day, I was sitting on the couch watching TV while Kali 1.6 played on the floor. I turned towards Kali to make sure she didn't need anything. I was greeted with an interesting view of my child.............





Yeah, I think she's trying to tell me that she wants to be a basketball player.

Anything is possible..........

We've got two blind people on our floor in my office. The blind man on the floor is completely blind. He does a surprisingly great job of getting around the building using nothing more than a walking stick to make sure he doesn't run into anything.

There's also a blind woman on our floor. She uses a walking stick, though she's not completely blind. She's able to see light and blobs of movement, as I quickly found out the first time I passed by her. She looked in my direction and said 'Hi' as I passed her in the hall, so I know she could see me in some vague form.

Today, I saw something that I've never seen before. As I walked down the hallway, the blind woman was leading the blind man down the hallway. Both of them had their walking sticks out in front of them, feeling their way down the hallway.

Moral of this story? Inside the Federal Government offices, the blind CAN actually lead the blind.

I'm everything I hate about Yankees fans........

So I was sitting in my living room on Sunday watching the USA basketball team beat the Chinese basketball team by a pretty sizable margin. I was cheering for every dunk, steal, and block as they beat the overmanned China team.

Of course, the USA is truly the class of the world in regards to basketball talent. We can beat a lot of teams handily and could be considered the bully in the basketball world. But then I had a thought. As a Royals fan, I often lament how arrogant the Yankees fan base. The Yankees always win because they have the best players that they have bought for the highest price. Every time a Yankees fan says they've won 20-some championships, I let them know in no uncertain terms that I could win a lot of championships if I was on the top-end of an uneven playing field.

With that said, have I suddenly become somewhat like a Yankees fan? Doesn't my basketball team have an unfair advantage in regards to superior league, superior training facilities, and other advantages that other nations don't have? Yes, they probably do. I'll justify it by saying that I have to watch the Royals every year, so I deserve to have the option every 4 years to root for a team that I'm proud of AND that wins games, unlike the Royals.

Fun with a laundry basket.............

What happens when Kali 1.6 gets to play with a basket full of Mommy's underwear? You be the judge......

Kali 1.5 picture blowout - Swimsuit edition.......

Ah yes. Keep your 18 month old boys away from the blog. My junior centerfold has arrived........

On her way to the pool.........



Hanging at the pool........



Who turned on the water?



Stomping in the water........





Kali's buddy Alex likes the water.........



Cousin Gwen blows some bubbles.......





Kali switches it up in a two-piece suit....



Cousin Gwen jumps into the pool.........

Who gave her a brain??????

Kali 1.5 and I decided to work on our ABC's last night. She has a wood puzzle that has every single letter of the alphabet. It's intended for kids 3 years and older, but Kali is actually doing very well with it. The letters come out and a picture of an item that starts with that letter is under each letter. Despite the fact that the letters aren't shown underneath, Kali is still able to put the letters back into the puzzle in the right places. She occasionally has issues with rotation of the pieces to get the letters to fit right, but she knows where they all go.

Kali and I started from the top and worked our way down........

Me: A

Kali: A

Me: B

Kali: B

Me: C

Kali: C

Me: D

Kali: C (she got confused with the similar sound of 'C' and 'D')

Me: E

Kali: E

Me: F

Kali: Fa-fa (not sure what that was, but close enough)

Me: G

Kali: Grrrrr! (right sound - she likes the lion and tiger sounds)

Me: H

Kali: Ha! (again, at least got the sound right)

Me: I

At this point, Kali decided that was enough of that. She took the puzzle, turned it over, and dumped out all of the pieces. We started over a couple of times, but it became apparent that dumping the puzzle was a bigger priority than saying her ABC's, so we stuck with that for the rest of the time. Still, it won't be long before she has all of her ABC's down pat.

In addition, she has a deck of flash cards with pictures and letters on them. She's able to look at the vast majority of the cards and say what each card has on it. Granted, some people may need a translator to negotiate the Kali form of the English language, but it's pretty shocking just how much she's learning over a short period of time. Even more frightening is that she loves looking at the cards and saying the words over and over again. Who am I to discourage ravenous learning?

Escorted out the door..........

I finally had the opportunity to put my co-worker out of his misery. The incoming contractor sent him a letter informing him that he would not be offered a position in the new company. Pretty harsh to not have a face-to-face discussion, but I guess that's how things work.

The guy that was released wanted to chat with me about it. He just wanted some reason as to why he was being release. I didn't give him much more of a reason outside of telling him that the government officials were the ones to make the decision. It was a bummer for him as he had been recently hired and really didn't have that much of an opportunity to make an impression. He had a feeling that something might be up, so he wasn't totally surprised.

I took his badge from him and walked him out of the building. I felt like a jailer or a pastor walking a guy to the electric chair. I've personally never been removed from a job, so it was certainly an experience to do it to someone else. I have to walk him out of the building with the idea that once he's outside of the building, he won't have any access to get back in without passing security. This policy is obviously in place to keep the workers safe.

He understood that it wasn't my decision and I gave him my phone number in case he wanted any references for upcoming job interviews. We shook hands outside and I told him good luck. I felt bad, but it was out of my control.

Kali 1.5 dictionary.........

Here's a translation from Kali talk to English for those who need to communicate with her........

dum = drum
ubale = whale
sish = fish
keen = queen
paple = apple
tatul = turtle
peez = please
tank queue = thank you
tone = phone
pane = plane
tuck = truck
hao = house
te ce = ice cream
gana = iguana
mongey = monkey
bayree = berries
kooo = kangaroo
whit = witch
noba = Nova


Bird, Cat, Baby, Goat, Mommy, and Daddy are all pronounced correctly. Note that this is not a full vocabulary representation, but rather a sample of her vocabulary.

Just got tickets to MU/KU at Arrowhead!

I just picked up 12 tickets to the MU/KU game at Arrowhead over Thanksgiving weekend! Woohoo! I obviously can only fill one seat, so I will be the official ticket broker for my friends that are interested in going to the game. Yes, let me know if you want to go.