Letter to my first Capri

(recently on the Internet there is a meme for auto enthusiasts to write a letter to their first car. Here in mine.)

To my first car, wherever you are now.

It was a fun, strange ride wasn't it? From my mom of all people bringing you to my attention to parking you on the grass at mom's when we moved to Georgia 5 years later.

I remember my mom coming home from getting gas in her fake-wood panel Ford LTD station wagon telling me she'd seen a car she thought I'd like. As a 16 y/o boy having your mom tell you she found a car that she thinks you'd like, I wasn't holding out much hope for what she found. Well, I was wrong. This was before the Internet, so I hadn't heard of a Mercury Capri before. But I was hooked.

Louie and I went to look at you and did a full inspection. Found a few things wrong but nothing that couldn't be fixed. I led my Dad negotiate the price and John and I went to pick you up (I didn't know how to drive stick yet.) I immediately washed and started compounding you, removing years of neglect on the paint.

As luck would have it, I couldn't drive you for a few days, mainly because it was Deb's 16th Birthday (you remember her right?) I distinctly remember pointing to you in the driveway when her mom picked me up for Deb's birthday party. (Deb has commented she didn't know that you'd be a rival for my affection for the next 5 years.)

As John taught me to drive a stick we spun the tires more than a few times getting the hang of it. I remember coming out of the parking lot at Danbury High School squealing up the hill! From there I never looked back. I think I put 100,000 miles on you in those 5 years.
As the owner of an 'unusual' car, I got pretty defensive when people called you a Mustang. Heck, even Deb got to the point where she's say 'It's not a Mustang!' when someone called you one.

Had to do a few minor repairs (including replacing the rusted doors!) but with a set of Kelly Charger tires on chrome mag wheels and black louvers you were pretty damn sweet!

We made it through Senior year of High School, a prom and that crazy summer. Deb and I would sit for hours in you talking (mostly :) Had to leave you behind when I went to UMASS that fall, but that didn't last long. 2+ hour rides to/from Amherst racked up the miles, but you were a blast to drive, even with the anemic 2.3L. Your propensity to fishtail in the snow made the rides to campus rather interesting, but still fun.

Even today Deb tells stories about calling the house to see if I was there (before cellphones) and my mom telling her I was outside working on you (usually the weekly wash and wax before we went out.)

The next stage in our relationship involved the engine transplant. Looking back (and lugging a few 2.3L Turbo engines around recently) I don't know how I got that motor home in your backseat. With a slightly peppier engine you were a lot of fun to drive. Still not sure how we made it down to that shop to fix the brakes after the transplant, but everything ended up okay, right?

And drive we did in the summer of 1989 to Houston TX. From entering Mississippi after a tornado (my first experience with the dead calm after such a storm) to driving around Houston with Connecticut plates and getting more than a few 'Yankee' comments, to the Hurricane that dumped 10 inches of rain in an hour and I was stupid enough to drive home in. To giving me a piece of home as I got lonely and tried to figure out what Deb and my relationship meant.

Our first introduction to 'Southern Summer' made it painfully clear to me that I needed A/C in my next car, which meant you probably wouldn't be with me much longer. We did make the most of that summer, going to a drag racing track a couple of times (yeah, 15-flat was fast in the 80's) and that crazy 24-hour drive back to CT with Pat. Including Pat watching the Ferrari blow past us like we were standing still even though we were well above the speed limit. (oh and I still want to know what happened to your passenger window ...)

When I got the offer to move to Georgia, I knew you weren't coming with me without A/C. From what I understand some of my cousins drove you until my Uncle Billy sold you to parties unknown.

Just so you know, I didn't give up on owning another Capri. Took a lot longer than I expected but I'm working on restoring one right now.

Oh and I'm going to try to get a custom tag you'd find funny: 'NO STANG'.

Lego Mini-figs as party favors!

Christopher's 6th birthday party is tomorrow and we are going to have a Lego theme. A few months ago Deb and I had the great idea, give each kid a Mini-fig as a party favor. We found a nice, cheap box of figures and ordered it, thinking it would take a few minutes to separate them.

Well, not quite. None of the figures were assembled NOR WERE THEY EVEN PACKAGED TOGETHER.

All the boy heads were in one package, the girls in another and the bodies and legs in all five. Oops, this is going to take a while!

Dr. Frankenstein?

An hour and thirty minutes later, all assembled and packaged together.

Despite being a pain, I'm sure they will be a hit with the kids.

Christopher doing the Chicken Dance

I'm still not sure why they did this at school tonight, but he had a lot of fun:

Scavenger hunt!

Courtney has been asking for a scavenger hunt for her birthday for years, but being a January baby the weather really hasn't cooperated. This year was different.

First thing to know, this isn't a scavenger hunt like when we were younger (I was teenager in the 80's.) We don't need to collect things. Instead give each team a digital camera with a removable media card and require a picture of everything. This REALLY makes the things to look for much more interesting. (For example, a picture of two of team members in someone's bathtub!)

I started the task of building the list by asking on Facebook for some ideas. My cousin Randy came through with a ton of ideas, many of which I stole. (being 13/14 year olds the various ideas of listing different beers, foods, liquor bottles that they had to bring back was shot down. Fun idea though ...)

The rules were pretty easy:
- the teams could not go to the house of anyone who was playing (with one exception I'll talk about later)
- the teams could not call anyone for help
- the teams could not use any siblings or parents for the items to be found (with one exception below)
- no more than 15 items from any one house so as not to annoy the neighbors
- had to stay in the neighborhood

When thinking about items, I thought (and drove around and looked) at what our neighbors had and what I knew the parents of the kids attending the party had (just to be difficult). So I had things like a stone crocodile that one neighbor has in their yard and a very specific set of vinyl records that I knew the parents of an attendee had, just to mess with the girls.

Off they went and an hour and half later came back with pictures of lots of things, several of which I didn't expect them to find. All the neighbors they went to were cool and very helpful. Each team even got one Dad (different for each team too!) to put on a dress for the 50 points! (no pictures I promised!)

The girls were very creative in their interpretation of the rules, which was what I was hoping for. For example on item was 'a picture of the team on a rock wall'. I knew of 1 rock wall (built from rocks) in the neighborhood, but the girls instead found a climbing wall which they call a rock wall. The best though was the item of 'TV Rabbit Ears Antenna' which the girls found a pair of fuzzy rabbit ears and held it over the big screen TV. I couldn't argue with that one!

The only thing I didn't do which I planned on was the 15 minute special. The idea was 15 minutes before the time was up, call each team leader and tell them they would get 50 points if they brought back someone's mother to our house. Since they couldn't get their own, it would be interesting to see who would agree. (I still remember my brother Patrick's story of one of his scavenger hunts and finding a friend's mother in the back of the van, so this is a twist on that idea) Next time I'll do something similar.

So here is the list we used. Oh, and the one exception mentioned above, we have some die-hard LSU fans in the neighborhood and they would get 50 points if they got a picture of one of them with some Alabama fan stuff. One of their daughters' was at the party so we had to relax the rules. Also note that this was January 2012 so Alabama had just won the national title. Change those items as necessary if you use this list.

(I asked the girls if this was fun or was I being a dork, all said it was fun so I guess I'm 'cool' for a couple of hours now.)

5 points each

Everyone except 1 person on a rock wall
Everyone except 1 person at a swing set (DO NOT GO ON THE SLIDES - in case they collapse with 5 girls on it!)
The number 17
Picture with a non-sibling in Kindergarten to College (so 5 pt for a Kindergarten, 5 for a 6th grader etc.) 5 points for each year, one per year only
A 2011 Calendar
Chocolate Money
Brown Sugar
Black licorice
Wind Chimes
R2-D2, C3PO
Rudolph
Nutcracker
Jack-o-lantern
VHS tape of a Disney animated movie (1 per group only)
Photo with a HS Athlete

10 points each

dog, cat, horse, monkey, parakeet, zebra finch, owl, turtle, iguana, giraffe, hippo, any snake, any other reptile
Dinosaur, griffin, centaur, unicorn, dragon, orc, elf
Bus
Green car, yellow car, any year Camaro, any year Firebird
Red door, Red or Pink wall, Green interior wall
Pink or purple polka dots on anything besides clothes or a notebook
Bald man
Man with a pony tail
The number 42 (+20 if it references the meaning of life)
A yellow flower, a pink flower, a purple flower
Yearbook from the 1980’s or 1990’s
Someone’s aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, grandmother, grandfather
A 2010 Calendar
A January 2013 Calendar
Something from My Little Pony, Star Trek or Power Puff Girls
Stone alligator
An adult female with a football helmet on
A fully clothed Barbie doll
A fully clothed GI Joe
A red tricycle
A Louisville Slugger
Flowers made out of soap
Jawa
Life sized picture of any person/character
Unicycle
two person bicycle

20 points each

Car being repaired/restored
Any house Harry Potter tie or scarf
Bald woman
Globe or map with the Soviet Union
Anything that celebrates the Alabama Football national title
Anything that celebrates an NFL Superbowl win. (+10 points if the Giants)
Anything that celebrates an NCAA Basketball national title
Yearbook from the 1970’s
Team member in a tree
Team members (minus photographer) in a Gazebo
Someone’s great-grandfather or great-grandmother
A non-Curtin in a Giants shirt, a non-Lukasik in a Cowboy’s shirt, a non-Smith/Stagg in an LSU shirt
An album (vinyl) (+5 points if it is Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash  or Def Leopard)
Something from Ren and Stimpy (cartoon)
TV Antenna Rabbit Ears
Two team members in someone’s bath tub
Speed limit sign
Stop sign NOT on the road
License plate from a non-Georgia state (1 per state only) (+10 if non-US)
Silver dollar
$100 bill

50 points each
Mr Smith wearing something from Alabama (Abbey’s team can do this one too)
An adult male in a dress
Betamax tape
8 track tape

Christopher starting to ride a bike

Sometimes the little guy catches us off guard. We know he isn't going to have same interests or many of the developmental advances a boy his age would, but we hope that he does eventually. Sometimes he asks or does something so unexpected it takes our breath away. Sunday was one of those times.

He's shown almost no interest in his bike since we got it. He'll watch Courtney or Meghan ride their bikes, but he didn't show any interest in doing it himself. On Sunday, after playing with some sidewalk chalk, he went in the garage, put on the helmet and tried to ride the bike. Down the driveway. By himself.

Deb caught him pretty quickly and I helped him down to the road. He spent a lot of time looking at the pedals and wheels, but eventually was driving himself around.

Getting the hang of it:

Picking his head and looking in front, instead of at the pedals!



Pedaling by himself!

No idea why he wanted to go off roading, but as soon as we got to the pool he wanted to go over the bridge.

He wanted Deb to wear his helmet. He wanted me too, but I didn't let them take a picture.

Finally he wanted to try Courtney's bike for the ride home.

A very geeky Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2011 was quite the geeky week.

Technically it started on the Friday before when I did my annual Career Day presentation to Courtney's Middle School. This was my 6th year presenting to the middle schoolers and my 12th year in a row doing something for one of my kids. I received several good questions and hopefully got a few kids interested in being a software engineer.

The 'honey do' project of the week was to finish the pantry by installing drywall on the stairs. For those keeping track, phase one of the project, knocking down the wall and putting up drywall and shelving was completed about 12 years ago. Really, it doesn't normally take this long, but I though Deb was okay with the open stairs until she said something the other day.

In preparation for Thanksgiving Deb made some cake balls and her famous Reese's peanut butter cup pie. Desert wasn't lacking at our house this year! Thanksgiving day was fun with another family, a big turkey and some football!

The geeky part of the week got into full swing as I helped Courtney build her 3-D atom for AC Science. Nothing some Styrofoam and paint can't help design! This was one of those 'a few hours each day for a week' projects. Oh, and it's not due for 2 weeks!

Saturday afternoon Courtney and I watched the Battlestar Galatica episode where they rescue the remaining humans from New Caprica. She pretended to care as I described why they jumped the Galactica into the atmosphere before launching the fighters and even asked a few good questions (such as why didn't they go back to see if anyone was still on the ground after the Cylons left?). May have a fan here ...

Best part was Sunday afternoon while putting up the Christmas Trees, I put on Star Wars (yes the original one!) and Christopher watched it with me. Even said 'Space ship' and called the Death Star a 'moon'. I politely corrected him :) Best part was when the Millennium Falcon shot the Tie Fighters pursuing Luke he cheered!

Oh, and Christopher likes to be tickled. I got him to say 'Tickle me please' and 'I want to be tickled' before I ate him up (originally he would jump in my lap, shove my head down and say 'eat please!'

Deb's hard work:

Little helper on the Capri

Today the little guy helped me with the THIRD engine for the Capri. Details here.

Teaser:

Beautiful day for throwing some flags!

Last weekend the weather was perfect, so we spent a lot of time outside. Courtney hadn't had much of an opportunity to use her colorguard flags and rifle this summer since she broke her leg, but she's all healed so she got them out!

Here is Deb and Courtney twirling and throwing the flags.

Christopher thought it looked like fun so he threw the small one in the air. He caught it once or twice, but usually hit himself on the head.

Deb giving me a dirty look since I'm taking pictures of her. I promised not to upload any of her getting hit in the head!

Dragon*Con 2012

This could be one of those 'Sometimes a Dad has to do what a Dad has to do' stories, but I think I had more fun than Meghan did!

On Friday my oldest daughter, Meghan, who will be 17 next month asked me to take her to Dragon*Con. I was thinking about looking into going this weekend, but we had a bunch of other things to do. That was before Jonas started talking to Meghan. Jonas is Christopher's ABA therapist. Or will be until Tuesday (another story for another day). Jonas is a big fan, and last year told us a lot about Dragon*Con and why Meghan and I should go. This year he was again going down right after Christopher's therapy and kept encouraging Meghan to go (I was out running errands (Machine shop!) so didn't hear it all.)

So at 6 pm on Friday we decided to go to Dragon*Con on Saturday. We did some quick research, figured out the first few things to do and set the alarm.

We were up and out the door by 7 am on our way to the Sandy Springs MARTA station (oh, there was also a concert in downtown, the UGA football game and some literary event I can't find the name of) expecting a ton of people. Buying our tickets we saw the first cosplay character: Dr. Horrible. I didn't say anything to Meghan, but since I had my Battlestar Galactica t-shirt on he started talking to us. Another woman was standing near us and started talking as well. Turns out each of them have a different view on the merits of Star Trek original, vs. DS9 vs Voyager. It was nice disagreement, and Meghan got her first taste of geek conflict.

On the ride down more and more people dressed up, in geek t-shirts or just with badges on got on the train. A few made me realize I didn't warn Meghan about the interesting Cosplay we might she. She of course said she knew all about it and had seen video and pictures from Comic*Con. Though a few of the Gimp pairs made her give me a strange look, which I ignored ;)

Waiting on line for tickets went pretty smooth, even if there were several THOUSAND people on line with us. I ran into a couple of coworker on line, so I think I got some geek-cred for the shirt and even being there! Once we had our tickets we headed up to the parade route to get a good place to stand. We ended up standing next to a guy with his teenage daughter and her friend. And man those girls were giving the dad a hard time. He had a nice camera rig and was taking pictures of everyone interesting, especially the women. Every woman who came by with even the slightest cleavage or leg/ass showing the girls gave him a hard time. Of course then the gladiators, Spartans from 300 and man zombies came by he gave it as good as they did. Meghan was great during all of this, sometimes teasing me, sometimes making comments about outfits and taking it in stride when I told her to cover her eyes because the Spartans were coming ;)

No I didn't take any pictures. That's a little too creepy for me. Though there were people stopping cosplay people and asking for pictures all the time.

The parade was really interesting. Cool, different, strange, bizarre and odd all the same time. About 50 minutes in we left our spot and started working our way to the first session we wanted to see. The sidewalks were packed! She held on to my shirt as I pushed my way through. (I had a few flashbacks to bars in college.)

The first session we saw was about the show 'V'. It was actually pretty bad. Robert Englund and the priest from the reboot where the only ones there. And man does Robert like to talk. I was pretty turned off by him. I was worried they'd all be like this, but the next one definitely made up for it!

We went to panel with several stars from Eureka! and Pete from Warehouse 13. This was the main session Meghan wanted to go when we did a quick look at the schedule the night before. It was excellent! Both funny stories, lots of jokes and some very strange back and forth between the Eureka! actors. I'm pretty sure Jordan Hinson (who played Zoe) didn't pick her outfit out. Even Meghan commented that her top kept sliding off and she was continually adjusting. On 2 huge 30+ foot screens it was pretty obvious. I also think she was drunk or really hung over. Lots of little comments, cracks. Oh and someone tweeted that they thought she was drunk and she went off on him.

Funniest part was when Eddie McClintock (who plays Pete on Warehouse 13) answered a fan question about what products he'd like to endorse on the show. The Eureka! guys made fun of how much they did product placements, especially the Subarus. He commented that the major TV sponsor is Levitra and how he'd like to include that. To quote: "Look out Mrs. Fredricks. You scare the crap out of me, now its my turn!'. Then he made dick jokes the rest of time. And Jordan kept trying to throw in a 'that's what she said', but bombed most of the time.

We then went to a Dr.Who panel with Mark Shepard and Garth David-Lloyd. These guys were great. Meghan has become a big Dr. Who fan lately and had a great time listening to them tell stories and answer questions. Lots of cool information including how Mark Shepard almost didn't do Dr. Who because of a schedule conflict. Everyone told him he was crazy to give up and the producers of the other show changed their schedule for him.

We then went to dinner (at Hooters, since it was the only place with a small line. Heck the waitresses looked like nuns compared to some of the costumes ;) and got on line to see an early release of the latest Dr. Who episode. We waited for an hour and a half then got jammed into a ball room with 1400 other people. Oh and 1400 others who stood on line in the Atlanta heat all day. Or who hadn't showered or who were just really large. It was VERY tight and very loud. But we saw the episode early.

The one picture I wish I had taken was the woman in front of us with a formal/prom gown made into a Tardis. It was really good.

Then we headed back to home on MARTA. Met another group and talked about Warehouse 13, Dr. Who and Eureka. And Nightmare On Elm Street since one of the ladies was dressed as a female Freddie Kruger (a very nice costume too. Not too revealing but enough to fit in.)

As always we had to have some drama on anything we do, so we got off at the wrong MARTA station. Oops. Had to pay for a taxi to drive us < 1 mile from the Dunwoody station to Sandy Springs.

I have a feeling we'll be doing multiple days next year ...

Autism Awareness - Service Dogs

A friend of ours, who has two autistic sons has started a website to draw attention to the laws and needs for service dogs. The website is here.

We've seen first hand how people don't understand the need for the service dog or what the rules are. At Christopher's birthday party last year she had to explain to the manager at DAC Kids why Barkley must be allowed in with the boys.

Unfortunately she had an incident with a McDonald's manager a few months ago who chased her out of the McDonalds and punched her because the manager didn't want the dog in the restaurant. Our friend panicked when one of the boys took off and she dropped a cup of soda when looking for the boy and the manager thought she threw it at her. The manager followed her into the parking lot and hit her.

Video about it here.