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Oktober 2008

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Links are good as of their posting date. Comments may be directed to bradley@wogsland.org.


30 Oktober 2008 - Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we carved the pumpkins we'd picked out last week at the HyVee. Mother Nature provided us with temperatures in the 70s, so we were able to work outside. The kids made a video describing their work and we've also put up pictures on shutterfly. Hope y'all enjoy!

Jack-O-Lanterns are probably my favorite part of Halloween because it's a good excuse for artistic expression.

The elementary schoolers have had off all week. Yesterday Alora and Brittan took an archery class and today the three of them went to the dentist while Zara was at preschool - no cavities!!!

There is a giant For Sale sign out in front of my office building. Since it is more than half empty and we're outsourcing much of the data processing to Costa Rica that makes sense, but it's still a bit disconcerting. Will we combine with the Omaha office or lease space from the new owners?

Cara is frantically sewing to finish the kids costumes for tomorrow. My mom always made costumes for us when I was a kid and it's rewarding if a bit weird to see my wife becoming more and more like my mom as she gets older.

Last night Zara came to join us in bed. Unfortunately, she did not relieve herself before doing so. Alas, Cara and I are sleeping on the couch tonight.


26 Oktober 2008 - Ghouls on the Run 5K

Today I ran my second 5K race with the twins. Back in May Alora beat me by a hair, but we've all done some training since then. They've gained an inch or so, and I've dropped 10 pounds. Alora & Brittan have been running twice a week with their girls on the run team for the past few months though, while my training has been quite a bit lighter to avoid repeating the knee injury of 2006. (The only time I actually run five kilometers in a row is at races once a month.) It was a beautiful day - sunny and in the high 40s with gusts also in the 40s. We started off around the same place, but Brittan soon dropped back while Alora kept pace with me. After about a mile though, a stomach cramp knocked her out and I was left to alone against the wind. The funny part about this race was that even if I managed to beat my own girls there would still be a number of little girls to finish before me. Brittan soon passed Alora, although she didn't notice at the time, but neither was able to run very well against the wind. After making the turn and with the wind at their backs it was a different story though. Brittan made an improvement of almost four minutes over her previous time with 31:39, but Alora's cramp led her to do about the same with 32:17. My time of 27:58 was about 2 minutes off my best, when I was about 15 pounds lighter, which I think validated my training regime.


25 October 2008 - Ideally, wine buyers would always buy from the wineries themselves to assure quality and provenance. However, most of us have been making the majority of our wine purchases from the local grocery store or wine shop as a matter of convenience. Convenience nowadays is leading many online to make purchases because of the increased brand and vintage selection and sometimes even price. Unfortunately for many others there are still a number of states where shipping wine directly to consumers is illegal, but this number shrinks annually and smaller outfits are often willing to flout laws which are difficult at best to enforce. In this article we review websites from the behemoth Wine.com down to smaller upstarts like MyWinesDirect.com and from posh auction websites like WineBid.com down to overstock discount sites like Wine.Woot.com. A regularly updated list of website reviews will also be available for future information on this topic. (more info)


24 Oktober 2008

A gaggle of girls has invaded my house for the weekend. Currently they are outside having a screaming contest. Zara is playing up the pitiful angle to garner their attention, becoming "sad" over trivialties that normally wouldn't phase her, like dirty knees.


23 Oktober 2008

Nebraska's first snowfall was thicker in the western sand hills and tapered to nothing in the central. We just got rain. C'est la vive. It now appears as if we'll get no "October Surprise".


21 Oktober 2008 - Handicapping the Übermensch

I have always enjoyed the story of Harrison Bergeron. The external handicaps forced upon the gifted to create a false equality exist in real life too, but here also have we internal, self-inflicted handicapping. Some of these are chosen, as when we put the enjoyment of life before success in a career or familybuilding. Others, like Golum's ring, are self destructive habits such as antisocial behavior or substance abuse. The later set are what we try to overcome through personal growth. Renounce and enjoy is a powerful idea of eastern asceticism, but taken to the extreme one can obliterate one's individuality in the Self, however broadly one chooses to define that term. Sometimes the line between the categories can be blurred. At times in my life I have seen Coca-Cola and then alcohol both as quality of life issues and as self-destructive habits. Perhaps they have been both at varying times in my life - certainly for the later, but more debatably for the former. Habit is a powerful force for good or evil. These past few years I have become increasingly unable to sleep in, as the habit of getting up early is asserting itself after the extreme growth period of high school and the highly flexible schedule of collegiate life. As my most productive hours are usually morning ones this is a boon. Molly and I have enjoyed many a long walk together in the dim hours. All is not roses and light though. At UT I earned more than most of the people in the world at yet by US standards we were still considered poor. Today by those same standards we are considered wealthy and so the payments travel in the other direction. Insurance costs more than the mortgage and then there are these pesky deductibles which we have quickly learned how to meet. Loans once deferred and interest free are now due - although today's interest on money spent in the late nineties can't compare to inflation. Morality, like all things, comes at a cost.

Whatever the rules of the game I'm confident of being able to figure out how to succeed at them. And I have the same confidence of my children, who have endured a maelstrom of changes over the course of their lives and like a cork always risen to the top. Although in human history from Icarus to the Chinese Cultural Revolution this is not always a good place to be.


20 Oktober 2008

Brittan has always been interested in the weather. When we first moved to Knoxville, she wrote a book about hurricanes. This past month in science they've been studying weather and her project was a bit more advanced:


19 Oktober 2008 - A vlog to catch up...


18 Oktober 2008

Zara has discovered she likes reading...


15 October 2008

Maxwell has discovered he likes writing...


13 Oktober 2008 - Columbus Day

When I was a kid, my parents always enjoyed this day because my dad was off work but we still had school. How ironic was it then that I went to work today while the kids have off school? Of course, I did come home to have lunch with the girls while Cara took Maxwell to the allergist...

It's nice to live 12 ± 2 minutes away from work, although I think winter will lengthen that distance. I try to come home for lunch 2-3 times a week, especially on Tuesday and Thursday because those are the days Zara has preschool in the morning. It's nice to hear about what she did without the distraction of the other kids running around. Last month the theme was medieval so she drew castles and made a princess hennin and a horse to ride. This month it's the rainforest and so far she's made a sloth. Cara a I found this hilarious because, when she is at the apex of her silliness for as long as I have known her, Cara will make a "sloth face", which generally leaves us both in stitches.


12 Oktober 2008 - Fall


7 Oct 2008

Okay, gotta crow a little about this one: Babar provided the experimental proof for the theory awarded this years Physics Nobel. Probably the closest I'll ever get to one myself...


6 Oktober 2008

Last night the girls got out the Halloween decorations. I suppose the leaves are falling in great numbers, but it still seems like we just got here. Maybe it's because my books are still piled on the floor. Wal-mart doesn't seem to sell those cheap $20 particle board bookshelves anymore, nor does anybody else. $400 to reshelve my books on the fancy shelves they do sell now is just not in the budget. I got creative with surfaces in the family room a couple weeks ago, but that only took care of fiction. I still feel like this is a temporary camp - a forward position in our slow exploration of the country. We've done the edges, now it's time to delve into the meaty interior.

And some catchup on what we've been up to:
Nebraska State Fair Videos are finally all posted.
Pictures of our Trip to Pioneers Park, too.


2 Oktober 2008

Here wishing that I was James Bond...

One of these days we'll go visit Gregor in Scotland.


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Last ∆ on 30 Oktober 2008 by Bradley James Wogsland.
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