Three Beasties

Swap

Had lunch with a friend at a sushi place. End of the meal, fortune cookies arrive. I place the two cookies in front of my friend and say, 'You choose.'

Friend selects one, I take the other. We unwrap and crack open the fortunes. Short pause as we read.

'I think I got yours,' I say.

'Yeah, I think I got yours.'

'Here,' I hand across the slip of paper. We exchange.

'Ah yes.'

'Much better.'

'Indeed.'

We are both happy.

Prelude

Warm November day. A cat slides a tawny shoulder across my hip as I sit on my front stoop. Her eyes tilt up and she offer her chin for a scratch. Her whiskers stretch forward, directing my fingers. I absently knead her fur and listen to her melodic purring.

The sun is bright - I try to let my eyes open and absorb the energy, but I find myself squinting and blinking. I can feel the warmth against my face. A flash memory of the beach flits across my mind and I allow my eyes to close for a long instant. I can hear the waves. I can see my children kneeling in the sand, focused so intently on their sand sculptures.

A mug of coffee is cradled on my knees and the aroma of dark-roasted beans brings me back to the present. I breathe deeply, enjoying my morning ritual. Steps, coffee, cat, sunshine.

The last of the Maple leaves have fallen from the trees, but the bright yellow Oak and deeply-crimson Japanese Maple cast a dazzling glow across the yard. I marvel at the verdant green grass, freshly-mowed and looking almost perfect. I am thankful for the rain we have received that made all the hard work aerating, seeding and fertilizing pay off. The lawn is ready for another year of rollicking wear and tear, a million kicks and throws, and tumbling bodies.

Sloth cat nudges me once, twice and then sits primly by my side, knowing that she has lost my immediate attention. We sit side by side and survey our realm. I sip my coffee.

The bricks are cold beneath my boxers. The wind stirs in the Willow branches. A hand brushes lightly against my shoulder, small fingers tapping gently.

 'Do you need more coffee, dad?'

 'No thank you.'

 'Okay.' The hand lingers for a moment. 'Nice day.'

 'Very.' My daughter walks back inside.

 I smile and let the moment linger in my brain for a few precious seconds, hopefully long enough to imprint, to remember, to hold forever in my mind. I know that in a few minutes I will have enough caffeinne in my bloodstream, enough sun against my skin to fully awaken and then my mind will kick into overdrive and start rattling off lists of things to do and my voice will ring through the house and we will be Going and Doing and Moving and Creating and whoosh our day will start. 

But for these last few seconds I am aware of the simplest things, the beauty of my front yard, the soft fur of my cat, the smell of good coffee, the sound of the wind in my trees. And I am deeply, eternally grateful for the presence of my children in the house behind me.

Fire Engine

Note

Had an amazing day. Kelly headed to SC for a soccer tournament, and I miss her. But I've enjoyed giving age-specific attention to Alex and Izzie. We made chocolate chip waffles this morning, hit a park for an hour then spent all afternoon at the new kids' museum. Football in the front yard, lamb chops, movie, now warming our backs by the fire. Happy sloths.

Pumpkins

Ever try to get your kids to 'hold still' for a photograph? I gave up once I got my iPhone 4 and just shoot 30 seconds of video.

Twilight

I'm pursuing a new idea wherein I post raw video from my iPhone without editing

Short Note

I spent the afternoon on the lake with my kids, zooming along under a very brilliant sun. We explored a new island and had a picnic. Very rewarding day.

Rush

The kids came through the door at 4:07 with their familiar cry of, 'Daddy!' and began talking over the top of each other with a stream of statements and questions that they must have been memorizing on the bus ride. The precise rush of words and emotions tumbled over each other - Iz in particular looks away as she works her way through the last bit, as if she's concentrating very hard trying to remember all that she wanted to say - and I smile and nod, taking their heavy backpacks off their shoulders and claiming hugs, pushing bangs out of faces, and kneeling to their level to hear exactly what their getting at.

It is a rush of information and emotion that signals the beginning of my real day, the part that matters the most during the week. Yes, we were up before six am, yes we watched the dawn approach as we awaited the first school bus at 6:27, yes there was a second round of breakfast and preparation at 8:00 and a second bus pickup at 8:35, yes there was work accomplished, a house attended to, groceries purchased, leaves raked, laundry washed, and several hours of welding successfully completed, but it all feels like it was done a day or so ago. A new day begins as they come through that door.

It is now 6 hours and ten minutes later. Alex has been taken to soccer and back, a football game has been played in our front yard with many touchdowns scored. Kelly and I cooked a standing rib roast with twice baked potatoes. We steamed artichokes and I was pleased and secretly impressed that they liked them. I put an apple pie in the oven to warm as we ate dinner by the fire and watched Survivor and by the time the show was over, the girls were sprawled out on the sofas and Alex was curled in my lap.

Amy called to bid the children goodnight and I did the dishes, sliced the pie and poured myself a glass of wine. Tomorrow is a holiday - Veteran's Day - and I decided at that moment to just let them stay up late. I served them their pie and we ate on the hearth, me barely getting two bites before they had gobbled up every last crumb on their plates.

Sloth cat inspected the proceedings and decided that Kelly's spot was the warmest, and the pair of them drifted off to sleep. Izzie asked for a story and I pulled out the Roald Dahl Treasury and read several poems aloud.

As I finished the Flying Cow I realized that everyone was asleep and letting them stay up late was more for my benefit than theirs - just having their warm presence in the Great Room is nice. The college football game flickers silently in the background, the fire is dying down to a warm glow, and I have taken a moment to write here.

Tomorrow we will take the boat out and explore the lake and I will wade out into the cold water and look for smooth stones while they build in the thick, wet sand on a newly-discovered island. These are the thoughts that will guide me to sleep tonight after I carry each of them to their beds.

Healed

KK's foot is officially healed. Successful visit to Orthopedist followed by the requisite visit to the bakery (double-chocolate brownie) and coffee shop (hot chocolate). We knocked homework out then played football. She was so excited to be able to run around - huge grin on her face.

Panthers

Iz beastie enjoys the Panthers game

Kinect

Do you remember Minority Report? Do you remember the computers without keyboards or input devices? How John Anderton would swipe his hand across empty air to manipulate images and access information? Gesture-based computer interfaces. Identity-detecting cameras. A really good story idea from Philip K. Dick.  The tech involved is no longer science-fiction, it's now built into a toy which rests in my living room.  

Last night I had the most amazing experience with my children. I picked up Iz's big birthday present: a Kinect for our Xbox360. I plugged it in, pushed back all the furniture, loaded the first game and then sat back in amazement as my little girl learned to train a baby tiger with nothing but her hands and body movements. I watched my son play soccer without a ball or controller. I watched KK Monster *try* to learn some new dance moves. Then I asked if I could try, and I most certainly *did* learn some new dance moves. Then the darn thing played back a Real World video of my efforts - time compressed - and I laughed about as hard as I have in five years. 

The Kinect not only senses, measures, and sees two players at once, but also takes pictures and video as your playing to show you after you complete each level in each game. 

During the Adventure game, I kept swapping in different kids for each ride down a log flume, or zero-gravity bubble pop challenge - and each time, the little icon in the top right or left of the screen would flash for three seconds as it recognized a new participant and then it would switch the avatar to reflect the proper person. After a few hours it had learned who was who and could swap the players for us, without me having to do anything.

It's the most amazing piece of technology I've ever seen. The whole slender apparatus tilts to see as much of the players as possible. When you lie on the floor to teach the tiger to "play dead" it tilts down. When I step in to run hurdles, it tilts up.

The Kinect sensor contains an RGB camera and a depth sensor to track your movement. It measures the positioning of 48 key joints in your anatomy and by tracking the movements of these joints, it can work out exactly what position your body is in. What's more, it sees in 3D by overlaying the input from the RGB camera with the depth sensor. And it recognizes voice commands. Nothing like saying, "Sit!" in a stern voice and having a lion cub and my son sit down instantly.

We played from 4:30 to 9:30 barely even noticing the passage of time. I stuck some pizzas in the oven and sent them off to bed without doing any homework for the first time all year. It was that immersive.

If I can figure out how to download the short clip of me dancing I'll upload it here and then *you* can have the best laugh you've had in ages.

Pawleys Island

Sandcastle