Girl Scout Cookies

A while back, I ordered some girl scout cookies from a little girl that knocked on our door.  I have no idea who she was, but she knocked on the door, and I like girl scout cookies, so I bought some Thin Mints, Tagalongs, and Do-Si-Dos.  They're four dollars a box now!  I remember when they were a dollar a box and the boxes were bigger, but I digress.  Anyway, since I haven't eaten them, or added to the girl scout cookie pile at work, they've just been laying, unopened, on the table.  The kids have really been eying those cookie boxes lately.  Jeni called me the other day and asked if Janelle could have some of "my" Thin Mints, because she wanted one of those "chocolate" cookies.  She'd told Janelle that those were my cookies and she'd have to ask me.  Of course, I said yes.  I don't have a "mine" that I won't share with the kids.  Jeni told me later that she only did that to slow down their appetite for cookies.  Janelle loved the Thin Mints, by the way.

Fast forward a few days... and I'm telling this second hand, because I was at work. We had a box of Tagalongs on  the kitchen counter, out of reach (or so we thought), that Jeni had been doling out, one by one, at select times.  There were three left in the box... until Jeni caught Joseph going up the stairs, where Janelle was, with a cookie in one hand that he was offering to Janelle, and two cookies in the other, presumably for himself.  I have to give him credit for his generosity in sharing his haul with his sister.

This morning, Jeni woke to silence.  That's unusual since the kids usually wake up before Jeni and wake her up - either making noise playing, or coming to her bed and waking her.  Jeni went down the hall to check on them and they were both missing from their rooms!  She went down stairs and discovered that they were conspiring to get the Do-Si-Dos.  They had gotten hold of the box and had it in the floor with the cardboard flap open but they were having trouble getting the plastic sleeve open.  Joseph was on his was to Janelle with a pair of scissors.  Those little schemers had managed to stay quiet, work together, and were about to liberate a box of girl scout cookies!

I've got to love the little stinkers for their ingenuity and, although they are always ready to tattle on each other for transgressions real or imagined, they love each other and share and work together to get what they mutually want.

Mountain Climbing in Suburban NOVA

Mountain climbing in suburban NOVA, you say?  Well, it all depends on your perspective.  Two and Four year olds, who have never seen the Rockies, have a different perspective.

We went to Van Dyck Park in Fairfax this afternoon.  Van Dyck Park is built on the edge of a shallow terrain feature that a military man would call a draw, a southerner might call a holler, and a mountain northwesterner might call a drainage.  The playground is at the top, on level ground.  They've leveled and filled in on the side of the natural hill to make a kind of bowl with a big, level playing field between the playground and the creek at the bottom.  Since they've filled it in to make the playing fields, the drop at the end down to the creek is pretty steep.

They have a paved "fitness trail" around the park (it's NOVA, so it couldn't just be a path).  After the kids played a while in the playground, we went for a walk around the trail.  It circles around the rim of the playing field and drops down to the creek bed and loops around and comes up by the field to the playground.  When we got to the bottom, I challenged the kids to race me to the top of the big hill up to the field.  Of course, they did.

I tried to get them to do the arms raised, "we made it!" pose.

When we got up there, Janelle yelled down to Jeni, "Mommy, we can see the playground from up here!  Come up here and see!"  With that Jeni started up.  The kids watch a lot of Diego and Dora, which always involve saving something, so Janelle took about two steps down the hill, stuck her arm out, and said, "Mommy when you get this far, take my hand!"  I egged Joseph on and told him to go down and push Mommy up.  He ran down to about 2/3 of the way up and grabbed her hand and started pulling her up.  That upset Janelle, because she was supposed to help Mommy, but Jeni got to Janelle and extended her other hand to her and let them both pull her up.

Once Jeni got there, I challenged the kids to another trip.  Down we went, and back up we came.

Overheard at a Tea Party....

....Actually it was a ladies book club meeting and I will not name names to protect the guilty; and because I don't know her name.

Lady 1: "What is this, tea with sweetener?
Lady 2: "Sugar"
Lady 1: "What?"
Lady 2: "Sugar.  It's sweet tea."
Lady 1: "It's great!  We don't get this in Northern Virginia."
Lady 2: "My husband is from Alabama.  It's all we ever have."
Lady 1: "How do you make it.  Do you just make tea and put a bunch of sugar in it?"

Sigh..... It's where the Army sent us.....

Begging/Scamming in the Metro System

Since I travel on the famous (infamous?) DC Metro system every day, this topic is near and dear to my heart.  If you're a Facebook friend, you've seen my posts about the "Gawd is Good" woman in the Rosslyn station who walks along the platform hollering "Gawd is good, I need a cup of coffee (or whatever) can anybody spare 35 cents" (or some small amount, and even when someone gives her change, she doesn't stop.)  Well, last week, I got close enough to realize that she is a he, and he isn't some indigent beggar localized at Rosslyn, he's apparently a Metro road show, because he was outside the Vienna Station!  That's seven stops from Rosslyn, at the end of the orange line, and way off the beaten path if he was just a local character.  I'm guessing he picks a random station every day for his begging event.

The "Gawd is Good" guy looks like he could actually use some help, and he's a bit of a character, so I don't begrudge him too much.  At least there's some entertainment value there (OK, I'm heartless) but this next one gets me hot.

The last three days, I've been lucky enough to get off work relatively early, around 5:30.  Friday, I went down to the station and started to my usual waiting spot and there was a guy standing near the exit fare machine.  The exit fare machine is where you go to put money on your metro pass if you didn't initially put enough money on it to pay for the trip - the gates won't let you out until you pay up.  He approached me and said something like "I didn't realize it was still peak rates, can you spare a dollar or two so I can get out, I really need three, but anything will help".  I gave him $3 and walked on.  When I looked back, he was gone.  I thought that he was awfully quick at the exit fare machine but didn't think too much of it.

Monday, I was down there about the same time.  A guy came up the escalator from the downstairs platform and approached another male passenger standing near the exit fare machine.  I could tell he was begging and thought he looked familiar, but I didn't have a clear remembrance.  The other passenger handed him some money and I watched him walk away and not stop at the exit fare machine.  When he walked away with a limping gait, I was pretty sure that was my guy.

Today, about the same time, I'm standing in my normal spot and, lo and behold, the same guy comes up the escalator.  He turns to another guy to his immediate left and clearly asks for something and was refused.  He moved toward me and made eye contact, but must not have remembered me.  He started to speak and I gave him a disapproving scowl and shook my head.  He turned around and approached a middle aged woman near (again) the exit fare machine.  I could see he was giving his pitch and she was reaching for her purse, so I thought, I can't let this con take this advantage of this lady, so I walked right up to them and said, "you know it's funny he had the same problem yesterday, and Friday." and walked away.  I thought that would either embarrass him into walking away, or empower her to say no.  I didn't want to cause a violent confrontation (although I'm pretty confident that with a score of Pentagon Force Protection Agency officers, with enforcement powers in the Pentagon station, just at the top of the escalator, I would have come out OK).  I know they both heard me because I made eye contact and she said "really" and he did his best to ignore me.  Yet I looked back and she was handing him something that looked like a quarter.

I went back to her a couple of minutes later and told her that I think he's a regular that he got me on Friday and she said, "well its a small price to pay".  That makes me think this lady gave the cretin some change just to make him go away.  That is unconscionable in my opinion.

I've got my eye out for this guy now.  In the event I'm in the Pentagon station at 5:30ish, I will haunt him.  The next time, I will stand next to the next nice lady he targets until he goes away empty handed.

I have no issue with beggars who sit with a cup and a sign, or even yell "Gawd is Good, it's cold outside".  That's freedom of speech and if someone gives them money, that's a voluntary act.  Getting up close and personal and making the other person feel uncomfortable until they pay you to go away is not acceptable. 

Garbage Trucks and Computers

I think if Joseph had any comprehension of "what I want to be when I grow up" right now, I'm guessing he would probably say garbage truck driver.  A few weeks ago, I was sitting at Jeni's laptop when Janelle did something that got him terribly upset.  He was inconsolable, so I put him in my lap and went to youtube and watched some monster truck videos and that made it all better.  Since then we've watched bulldozers, race cars, firetrucks, etc., but lately its been all garbage trucks, all the time.  Joseph will come over to me and say, "Daddy.  Watch garbage truck.  On computer."  He loves to watch video's like this: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06xpoVe6ZoQ  He'll just sit and watch, and point, calling out colors, etc.


This afternoon, I was upstairs, doing whatever I was doing with my new Kindle Fire (love it, by the way).  Joseph came in the bedroom, came over to the bed and gave me the old, "Daddy, watch garbage trucks on computer" bit.  I had a brainstorm and let him up on the bed and we watched about 30 minutes of youtube videos of garbage trucks on the Fire.  Just the boys hanging out while the girls were downstairs doing whatever it is girls do when the men are away.  Jeni sneaked in to see what we were up to and took this pic.  Good times.

Janelle's "Chore Chart"

Jennifer bought Janelle a little Chore Chart, where she has tasks to perform every day.  If she completes the task, she gets a star for that task for the day.  It's all age appropriate stuff, like go to bed and stay in bed, get dressed, pick up your mess, things like that.  If she accumulates a certain number of stars each week - a number we set to keep it realistically achievable - she gets a reward.  The first week, it was lunch out with Daddy.  Last week, it was a sleepover with Aunt Kellie in her hotel room.

She has one of these clocks that tells her when its OK to get up.  That's how she's judged on the go to bed and stay in bed metric.  She has to be quiet and let Mommy sleep until the clock turns green to get that star.

This morning, she was up before I left (~6:15).  I saw her bedside light on and went in to check on her.  She was partly awake, so I gave her a hug and kiss and told her to go back asleep.  After I went downstairs to get ready to leave, I heard footsteps upstairs.  I looked up and saw the bathroom light on.  I went up and she was already done in the bathroom and back in her room.  I peeked in and she was sitting on the bed looking at her Cinderella book.  I gave her another hug and kiss and headed to work, thinking Jeni was getting an early wake-up.

Tonight, I asked Jeni what time Janelle got up.  She said Janelle came in our room at 7:30, and said, "Mommy, my clocks green and I'm dressed!"  I guess she responds well to positive reinforcement.  She'd waited patiently for over an hour and managed her time and activities to get dressed while she was waiting.  I'm really proud that she's "getting it".

What's Important

There is going to be one HECK of a football game tomorrow night.  Bama vs. LSU.  #1 vs. #2.  Probably the National Championship game.  Nick Saban vs. Les Miles.  It should be a classic.

I love football.  I love the game.  I love the competition, the athleticism, and the violent conflict that is emblematic of the human experience.  I love the fans and the game day environment.  I love the rivalries and the sportsmanship that transcends the sometimes trashy stuff that exists outside the stadium.   

Back in 1995, I was in 3-7 CAV at Ft. Stewart.  I still remember that the Squadron Chaplain was an Auburn grad (but I don't remember his name).  [If you know me, you know that I respect no one as much as the Army Chaplain.  No one is more dedicated to his mission, in more difficult situations, than the Army Chaplain.  I have sought the Chaplain's council many times in my career and have always benefited from it.]  Auburn beat Alabama that year.  The Chaplain ran into me shortly after that and asked what I thought of the game.  I said something along the lines of I didn't approve of the outcome.  He said "It's a good thing that football doesn't determine our self worth".

That's my whole point.  None of us play, or have played, football for either team.  Few of you reading this  graduated from either school.  Football is a game that we all enjoy watching, but at the end of the day, nothing real has changed, regardless of who wins or loses.  Our lives go on, unchanged, regardless of the outcome.

No matter who wins or loses, I still have a wonderful wife who loves me despite my many faults.  I still have two children who amaze me every day.  The outcome of the game will not change any of that.  If Alabama loses tomorrow and the rest of the season, or if they win out all the way to the National Championship, my baby boy and little girl will still think I hang the moon.  Either way, I'm a winner as long as I hold up my responsibilities as a good daddy.

I will be rooting my heart out for the Tide.  I will have an extra spring in my step Monday if Bama wins and I will have an extra wide smile for my VT friend who calls me an SEC prim a dona.   But win or lose, the important things remain constant.  That's what matters to me.