42 Words of Wisdom: #03

"It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear."

- Douglas Adams

Our recent trip inspired me to choose this quote. No deep meaning or anything - just an observation. Airports are dirty, ugly places, usually built decades ago. They all look the same, and they all look dull and uninspired. What ever happened to the attitude that travelling by air was exciting and adventurous? THis was before my time, of course, but I've read about it. People used to get dressed up to fly, and the whole thing had a carnival atmosphere that was shared by the passengers, flight attendants, gate agents - everyone involved. Now they charge you more than I paid for my first car, treat you like crap, make you pay for a snack, delay or bump your flights, and expect you to feel special that they decided to deal with you at all. Is it any wonder that airlines are declaring bankruptcy?

Storyland

We spent the weekend up north, in Bartlet. Sunday morning looked ominous in the rain department, but we threw caution to the wind (what rebels!) and took the boys to Storyland in Glen, NH. It's like a miniature Disneyland, designed specifically for 1-5 year old demographic. What a blast! The boys loved it.

They had an antique German carousel, miniature roller coasters, a tiny castle, an house-sized pumpkin, ball pits - pretty much anything you can think of that a little person would love and that adults would love to do to, if no other adults were looking. Believe it or not (those who know Sean well will believe it), one of Sean's favortite parts of the whole thing was a pair of red doors (shown in the photo) that led nowhere. He opened and closed them for 10 minutes before we had to drag him away, kicking and screaming.

The center picture of the next set is unfortunately the only one I took in an area of the park called "Loopy Lab". The reason I have no others is because I was too busy having fun. "Loopy Lab" is a big room full of Nerf balls. It's also got a second floor balcony accessible by stairways in the corners. THe whole building must have one mother of a air compressor under it, as the whole floor vibrated and the noise was nearly deafening. But the whole room is full of all kinds of devices for sucking up or launching the Nerf balls. There are suction hoses that can suck up balls and launch the into the air, a ball cannon that can be filled up and then fired at the balcony, like grapshot from a civil war cannon. Bolted to the second floor balcony railing are air guns that can be used to launch balls at everyone on the first floor. It was awesome - all of the adults may have been having more fun than the kids!

Sean and Ryan both immediately took to the ball pit. What is it about ball pits that make kids instantly happy? You would think it would scare them - as soon as you put them in, they sink in waist deep. If they try to move at all, they sink deeper and deeper, like quicksand. You'd think they would panic. But for some reason, they find the sinking even funnier. Love it!

So all in all, a great trip. If anyone in New England with small kids is reading this, you should definately plan a trip out to Glen, NH for a visit to Storyland. I can't wait to take Sean back in a year or two.

Hedgehog Mountain

Since I wouldn't get another chance to hike up north for a year or two, Dad and I decided to take a hike on Hedgehog Mountain in the White Mountains, in spite of the rain. We expected to get soaked, and therefore enjoyed ourselves even once we did. We hiked out to a what would probably be a nice little overlook on a clear day. Even on a rainy day, it was a decent view. I don't have any pictures, as there really was no break in the rain and I didn't dare take the camera out.

Pawtuckaway Fire Tower

Adam and I took a day hike to the fire tower on Pawtuckaway State Park's South Mountain. The day was overcast and on the verge of rain all day, and the mosquitos were out in full force. On top of that, Adam and I both forgot to bring any bug spray. We did, however, see some wildlife of the "won't suck my blood" variety. We saw lots of salamanders (as you can see in the photos), a half-dozen goldfinches, a red-throated hummingbird, and lots and lots of chipmunks.



Great Gram and Gramps

Sean went to meet Great Grammy and Grampy today. We've looked forward to this day for a long time. If anyone was wishing for a boy more than me, it was Gramps. And - Booyah! - I always deliver! It was amazing to have three generations of Lords all together, and I can't wait to to get home and get some prints made of these pictures to add to our 'family wall'. And look how big Sean looks in Gram's lap! She's lucky he didn't eat her for lunch!



Sean and Ry

Not much here, just a couple of additional pics of the Two Musketeers. More to come later this week - we'll be spending the weekend up north with Ryan, and we are planning to go to Storyland. It should be chock full 'o Kodak moments.


Friendly’s

Sean took his first trip to Friendly's today. Friendly's was a staple of my childhood, but I'm not sure we have them down here in the south. At least, I haven't seen one in San Antonio. We piled the boys in the wagon, and walked over there for sundaes. I got a peanut butter cup sundae. Sweet sassy molassy! I'd forgotten home much I love those!



Two of a Feather

While Sean and Ryan officially met yesterday, today was the first time that got any real quality time together, without lots of relatives trying to get some of their time. It went pretty well. Sean's never been great around other kids (although he is getting better), but I think he may have taken a shine to Ryan. I'm hoping to get some more pictures tomorrow, when we head over to Tracy's for a play date. I love these pictures we took tonight, with the boys sitting on the step together. I love how in one of the photos, Ryan is giving Sean a funny look, and in the other, Sean is giving Ryan the hairy eyeball. Like they don't quite trust each other yet. Too cute.

And below are the obligitory photos of Sean making goofy faces. And to top it off is a photo of all of us. Everyone is looking in different directions, and it was nearly impossible to get both kids to smile at the same time, but it turned out okay nonetheless.



42 Words of Wisdom: #02

"The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks."

- Douglas Adams

So true, so true. There is just something about being able to say that something is "impossible" that is so much more satisfying than having to say that it is "almost impossible". This one also applies well to software development. When debugging code, a typical strategy involves elminating the bits of code that cannot have caused the problem, until you are left with only one bit that therefore must have caused the problem. The challenge always comes from the fact that with any moderately-complex software, you can never with 100% certainy say that it is "impossible" that a certain piece of code is causing problems. This becomes a very irritating fact. The debugging process eventually degenerates into one of two approaches - a "brute force" approach, where the developer systematically disables one bit of code at a time until the problem goes away, or the "inspired" approach, where the developer uses educated guesses and hunches to zero-in on the problem code right away. And of course, that almost never works, and the developer eventually reverts back to the "brute force" approach.