Mostly Harmless

Mostly about my amusement

Category: Family (page 4 of 14)

March 20, 2012

Report from the home front

As I embark on taking care of the household while Lily is away, I thought it would be a good idea to take notes for when she returns on the 2oth.

It’s like a blog within a blog and I’m going to have fun with it.

Monday Day 1

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/179150138676232192

That didn’t go very well.

Last night my son had some sort of bug and was tossing his cookies all night long. Fortunately I had help but I was in no condition to go to work today.

The children are cooperating and I’m really pleased. They’re doing their home work, eating their meals, and peacefully playing with each other. It’s actually kind of nice and quiet.

I could get used to this. I do miss my wife, but this extra alone time with the kids is a welcome change.

Tuesday Day 2

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/179530235857997824

Sigh, the kids are acting up.

It’s only little things but they’ve learned to repeat phrases like “Mom would let us do that” and “That’s not what Mom said”.

At what age did I become contrary like that?

They are being very disrespectful and I’m patiently explaining that

  1. that’s not true about Mom and
  2. I’m the one in charge.

Nothing to get excited about, just kids being kids.

Wednesday Day 3

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/179888060224389120

Without meaning to I’m sleeping later in the morning. This has lead to my parking the car and running like a madman to the train.

I don’t get it. It’s like I’m getting up a full 30 minutes later.

The kids are acting odd. It’s like they are taking turns testing me and how I’ll react. They don’t do it at the same time but it’s like one will wait in the wings while the other tests my defenses. That’s weird!

It’s probably nothing. I’m tired from a lack of sleep.

Thursday Day 4

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/180233203100024833

The alarm was set to 30 minutes later!

At first I thought it was Lily’s doing but now I’m not sure. The kids are acting so strange.

They’re planning something and I think they somehow resent that I’m in charge. It’s a struggle to get them to do things.

I’m not sleeping too well, I never do when the wife is away.

Friday Day 5

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/180587857365311489

I made to the right train today!

I had to get up really early (why is the alarm set to 5:15 AM? doesn’t matter) but I was on time.

My co-workers have been teasing me about being by myself without adult supervision. Also they’ve notice that I’ve not shaved my beard this whole week.

Lily doesn’t like me with a beard but she’s in Mumbai. So there.

I’m still not sleeping well. It’s making me a little disorientated.

Saturday Day 6

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/180972846791659520

Where am I? How did I get here?

I seem to be in charge of some sort of military camp. My two underlings aren’t like me; I think they’re part of the local native population.

The resentment that these “children” are harboring for me is intense. They can’t seem to be able to follow instructions and keep asking for the previous Administrator.

I keep telling them “I’m in charge and that’s that!” but it’s just not placating them.

I may need to implement a more strenuous process and procedure.

At work we are trained that with the correct process documentation anything is possible. And with that process a lack of accountability is successfully achieved.

That must be true, that’s what the compliance and audit people say.

Sunday Day 7

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/181320558657544194

I’ve begun to gather evidence of the crimes being perpetuated against my lawful administration. At the moment it’s all circumstantial but as I am the judge and jury of the court I don’t expect any problems.

The natives are almost in full revolt. They keep complaining about the tasks that they are asked to do, something about “child labor laws”. I just don’t get it. They’re 8 and 10 years old and all I’m asking them to do is a little factory work.

Children have been working in factories for over 100 years. Everyone her has to pull their own weight and I see nothing wrong with these people working till midnight to help pay the bills.

This great nation of ours doesn’t run on good wishes you know. How can I run a benign dictatorship without money?

It’s all very distracting and just adds to my lack of rest. I feel like I haven’t slept in days.

Some other day later

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/181673572547309568

I think it’s Monday. Yes, that’s right. 1,2,3,4… 8. It’s the 8th day.

I’ve been speaking with the natives and have brought up my “issues” with them.

THEY NOTHING EXCEPT CONFUSE THE ISSUE AND ATTACK ME!
AT LEAST

I narrowed down the problem somewhat

AND THEY? -CONTRIBUTED NOTHING EXCEPT EMPTY WORDS -NOTHING! ARE YOU BLOWING REALLY HARD ON YOUR KEYBOARD TO PRESS THE KEYS?

I must calm down. That’s not me speaking, that’s just the result of the sleep deprivation. But-

Foot Stomping RAGE!! I WANT MY ADMINISTRATION FIXED NOW NOW NOW -NOW.

Tuesday Day 9

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/182132419711864832

It’s amazing what some sleep can do to your mood. I was afraid I was losing it a little there for a while.

But it’s all better now and I’ve come to terms with the disintegration of This Just and Divine Administration of mine.

You see, it’s not my fault.

The blame lies at the feet of my followers. They didn’t believe strongly enough and-

THEY ARE COMING FOR ME NOW.

https://twitter.com/#!/jan_dembowski/status/182151096754647040

Hello? This is Lily speaking.

Jan is a little bit tired and will be taking some time off. Nothing to worry about. With some rest and relaxation he will be fine.

The children are also well. They keep snickering about something but I am not sure what they are talking about.

Thank you for your continued support. It is good to be home.

March 12, 2012

So! 10 days left to my own devices

After much prodding I have finally convinced Lily to post to her own blog. That intense conversation went like this and took a lot out of me.

Me: You should post articles about what you are doing or topics you like. It’s fun.

Her: Okay.

Me: *blinks*

Her: That looks new. Do you know where I can find good technical support?

Right now she’s on a plane to India on a business trip and she wants to blog about the experience. It’s her second trip and I hope she takes lots of pictures.

Naturally I’m running her blog as part of my multisite installation. Picking a theme was tricky so once she gets the hang of WordPress I’ll encourage her to find one she likes.

You can take a look at her blog at http://lily.dembowski.net/

She’s going to be away for 10 whole days. To commemorate this event our son thought it would be appropriate to spend all night hurling. As a result of those shenanigans I’m mostly sleep deprived today and am amazed that I can even form complete sentences.

Although run-on sentences don’t seem to be a problem for me right now.

10 days. This maybe a good time to order a Olympus 35 RC or XA rangefinder camera…

February 24, 2012

I am SO taking the kids to see this movie

I have a little girl (and a boy) who will love the movie Brave. I’ll take them to see it almost as soon as it comes out.

Thanks to The Mary Sue for sharing this.

I’m one of 4 boys and have zero experience dealing with little girls. That’s why I can say it’s different for girls but I can’t really say why it’s different. I can explain it and I sure don’t understand it.

My girl is talented and smart. She picks up all sorts of crafts without any effort and loves making things. Lily is like that too and our girl often impresses us with her ability.

Yet I find I need to reinforce that a) she really is smart, and b) she can do anything. She sometimes lacks that confidence and needs to be told more so than her brother.

The boys in my family, including myself and my son, have always understood these things. We know we’re smart (by divine inference!) and we’re only limited by ourselves (read as I’m also lazy).

That’s good and it made for some really fun and colorful knock down fights discussions growing up. That’s my parents fault and is how I was made. I like it and wouldn’t change a thing.

Although as I get older I do find it more useful to keep those details inside. 🙂

But I’m not equipped to deal with the confidence issues that little girls have. I just don’t have the experience. But I’ll continue to work at it and more movies like Brave will help.

Now if only Disney doesn’t screw this up somehow; I’m still miffed that their new movie won’t be called “A Princess of Mars”.

December 4, 2011

Christmas Tree Time!

Last year, the Sunday right after Thanksgiving I put up the Christmas tree with just the lights. I had intended to finish it after work but each week night I was too tired to do it. I get home after 7 PM and generally want to eat and relax. So the tree went a week without being completed.

Fortunately some friends came over the next weekend and with their help my family completed the tree. This year the same thing happened, except I planned it. The tree was put up this morning and after lunch my friends came over and helped my family again.

We all had a great time and Lily also put up some new decorations in front of the house. The kids made a mess in the basement but that happens when you have 6 kids running around. It’s now Christmas time and all is right in my world.

I can get used to this new tradition and I really enjoyed having our friends over with their kids.

October 8, 2011

We are your typical American consumers

Sometimes you plan on buying one thing and end up getting something slightly different.

As part of my job responsibility, I provide support after hours. It’s not something that happens frequently because the first and second level support is really good. If a problem is escalated to me during my personal time, I don’t question it because I am treated as a last resort.

Last month I had a problem that started at Sunday 5 PM-ish and lasted till just after midnight. My home office line is a pair of cordless phones with old batteries and they kept dying on me. The rotten phones only had speakerphone on the handsets and not on the base station!

That was last month. This past week Lily had all day meetings and was working from home. The same thing happened to her so today we got a replacement at Costco.

Her: That model has a base speakerphone and a total of 4 cordless phones.

Me: Yes, that’s true, but we’re looking for just one cordless phone and speakerphone base station.

Her: It’s $65.

Me: Yes, but it’s got three more phones. What are we going to do with the other three?

Her: It’s $65. On sale. Best Buy’s would probably be more expensive and this one is normally $80.

So we got this unit. it’s a discontinued AT&T phone but it works well. I’ve put the three spares in the kids bed rooms and the guest room. I haven’t said a word to the kids, I wonder how long it will be before they notice?

It’s a neat phone. I kept getting “Messages available” even though there was none on the base station. It was from Vonage; the phone got the message notification that I had messages and was letting me know. Cool! The old ones never did that.

September 11, 2011

10th anniversary of 9/11

It’s Sunday morning on the 10th anniversary. A few days ago while watching the coverage my son asked me if I “recovered from that day”. He’s 9 years old and wasn’t born until December 2001. That’s an odd question for me. I had nothing to recover from. I’ve never suffered from anxiety and as far I am aware, I did not really know the people who were murdered.

It’s an event that can’t be dealt with rationally so it has to be put aside. Each life is unique and precious and losing one is an unthinkable tragedy. Try to put 2,977 lives in your head and visualize them, see all the other lives they touched and the bright futures extinguished.

I can’t do it so I put it aside.

I don’t think that the country hasn’t recovered yet and I don’t believe the politicians will ever let us do so. There is just too much political gain for playing the “Terrorist” card.

The Smithsonian Channel had on a special last night and this included interviews with Cheney and Richard Clarke. From a historical perspective that’s 100% spot on. They were there, they made critical decisions before and after. It was a good contrast, Clarke was knowledgeable and an authority and Cheney was, well Dick Cheney.

What I found appalling was that Cheney even today still maintains that endless war was the way to go. We may still be a super power but there is only so much blood and money you can spend on war. A mistake was made and we ended up in Iraq.

We should have spent treasure taking out the actual murders but hey, that would interfere with Cheney’s idea of militarizing the world.

Have I mentioned it’s Sunday? I’m taking the kids to mass for the 8 AM and will say an additional prayer for the dead.

August 23, 2011

The Gakkenflex is a cool kit camera

My son received a camera from his uncle, a cool Fuji STX-2 SLR with a 50mm lens. The girl wanted to have a camera too. So rather than get another film camera from eBay, I went to Makershed and ordered a Gakkenflex kit.

I mean, fair is fair right?

This is a TLR camera meaning it has two lenses. The top one is a viewfinder and the two lenses focus together. The kit took less than an hour to assemble and the results have been fun. If you’ve ever assembled a Gundam MG kit then you will have no problems with the instructions or the assembly. Just in case Makershed provides a link to the English PDF version of the instructions.

This camera takes 35mm film and I’ve already shot 2 rolls of 200 Fuji SO film. It’s light and small but not too much so. It’s not tough, my girl already cracked the viewfinder gear when she had a er, disagreement with her brother.

I’m still getting the girl to take photos but she’s learning and having fun. Someday I may get a real TLR with 120 film, but for now this will work nicely.

July 31, 2011

2011 Trip to China

It’s amazing what can happen in a few months.

The whole family and I went to China for 21 days and it was a great trip. In order we flew from JFK -> HKG -> PEK/BJS -> XIY ->PVG -> CAN -> Zhaoqing -> HKG -> TSA -> HKG -> JFK.

In plain English we went to Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, Guanzho (briefly), Zhaoqing, took a bus to Hong Kong (NEVER EVER AGAIN!) flew to Taiwain, toured the country by car and then came back to Hong Kong.

All that in 21 days. I took over 4,500 photos with my Nikon D300s and 6 rolls of film with the Olympus Trip 35. We met Lily’s family and everyone had a good time. But the tour was intense and we’re all still decompressing 3 weeks later.

You can see the photos I took at my Flickr page.

May 26, 2011

Middle age? It took me forever to get here

As you get older, your habits change and you do different things. In the past I have spent a great deal of time building Linux servers and running my domain’s mail and spam filters, my own web servers for family web sites, ftp server, and sometimes hosting a game server.

Linux and open source software is cool and exciting.

This past week? I’ve been working on my own time preparing the pool for Sunday. Last year we opened the pool up for the first time on Memorial day and had a great summer. Since it was the first time the pool company took care of balancing the water, adding salt, etc. This year it’s all me and Lily.

It’s not a great deal of work (vacuuming was a pain), and the pool is really low maintenance. It’s just that I used to spend my time doing geeky things.

Now my geek tasks are actually managed.

  1. My domain’s mail is handled by Google Apps because I was spending serious time losing the spam battle.
  2. I update my WordPress site using the automatic upgrade feature while I weep for my lost SVN commands.
  3. I never host any game servers anymore and feel like I should yell “you kids get off the lawn!”
  4. My Linux distro of choice for my servers is Ubuntu 10.04 LTS because I got tired of updating Linux distros every 6 months.

My hobbies have changed too. I used to play PC games much more frequently but lately I’m more into photography. Unlike other family members, I’ve only gotten into this about 3 years ago. And my 35mm film infatuation is more recent than that, I carry an Olympus Trip 35 everywhere.

I still plan on working on my Gunpla collection, but I’m finding it funny how my spare time is being used. I’m not upset about it, but the observation makes me laugh.

December 26, 2010

First snow of the season

It’s not exactly a white Christmas, but snow fall on the 26th is close enough.

Looks like we’re going to have a lot of snow for Monday morning. It’s still coming down but I’ve already done a test run on the snow thrower.

The kids are off next week so if not today, they’ll get to have lots of fun either today or tomorrow.

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Jan Dembowski

Jan Dembowski

I am a software enthusiast who is easily amused and definitely mostly harmless.

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