Obviously, I failed that test...

I ran across town to get a couple of cases of Dr Pepper this afternoon. I was totally out and Saturday is the day that the little grocery store gets it's shipment of "The Good Stuff" - Dr Pepper made with Imperial Pure Cane Sugar.

Anyways, I have only hit one or two all afternoon but I noticed The Boss Lady working on her third. The following conversation went bad for me REAL quick...

Me - "Hey, take it easy. I just bought those and they cost 75 cents a piece.
She Who Must not be Ignored - Are you saying I am not worth 75 cents?
Me - Uh, is that a trick question?"

Maybe I'll drink another Dr Pepper. When my jaw stops hurting.

Walking update

I have been blogging about my walking progress over on another site, AtHomeDaddyGPS, a blog I use to keep up with my geocaching adventures. But I figured I should post up over here once in a while, too.

As of today I have walked more than 60 miles since starting up on Jan 11. Also today I crossed a new thresh hold and I was able to jog half of my 5 mile route. When I started out I wasn't going to jog, I was trying to take it easy on my knees. This week I started jogging as I feel able to and so far I have not been any more sore than after a hard walk.


I still haven't seen much difference on the scale, maybe 5 pounds lost, but I am certainly noticing a difference in my endurance and distance. The first week I struggled to walk 20 miles total. Today I have traveled more than 5 miles and may go out again and knock out an easy mile or two before the kids get home.

When I set out this morning I did not have a specific goal in mind, but after a couple of miles on the trail I realized that if I kept up the effort, I could finish up a 5 mile trip in under an hour. A trip that originally took me more than 90 minutes.

Town Lake Hike and Bike

Map your trip with EveryTrail

20.81

On Monday I mentioned that I was going to renew my efforts to get off of the couch while the kids are at school. I walked a little over 5 miles on Monday and I did 5 miles again on Tuesday. I walked for a while with one of our older neighbors which slowed me down a little bit but also made the last couple of miles a lot more enjoyable. By dinner time that evening I was rethinking my new efforts at getting fit. My legs were feeling every step of the previous two days.

On Wednesday I was almost done with mile 4. I was out on the hiking trail and heading home. I heard my phone chirp that a new email was waiting, so I did a quick check while I was walking down the trail. My web enabled phone is a new toy and I haven't yet started ignoring it each time it alerts me to a new message. It was lucky that I did not ignore the message this time. A neighbor's dog had run off and had been spotted heading for the trail I was currently walking on.

I started calling the puppy, but I made it to the trail with no sign of the dog. As I was getting to the house I saw the neighbor who was headed out to search for the puppy again. I grabbed my car and a leash and headed to the opposite end of the park, The neighbor headed to the trail I had just hiked.

We each hiked into the park and met up in the middle of the trail but neither of us had found the puppy. I was ready to sit for a while, so I decided to drive the neighborhood streets, and search for the puppy who now had a couple of hour head start. As I was driving down a dead end street a car came up behind me, flashing it's lights. I was moving slow but I was on a mission, so I kept my pace and just figured some jerk wanted to pass me.

Better sense took hold of me and I did not yell at the alleged jerk. Good thing too, because the driver was out driving around, trying to see if she could find anyone out driving around looking for a lost puppy. She had found the puppy and taken it home to her house.

I followed her over there, picked up the puppy and called the neighbor. We had completed a successful puppy search!

For the record, I finished up my 5 miles while I was walking back to get my car after searching the trail the second time. But my sore legs combined with stopping to listen for the puppy every few steps slowed my average speed down a little bit that day.

I skipped out on walking on Thursday. No need to over do this whole walking-the-neighborhood-hero thing. Plus it was raining and I had a headache. But mainly I just didn't wanna. My legs were tired.

I hit the neighborhood streets in a light rain this morning, 5 miles in the 'hood is a lot more boring than 5 miles on the trails, but I didn't want to end up a muddy mess, so I cruised the sidewalks today. I did my 5 miles, plus some extra, in 1 hour and 25 minutes. The fastest I have gone this far.

On Monday I set a goal to walk 20 miles before Friday night. In the end I managed a little extra, 20.8 miles total. Next week I want to try to walk 30 miles over 6 days (Full disclosure, I am counting tomorrow's walk towards that goal.)

The boy is 8!

The Talker is now 8 years old. And he says it has been a great birthday, maybe even "the best ever"!

We are bypassing the big birthday party extravaganzas for the kids this year, in favor of smaller, more family focused (meaning cheaper!) events. Besides that, I turn 40 this year and I want to have the cool party!

Last night The Talker picked the dinner venue and he got to take one of his best buddies. The Talker chose to have his birthday dinner at our favorite steakhouse. That's my boy! We celebrated a day early since the boy's basketball team practices on Wednesday evenings and The Talker could not be dissuaded from attending practice.


This morning, before school, he got to open one gift. The Boss Lady, little sister and I picked out a Dallas Cowboys football set for his gift from the family. The Talker loves to play pretend football games in the backyard. He dresses in all of his gear, runs plays, scream and yells and even keeps score.

The Talker has several team jerseys and t-shirts, but so far his only football helmet has been from a Houston Texans play set that he has had for a couple of years. Now he can dress like a real winner! Ironically, I ordered the set from Meijer, who does not even have a store in Texas as far as I know, for $20 less than I could pick the same gear up locally.

Today at lunchtime I visited the kids at school, celebratory chocolate covered donuts in hand. Then for dinner I whipped up one of the kid's favorite meals, pork chops, mashed taters and green beans. OK, the kids could do without the green beans. The Boss Lady made an awesome birthday cake and we chowed down after basketball practice.

Considering we started this party at dinnertime yesterday and things are just now winding down, 28 hours later, I think The Talker's 8th birthday will be one for his memory book!

Getting out

To be real honest, I don't do much when the kids and wife are gone during the day. I know that surprises you.

Oh, I think I do an OK job of keeping the house in a reasonable condition and I am pretty sure The Boss Lady has forgotten where we keep the laundry machines, but I just end up hanging around the house most of the time. There are a few reasons for this. The main reasons I hang out at home are guilt and cash.

I don't want to be out spending cash, so I stay home. And I feel bad that I have free time to do stuff that the wife and kids don't, so I stay home.

Cubicle Dad has been blogging about his efforts to prepare for the October 2010 Chicago Marathon. I have kept up with his posts via Twitter, Facebook and his blog, but still I have stayed home. And as I watch the progress in Chicago, I sit here, weighing more than I have in my entire life and feeling a lot worse. It took me a while, but I have finally realized that sitting on the couch, watching TV is not doing me any favors.

Today I tried something new. I got out and got moving. I went for a hike in the park. The trails are nice and the place is quiet and serene on weekday mornings. I was hoping to walk 5 miles this morning. Turns out when you sit on the couch for half a year, 5 miles is a lot to try on the first outing but I did manage almost 3 miles this morning and I scored a new geocache find along the way. I hauled my hand held GPS with me to hunt the geocache, but I think I'll take it with me for the rest of the week to see how far I can go.

The kids won't be getting off of the bus for 90 minutes, so I am going to see if I can finish my 5 miles before then. I am taking the GPS with me, to keep myself honest.

It is only Monday and I have exercised more this week than I have in a year. My goal for the rest of the week - walking a total of 20 miles by Friday night. We will see if I can haul my fat butt off of the couch tomorrow.

Photographic Addendum - 2:45pm

A photo of the screen on my hand held GPS unit.

I walked the last mile with a 65+ year old neighbor.
That slowed my Moving Average down a little, but made the
earlier, quicker 4 miles seem a little boring, too.

Recent wrap-up

The family is doing great and life is good, if not a little too cold. It hasn't gotten above 45 in a few days. (No offense, FoF.)

The Talker started a new basketball season at our local YMCA this morning. He knew several of his teammates from previous basketball and soccer seasons. Even though the basketball may not be pro quality, the boy plays hard and wears himself out during the game. I would have some pictures and videos to post, but I forgot my new cell phone (more about that later) at the house, so there is no photographic evidence that any basketball actually occurred today.

The Princess is turning into a jewelry diva. The Mother of the Bride bought her a gift card to Claire's and The Boss Lady went with her to buy a dozen pair of new earrings today. Now that the girl can change them herself, we seem to be losing a few more earrings than in the past. While the girls shopped for jewelry and clothes, The Talker and I hit up all of the sports, video game and toy stores. Made for a good outing for us all.

The Boss Lady still ♥'s her new job. And we all love the 8AM-4:30PM hours. I don't think we have ever eaten dinner at home as frequently as we now do.

This week the wife and I upgraded our cell phones. I am finally moving away from the 1990's style flip phones (No offense, FoF.) that I have carried for about 6 years. But it has come at a cost.

When I bought my new phone online I thought (are there two more dangerous words?) that I had activated a web access data plan. Turns out I hadn't - AND the charges for data access add up rather quickly. Luckily, I realized my error after only a few days. Sprint customer service was super cool and let me add the unlimited data access plan retroactively, which erased about $50 worth of data charges and kept my wife from kicking me right in the phone holder. The end result, I am a mobile, twittering, facebooking, texting, Googling, paperless geocaching fool.

And because I want to give my public what it wants, I bring you a chicken update: The girls are cooooooold at night, even with a heat lap glowing in the coop. But they are still laying very well. In fact, today we got 4 eggs from the 3 hens! Gold Diamond, The Princess' hen laid an egg in the shed today and another in the outdoor coop. It is a rare occurrence, sort of like laying a double yolk egg, but young hens can sometimes lay twice in one day. And for the record, we got a double yolk egg from Roadrunner, The Talker's hen about a week ago. I thought I had blogged about it, but must have only posted the pics on Facebook.

You can see the size difference between the double yolk egg (on the right) and a normal sized (and muddy) egg that we get from Roadrunner.

The double yolk was the guest of honor at breakfast.

Here comes another year

I was just taking a glance back at the blog. I realize that I haven't posted as much lately, but sometimes I just gots nothing to say. Anyone who knows me will tell you that is never true. But I seem to know a lot of liars :)

Anyways, on to the Christmas update:

The Princess has been begging me to build a dollhouse for two years.
I didn't build it, but I did assemble the "Barbie Mansion."

The Talker wasn't too sure that there really was an iPod hidden in the bag of M&Ms.
And he wanted to know where the rest to the displaced M&Ms had gone.

Santa's belly, where else?

And because you knew I could not do a post without it,
a gratuitous egg picture. My hens are laying like crazy, making up for lost time I guess.

This is only 3 days worth of their eggs.

Other than all of this fun and egg-citement, we had a low key Christmas break. A couple of quick trips to Dallas and Ft Worth kept us on the road a little bit, but mainly the kids have played at home as much as they like.

A side note and some foreshadowing of the next topic to be beaten like an egg salad: You see what I did there? Planning is now underway for the Spring Break Backpacking trip 2.0. I am starting to decide where The Talker and I will venture next. Since last year's trip was a wet mess, we might venture back to the Sam Houston National Forest.

Back in the eggs

I just noticed a theme.

Back in April, The Princess was anxiously awaiting the time that her hen would catch up with all the other birds and lay an egg. Butterscotch didn't come through until May 11. And for the past month or so, The Princess has been anxiously awaiting the time that her new hen would catch up with all the other birds and lay an egg.

Gold Diamond finally came through when we were out of town. The Law Talking Guy and his kids came over to feed the dog and let the birds roam a little while we were in Ft Worth. While here they collected three eggs, one much smaller than the rest. He called me to make sure things were OK with the birds. I assured him that it was a "First Egg" and that they are usually noticeably smaller.

Gold Diamond, 5 month and 2 week old Buff Cochin's first egg.
In relation to two from M&M and one blue/green egg from Roadrunner the Easter Egger.

The Princess is still out of town with Grandma, so I'll save GD's first egg for her to see when she arrives home. But now that we have 3 laying hens again, I better warn the neighbors. With the birds laying somewhere near 18 a week, I'll be pushing lots of eggs off on them shortly.

A peek at the awesomeness

A week ago I promised some upcoming awesomeness . I admit I have been negligent in posting the goods and I have been a tease. Turns out I don't have a flatbed scanner anymore. I thought there was still one in the garage. As a result, the project is going to be a little more time intensive than I thought.

So for the time being I bring you this. (Are you sure you can handle the awesomeness?)










Wait for it...







This little 15 page cookbook from 1965, turned up when The Mother of the Bride was at her Aunt's house. The MotB thought I might like it. And turns out she was right. Just like she always is. Isn't that correct, MotB?

Anyways, I'll try to figure out a decent way to share some of the recipes soon. Until then I am off to bake up some Bean Dip a la Dr Pepper. Or maybe I'll whip up some Dr Pepper basted Barbecued Spareribs...

More than you ever cared to know about blue eggs

Yesterday we got our first egg from The Talker's Easter Egger Pullet. I wanted to follow up with a little more info about the odd looking little egg.

First of all, yes they are edible. And like all of our backyard eggs, the blue eggs are very tasty! I can now vouch for this personally, since I just polished off 2 egg and cheese tacos.

One interesting tidbit about the blue egg shells, they are blue all the way through. Look at the brown egg shell to the left and you might notice that the brown eggs are actually white on the inside. The brown coloring is only on the outer surface of the shell. Not so with the blue eggs.

Roadrunner's egg, left. One of M&M's eggs from the last 4 days, top right. Grocery store organic, free range egg, bottom left.

The brighter color of the yolks from our backyard eggs is even more noticeable when compared to regular, white shelled, grocery store production eggs (which happen to make way better boiled eggs, by the way).

The three egg yolks in closer comparison. Roadrunner's egg bottom. M&M's egg top left. Grocery store egg, top right.

As chickens get older and lay more eggs, they tend to lay larger eggs. Their first eggs are smaller and the yolks are noticeably smaller. This is true regardless of egg shell color.

And finally, the real reason to keep a backyard flock! Egg and cheese tacos with a little Hell on the Red hot sauce and side of Dr Pepper! Good eating, thanks to our chicks!

Blue eggs and ham anyone?

The Talker has been fascinated with blue egg laying hens since we started our backyard flock. A year ago we talked about trying to find an Easter Egger Chicken, but our flock was already too big.

The neighbor's dog took care of that problem. A couple of times.

Back in July we bought a couple of chicks. One was labeled as an Ameraucana, but as we started to watch the bird mature, we realized that we actually had brought home an Easter Egger chick. No big deal, since The Talker's only wish was to have a hen that laid blue eggs.

Today, after a 5 month and 5 day wait, The Talker's wish came true.

The prize!

Here is Roadrunner's egg compared to M&M's latest offerings.

This is the only halfway decent picture I have ever snapped of Roadrunner. She is a fast, super timid bird.

Maybe next week

Bad news. The upcoming awesomeness isn't going to happen in the next few days.

The girl was home sick from school again today, so I did not even begin to work on the project.

You'll have to trust me. It is worth the wait, I promise.

The molt is ending!

This post is still not about the upcoming awesomeness. Sorry to extend the wait, but with The Princess home all day today it will be Thursday at the earliest before that project hits the internet.

But this is good news, too! M&M is finally finishing her molt. She had not laid an egg in a month. I saw her hanging out in the hen house all afternoon, so I was hopeful. Sure enough, when I went out a few minutes ago there was a nice, fresh egg waiting for me.

Now that M&M has remembered about her egg laying duties, maybe she can convince these other birds to start forking over some eggs also.

On an unrelated note...

Full disclosure: this post has nothing at all to do with the upcoming awesomeness. I really don't want you hurting yourselves and thinking that this post = some sort of clue. So on to the good stuff:

A conversation between myself and The Princess. This morning in the car, on the way home from the pharmacy:

"...so, who is my brother?
Uncle J.
Right. Who is mommy's brother?
Nobody!
Right, she only has a sister.
That's Aunt A!
Right again. Who is daddy's sister?
Uh. I forget her name. You mean the one with funny hair, right?
Exactly!"

Pure greatness from the mouth of the babe.

Wait for it...

There is something AWESOME coming shortly. Need to work on it today and hopefully will be getting it posted up shortly.

Set your faces to stun.

But until then, try to get some work done.

We survived.

The Blizzard of Death'09 ^® ended up being a 2 hour snowfall in the middle of the afternoon. But the way the local news was selling this story, someone was surely going to die. Sadly, as far as I know, no one did.

The kids got to go outside in the middle of the school day to play in the blowing snow. Which pretty much made for an exciting Friday. And my favorite type of Death Storm.

Prepping the chickens for the worst

The Blizzard of Death'09 ^® is upon us.

At least that is the way the weather man are making the next two days of cold weather sound. The city is evidently prepping for mass casualties and ravaging outbreaks of hypothermia.

I went and did my dad duty this morning and I found the boy a new coat. Then I needed to fulfill my farmer-ly duties, so this afternoon I have been bust getting the chickens ready for the cold weather. (Which I don't mind doing, since they actually do sleep outside, where it might drop down into the upper 20's tonight.)

I never have successfully evicted the birds from my storage shed. Instead, I have made them a nice cozy home in there for the nights and occasional egg laying. The birds seldom go in the shed during the day, but I generally keep the door open anyways.

So tonight my chickens will be nice and toasty, thanks to the brooder lamp that I rigged up out in the shed. And I'll be watching the temps. If it is colder than expected tonight, I have also set up a little electric heater for the girls. On top of everything, the entire chicken pen inside of the shed is covered with a nice stack of old blankets, which should keep things nice and toasty.

Don't worry, though. I am a good farmer, so I made sure the blankets were not too close to the heat sources. Don't want to find my little birdies have turned into fried chickens overnight...

All my mother's dreams came true at Wal Mart this morning

My momma used to say "I hope you have a kid just like you." And guess what, I do.

One example: Here in Austin we are facing The Blizzard of Death'09 ^®.

Weather is supposed to stay in the mid to high 30s tonight, tomorrow and much of Saturday. To prevent frostbite, instant hypothermia and projectile vomiting, the weather forecasters are suggesting that we Texans wear coats during this half-week Ice Age.

So we went about digging out the "big coats" this morning. Yet, The Talker's was nowhere to be found. He has worn the same big coat for a year, maybe two. It is one of those layered systems that you can separate into a lightweight jacket and a thicker polar fleece sweater. And amazingly he has managed to keep up with all of the component parts for this long.

The Princess has the same type of coat. And her's was missing for a few minutes too, but it was found in the trunk of my car. But she is a stylish girl and she had a spare, fuzzy fake fur Wookie looking coat lying around.

Anyways, I don't really want the kid to freeze to death. Plus, I simply don't have time to deal with Child Protective Services coming to my house, so I figured we needed to replace the boy's coat. this morning I hit up Target and a couple of other stores. No dice. Either the jackets were too thin, too bulky or too money. (I don't really need the boy to wear a faux-fur trimmed, goose down, parka for this 3 day winter storm.) I even stopped at a resale shop or two. Still no coat for the kid.

I was heading to the mall, when I saw the sign for our nearest Wal Mart. I'll admit, even though I worked for an arm of the giant for a few years in college, I don't really like Wal Marts. They are simply too big for my taste and my usual experience is that they are messy. But this store has recently been remodeled, so I am not as afraid of it as I once was.

Less than 15 minutes after I parked the car, I was walking out with the most perfect, $13 boy's coat ever made in China. It isn't as fancy as the lost jacket, but it should last at least long as our frigid temps. Hopefully The Talker will keep up with it longer than just this weekend, though.

But if not, I now know where to go for a quick replacement.

The Talker is getting off easy. No lectures, no hassles. Just a new coat because all during this journey I kept wondering how many times my mother made a similar trek to buy me a coat and to keep me from freezing to death in a t-shirt. I would guess that she did it more than once while I was in elementary school.

So Mom, Thanks for the curse. I want you to know that it worked.

Fastest cleaning in West Austin

A co-worker of The Bass Lady's just called. The two of them have been working on a project for a while. Turns out the co-worker, with her family, are stopping by in about 10 minutes.

They are coming to our house.

On the day after a bunch of my family left.

And my family leaves a disaster in it's wake any time the herd goes away. I was planning to spend much of next week getting the house back in order. But we managed to get the public parts of the house "clean enough" in less time than it took the friends to drive across town. And I have to say, for 10 minutes work, it looks pretty good.

But no fair peeking in the garage or master bedroom, where the clutter was thrown while we were "cleaning".

The Odd Family (Traditions)

Does your family have any really odd traditions? Mine does.

In fact, I am currently participating in one of the oddest things we do every year. It is 6 AM, the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I am in my spot. On a downtown street, sitting in a folding chair, with a blanket wrapped around my legs.

Because it is 6 AM and it is cold. Meaning Texas cold, which evidently equals 52 degrees, FoF.

So why am I here, sitting in a chair beside Congress Avenue, overlooking the state capitol? I am waiting for the start of the Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade. Also known as the official kickoff event of the AtHomeFam Christmas Season.

In a few hours there will be 100,000 people crammed into downtown to watch the parade. And this parade has grown so important to our family that I come down early in the morning and camp out on a good spot. The Boss Lady and kids come into downtown a few hours later, ensuring that we get a prime viewing location AND the kids get some decent sleep.

Like most great family traditions, this one has kind of murky origins. The Boss and I came to this parade several times before the kids were born. And we have only missed one year (due to rain) since The Talker was a baby. But we made up for that miss by accident one year, when we showed up a day early, toy donations in hand, to end up seeing the Aggies march into town for the UT vs A&M football game.

Several times we have waited hours before hand at a good spot only to have a late arrival come sit their family right in front of our spot. We always have enough room for extra kids to cram in, but blocking the view of the AtHomeKids is a bad idea. So I have moved my camp out time earlier and earlier over the years to get here and hold a great spot. And then I defend MY house! Last year I decided we had found the perfect viewing spot, so this year I made extra sure to get to our spot on time. Of course, when people ask, I'll lie and tell them that I only arrived "10 minutes ago". No need for future early arrivals, you know.

Anyways, I have the laptop in hand, and there is wifi available all over downtown, so entertaining myself for a few early morning hours should be no problem. In case I get really bored I also have the Kindle and my iPod. Otherwise, if you need me, I'll be sitting here on Congress, waiting for the fun to start.

And wishing I had brought along a potty...