August 2018

Nick and I did attended the Woodward Dream Cruise again this year, on the curb early (there's a photo from our spot), and out before noon. Getting a pizza at Bigalora and a stop at Mustang Alley is becoming our ritual.  The Catholics tries to squeeze us off the curb out front of the church, but we were not moving!  We also stopped at a local car show near home... if we pass one, it's worth a few minutes to see the cars.

Continued heat, lots of swimming, including at night, as it's still hot when I get home from work.  And bike rides. I brought the Monte Carlo out for a couple of weekends, and new tires, so weekend evening cruises have been the norm. Bikes needed tires too... I guess I spent a lot of money on tires this summer.  Posting here a few photos of Brandi and Nick visiting the 577 Foundation to see the gardens, when they picked up his sculptures from last month.

On the Last weekend of the month we helped Grandpa shape trees and plant some new ones.  Nick was eager to dig before we started, but the heat slowed him quickly. He's more into the pool after the work is done.

Pics here from August, including one that shows Nick has now passed his Mama in height, so we'll call him 5' 2" for now.  School starts next week, on to middle school.

Jason

July 2018

Nick is driving regularly now, behind the wheel alone of the Chrysler (not on my lap, too big for that now!) We find parking lots, and he starts with brakes only and coasting, then accelerating and holding speeds, and he's getting the hang of parallel parking (a manly trait). There's been a cop hiding in our regular lot lately, so we've had to switch it up a little.   Nick also achieved the rank of green belt this month, and hangs with his friend Ali when not in karate class.

He attended an Art Camp in downtown Toledo for a week, focused on sculpture. I was expecting to end up with ten ashtrays around the house, but his creations were very impressive, from plates to cups (I suppose ashtrays aren't acceptable anymore.)  Most of the summer has been quiet and predictable: Nick shucking corn, washing the car, a good two week period of heat kept us in the pool.  We don't get far away since we can't take our eyes off of the house construction, which has slowed to a pace that suggests we could be a full year to completion.  And the Morpace merger, which fills in the rest of my free time; photo here of me on stage sharing news about the merger to the newly combined company.

We did a day trip in Cincinnati, to the beach at East Fork State Park, and the afternoon hanging with the family. Pictures are of Nick and Noah pressing quarters against the wall with their noses (anything to keep them quiet), and Miranda and Brandi in some kind of contest to balance Oreos on their head and into their mouths. It was fun evening of pizza and relaxing, made easier by my trip to Columbus for work the day before. The photo of me in the Shoe is because one of my coworkers is an OSU grad and we stopped on campus for lunch.

Pictures here from July.

Jason

June 2018

Nick's voice dropped a full octave this month, as he grew to a couple inches taller than Brandi.  He's clearly taller than his friends now, with an early growth spurt.  He calls out to Brandi at night, 'snuggle me!' and the deep voice sounds like a grown man.  He's on a new schedule now with school over (picture of him with his teacher here), doing more chores to carry his weight around the house, from yard work to dishes (he throws water all over the kitchen but gets the job done.)

We took a full day together on the town on the day after school ended. We drove a Lamborghini Huracan at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, a road track along Woodward. I had an awesome driving coach, but didn't get over 100 mph as I couldn't afford to wreck the car. After lunch at Bigalora, we sent to the DSO downtown in the evening where they played music from the movies.  Excellent show, left Nick tapping out the theme to 20th Century Fox with his feet, and whistling the Pink Panther for a few days.

I took him to fireworks at Luna Pier one evening, where he wandered the (crazy) crowds in search of food and people watching and dead fish along the beach.  Brandi took him to our house being built, where the firworks over the high school football field can be seen from our second story window. It's been two weeks of heat to end the month, and we're by the pool every day. I also take him out driving now, since he's tall enough to reach the pedals, why not?

We still struggle to communicate.  I ask him about playing his computer, and he says, "It's ok. They threw me off the server and into the blender." I have no idea what that means.

A few photos this month linked here.

Jason

May 2018

Nick wrote his own blog around school camp. From our perspective, his mother paced the floor with a glass of wine for four straight days until the end of the week.  Upon return, he was wearing the same underwear from the first day, and half of the clothes in his bag didn't belong to him.  He did seem to shower at some point, which was good.  He was more than thrilled to get home to a nice hot bath, which requires like nine inches of water for a swim (I advised him to dial back the water bill, which he says he needs to, "immerse his spectacularity".)


Nick's first piano recital was outstanding, him and all of the other kids (two of which belong to Lori Fisher's clan of nine.)  His biggest concern going in was someone throwing pies at him.  He took it seriously, arranging his bench precisely to start, and played flawlessly.  He also advanced to blue belt this month, and his sparring is getting better. He can't explain anything to me when I ask, such as when I asked him about one of his opponents, his description was, "he's the same size as his sister."

We got a day at the park for a walk, and stopped at a local car show on the way back.  It's all about the school year winding down now, and preparing for summer.  I'm looking forward to the end of 'dabbing' and 'flossing'.
There's a few pictures from this month.

Jason

Fifth Grade Camp

(Written by Nick)
When I got there, I went to my cabin and unpacked my stuff.  Afterwards, I went to lunch and then fishing, but I didn’t catch anything. One person did catch a hybrid. Later we went to this thing called fantastic fish and learned about different types of fish (which I already know mostly about that, lmao) and the director dissected a fish to show us the origins of it. After dinner, I played capture the fish and it was awesome.  In the evening we had a campfire where we sang songs and did hilarious stuff.  Then we went to bed. 

Next day, we went to breakfast and after that we did reptiles and amphibians where we got to hold snakes and lizards and turtles. Then we went to this class where we studied rocks and minerals. After lunch we had LLC and we did role-play during that, so first we had to cross two trenches, then we were blindfolded and we had to feel our way through the place, then solve a code and I solved it and got the rights to talk for the rest of the class. After LLC, we tie-dyed shirts, which was amazing. After dinner I went up into the loft and played loft games before bed. 

On the third day, yada-yada-yada, then we did drama which included skits, also amazing. After lunch we studied aquatic life where we found dragonfly larva, water scorpions, caddisfly larva, mayfly larva, damselfly larva, hellgrammites, leeches, and many more. There was an archery challenge which was AWESOME.  We performed our skits and they were funny. 

On the final day, we had OLS and made shelters to protect ourselves. We also tried to start a fire and failed very badly. After lunch and we studied wild edibles which is about learning those things that can be eaten and what can’t.  I went into the loft again for some drawing, and after that we had dinner and went to bed.
On the final morning we woke up, got packed, ate a little something and went home. I had a better time sleeping there than at home surprisingly, and on the last day, one of my cabin mates was allergic to spicy foods and he went to the restroom and it smelled HORRIBLE.