Barry’s Daily Web News

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The highlight of the day today was the trip to the local train rides. No derailments this time. Ethan is starting to complain from sitting on the floor of the train. He doesn’t get much of a view, because my legs block the way. Sean had a good time though.

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Today was Sean’s last soccer game. Sean did fairly well, playing in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Afterwards, the team went out for a pizza party. The coach gave out trophies to all of the players, and the couch announced that Sean was the most improved player on the team.

Cortney wanted to go out to dinner, so it didn’t make sense to go home after the pizza party. We stopped by the mall for a while. Cortney did some shopping, and Sean took a ride on the carousel. For dinner, we went to Cortney’s favorite chain restaurant, Red Lobster. We normally bring food for the kids, so it was a bit of a challenge to get both kids fed from the restaurant food. We ordered Sean pasta, and he was happy to eat that. Ethan did even better, eating some of Cortney’s baked potato and pieces of her shrimp. We came home from dinner fairly early, but we were too tired to do anything after that.

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I brought home a gift from work for Sean today. It was a poster with all of the world’s helicopters. Sean was excited when I showed it to him. He said “helicopters, so cool!”. Sean did not know the different helcopter models, but he was happy to point out all of the different colors on the helicopters.

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We got back to our normal Friday schedule with a trip to the Burger King. The place was empty when we arrived, but it didn’t take long for the place to fill up with kids. Sean’s friends Shannon and Nicolas showed up as well. Sean had loads of fun, with his friends and other children to play with. Ethan had fun playing in the ball pit, until it became too crowded. Sean was disappointed when it was time to leave.

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Tonight was the last night of my pilot ground school class. It was a good thing I had the class tonight; I would have had to stay late anyway to finish up a project I’m working on. As it was, I was able to take care of it on my classroom breaks. I found out tonight that I would never get my instrument rating, which means if I get a pilot license, I would not be able to fly at night (unless someone in the aircraft had the proper pilot rating). This is because I’m color blind. I would also not be able to get a commercial pilot’s license. Actually, I had already planned not to get my pilot’s license, because it is too expensive and would take too much of my time. At any rate, the knowledge I learned during the class will help me with my job of designing and testing autopilots.

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Tonight was open house at work. Even though Sean wanted to run around the office, he still had some fun. Ethan seemed to enjoy all of the sights and sounds. Here are some pictures (click on them to see the full-sized image):

The family gathers around my desk.

Sean, the future pilot.

By the way, these pictures where taken with our new camera.

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I forgot to mention yesterday that Ethan is 13 months old.

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Happy Veterans Day. Sean had the day off from school. It was cloudy and slightly damp today, so Cortney took Sean and Ethan to the local play place, Jeepers. Sean loves that place, and he was happy to tell me all about it when I came home from work. The library was also closed this evening, so we just spend a quiet evening at home. We’ll be doing more exciting things later on this week.

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We went out to dinner tonight. It was the MOMS club charity event, where a portion of the dinner bill goes to the MOMS club. Sean did not want to sit still for dinner, but since it was a casual family restaurant, I didn’t mind him running around a bit. We did not bring enough food for Ethan, and we ended up supplementing the meal we brought for him with some steak fries. Ethan is really starting to eat more, so I hope he gains some weight.

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Our new camera arrived today. We bought the Canon Powershot A80. The camera is supposed to be Cortney’s Christmas present, but since it is so much nicer than our old camera, I’m going to let Cortney start using it right away.

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Today was an interesting day. We had some friends over to visit this morning. They had a two year old boy, and he enjoyed playing with Sean. After that, we all went over to the local train ride place. The train we were on actually derailed! The first time it happened, it was exciting, since we hadn’t seen that before. The tender car, where the driver was sitting, came off the track on one of the switches. Unfortunately, the train came off the tracks a couple more times, and the roughly two mile trip took forever. One of the times, the car directly behind us came of the track. I had to get out and help the conductor put the car back on the track. Our friends left right after this train ride, and we stayed for one more ride. This turned out to be a mistake, because Ethan decided that it was now his time for a nap, and cried the whole time. Ethan might be sick as well, and he took a nice long nap this afternoon. Sean seems to have recovered from whatever he had yesterday, which is good news.

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We’ve long suspected that Ethan understands what we are saying, but he proved it today. Ethan was playing while his pacifier fell out. When he walked towards me, I said “Ethan, go get your pacifier”. He turned around, walked over to where it had fallen out, put it in his mouth, and then walked back over to where I was. We repeated the same event a short while later, so I know this wasn’t just a fluke. Now, we just need to get Ethan talking so he can tell us what he wants.

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Sean woke up this morning hoarse and with a croup cough. He said he wanted to play soccer, so I took him to the game. Sean played well for the first quarter, then fizzled after that. We were going to take Sean to Burger King to play in the ball pit at dinner time, but Sean took a long nap in the afternoon. Since he wasn’t feeling well, we figured he should sleep as long as he wanted to. He woke up for a time for a snack just before bedtime. I hope he feels better tomorrow.

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We gave up our normal trip to Burger King this evening to get our pictures taken. We didn’t have to wait too long, and the kids did a fair job of cooperating. Here are the results:

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Pilot ground school again this evening. One more course to go before I’m finished. I know Cortney is looking forward to the time when I’m home on Thursday evenings. I’ll be glad too, it will be another opportunity to take the kids over to the park.