Monthly Archives: October 2008

Book Review -“Half Moon Investigations” by Eoin Colfer

SuperPizzaBoy and I just finished this book. We read it for his nightly story time. It is a lot of fun for a 10 year old boy and his Dad to read. It is about a boy, Fletcher Moon, who obtained his detective certification on the internet after, of course, lying about his age. He is smaller than other boys his age so his nickname is Half Moon.

He hires himself out to other kids to solve crimes. He falls into a real tangled nest that gets him framed and crossways with the real law and quite an adventure results. He runs away from home and hangs out with the town’s outlaw family under disguise while he tries to unravel the various threads of a big conspiracy in town.

Half Moon is very Spocklike in his ability to analyze evidence and make deductions. He also has a password that gets him internet access to the local police records. PizzaBoy loved this guy.

Half Moon even gets friendly, but not quite romantic, with a very pretty 12 year old girl in town (“That’s embarrassing!” SPB tells me, “don’t talk about it”, I’m told. I tell him “there is nothing quite like an older woman”, “Ahhhhhh” he yells, “Mom, Dad is embarrassing me again!” Me and PizzaBoy have a lot of fun during storytime, or at least I do.)

The book is set in Ireland which makes it all that much more exotic.

Of course Half Moon figures it all out and is a hero in the end. He doesn’t quite get the girl (that would probably ruin it for this age group of boy, maybe next time.) SPB and I both loved this book and recommend it heartily to any 10 year old boy.

The Duchess

Date night Wednesday evening. Baby sitter for SuperPizzaBoy so Sweetie and I went off to Panera for a light dinner and conversation and then off to the movies to see The Dutchess.

Great movie, Ralph Fiennes plays a very sour Duke of Devonshire. Keira Knightly does a wonderful job as his teenage wife, Georgiana, the Dutchess of Devonshire. Charlotte Rampling plays Lady Spencer, the Duke’s live in Mistress.

As expected in a period movie the costuming and sets are wonderful. I couldn’t quite figure out where this movie was going but it turned out to be a very satisfying experience. I give it three stars out of four.

Tastes Great! Less Filling!

I had to go on a quick trip with my boss to Topeka yesterday and stay overnight. We had a meeting to involving some “impotant gas bidness.”

My boss is a nice guy and I have learned a lot from him but he has led me astray. He is responsible for my addiction to Braums Mixes. A mix is soft ice cream with stuff like Reeses pieces mixed in very well. They are very high fat, high carbo, tasty and very bad for people like me: old guys with high cholesterol.

We stopped at Braum’s going up Topeka Tuesday and stopped again coming back to town today. On same day trips elsewhere we have them going and coming the same day.

Of course I made up for it with breakfast and lunch. For breakfast I had oatmeal, yogurt, an apple, orange juice and coffee. We had lunch at Cracker Barrel. I had the diet plate, country fried steak with cream gravy, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, greeen beans, carrots, and biscuits. So all in all the food balanced out for me today. Right? I mean, who has a salad at Cracker Barrel?

Book Review “Through the Storm” by Lynne Spears (with Lorilee Craker)

Through the Storm is a memoir written by Lynne Spears, the mother of Britney Spears. It talks about Lynne’s own life and her marriage and subsequent divorce with Britney’s father, Jamie and continues on through their life and Britney’s career from precocious toddler on to a international pop music superstar. Then it describes Britney’s estrangement and weird behavior last year from a mother’s perspective.

I know that Lynne Spears involvement in her daughter’s affairs are very controversial and that some people accuse her of not taking care of her daughter. I may be very naïve but I found her account of Britney’s rise t fame to be believable, it has the ring of truth. Britney had great talent and they work ethic and drive to make the most of that talent. What parent would not do what they could to help their children reach their full potential? I think that it would also be very hard to make wise decisions regarding a child’s career. Who could you trust?

I have to admit that I am more of a rock and roll and indie label music fan and do not particularly care for pop music all that much except that I am hooked to American Idol. Also, I don’t follow the celebrity news like who Is dating who and who has been arrested for DWI. I do though have sympathy for people who are hounded by paparazzi. I say all this because I guess that I am the only person in the world who had not heard anything about the ordeal that Britney Spears went through last year. I found her mother’s account of her daughter’s ordeal horrifying but believable.

One of the best things about the book is the description of being married to an alcoholic and how destructive it is to the family. I have read about it before. This book made me feel it.
I highly recommend this book. Not so much for learning about a pop star but to read about the love of a mother who admits she might have made a few mistakes but never stopped loving her daughter.

Fall Fest – Day II

SuperPizzaBoy opted to stay with his Mom today instead of going back to Western Hills to feed the chiggers and ticks and look for geocaches. So I went alone, found a few caches, talked to a few people and then leave. I talked to quite a few people smarter than I am (that is true most days of my life). I learned all about why adjusted benchmarks are much more accurate than scaled ones. I also learned about the centroid and how it just cannot be explained to people who don’t already know what it is. (huh?)

Anyway I had a lot of fun but I was getting real antsy so I left early.


One of the caches I found was labelled “fuzzy” It was referring to a fake tarantula used in the cache. But I found the fuzzy a few inches away.

I went to Tahlequah, the Cherokee Nation Capital, and went cemetery geocaching. I love old cemeteries. These were old cemeteries from before Oklahoma Statehood. I don’t feel nervous or spooked at all, even at night. I think that the dead rest peacefully. I just wonder about the stories behind the graves. (beneath the graves?) These cemeteries had tall grass, brush, and weeds. Lots of graves totally hidden away, some had flowers on them though.

Lots of graves of young babies, children, and young mothers. Life was rough back in the good old days.


Anyway, I made it home midafternoon. SPB and I ran a few errands and I did some chores. I sat down and watched the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Arizona Cardinals. Almost ruined a perfect day.

Fall Fest

In Oklahoma Geocaching the two big events every year are the Fall Fest hosted by the Tulsa Area Geocachers and the Spring Fling, hosted by the Oklahoma City cachers. Both groups attend each others events plus many people from out of state attend each event.

This year’s Fall Fest is at Western Hills State Park on Gibson lake near Tahlequah. We had not been to an event in a year and a half so SuperPizzaBoy and I attended this years’s yesterday. Usually we camp, but you know it only about 40 minutes from our house and I like hot showers, my own bed, and Sweeties cooking. So we just attended for the day.

We had an OK time. The people are all very friendly and helpful plus lots of families are there. It is an occasion for nerds to be together with their swans, so to speak.

Anyway, pictures

“Headache” cache.

“View of the Ocean” cache right on the shore. See even arts and crafts people can cache.

SPB in front of the “haunted house’ cache. Didn’t know that birdhouses could be haunted.
Yogi and SPB on the trail.

SPB with his never very far away, even in the woods, Nintendo DS.

Motor Planning and the Nintendo Wii

This is what I wanted to name yesterday’s post but with my early onset Alzheimer’s I couldn’t think of the term until Baloney posted. Aha.

Anyway, as I was talking yesterday, kids with Asperger’s can benefit from physical and occupational therapy. Many of these kids have weak core muscles and so exercises are prescribed. SuperPizzaBoy hates doing exercises. We had a Nintendo Wii and now we have the WiiFit. So now, to a certain extent, SPB isn’t exercising, he is playing videogames.

He has a ball and his Dad loves it. Of course my Wii fit age came in 8 years younger than his actual age.

I know, I know, it just further reinforces the notion that we are supposed to entertain the kids. I really don’t care right now.

Getting In Synch

Kids with Asperger’s Syndrome tend to be out of synch with the rest of the world and even with their own bodies. One of the things that fascinates me about autism is that it is more than just a mental problem, many of these kids have physical manifestations of their disorder also. They may have verbal or physical tics, they may “toe-walk”, many of them have quite pronounced sensory issues (the whole world sounds, feels, looks like fingernails being scraped on a chalkboard) many of them are not very well coordinated, they cannot play ball or other complicated activities as well as “typical” children can. They participate in rocking motions or other repetitive motions. Some of them flap their hands when they get excited.

Many have problems with fine motor skills like writing or coloring.

All these things are a directly tied to their disability. This is something you never hear about in the magazine and newspaper articles, television shows or other accounts. These well documented physical characteristics make autism a definite medical issue as opposed to a “mental” issue. I cannot tell you how many conversations I’ve had with insurance company respresentatives where they say they cover “medical” problems, not “mental” problems.

All these issues can be addressed to when extent or another with occupational, physical, or speech therapy. Followed up be the parents working with the child at home.

SuperPizzaBoy, as you may know, has a variant of autism named Asperger’s Syndrome. He has been flogged with all sorts of therapy for his various deficiencies and we have seen a definite improvement in many areas. He has turned into a great swimmer for instance, he loves playing soccer and jumping on his trampoline, and playing video games.

He is still behind his “typical” peers but is constantly improving.

We had a breakthrough during a family walk this past weekend. Sweetie and I were walking the dogs and SPB was riding his Triton (a high tech tricycle that steers the rear wheels with two levers). His Mom walked off from us a little bit and I asked SPB if he was willing to try his most complicated coordinated multi faceted move so far and he readily agreed. I had my camera to document the event.

He did it!!

He did a high speed sharp turn on his Triton, while picking his nose, and passing gas! Note the steering lever in the right hand, the left finger up to the second knuckle, and the subtle left cheek raise (facilitates the hydraulics on farting). I, as an assistant den leader for a patrol full of wild hellions, I can say that in these skills SPB is almost up to par with his peers.

I am so proud of the progress he continues to make. I know that the various therapists that have worked with him would be proud of him also.

Cat Whisperer

The Yogi household came into a pet trimming kit. You can read the article to know how it works and to know what the experience was like. We also have a huge Maine Coon cat named Chrissy. Chrissy is huge. She probably weighs close to 20 pounds. She has a big old shaggy fur coat to match.

Sweetie decided it was time to trim the cat. We were a little apprehensive. When a cat that bigs doesn’t want to do something then it probably isn’t going to happen.

When I was a kid the family had a cat named Tiger. When we took Tiger to the vet we all wore leather gloves. Tiger was the neighborhood Romeo. Back then people put their cats outside at night. So they cats, catted around, including Tiger. Sometimes he would be gone for several days, when he came back sometimes he would pretty beat up and sick so we would take him to the vet.

The vet’s office wasn’t some sort of stylish cat specialty place like in south Tulsa. The vets we had mainly took care of big critters: cows, sheep, and horses and the occasional rancher’s kid. The decor was washed down concrete and painted cinderblock. The vet always wanted to take Tiger’s temperature. It wasn’t a thermometer that you put under his tongue. It went in the other end. She would pick the instrument up and the fur would just float off the cat and he would tense up stiff as a board.

That was the cue for me and my brother to grab her. The key was to get a good initial hold. If you slipped you were in for the fight of your life, maybe for your life. If we didn’t get a good hold on him and he thought he had a chance to get away he would go berserk and it would be almst impossible to hold him. It could get pretty bloody if you didn’t have the proper protective gear. I always wondered why we had to take his temperature. Why couldn’t you just feel his forehead or something. All we wanted was the antiobiotics. We didn’t need all the drama beforehand. I never thought of such things when I was kid though. I didn’t much thinking of any kind.

Anyway, I ran out to the garage to get the gloves. I got my camera and I stood off a good distance before the shearing started.

Sweetie did the honors which was fine with me.

We were both surprised. The cat liked it. I figured that the electric clippers would make her go berserk. She actually seemed to like it and started purring. As you can see from the pictures below, she was totally relaxed during the process.

Sweetie was able to get a lot done before Chrissy had enough. She looks a whole lot better and seems to be more comfortable. Sweetie has had another session or two with Chrissy and everything is still going good.

Chrissy relaxing after her haircut.

Nerd License part ii

As I related earlier I had a little setback in passing my audit of my continuing education hours needed to maintain my Professional Engineering Certification.
After mulling it over a day or two I called the Engineering Board and talked with somebody about the situation. It went ok. At first it was like, “No, the board denied those hours, and unless you can bring something else forward then this matter is closed.” Then later she softened up, probably due my crying and whimpering, and said that perhaps if the organization putting on the seminars I attended would write a letter on their letterhead confirming my registration at the conferences where the seminars were held then maybe they would accept my hours.

I wrote an email to the president of the organization describing my situation. He responded pretty quickly saying that they would do that. I don’t have the letter yet, so this is not over, but there is now hope.

Later that day I had lunch with my friend Diamond Girl. I first met Diamond Girl about 24 years ago. She is also a chemical engineer (so is her husband, her son and her daughter are chemical engineering majors, if you want to build a refinery give them a call, they can get it done, note that they are not the only husband and wife chemical engineers that I know) and she and I got our PE at the same time. She is very sweet and a good friend and also a little on the bossy side. The people that own the company she works for made her President of the company, good decision since she was telling everybody what to do anyway.
She went through her audit last year and passed despite pretty much using the same documentation I did this year. My theory was that they were afraid of telling her no. Anyway we talked about it a little bit and decided that I was on the right course of action.
So we’ll see what happens!