As Ring Luck would have it

I’ve heard that when the city of Washington D.C. was first designed, the layout was based on powerful Masonic symbols, which made traveling efficient and logical. Looking at it now, however, it seems to have been desi gned on an etch-a-sketch, by someone who has had 3 or 4 too many Red Bulls. Roads and neighborhoods have been randomly (or ‘malevolently’) tacked on to the original design and the entire town seems to be in a perpetual state of construction. Apparently the modern designers, thinking outside the box, disregarded the idea that if you have a one-way street, then the next one-way street should go in the opposite direction. Also, they did not seem to want to conform to the idea that a street like, ‘North Johnson Street’ should have to connect in any way with ‘South Johnson Stre et.’ In addition, there are plenty of detours and unmarked roads to further confuse the issue. You might as well be driving blindfolded. Apparently everyone else is, and it doesn’t make any difference f

My family and I recently visited to the National Zoo, in Washington, D.C. It is exciting to witness the savage laws of the jungle, and to learn about how some creatures are in a constant fight for survival in a harsh environment. And that was just us, during the trip home. The zoo idea came about because of three things:  1. Kids love animals.  2. There is a major zoo within fairly easy driving distance from our house.  And most importantly, due to the current economy and our financial situation,  3. The National Zoo is FREE. The trip there went fairly smoothly. My wife drove, and the directions led us where we needed to go.  I have to give her credit for her amazing driving skills because it is no easy task to pay attention to all the traffic lights (which are mounted on the sides of the roads instead of hanging over the center - prettier, but much less obvious to an out-of-towner) plus keep an eye on pedestrians fearlessly stepping into the road with an irrational confidenc

My wife and I recently celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary and we did what many married couples do on occasions such as this – we went sightseeing through the woods, by hurling ourselves off some very tall trees. That’s right, we took a zip line tour through the Blue Ridge Mountains. I highly recommend it. If you’ve never heard about this recreational activity, a zip line is basically a long cable connecting two trees or poles. They put harnesses on you and you climb up the tree to a platform where they attach you to the cable using a very thin strip of material which appears to be the size and thickness of a strip of masking tape. Then they toss you off the platform, at which point you “zip” across the “line.” (Please pardon the technical jargon I am using here.) You can reach speeds of up to 40 mph, and are several stories above the ground, so obviously safety is a concern. This is why they have you strap on a helmet, and go through a rigorous 10-minute training s

Whenever you have a vehicle that is out of commission, sometimes the most frustrating part is the inconvenience of it all, and all the hassle you have to go through. Sometimes it’s the thousands of dollars it costs to have it repaired. In my case, it’s usually both. After my truck broke down last month, leaving my wife stranded on the highway, I had packed up the kids and gone to get her, which you can read about in Part 1 . It was a joyous reunion. The kids and I hadn’t seen her all weekend, and we knew she had been through some rough weather in addition to all the intense activities she had participated in during her Woodbadge training. The excited hugging that you would expect in a reunion such as this was somewhat dampened by the 40-ton tractor trailers whooshing by a few feet away at 80 plus mph, plus all the miscellaneous litter and roadkill. Still, it was obvious that everyone was very excited to see each other. We got Sara and all her camping stuff transferred into our othe

A couple weeks ago, my truck sort of gave out, which is odd, because it is a mere 14 years old. I don't think I have ever owned a vehicle that was born in the same decade as the year I bought it. As you would guess, I'm sort of used to car trouble. Of course, the truck waited to break down until my wife, Sara, was driving it all alone. It had been desperately hanging on up until this point, waiting for the chance to wreak the most havoc. Or, possibly, it had done everything it could to warn us that it was on the verge of total system failure and I just missed it. In retrospect, I guess there were a few subtle, practically imperceptible warning signs I should have picked up on: 1) It shimmied and shook every time you got it to a fairly high speed, upwards of 25 mph. 2) It made a noise, similar to a freight train screeching down the tracks with the emergency brakes on full stop. 3) It refused to go into fourth gear. 4) My wife repeatedly saying things like, "I think th

   I’m fairly certain that most if not all the toys in my house arrived in a container of some sort. I am positive that extra containers have been purchased, recycled, borrowed and given to us to help store the massive amounts of various items that need containing. Yet we still seem to have a container issue. The issue is not that there is a shortage. The issue is more about how the concept of “using things as they were intended” goes against our kids’ nature.    Containers never seem to actually contain anything. Or they contain the wrong things. Cats, for example. Sometimes they contain our kids, in such imaginative uses like cars, or beds, or trampolines. But not for very long, mostly because household containers are generally not designed to withstand the sheer destructive force that our children are capable of wielding. I can easily imagine an engineer in charge of designing a sturdy container saying, “This container has a 300 cubic feet capacity, can support a load of 600 lbs a

Eating dinner out, and potty training are two things that do not combine very well. First off, when our kids were slightly younger than they are now, any dinner out was a disaster. There are three of them and only two of us, so right off the bat, we are outnumbered. There’s no man-to-man defense in a situation such as this. Add to that the fact that two of them are twins and sometimes you can have yourself a real situation.   Once, when the girls were not quite fully potty-trained, we were having a dinner at a restaurant. Of course, for us, ‘having dinner’ means there was food on the table, but instead of eating it, we were frantically jumping around catching thrown forks and spilled cups and tipping high chairs.    At one point, one of our daughters said she had to go potty. If you’ve ever potty trained a child, you know the thought process that happens at this moment. There is mild frustration at having to interrupt dinner to take care of things. There is excitement at the progress

  If it weren’t for my kids, I would never have considered the advantages of keeping cheese in the cleaning supply closet for several days. These are the sorts of enlightening tidbits that you pick up when you become a parent.   My children love to help. They are overflowing with excitement and energy when it comes to all sorts of chores. Except, of course, the ones they are supposed to be doing, such as cleaning up their messes. Still, whenever they see us carrying something heavy or working with some sort of high-powered appliance, they are eagerly on board. Particularly if it is potentially messy or dangerous.   Unfortunately, a child’s desire to help you is inversely proportional to the actual level of help they are physically capable of providing. So in letting them help, we are actually making things take longer and usually creating more of a mess. Still, we don’t want to discourage them, because we know that eventually the day will come that they will be able to lift more

  There is something magical about the way that young children can find great joy in even the simplest things in life. Through innocent and inexperienced eyes, even a basic trip to the store can be full of fun and happiness. Their excitement levels can only be matched by the amount of destruction they leave in their wake.   If you’ve ever seen one of those shows about people who chase tornadoes and hurricanes, then you have some idea of what it’s like to take our kids to the store. Sometimes, when we forget how… energetic our children can be, we decide to take them with us on a supposedly quick grocery trip or short errand. It usually seems like a good idea at the time.   Our twins are at an age where they do not necessarily need to be pushed around in a cart. They usually ask to walk around. And, of course, when I say ‘walk,’ I mean ‘run’ and when I say ‘around,’ I mean ‘around crazy.’ This isn’t to say they don’t want to ride in the cart. In fact, they will ask to ride in the

  There’s nothing like sitting down to a piping hot, freshly prepared dinner after a long day, and enjoying a quiet and peaceful meal. Or so the legend goes.   These days, I have difficulty believing that such a thing as a relaxing meal exists. First off, there is the surprising fact that despite our incredible good looks and amazing talents, my wife and I both need to work full time jobs in order to make ends meet. This means that by the time we get the kids picked up and dinner prepared, we are already fairly worn out.   After a hard day at work followed by us frantically slaving over a hot stove, we are usually rewarded for our efforts by hearing someone say one of the following heartwarming phrases that make all our hard work in the kitchen worthwhile: • I don’t like this • This is yucky • I don’t want this • What is this? (said with a facial expression normally reserved for when you are handling a dead skunk, possibly one dipped in radioactive waste.)   Apparently some of our

The contents of this post happened during the bitterly cold winter of 2010.     Last winter, my wife and I set up a date night. We made the mistake of trying to actually plan it. Fate is very amused by our attempts to plan things.   Our son was out of town for the weekend, and my parents were keeping the girls overnight. The idea was to catch an early non-animated movie (I had forgotten they even made those any more,) then maybe have dinner somewhere that didn’t involve plates and forks being thrown to the floor in 10-second intervals. We were also looking forward to being able to sleep late the next morning, possibly even as late at 6:00 a.m. I know what you’re thinking, especially if you have young children, “That’s crazy talk.” But sometimes you have to let your hair down and get reckless.   However, an emergency came up with our son and we needed to pick him up a day early. We had to drive an hour or so to get him. Suddenly our plans were off track, which is a HUGE surprise, I

The contents of this post happened in July 2010.   I was very impressed by the Six Flags America theme park when we visited this past summer. The park was clean, the employees were friendly, and the other guests hardly laughed at all upon seeing someone lugging around a fully loaded double stroller missing its two rear wheels.   As always, family trips are an adventure at our house. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to throw hours of  intense planning and preparation out the window. But sometimes, you do whatever it takes.   So, when we planned a day trip to an amusement park with our 10-year old son, and two 3-year old daughters, we figured we should be prepared. We packed our big double stroller, capable of carrying two small children plus several weeks’ worth of supplies. We packed a few gallons of suntan lotion and swimming stuff for the water park. To save money, we packed a lunch in a cooler and planned on having it in the parking lot. We had coupons for drinks and