Halftime

That's "Dr. Meyers" to you

Sonya graduated from UIC, an event which marks the halfway point of her journey toward being an Anesthesiologist. Four years of residency at nearby Loyola begin for her later this summer.

DPC: Free Study (April 2009)

Steps

DPC: Free Study (March, 2009)

Rites of Spring

We took Jason to a farm museum in one of the northern suburbs of Chicago. It didn't have much more to offer than the farm section of the Lincoln Park Zoo, but since we were already in the area it wasn't so bad.

Jason didn't fall off the swing, in case you were wondering.

Doctors!

There's something screwy here..

The family got a G10 camera for me for a birthday present, so I would have a camera that could keep up with the boy when we're out and about. It is much more portable than the 5D, and does an adequate job with the little lens it has. I like it! Now if only I could find a small camera bag for it..

Managing Expectations

This morning, after I asked Jason to get ready for school while I made his breakfast, he told me:

Make sure nothing explodes or burns.

Now, I'd like to know which of my so-called friends has been feeding Jason these lying lies about my cooking ability! I'm looking at you, Hamster!

Gnome Trains!

Well, not really Gnome trains, but both trains and gnomes were on display at the Morton Arboretum. We took Jason primarily to see their train setup, but we had more fun trying to find all of the hidden gnomes around the park. Our recent warm weather melted most of the snow, making this kind of scavenger hunt more enjoyable.

Starting from Scratch

With Jason home recovering from pneumonia*, and no sane daycare provider willing to take a child with the contagious strain of pneumonia, I'm spending the day helping him learn how to write. I used to teach programming classes at U.C. Berkeley as a teacher assistant (I led discussion sessions, labs, etc). Motivating college students is only slightly easier than motivating a four year old, but the tasks Jason's learning now are more about muscle memory in his fingers than complex problem solving.

* I'd like to thank all of the scientists, researchers, and doctors who studied this disease and developed antibiotics and treatments to make pneumonia an annoyance instead of a tragedy. I encourage everyone to contribute to the National Center for Science Education, so the next generation's doctors and scientists will have the right knowledge and skills to keep making the world better for everyone.

Earthquakes

Jason, born in Hayward, ended up playing for a team named "Earthquakes" here in Chicago. I'm not making this up, and I had no input on the team name. His first real game is this coming Saturday.

The Eyes have it!

LeapPads are all fun and games until someone LOSES AN EYE, or at least gets a painful poke in the eye with the Leap Pen. Such was my fate sitting next to the boy, while he struggled to do something with that damn pen with his left hand. I'm hardly blameless in this I guess, since I've often said I'd give my right eye to have a lefthanded son..

Indiana Sand Dunes

Jason likes sand, so in a cruel twist of fate I took him to a place with so much sand he hated it. We trekked over to Indiana to Mt Baldy, along Indiana's sand dune park system. The "mountain" is about a hundred feet tall, and offers some nice views (which would be nicer without so much cloud cover casting shadows on everything).

I hear the refinery in the background spews out so much radioactive waste that locals have grown gills and can swim like fish!

We picked a good day to not be in Chicago, as when we looked out over Lake Michigan we could see Chicago was submerged!!

This is what we get for not taking mass transit to the sand dunes. Fortunately, traffic was heavy and with the delay getting home Chicago had time to dry out.

Birthdays and Board Games

This last weekend we celebrated Sonya's birthday. I know better than to post her age (suffice to say "old enough to know better, young enough to still have fun"). We had some of her friends over for Wii games and (amazingly!) board games! The board game fest started off with Fearsome Floors, then we worked into Uptown and had a truly cut-throat game of Blokus.

Jason and I saw Wall-E yesterday, and we both enjoyed it. As I expected, it didn't take long for right wing whackjobs to criticize the movie for not glamorizing consumerism.

We also picked up Rock Band and Aerosmith Guitar Hero for the Wii yesterday. The timing of the guitar controllers is slightly different between the two games, but not so much that I'm unable to do well with both. The drums are going to take some getting used to.

I'm hoping to get some good fireworks pictures next weekend.

Happy Father's Day

Just Grandpa and Me

With my wife's help, my son got me a stack of Buckethead CDs (Pepper's Ghost is amazing!) for my Father's day. We picked out a Chicago Bears bean bag toss for my dad, and Jason got his first bike. Yeah, he's not a father yet, but he was ready for a bike and I was in a generous mood (especially after listening to all that Buckethead).


First Bike

Grandma Visits

"Nonny" came to visit us last weekend! The picture is at a moon rock outside of the Shedd Aquarium.

DPC: ABC...XYZ

Help, I'm Juxtaposed!

The challenge was to present a picture with a title that started with consecutive letters. I was contrasting the bright blue and yellow of Jason to the flat green of the waterfall scene.

Korea Culture Day

Jason and I went to the Korean culture exhibition at the Children's Museum.

DPC: Free Study (March)

Missing California

Jason was the only kid in the playground this early day in March. It had started to snow heavy flakes, so called "heart attack" snow to the people who shovel it.

Field Museum

Didn't I just post about rites of Spring? Yesterday about six inches of snow dumped on Chicago! I had the day off, and had plans to take Jason to the Field Museum. Yesterday's weather gave too many other people the same idea, and it was crowded like a weekend afternoon.


Even though we had just been to the museum recently, we were still able to spend hours there and not see anything that we saw on our last visit. The Field Museum is just that big and that impressive!

Jason 4.0

Happy Birthday Jason!

Tonight we're flying to California to spend some time with my mom, have a birthday party for Jason, and try to get caught up with our friends in the Bay Area. It doesn't hurt that Castro Valley will be at least 50 degrees warmer than Chicago on Saturday. All we need is a break in the storm tonight so we can escape.

Don't bet on a pig named "Pork Chop"

We went to Bengston's Pumpkin Farm yesterday, enjoying an unseasonably warm late October outside. Jason had a blast on the various rides at the farm, and we did bring home a few pumpkins to carve up later this week.

New Site for Jason

I still make this face in the morning when I have to wake up early for work.

I got all of Jason's pictures copied over from his site on generic.org to his new site, which will be easier for me to maintain.