Boneless Chicken
Nate to Dad, in the car

"Hey, Dad?"

"Yea, Nate."

"You know 'boneless chicken'?"

"Yea."

"Does that mean that the chicken doesn't have any bones, or do they take the bones out?"

"They take the bones out."

"Oh. ...Eww".

Wii Had a Great Weekend
by Rob

It's been an interesting weekend here. The weather has finally turned towards winter, and we have been housebound since Sunday morning. But it's been okay.

On Friday our new "Wii" system arrived. Kim and I got to use one at Christmastime and decided that it would be so much fun to have one. Then we went looking for one. Yikes. I'm not proud of this, but I bought "it" on Ebay. Never mind what I paid. So far, I don't regret it.

I tracked the shipment online, so I knew that the box would be waiting when I came home from work on Friday. The kids knew that something was up, and Abbie's guess was that it was a Wii. I wish we had video taped the moment when they opened the box. Abbie screamed. Not squealed. Screamed.

We had a family bowling event in our living room. Abbie won the first game with a score of 164.

Later, Nathan set up for the boxing game. He went three rounds and won by a last minute KO. I was fairly impressed.

Then Abbie boxed. She knocked out the computer opponent in 15 seconds. And then she did it again. Then Nate went three rounds again. And then Abbie got another KO in the first round. Should anyone be surprised?

After I had closed on the Wii deal, we decided (okay, I decided and Kim went along with it) that we need to get some more remotes. The system only comes with one, but can handle up to four. Of course, they're sold separately, and like the game systems, are nowhere to be found. So when I found one online last week, I ordered it. Then on Saturday morning, I walked into a store at the mall that had two. Shouldn't have done it, I know, but I did. So now we have four.

But it's not over. We had been keeping a secret from the kids. Chad, a young man who was part of our youth group recently moved to Utah. He couldn't take his TV with him, so he gave it to us. Actually, the TV I'm talking about was one that Chad had picked up at his job, installing high definition TVs for a local store. He delivered a new set to someone who wanted this one taken away, so he told Chad to keep it. Chad paid to get it repaired, gave it to us, and then moved to Utah.

The delivery truck arrived in our driveway at about 4:00 on Saturday. I dialed the phone to reach Chad, and then put Nate on the phone with him. Nate and Abbie had no idea what was going on. When the kids figured out that it was a 46" HD TV set being delivered, they were in shock. I'm sure that they didn't think things could get much more surprising after the Wii arrived. It was fun to shock them again.

So on Saturday afternoon, the four of us played tennis in our basement. And we had a blast.

By the way, Abbie also has a mean serve. I still can't return it.

Power and Dark
by Rob

Where were we when the lights went out?

In the dark. But not just literally.

I was in the office at school at about 2:30 this afternoon, when one of the secretaries answered the phone. I knew that it was for me, just by the way that she looked at me. “Rob Hileman? He’s right here.”

It was the transportation office at Schalmont, the kids’ school. They wanted to let me know that they had received word that Schermerhorn Road was closed and they would be dropping Nate off at the Schonowe building, an old elementary school at the end of our street. They wanted me to know that he would be walking home from there.

I needed more information. “Why is the road closed?... Where is the tree down?... Do you have anyway of finding out?” They didn’t, so I said, “no.” After I made it clear that Nate was not allowed to walk down the closed street where trees and power lines down, the nice woman agreed to have Nathan taken to Abbie’s elementary school. I said I’d pick them up there.

After I picked them up, we navigated our way to my 3:30 doctor appointment. It wasn’t as easy as I hoped it would be, since there were several major traffic lights that were not working. The kids helped me through the tough spots and we made it on time.

When we finally were able to head home from my appointment, we watched the houses very carefully. As we turned off Rice Road onto Schermerhorn, we could still see lights on in all of the houses and so we all thought things would be fine at house. Our hopes vanished pretty quickly though, as we soon came to a section of the street where the houses were dark. Then, we were greeted by what has become a familiar sight, traffic cones placed across the road just beyond the section that heads to our house. Closed.

Ahead there were all sorts of trucks and flashing lights. We parked in a neighbor’s driveway and made the rest of the way to our house on foot. As we got closer, it was clear that the tree had come down directly across from our house. There was tree and power pole debris everywhere. When I reached the edge of our yard I could finally see the worst of it; our power meter lay in the middle of our front yard. The falling tree snapped the power pole at the edge of our yard, and the force had ripped the entire service line off of our house. Crap.

The men working on the situation took immediate notice of us and wanted to know if this was our house. They explained that they were waiting for us, since they needed to get inside to assess if any damage to the breaker box had occurred from the force of the line being ripped off the house. Fortunately, there wasn’t any damage. They explained that we would need to get an electrician to come and make permanent repairs, but they would be able to give us a temporary hook up in the meantime.

At that point, Kim showed up, and like me, she was pissed. You see, the folks who own property across from our house, know that the trees on their land are sick. I know this for a fact. Yet, for the nearly eight years that we have lived here, even though this sort of thing has happened time and time again, they continue to allow these incidents to be treated as “acts of God.”

At this point, darkness fell. Not just the fading light in the sky, but Kim and I began to feed off of each other’s anger. We swore. We talked about calling a lawyer. We raised our voices. And we whined. All the time, Nate and Abbie were there, listening. It didn’t take long for me to regret my response. Our kids take so many leads from us. As of tonight, I’m sure that they must both think that when these things happen, someone else is to blame, someone who should be punished. At least that’s what we have led them to believe.

I keep hoping I’ll reach a point in my life where I stop saying things I’ll regret later.

Even though the lights have come back on during the time that I have been writing this, I’m still in the dark. Tomorrow I have to figure out how to get everything fixed. And how to pay for it. Yes, I assume that our insurance will cover it. And, yes, I expect that any electrician worth his or her salt will know the repair process from beginning to end. But still, I decided I’d have to take the day off just so I can deal with it.

Which brought me to my most sobering moment of the day. I called my supervisor to explain the situation and request an emergency personal day off. She wished me well and told me that she hoped that things would be okay. “It’s only stuff,” I said. It was at that point I remembered that her son is critically ill. Just yesterday she told me that she and her husband live from day to day knowing that he could die at any time. Right now they’re hoping he’ll be well enough to face another major heart surgery at the end of this month.

Not only is the power is back on, but none of this was ever a real problem in the first place.

New York City
- by Rob

For the first couple of hours, Nate covered his mouth whenever we were walking on the streets. He couldn't stand the smell of New York. My guess is that his sense of smell was most offended by the roasting chestnuts that the vendors were selling. I remember that when I lived in New York it took me awhile to get used to that smell. Unlike Nate, the scent of the city was familiar and pleasant for me.

We arrived in the City at about noon on Thursday. Our Mapquest directions were fine, and the Google Earth 3D images I had studied online gave me a pretty clear sense of what things would look like. Still, we had to circle the block twice where our hotel was located. The first time we passed by the entrance to the garage because we couldn't see it. The second time we couldn't pull in because of traffic and the double-parked cars. Finally, the third time, my stunt driving got us off the street and into the garage entrance. Phew.

We didn't really have a plan for our afternoon, but since we were only staying 3 blocks from Times Square, I didn't figure that the lack of a plan would be a problem. There are plenty of things to see within a short walk of Times Square.

A few things have changed significantly in the 15 years since I worked in the city. The number of full color, full motion, video billboards and signs in Times Square is dizzying. I can only think that anyone who spends time there regularly has learned to tune it all out. In my opinion, more is definitely less. 42nd Street is quite different too, but in a much better way. Let's just say that it's been cleaned up and is more "family friendly." Fifteen years ago, we would have had to walk to Times Square by a different route. Many of the marquis are still there, but now they advertise shows like Mary Poppins and How the Grinch Stole Christmas and restaurants like Applebees.

After lunch at an Irish Pub we went looking for the TKTS booth. It was mobbed. We decided the best strategy would be to get in line while we made our decision about whether or not we would wait and buy tickets. We ended up waiting. During the hour that we waited the line continued to grow, eventually looping out onto the sidewalk and down the block and back again. By the time we finally were sent to the window to purchase tickets, there was only one real option, the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. Kim and I had both seen the show before, but that was 20 years ago. We managed to get 4 seats together for the 8:00 PM show. Taking the kids to Radio City was exciting, and fortunately the show was no disappointment. Abbie particularly enjoyed the Rockettes. She seemed to understand and appreciate the complexity of their timing. We walked back to the hotel at 9:30. The streets and Times Square were still crammed -- people everywhere we looked.

We decided to head back to Rockefeller Center on Friday morning. Kim and I were interested in seeing the spot where the Today Show is filmed. Abbie wanted to see the skating area. We also knew that it would be a short walk to the American Girl Place store, and other shopping on Fifth Avenue. We managed to get right inside the audience area at the Today Show. We saw Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. During a transition to a commercial break, we got to wave at the camera. We're pretty sure we were on the air.

The American Girl Place store is one of those phenomena that I had to see to believe. Actually, we didn't know for sure where to find it; however, we learned that if you look around Rockefeller Plaza for a little girl carrying an American Girl doll, there's a fair chance that her Mom will know where the store is located. Well, this method of finding the store worked for us. The scene inside the store seemed like it was something being staged for a movie. Preteen girls were everywhere, and most were carrying a doll. Moms and Dads trailed behind, carrying coats and unpurchased merchandise. I suggest to Nathan that if he is ever assigned a project on product marketing he could use the American Girl thing. He agreed.

By the time that we left the doll store we had very little time left for more shopping and sight-seeing. After a few minutes in FAO Schwarz it was time to head to Lincoln Center. We walked through the southern end of Central Park, and reached the center fountain at Lincoln Center a few minutes after 11:00. A friend of mine, Mark, was waiting for us. Mark and I worked together at the theatre in Albany. It was great to see him and get caught up.

The Metropolitan Opera House is much more attractive than photographs had led me to believe. I'm not a fan of most architecture from the 60's and 70's, and I expected this building to be a classic example of what I dislike so much. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised.

We hadn't done our homework, so we thought that the opera, Mozart's, The Magic Flute, would be performed in German. Both Abbie and Nate were not excited about this, in spite of the screens placed directly in front of each seat that display English translations for every performance. As it turns out, the performance was in English. A good thing I believe, since the characters and storyline were sometimes hard to follow -- again, we hadn't done our homework.

As for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the opera. The production design was clever, and made use of many of the same puppetry techniques that were used in the stage version of The Lion King. I'm not sure that the music was especially exciting for our kids, but the visual aspects of the performance were certainly engaging enough to keep their interest. I'm not sure that either of them was able to appreciate the quality of the orchestra or the voices, but I'm sure in time they will come to understand these things. I left feeling completely satisfied that we had taken them to see such a performance. It really is something to be in a world famous venue watching a world class performance.

As we left the Met, the kids pleaded with us not to return to the hotel to get our car. Instead, they wanted to go back to Fifth Avenue to spend more time walking through the streets and stores. I felt good that we would leave New York with them wanting more. To save time, and to add to the experience, we took a cab back to the hotel. In short order, we were in the Lincoln Tunnel and headed back home.

If you click on any of these pictures, they will be enlarged in a new window.

Christmas Day

Our day started with a predictably ironic situation. Abbie came into our bedroom and crawled in bed with us. This isn't especially uncommon, but it was 6:00 AM and she was wide awake. The irony lies in the fact that on any other Monday morning, we would be getting up for work, and she would be resisting our efforts to get her awake. Now, we were the ones resisting. But of course, when you're 9 and it's Christmas morning, it's hard to sleep in.

We managed to hold Abbie off for about an hour, but shortly after 7:00 it was clearly time to get up. Although Nathan had not stirred, we knew that it wouldn't take any time to get him up and going. I made coffee and started the fireplace. Kim took some "before pictures," and by 7:30 we were gathered in the living room to begin.

As we started, things looked similar to every other Christmas morning at our house. The kids started by going through their stockings, and they had a great time. What happened next was a bit of surprise. Usually stockings are followed by the kids each opening one or two gifts, and then it's breakfast time. The twist was that neither was especially interested in opening gifts. They were excited, of course, but what they really wanted to do next was give us the gifts that they had purchased and made. It was such an unexpected pleasure to see them enjoying themselves this way. They were both genuinely eager to see the reactions as their gifts were opened. The satisfaction on their faces as we thanked them was something to see.

Their eagerness to give this Christmas was pretty much equaled by their gratitude. As they opened their presents and throughout the day, they thanked us over and over again.

It has been the best kind of day. We have laughed, played, eaten way too much, and relaxed. It's been the best kind of day, because we have thoroughly enjoyed being at home and being together. I guess in spite of all of the things about the "holidays" that drive me to fits of crankiness, it's been worth it all over again.