Go. Do.

http://www.metallica.com/index.asp?item=601119

 

New Metallica Single "The Day That Never Comes".

That is all for now.

Go. Do.

Posted by jikado @ 2:22 pm EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments

Good daycare is hard to find, unless you get lucky.

     I think one of the toughest challenges of having children is when the time comes for you to leave them in the care of another person. For about 10 hours of the day, that person, or people, are your replacements, responsible for raising your children as you would. One needs to find someone that connects with your family on many levels, agrees with certain principals and morals. A daycare provider needs to understand the levels of discipline needed for your child to have a continues set of boundries, even when you're not there.

     Until recently, my kids had been going to a childcare center. One of those 'stores,' where there are teams of women, each focusing on a specific age group in seperate rooms. This worked pretty well for my wife and I. We never had to worry if one of the women needed a vacation, there'd be other women there to watch our children. Our kids were getting plenty of social interaction; with so many 'watchers' there, they were able to have plenty of kids running around, playing together. All of these things came at a cost, however. We learned that we had been paying more for just 2 days a week than our neighbors were paying for an at-home childcare for a full week.

     We had to get in on that. We started our search in the regular classified section of the paper, didn't really find anything. Online searching seemed more promising at first, until we realized most of the online information was beyond out-of-date, and if we wanted better search results, we'd have to join one of the pay sites. Eventually, we came across one lady who was just resuming her business after hanging it up for a while.

     She seemed to have her ducks in a row, so we decided that we could leave our kids with her for a few hours every day. I won't say that I regret ever doing so, but looking back on it now, I wish had continued to look a bit further. Not that this first lady is completely a terrible person, I just don't think she was ready to resume her business of in-home daycare, or to handle a 5 year old boy. All of her experience seemed centered around infants, which is fine for my 1 year old. One of the problems, I think, is that she didn't have any other kids there, aside from her own 1 year old girl. So my 5 year old, the one had spent his whole life in a day care center full of other kids to play with, was now stuck spending his days with only 2 babies for company. I'm not trying to make excuses for his behavior, just pointing out possible causes. Most of his behavior problems here are just a matter of listening to the adult in charge, and eating his vegetables. I had never heard any complaints about his behavior in the almost 5 years he had been at the center. After less thana month, this lady gives us a 2 week notice that she will no longer care for our oldest child. She's fine with the youngest, but not the oldest. Well, we're not going to split our kids up between two daycare providers. I really thought we were about to get into a pretty hairy pickle. We now have two weeks to find affordable daycare, when it took us almost  a month to find this one, and I thought that was by just dumb luck.

     Luckily, however, I was able to strike gold on my first call yesterday. At least I believe so. The first number I called was a woman listed on the state's website of liscensed providers. I said she had an opening for my 5 year old, but not my one year old. Knowing that these things aren't always up to date, I called and asked. She confirmed what I had thought, and said she had openings for both of my children, and agreed to meet with me last night at 6. I arrived a little early, and ended up staying for over half an hour, with my youngest in tow (my wife had stayed home to take the oldest one swimming, we though it best if he didn't know about all of this, so he couldn't hold it as leverage with his current daycare provider). This new woman is perfect for our family. She's got 3 other kids the same age as my oldest, all starting kindergarten at the same school in the fall. One other kid already goes to that school, he'll be starting second grade. She's got 2 other kids about the same age as my youngest. She's got a big, huge yard with trees for the kids to climb on, a little wooded area where they build forts, a playground area with a swingset. She's been in this business for over 20 years! I called 2 references so far, one of them currently has 2 children enrolled, and the other had her kid there from the time it was an infant to the time it was 11 years old. Both were just pouring out praises for this woman, and her helpers. Her helpers consist of her mother, 2 'adult' ( 18 and 19) daughters and her 15 year old son. All of this, plus her rates are actually less than our current provider.

     My kids won't start there until after the fourth, but I can't wait. If I were a kid, that's where I'd want to be.

Posted by jikado @ 7:22 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

First 48, tonight at 8 p.m. Central time

    Just want to put up a word to let people know that tonight, at 8 p.m. central time ( 9 eastern) on A&E's show "The Fist 48," they will be covering the investigation of the murder of Kristine Larson, my wife's cousin. I've blogged about it before. Most of the family is unsure if they're even going to watch it. There's going to be some information on here that the family is not even aware of.
I hate asking for money, but while I've got your attention;

A memorial fund has been set up to help with funeral costs and for her 2 year old son Darion: of which Kristine's mother, Deb, and her husband, Dan, are in custody of.

If you would like to help the fund is located at:

Anchor Bank
1030 Hastings Ave.
St. Paul Park, MN 55071

Just to add to that, this family is in the middle of a real bad series of events, starting with the murder of Kristine, then last week, Kristine's grandmother passed away, and just yesterday, Krisitine's step-brother (Dan's 16 year-old son (Dan, by the way, was once a member of this site as Lester Ziggs, and a founding member of GSN) had to have open heart surgery to remove some stuff that had been covering the outside of his heart. The same kid may also possibly have thyroid cancer. The financial costs of all of these events is really mounting.

Thanks for reading, sorry it's such a downer of a blog, I'll try to post something more cheerful later, maybe some pics of nekkid chics, or something.


Posted by jikado @ 3:28 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Entering the WoW

    No, not World of Warcraft, but the world of wireless. I've always shied away from wireless networking, but now that my wife has her shiny new laptop, with a built-in wireless card, she wants to be wireless. I agreed, on the one condition that she purchases the wireless version of the router I currently have; The D-Link Gamefuel 4100. So, now I've got the 4300 sitting here on my desk, and I'm not really sure what to do next.
    She purchased the 4300 used off Amazon, so it didn't come with any software, but I shouldn't need it, should I?
    What do I do to really lock down the network once it's installed? The only wireless connection I want to allow is my wife's laptop, I'm still going to use cables for my pc and 360.

Posted by jikado @ 2:27 pm EDT | Permalink | 11 Comments

A day off... finally

    Not a day off of work, just a day off. Last night, my mother-in-law called unexpectedly, and my 5 year old answered the phone. Not long into the call, he asked his grandmother if he could spend the night at her house. From his reaction, I could tell she had said yes. Then he asked if his baby brother could come, too. Again, I could tell she said yes. Already I felt like a 75 pound vest was being lifted off of my torso. He then gave the phone to my wife and they set it up for my mother-in-law to arrive within the hour to pick up the boys.
    I love my boys, with all of my heart, and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. Riley is getting so big, and so smart, I couldn't be more proud, and he's exceeded any expectations I've had for his development. Henry is still a baby, so I know to cherish these times with him. Already he's learned a lot. Just recently, he learned how to clap, after only a few times trying to teach him how. He can even give high-fives. And he's finally figured out how to get back down after pulling himself up to standing.
    My days get so long, though. My week goes like this;
    Sunday: Work all day.
    Monday: Sleep the day away, spend the evening with the family, stay up too late playing videogames
    Tuesday- Thursday: Spend all day with the boys, evenings with the family, stay up too late playing videogames
    Friday: Work all day.
    Saturday: Work all day.
There's never a lot of time in there where I can just relax in an empty house.
    Thanks to the best mother-in-law in the world, though, I have that day today. No one here telling me they're hungry, they're thirsty, they're bored, they banged their toe, they can't open something, they can't close something, etc. I can be loud. I can be lazy. I can sit at the computer for more than 5 minutes. I can play RockBand with 5.1 surround sound!
    The only honey-do list I have for the day is to clean the microwave, which I'm about to take care of in the next 5 minutes. Then, I don't know yet what I'm going to do, but I don't care.

Posted by jikado @ 2:14 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments