Uglyhead

First Day of School

Pamela — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:14:45 +0000

Today Aidan and Isabel started school. Every year the beginning is a challenge to my faith that God is in control of everything, including my children.

Every year since Aidan began four years ago, I worry about what the year will hold. Did they get a good teacher, will they learn enough, did we make the right decision about the school to send them to are just a few worries that run through my mind.

I am constantly reminding myself that God is faithful despite all the circumstances in our lives. I do not have to be the perfect parent, they do not have to have the perfect teacher, etc. God is faithful despite our unfaithfulness.

Even as I pray for God to change my heart and trust in him my worry creeps in. My prayer for this school year is to rest in God and his faithfulness to me and to my children.

Time to blog

Pamela — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:30:08 +0000

This school year my goal is to blog about the kids and life here at the Kennedy household. Hopefully it will help me remember the fun things the kids do everyday. They grow up so fast and I want it all written down somewhere.

I Was Outvoted on the Blue Merle, so it’s a Panda Puppy Instead (a.k.a., Black Tri)

Scott — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:06:47 +0000

The newborn Aussie pup that Pam and the kids picked out. Code name: Panda.

Wedding Band Blues

Scott — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:59:56 +0000

A few weeks ago I was out working in the yard and did what I normally do when working in the yard. I took off my wedding band and put it in my pocket. Then again, I could have taken it off and set it somewhere when I went to find some work gloves. Perhaps it even made it through the events of the day and I fiddled with it while reading, only to lose it in the couch? I am known to take my ring off at random times, including even in my sleep! At any rate, a few days later I realized that I did not have my ring. So over this past weekend we all once again searched outside, in the garage and even tore apart the bed. The only missing item we found was one of our four cordless phones (something we have been searching for longer than a year!). This excited the kids, despite that fact that the finders reward we offered was for the ring.

After having an odd exchange with a cashier at Home Depot, who not only commented that I was a frequent patron but also somehow brought up the fact that she was a single mom, I decided to take Pam’s advice and invest in a cheap “temporary” replacement. The funny thing is that a friend at church said her husband did the same thing 25 years ago and is still wearing it!

Left: Missing band by James Avery Craftsman. Right: Temporary Wal-Mart special.

What I ended up with was a $38 titanium wedding band from Wal-Mart. It is not the highest grade titanium — nor is it as elegant as gold or platinum — but it is light, strong and hypo-allergenic (though it will show scratches). Besides, the bicycle geek in me appreciates the metallurgy aspects of owning a titanium ring. And while you may have heard folks say that titanium rings are dangerous, according to Snopes.com you can cut a titanium ring off of an injured finger with the same saw that is used for gold rings; you just have to make two cuts instead of one because titanium does not bend as easily as softer metals.

So it came as no surprise to me at the jewelry store (where I went to get my ring finger resized) that I was told to stay away from anything other than gold or platinum…for safety reasons. This happened after I brought up another alternative metal — tungsten carbide — which is remarkably hard and scratch resistant (right below diamonds on the hardness scale), hypo-allergenic (when made w/o cobalt), has a similar weight/substance feeling as their softer counterparts, are available in traditional or exotic styles, come with inlays of precious metals (e.g., platinum, gold or silver) and can be laser engraved with some really neat patterns (see below). Sounds to me like the kind of ring I would not have to take off every time I did yard work! And while it cannot be cut with a jeweler’s saw, all it takes to remove a stuck ring is a few squeezes from vice grips and it cracks apart (though extremely strong and hard, tungsten carbide is weak torsionally). About the only major downside I can think of with tungsten carbide (and titanium), besides not coming in a solid yellow gold color, is that you cannot have them resized.

Examples of carved tungsten carbide rings (clockwise l-r) by ARTCARVED, Triton, DIANA and Triton.

I honestly do hope that my good ol’ wedding ring shows up. It holds a lot of sentimental value after nearly 14 years of marriage. Should it not, then perhaps one of the “new-metals” will find a place of permanence on my left ring finger (hopefully before 25 years pass)? And with gold prices at an all time high, alternatives are becoming attractive options based on price alone.

Ran Into ZZ Top at Big River Grille

Scott — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:22:49 +0000

Billy Gibbons (left), me (center) and my sister-in-law’s husband Bobby (right)

White Trash, Your Local Choice

Scott — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:25:22 +0000

Corner of Hwy 136 & Hwy 193 in semi-rural section of Walker County, Georgia.

Mad (Young) Scientist

Scott — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:18:51 +0000

Recently, Aidan collaborated with his friend Naoki to build the ultimate Kindergarten kid science fair project. These budding scientists set out to determine which slide at the Chattanooga Valley Elementary playground was the fastest. In the end, Slide C was the quickest and so were the boys, crossing their category’s finish line in first place. Later this week they get to attend Walker County School’s district science fair!

Aidan with his science project, 1st place ribbon and district marching orders. Missing: two front teeth.

We will certainly continue to bring you coverage of these momentous events. In the meantime, click on the above image to view more photos and details on the project.

Izzy-Bell-erina

Scott — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:05:16 +0000

Izzy (short for Isabel) has been taking ballet lessons for the last few months. A couple weeks ago she had her first recital at The Fairyland Club. We are not sure how much longer she will attend ballet classes–she seems to enjoy gymnastics better (and has more of that body type)–but our little Bell (another nickname) sure did have fun dressing up, getting her hair done and dancing around (if you can call it that).

Teacher Pettway and class (l). Miss Twinkle Toes (r) showing off her award. Click to view more.

Below is a low-quality video I took with our digicam.

Spring ‘08 Improvements

Scott — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:43:14 +0000

This time of the year a couple key things converge in the Kennedy household: warm weather and annual bonus money. With the government promising us a stimulus package in mid-summer, we are focusing for now on home improvement projects (the big TV will have to wait). The first project is one that we have needed to do since we moved into our house almost four years ago. Given the time I could dig up a ‘before’ photo, but trust me when I say that a drunk man built our original front steps.

While he is at it our brick mason is going to build a small planter box around our mailbox (see my mock layout below). We have the only house in the neighborhood where they surrounded the mailbox with concrete. The kids like to walk around it when getting the mail (calling it ‘the shortcut’), but Pam and I consider it to be aesthetically displeasing. By the way, if you ever need a good brick layer, I highly recommend Ibach Brick. Paul does great work and is a comedian, too. When showing him the newspaper-slot-turned-birdhouse below the mailbox, he said I should “start chargin’ that bird rent.”

We are also considering building stairs off of our back deck, which is as much of a safety/secondary egress issue as it is a convenience consideration. Currently we have to go down the stairs, which are positioned by the front door, in order to go out back through the garage. Then there is the floor I need to lay in the attic, organizing the garage, etc. Maybe, just maybe, when all is done there will be some funds left over to put in the HDTV piggy bank!

Update 1: Steps are done (they look great!). Mailbox work set for Monday. Getting an HD set after all (albeit a smaller 32″).

Update 2: Below are thumbnails (linked to full size on Flickr) of the completed steps and mailbox surround. Flowers (pansies and salvia) have been planted at the mailbox since these were taken, but I still have to build a new handrail for the steps (probably using one of those PVC railing kits).

Backing Up the Kid’s Movies

Scott — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 05:13:10 +0000

As a parent of small children I sometimes wonder how we did without DVD’s back when I was a kid growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. The one eyed monster would have been so much cooler if you could have controlled what he spit out. But alas, our household never even had a VCR. They were way too expensive. In fact, I still remember paying $300 for a Sony Hi-Fi VCR in the mid-to-late nineties. How far we have come! These days the far superior DVD player can be had for about 10% of that cost. Unfortunately, the price of most movies on DVD is still around $20. That is way too expensive when you have little hands in the house who smudge, scratch and otherwise abuse one of the most fragile forms of media known to man. I would estimate that 1 in 4 of our children’s movie collection are damaged in such a manner that their playback is compromised (either skipping in parts or completely unplayable). To make matters worse, copyright protections have made it extremely difficult to do back-ups of your own movies for personal use, even though that was standard practice for music before the rise of the internet. That is, it used to be difficult.

This evening I used a free program called DVD Shrink to decode and re-author a few of the kid’s movies. DVD Shrink allows you to compress a large movie into a format that can later be burned onto a 4.7 GB recordable DVD. You can use any DVD burning software (Roxio, Nero, etc.) to make the disc, but DVD Shrink recognized that my PC already had DVD Decrypter (also free) installed and allowed for a near-seamless transition (simply had to remove the movie, insert a DVD-R and hit the ‘record’ button). After making a few copies with all of the bells and whistles (menus, bonus features, etc.), I then decided to try the ‘re-author’ feature and burn a DVD with just the core movie file itself. Later, I tested it in our minivan’s rear entertainment system and immediately recognized the beauty of backing up your DVD’s without any extras.

Picture yourself driving down the highway at 65 mph. You are in the front passenger seat. Your kids are in the middle and third rows, securely strapped into their child car seats. The DVD screen is also behind you where you cannot see it without unbuckling your seatbelt and reclining your seat. With a stripped down movie copy all you have to do is insert the DVD-R into the dash and it immediately starts playing — no previews, special features or menus to wade through. Safe. Easy. Disposable. How cool is that? I know what I will be doing between now and our next car trip (keeping an eye out for a spindle pack of DVD-R’s and setting aside some time in the evenings).