Bill the Annoying

Nice day today :-)

June 27th, 2010 at 6:40 pm (My Kids, New, Vacation)

Today has been very nice and productive.

It started around midnight, and I slacked off a bit to watch the US play their last world cup game, even though we are out we out played England, so that is better than I expected.

Then I did another lesson in my Active Directory 2008 training kit, then went to bed.

Grandma and grandpa let me sleep in, while taking care of the boys in the morning. The weather was so nice that they were going to the park as I was finishing my shower, so after my breakfast, I followed them, since the car was still in the driveway, I figured I could catch up to them, or at least not be to far behind. I listened for the sound of the boys (they are not quiet) and didn’t hear them playing nearby or on the other side of the house. So I went to the park, when I got there, no boys, and no Grandpa. Hmmm?

I walked around a bit, but then headed back, the walk took over an hour, but at least I was awake, and refreshed. When I got back, Grandma told me that they had gone to a closer playground in the other directions, which I didn’t know where it was so I went to work on my training.

Now that I am into the second chapter, I find that I would really benefit from actual hands on experience with the training, because I learn and retain information much better by doing than just reading about it.
So I started downloading a trial version of Server 2008 ISO file, and put it on my USB drive, I was going to do a virtual server, but I need Win Vista or Win 7 for that, and I only have XPpro. I was tempted to get a trail version of win 7, then get the virtual 2008 server, but then I am limited to the time of win 7 trail rather than the Server 2008 trial.

My big fear is that I mess it up, and end up with a brick for a laptop, so I have been uploading my important files to my google account. I hope to finish backing things up tomorrow before I try to install server 2008.

Then the kids came back, Sergey had found a Russian copper piece, yesterday, and he was looking for more money today. He said he was hoping to find two handfuls of money, so he could give one to me to help pay for the house, and the other to Damien to help him buy books from the school book store, to help support his school (I think they are brain washing our kids).

For lunch, Noodles and ground meat sauce (different types of meat, hand ground by grandma, mixed with onions and spices, then fried up yummy). After that the weather was still so nice that we went to the park. Their we realized that many people had the same great idea that we did, but with some creative parking we were go to go. On the way to the snail, there was a downed tree next to the path, it fell away from the path and over a small brook (medium drainage ditch). Did my boys climb on the fallen tree, do you even have to ask. At one point Damien slipped off (or was pushed, I suspect by Sergey but I wasn’t there) and his foot went in the water, so he took his other shoe off which then fell in the water. H took his wet sock off to wring it out, and because he likes symmetry he took off his dry sock which then flew out of his hands and landed in the brook, it didn’t go anywhere but down and Grandpa was able to retrieve it with one of the extra big sticks that Sergey was lugging around (it was bigger that he was). So Damien was barefoot for the rest of the day as his shoes and socks are still drying out.

At the inflatable snail slide, the boys wrestled, and bonked, and bounced, and got yelled at (by me mostly), Xavier is to small to go at this time, but the lady who runs the snail, and some other park goers remember him from last year, and were fawning over him. After that we climbed on the bars a bit before going to the sea-saws and sand area (it’s not really a box, just a sandy area) I think we were there for an hour or more. We took a different way back to the car and it took extra long because it was so new for the boys they were stopping every 10 feet to “explore” their new surrounds, during Sergey tried to push Damien into a little drainage ditch.

One big difference between the States and Russia, in the States most people go to the park in casual wear, in Russia, especially the women, they dress up. Dresses, pantyhose, leather dress shoes, high healed shoes, jackets and blazers.

We got back home around 8pm for dinner, which was crepes (blenee), filled with candied apples for the boys and meat sauce and sour cream for us adults.

Sergey and Damien had a nice pillow fight, at first Damien didn’t want to play, but I told him it was Sergey’s turn to pick what they do, and Damien was fine with that and played happily with his younger brother.

Then bath time, which includes brushing teeth, since Damien and Sergey are arguing over who gets which toothbrush, they each get alternating pick days to choose who gets which one. After washing them, I let them play in the tub til they want to get out. Then it’s story time, followed by songs. Here is my new method of getting them to all go down quick. I go to sleep with them on the fold out couch, which means I get a nice nap, during which time Grandma and Grandpa will grab one of the boys, usually Damien to sleep with them. If I wake up later (as I did tonight) I use that second wind to hit the books and do a blog post.
I finished chapter 2 (woot, go me.)

Now back to bed.