The View From Drew

Been out of the loop here.  I've been following and commenting as best I can, but I haven't had much to say myself.  I just wanted to take a moment to thank mikescomics for the fast shipping and ease in getting a TARDIS Playset and a Sonic Screwdriver for Mikey's third birthday which is coming up in nine days. I placed the order officially on Tuesday (We had been talking about all the options by email over the weekend.) and here it is Friday and I have it. If only all transactions could be this simple. (I mean with other businesses.)

 Much squealing and happiness and some disappointment.  Eddie didn't get his iPod, but I explained to him that Santa said it was going to be just an iPod or all the cool gifts he got.  (Eddie wanted a video iPod, like mine.)  I told him that he might get one for his birthday/communion gift this year.  Surprisingly, out of all the gifts Mikey got, he loves his Dust Devil vacuum and his shopping cart.  I'm almost done putting his train set together.

Eddie loves the MarioKart game and I have to admit it's really cool.  He also now has internet access on my old laptop.  I've told him that he can't just go on the internet any time he feels, but has to ask me or Mom or Grandma so we can keep an eye on things.

Sue got me a number of comfort items I've been lacking in recent times, like a new pair of slippers, earmuffs, and gloves.  The best gift, and I maintain this for anyone was an eBay gift card.  Rather than getting a gift card to a particular store, with eBay you can get a lot of loot for little money if you bid wisely.  My cousin gave me one for my birthday last year and I had a field day.

I'm disturbed. Mikey just said to me, "You better do it now, boy."

So, today is the first day I've been out, other than to visit doctors, in over two weeks.  I went with Sue and the kids to a harvest festival in the area.  It was a lot of fun and I managed to not tire much.  I did lie down briefly when I got home.  I've found I'm feeling and looking flush, but I don't have a fever the last couple of days.  This is a good thing, right?

I'm going to try going in tomorrow.  I have a lot of catching up to do with the kids.  One day at a time.

I'm sitting here in the car in the driveway with the laptop as Mikey snoozes away.  We just got back from a Working Mothers picnic at the house of one of the organizers.  She had plenty of food and drink and things to keep the kids occupied.  The only thing missing was her husband, the only person who can operate the grill in the house.  Is there something about becoming a working mother that you miss out on certain skills?  Sue can't do it either and she has no interest in learning.

Well, I tilted by cap and offered to cook.  I proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon over their large grill.  (Me want.)  It was simple enough - only hamburgers and hotdogs to grill.  It was fun actually, as I haven't had anyone over yet this summer for a big enough grill, so I got some practice in.

Anyway, all the playing wore Mikey out, so he's asleep in the back seat and I'm working away at the first of two stories for submissions to the anthologies I got asked to submit to.

Not bad.

Whoops!  Never mind.  He just woke up and he's not happy.

Gotta go.

So, I took the boys to Wendy's for lunch after our weekly trip to the library.  I was very surprised when I got the boys' kids meal and found a CD inside each one.  The CDs are audiobook readings of two of the Magic Tree House series of books.  What a great idea for an item inside the kids meal.  But then, Wendy's has always been a little more imaginative with what they put inside their meals.  They were the first to offer more healthy side dishes for the kids meals.  Anyway, we listened to the first two chapters of one of them on the ride home.  Now I want to track down the other two or four in the series.  I'm not sure how many there are, but I think it's just great that Wendy's did it.  Kudos.

So Mikey is playing with Eddie.  They are wrestling on the floor.  Suddenly he calls out, "Ayudame!  Ayudame!"  I looked over and he says it again, adding, "Help me!"  My boy was asking for help in Spanish.

As I mentioned in a previous post, our babysitting option is going to be limited this fall as Sue's mother is not up to the day to day rigors of child-watching. Sue and I have several appointments in the next few days to look at daycare options. One such place is more a preschool than a daycare called Green's Garden. My main concern was Mikey, who can be clingy, not wanting us to leave when we had to. Today was just an inspection and interview. Mikey played while we spoke with the owner, Lauren Green. By the time we were ready to go, he didn't want to leave. I suggested that Sue and I would leave and come back later and he was fine with that. He was very upset when we told him he had to come with us. It had a nice feel to it and everything was at his level, from the chairs to the toys to the books to the arts and crafts.

He's excited by the idea of getting his own book bag and this place is more than simply daycare. They provide breakfast, lunch, and snack and prepare the child for kindergarten by making sure they know and can write all their letters and numbers. Sue and I were very impressed.

Most of all, I was impressed with Mikey who didn't act like a wallflower as he quite often does. He dove in and started talking and playing with the other kids.

Went back to the hotel for the Meet the Pros gathering.  It was a little intimidating at first, especially when I saw all the cool posters, free samples, and cover art cards some of the authors had to promote their work and all I brought were a handful of The Dome CDs.  Fortunately, I was seated at the same table with glennhauman who, though I haven't seen in some fifteen or more years, is exactly the same person.  In fact, I don't think he's aged.  He's got this cool new start-up venture called Comicmix.com featuring all new stories of characters such as Jon Sable and GrimJack.  Mike Grell is on board with this and the best part - it's all free.  New material is being posted each week with the plans to move this into a dead tree format at some point.

And that's my plug for the day.  ;)

Anyway, with another author from Creative Couplings with me, it made it easy for people who wanted to get the book signed to find me.  The thing was that they didn't just come with their Creative Couplings.  First, I actually sold and signed two copies of The Dome.  That was a real thrill as most people didn't ask much about it or if they did they listened politely, sniffed, and moved on.  Audio drama - pfst.  What was even cooler was when kradical came up later and told me he signed one of them.  kradical had brought numerous copies of The Quality of Leadership with him and though he said he didn't sell as many as he liked, I certainly felt like I signed enough of them.  I signed for family and friends who didn't come.  I signed for new series fans who were now discovering the old series.  (I kinda envy them and the adventure that awaits them.)  I signed for longtime fans.  We talked about our favorite doctors and episodes.  It was interesting to hear about other people's experiences with discovering the show.  I signed a couple of copies of The History of Christmas.  I even signed one copy of Missing Pieces, the fan charity anthology that I contributed to many moons ago.  That was especially cool.

In addition, I got to meet face-to-face, daytonward, jmswallow, steve_mollmann, tiggerallyn (who hooked me up with copies of the fan Doctor Who audios done by Gary Russel and crew before they became Big Finish), michaelschuster, Richard White (EDIT: nightwolfwriter), Kevin Lauderdale, and Dave Galanter.

I was going to stay for a drink or two at the bar, but I got a call from Sue.  Mikey wasn't taking to his new environment too well and wouldn't go to sleep.  I went back to lay the "Daddy Smackdown" (it's not as bad as it seems), but by then with the exhausting trip down and all, I didn't feel like going back, so I crashed until now.

The nicest part of the whole experience though was talking to some of the people.  In my bio I state, "John S. Drew writes stories he hopes someone will enjoy."  A lot of times I feel down as I don't write as much as I should and that has been moreso the case lately.  Listening to some of the comments the convention goers made about my work really helped inspire me.  It was especially nice when I saw the Missing Pieces anthology.  That was a large tome and for someone to remember I had a story in it meant she remembered it.  I have a lot to think about this week.

Oh, and I also walked away with a cool huge cutout of the artwork of Creative Couplings which I will place in my classroom, but it will also come in handy at any other appearances I make.  I really need to develop some of those items for The Dome.

So here's one of the pictures from yesterday's outing with the graduating class.  I don't know why Eddie looks so upset in the picture.  He was having a great time.  There's another picture but he looks even more upset.  I'm waiting for one other teacher to send along some pictures he took.

In other news, Eddie seems to have a new virus.  He's getting headaches, fever, and a sore throat.  I asked him if he kissed any of the girls, but he insists he didn't.

Sue's mom just let her know that she's not going to be up to taking care of the boys on a regular basis after this school year.  This has been something she's been wanting to do for awhile and considering the health scares she's had, I wish she had.  In any event, we're grateful for all she's done for us the past seven years with the Eddie as I'm sure Sue's brother feels the same with his three kids, the oldest being thirteen.

This is putting us into full Pooh thinking mode as we have to come up with a plan for the next school year.  Mikey's still too young for pre-school and we'd like to avoid daycare, but that may not be feasible.  Fortunately, Sue works only four days a week and I do have a great deal of time off during the year.  Mikey will start preschool in 2010 and we're looking into a full day arrangement, two or three days a week.

I'd ask my mom to help, but she's not the most reliable.  I have one sister who has older kids, so that's a possibility for a day or two there.  My brother and other sister are or will be dealing with their newborns, so that option is out.

For us, it's not about the finding of childcare, it's the sadness in that Sue's mother has to admit that it's too much for her.  We're hoping that perhaps when Mikey is settled into whatever the situation is going to be next year, she might be able to do a day or two from time to time.

When you fart, Mikey says "Bless you."

Mikey got bit on the nose by a little girl at the park a few weeks back.  It was pretty bad.  Sue said she did a real number on him.  When Mikey tells the story he says she did a number two on him.

Mikey has started the two more minutes routine, thanks to his brother.

It's been a very nice weekend.  The family is finally feeling better after playing virus tag with each other for the last two months.  Mikey's sleeping through the night again, just having woke up now.  I had Friday off.  Sue took Mikey out for the morning, giving me time to prepare for that evening's D&D game and to work on a couple of anthology proposals.  That evening we went out to eat at the local Chinese restaurant.  It's always fun to watch Mikey eat as he is not finicky.  D&D, as I mentioned before, was disturbing but fun.

Saturday was errands day.  We went to BJ's and got the shopping done.

Sunday was spent on the Muscoot Farm.  They are going to have a farmer's market every Sunday and we're planning on taking advantage of it.  I bought two racks of smoked ribs, a peach berry pie, and lemon zest bread.  Afterwards, we went to my brother's to see his new addition, Elizabeth.  She was born over a week ago, but we held off going to visit because of the passing virus.  We didn't want to take any chances.  Ella, as they are calling her, looks like he mother.  She gave me the oddest stare as I held her.  Most women do though.  Not that I get to hold many of them. 

Today will be family home day.  I spent the morning polishing the anthology pitches.  I'll mow the front lawn and then check out the house for beehives.  We found three bees in the house yesterday.  It was weird.  After that, it's BBQ time with the two racks of ribs.  Sue's mom is coming over to join us.

The only thing I've been bad about is getting any school work done.  I'm like my kids, I'm finished.  I really need this upcoming summer and I hate the summer.  I'm more of a winter person.

One thing I've been bad

Try as we might, we didn't manage to save Mikey from the experience.  He developed a 102.7 fever this afternoon and was projectile vomiting.  On the bright side, he is now taking chewable tablets as he fought us on the liquid Tylenol.  His fever came down and he was actually acting like his old self for a while this afternoon and evening.

He only recently turned two, but he's more aware of the world than Eddie ever was at that age.  I've mentioned how Eddie never asked for much and really doesn't now.  The first thing he ever asked for was a Spider-Man playset and that was when he was three for Christmas.

Mikey sees things and if he likes it, he asks for it.  He wants a fishing rod so he can go fishing with his Oppa (my father).  He has asked me to tape Power Rangers for him as he saw the commercials for the show on Toon Disney.  He likes the White and Red Rangers.  He's constantly asking me to get various cereals he sees in commercials, especially if they come with a prize.

He's a real kid.

And he's already correcting me when I call him my little baby.  "I'm a big boy, Daddy."

It's funny how sometimes his syntax is perfect and then at other times, he talks like a baby.

Sigh.

I don't know if this was his latest stall tactic or not, but it certainly was weird.  Mikey started saying he couldn't go to bed because the tree monsters were going to get him.  All right, well enough.  The kid is developing quite the imagination.  I assure him that there are no tree monsters and that it's all pretend but then he asks me to pray with him.  He puts his hands together and I said a little prayer off the top of my head.  It just was weird.  The kid's only two.  Maybe he sees Eddie, who has become religious in his own way at the age of seven.  I don't know.

Mikey's asleep.  Fell asleep in my arms.  Eddie is playing with a basketball game he got from his aunt with his mother.  We are all exhausted, but it was totally worth it.  My family and friends, Sue's family and friends, and Eddie's friends were all there to help celebrate the boys' birthday.  Between the bounce house, the boys own playset, the various games and prizes, it was a day I don't think many will soon forget.  I want to thank from this neck of the words, popfiend and Mrs. popfiend, kradical, and jafinnola and the Daddy Bear for attending and for the former three's help in running the games and distributing prizes to the kids.  EDIT: Also, thank you Daddy Bear for helping with cutting the sandwich that proved to be quite the bear and to jafinnola for setting up and distributing the two cakes.  Delicious, but a bear.  No pun intended.

I forgot to mention.  He's just getting over a virus he picked up from Eddie.  Sue had to take him to the doctor's the other day.  As they were driving back to the house, Mikey started shouting, "TARDIS!  TARDIS!"  Sue couldn't figure what he was talking about until she saw he was pointing to a port-a-potty. 

So, tomorrow is the party for Eddie and Mikey.  Everything is set, save for the bounce house, which will arrive in the morning.  I just got off the phone with a friend of Sue's who is coming with her kids to the party.  She's in Toys R Us looking for gifts for the boys and called to ask about Doctor Who toys.  They have them as Toys R Us.  That is surprising.  I didn't think the show caught on that well.  Anyway, Eddie's getting a sonic screwdriver and Mikey's getting a Doctor figure.  Good.  He'll leave mine alone.  ;)

1) Period seven is graded and averages are updated.

2) As I said in a separate post, the signal splitter has been installed.  I'll get the wires tidied up tomorrow.

3/4) Didn't get to work on episode three of pitch or work on fleshing out new Justin Case audio, but I was given a line on a new anthology - Ghosts in the Machine.  The theme is the supernatural mixing with technology.  I have this idea that quickly came to my head, and I spent the afternoon fleshing it out when Mikey gave me a moment.  I'm going to put it into a pitch and send it out tomorrow.  Thanks to markdeniz for pointing it out to me.

5) Didn't get to work on the alphabet with Mikey.  He didn't have his head in it and I didn't force it.  He's turning two next month and the fact that he can count to ten, recognizes the difference between one, two, and three when it comes to quantity, knows his primary colors, and knows three letters of the alphabet by sight is impressive to me.  Eddie was still pointing at things and grunting at that age.  Then again, so was I. 

Just ordered the games and prizes for Eddie's and Mikey's birthday party.  The whole theme is carnival.  Eddie loves going to the arcade and winning prizes for games played.  We're going to have at least seven games, a pull string pinata, a bounce house, and about thirteen prizes to choose from.

This is going to be fun.