stories

The W Sisters and Stories About The Letters A & T

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At the time of writing this post over the past few days I’ve gone to both T and A’s school orientations for the year. At both girls orientation their teachers talked about things they would be doing and learning. T’s teacher talked a bit about what she would need to be able to do at the end of the class A’s teacher talked about the alphabet and I thought of a few things from the past that the girls have learned that I thought were funny and wanted to write down.

The details are vague over time. That’s why I want to start writing this stuff down sooner however while I still remember it at all here we go.

T when she started to learn her letters first would identify the letter T. It’s not really that surprising since whenever we would point out the T we would identify that it’s the first letter in her name, T. After a while she started to see it and then repeat T for me. To this day she still identify T in that way. Nowadays she’s able to identify all of her letters however I find it funny that that’s how she remembers.

With A I can’t remember if she first remembered the letter a or the letter T It’s no surprise that she was able to identify T almost as easily as she was able to identify a because of her big sister Even though I find it funny her that T would say “T for me” Amelio would identify “A is for A” With A she’s not quite there knowing all letters. One challenge I’ve noticed in identifying how much A knows is when you ask her question it’s almost like she’s deliberately not giving you the right answer. She does know several of her letters.

One of the things T needs to learn to do in pre-k is right her name. I know that our babysitter was spending time with her tracing letters of the alphabet. And then letting her free-form right letters of the alphabet. Hopefully that extra help will give her leg up. Of course like she really needs a leg up in pre-k.

While on stories about letters and numbers one thing I remember recently is that there is a book we read at bedtime about a boy named Oliver and his birthday party. It’s a counting book and each page has an kit coming and then going. At the bottom there is all the kids lined up and has you do a simple math problem when someone’s added or removed from the group. Most of the time when we read the book T insists on every page to count up all the kids to get to the right number. She still hasn’t figured out subtraction since when kids are leaving she counts out all the kids +1 since she does not realize that it’s subtraction instead of addition problem. I tried to explain it however I don’t think she understands the concept yet. On the other hand she does realize that there’s only one kid left at the end. Math was never my strong suit.

This amalgamation of stories isn’t as funny as some of the other ones I’ve written recently however it was topical in my mind and I wanted to write it down I have several other ideas I need to find time to sit and write about. At present I’m writing this article on 9 September and it is likely to be scheduled to post On 12 October so I have a little bit of time before need to write out a few more posts.

The W Sisters and Stories From The Beach

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I just finished writing another post about the last day at the beach this summer and I was looking over my notes about other stories from the summer. Two of them stand out in my mind. The first one concerns children safety and preparing the girls in the event to get lost.

When she can one day a week my mom would take one of the girls to the beach by herself. Sometimes she would take our babysitter and both girls however usually it was just one of them. This summer it was A since her camp schedule accommodated for it versus T’s that really didn’t. While together my mom tried to teach A her cabana number in the event she got lost and needed to tell someone where she could go. If our cabana was A40, A would always repeat back A28 when my mom asked her. What’s interesting is A always said A28. My mom and I for that matter are pretty convinced that A knows the correct cabana number but is just messing with my mom. Every time she would reply with the answer she would have a big smile on her face and giggle and tilt her head when she answered. The fact that she was consistently wrong helps that conclusion. There’s just enough doubt for us not to be 100% sure.

The other anecdote of note concerns both girls. I swore I wrote about this earlier in the summer however when I searched I couldn’t find any reference to it. If this is a repeat enjoy it one more time.

The beach club we goto is laid out where there are baby pools set up in the sand in the middle the court. That way little kids play in the water and in the sand while parents relax in the sun or in our case in the shade under an umbrella while watching the kids. When it gets really hot or we want to change of pace offer to the girls if they want to go to the Kiddie Pool that is next to the big pool where the adults can swim. After a few trips the girls caught on and began asking to go to the pool on their own. What was interesting was that they started asking to go to the Hello Kitty pool. For a few minutes we were a bit confused why they were asking to goto the Hello Ktty pool then it dawned on me that they thought we were saying Kitty pool so they assumed it was the hello Kitty pool. When I realize that I thought it was hysterical. I know they’re my kids however I thought I was pretty smart.

For the remainder of the summer whenever anyone talked about the pool it was the big pool or the hello Kitty pool.

The W Sisters and The Story of Assorted Stories From The Last Week In August

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Now that I am trying to make a conscious effort to write some stories about the girls I’ve been trying to remember to take quick voice notes so I can remember details in order to jog my memory later. I’m not in a call that a success yet since I only did it two days this week. The result of that effort however is this post combining a few small events from Monday and Tuesday, August 29 and 30th.

Before I get into the kids antics at home I can’t help but throw in something from an email exchange with M’s sister-in-law from earlier this week. We spent the last weekend in August at M’s sister-in-law’s house in Pennsylvania. After we left she emailed asking if we  had seen a magnet of hers that the girls were playing with. I haven’t but I really didn’t go through their luggage. I was gonna check with M however she hasn’t been feeling well. Before I was able to do that however I got another email from her saying never mind she found the magnet. It turns out the girls hid one magnet on top of another one. It looks like she was outwitted by one or both of the girls since tt took her a little while to figure that out.
One Tuesday (30-Aug) night after I got home and we had some playtime before bed the girls were playing with their dock McStuffin’s  doctor toys. T insisted on me putting the pager on her. I then tried to explain to her what a pager was and how people use them especially doctors before there were cell phones. I’m not rly sure if it was the fact that T’s four and a million is 2 1/2 or that not having a cell phone was foreign to them however I got blank stares when I was explaining  how page works.
I find it funny that T almost always notices when I get a haircut.  The night before I got a haircut and when I came home she immediately noticed that I got one. T likes to rub the back of my head since it’s been cleanly shaved and the hairs very short. The day I got my haircut T pretend wanted to cut my hair. I commented that I just had my hair cut and I questioned whether or not she thought Leon my hair cutter had done a good job I thought he did a great job.
The next night as we were playing with the Doc McStuffin’s medical set T insisted on cutting my hair again. This time she commented that “ the man did a bad job”. I’m going to have to remember to tell Leon he’s got a critic.
At the same time I was getting my hair cut A was cutting my nails. She likes to do that. That consists of taking the place that tweezers and snapping at my fingernails. As she is getting stronger it really does hurt sometimes when she does it but I find it so funny that she keeps trying to do it. After hurting my hands with her nail cutting I did get a checkup. I showed her where to use the stethoscope to listen to my heart.
Since I had bug bites from being out at M’s sister-in-law’s over the weekend I bought some aloe ointment to stop the itching. After my medical checkup by the girls two days in a row they got a cup and proceeded to put ointment on my skin to help my itching so I didn’t itch at bedtime.
After all this I am gaining confidence that I will be well taken care of when I get old.  Fingers crossed!

The Story of My Slow Road to a Coffee Habit

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I never drank coffee in college. I was never into hot beverages or coffee specifically. I used to say that even know I didn’t eat very well I didn’t smoke, drink very much, or drink coffee. I’m not sure if it was the flavor or just hot liquid that turned me off to coffee. By the time I was out of college I didn’t mind that I wasn’t drinking it since I knew it could be back for you. I figured I had enough things wrong with my diet that I didn’t need to add anything else to it that was not good.

The history of me and coffee I think started on a flight from New York to Los Angeles while working at Datastream. I got an upgrade to business elite on the Delta flight I was taking and the flight attendant convinced me to try and Irish coffee. It might have been several years after that before I had my next cup.

Starting around my early 30s when I decided to get serious about dating I would have cappuccino here and there after dinner with dessert. I remember one dessert place in Little Italy that I found with friends that was good. I would always get some sort of dessert and a cappuccino. It was nice. That segued into going back to the same place sometimes with a date. That in turn evolved into having a cappuccino here and there after dinner.

It wasn’t until I started working at Thomson Reuters that I started drinking coffee a little more regularly however not all the time. By that time around late 2008 I knew I liked the cappuccino. I would sweeten it up a little and the milk sugar mixed with the coffee was pretty good for me. I wasn’t that into regular drip coffee. That’s why I was intrigued when the coffee machine at the office was in had cappuccino. What I knew at the time but didn’t care was it really wasn’t a true cappuccino. It was espresso roast coffee with a peppered milk and water combination that was sort of a cappuccino. For me a coffee newbie was perfect. At that time didn’t go to the office all the time and work remote for at least part of my week. When I would go to the time square office I would treat myself with the Flavia cappuccino. I remember distinctly the first time I had 2 cups in a row. I was in a long meeting and thought the extra caffeine would help. I was amazed at crazy I felt after the 2nd cup. I didn’t understand how people did that regularly. To this day I rarely have 2 cups in a row.

My coffee habit evolved further when I started dating someone who thought it would be fun to get me to drink more of it. That was her take on the situation. The reality was by simply regularly dating somebody I hadn’t done in a while I had more opportunity to be out and have more coffee. After we stopped eating however I still like the idea of a cup more frequently than I previously had. One of the people I work with at the time had mentioned they had a Flavian machine at their house and that it was pretty decent. I didn’t need anything fancy and its research. I found that could indeed by personal machine for around $100. I decided to go with the Flavia instead of a Kurig because Flavia offered the cappuccino pouches. It was at this point that I started drinking at least one cup a day on most workdays. At the time the Flavia machine was a easy low-cost option for me.

It wasn’t until I met MC in the summer of 2010 that I started learning and getting schooled in what good coffee is. Back then to me good coffee was Starbucks. MC is not a fan of Starbucks. I’m still okay with it however grown to learn that there’s much better options out there if you know where to look. When MC eventually so my apartment she rightfully scorned my Flavia machine and called it hot brown water. Let’s face it looking back she was right. We moved in together or around that time we decided to go and get an Nespresso machine. MC knew I liked cappuccinos and thought if I wanted to have cappuccinos we should do it right. I had been researching machines on my own and when she encouraged me to look for a better one I decided to take the plunge. We opted for an Nespresso machine without the milk frothing option. We bought a separate milk frothing device from Nespresso. I figured if something went wrong with one of the pieces of the multifunction device (IE espresso machine or milk frother) the other half would be useless. I have not been a fan of all-in-one devices in a while. The price was comparable to get the two devices versus the all-in-one. With the milk frothing device and true espresso machine I was able to experience much better cappuccinos at home cheaper than going to the store. The cost is still high per unit however it was cheaper than my other options at the time.

For years I enjoyed that espresso machine. When I was losing weight I would have a skim cappuccino almost as a snack substitute since it’s only 80 cal. I found that when I was losing weight I actually started drinking more coffee. It wasn’t a surprise that I was doing that. It was almost deliberate knowing that it could offset my hunger a little. I was still only having about 2 cups a day.

At some point I was concerned about the total cost of owning the Nespresso machine. Each pod is around $.65-$.80. If I do double shots once or twice a day it adds up. I had researched alternative espresso machines and didn’t want to deal with the expensive costs associated. I stumbled across the old-school European idea of the mocha pot. I picked up a small one on Amazon for about $25. I was able to use the same Lavazza or Illy coffee that MC used in her drink coffee since she always buys espresso roast. The mocha pot coffee was not quite the same as espresso but it was pretty potent and I like it. The problem with the mocha pot is its pain in the butt to clean.

At this point with my espresso machine and new mocha pot we had four different coffee delivery mechanisms in our house. In addition to those two MC has her ceramic filter she uses for making old-school drip coffee with a teakettle. That is what she uses when she’s just make coffee for herself or one or two people. We also have a full-size 12 cup coffee maker for drip coffee that we keep in a closet for when we have company.

After I lost weight and was able to eat more calories in a day I was less concerned about staying full. At that point cappuccino was counterproductive since I didn’t need the 80 cal of milk. It was around then that someone at work who was also relative, sore on the subject suggested I try Americano’s. I didn’t realize that the flavor profile of the Americano was that much different than drip coffee. I decided to try it out and was surprised that I actually liked it. Over a few months I slowly moved from having cappuccinos most of the time to having Americanos with some cappuccinos here and there. At home I would boil hot water with her teakettle and poured into a double shot of espresso I would make with the Nespresso machine. It was a good solution although it was $1.25 per cup.

At this point I was curious about coffee alternatives for the house that were not drip coffee. By now I’d have drip coffee here and there when I couldn’t get an espresso-based drink. There were plenty of times before then when I simply would not have coffee if I couldn’t get an Americana or cappuccino. As I started drinking more coffee if they didn’t have an espresso-based drink I would just “suck it up” and have drip coffee. I still wasn’t a big fan of it however I was curious what alternatives I had two espressos or Americanos. Talking to friends and researching lead me to want to try a French press. It was relatively low-cost and from what I read relatively high quality coffee. I bought one on Amazon for under $30. The hardest part for me was finding coffee I wanted to get that was ground course for French presses. I ended up going to Gregory’s coffee where I get my daily mid-day work coffee and picked up a pound and had them grind it for me. I was very impressed by how the French press coffee came out at home. On the weekends that’s what I make today. I’ve been continuing to buy the Gregory’s coffee since I like it. The other day I picked up some Café grumpy ground coffee to try. The sales lady was very helpful for me to find the right flavor I like. More recently I’ve been going to grumpy’s this summer for my coffee. Nothing wrong with Gregory’s however I like the cold brew at grumpy’s better even though it’s a little bit further of a walk for me. The French press turns out to be the fifth coffee delivery mechanism I own at home.

Last summer were the summer before that high had tried cold brewed iced coffee. For someone they never drank coffee a lot 10 years ago cold brew is literally an eye-opening experience. Wow it is potent. I liked it however it was strong and rough on my stomach. This summer I realized that was I think due to the Gregory’s coffee specifically. The Starbucks cold brew or the grumpy’s cold brew work much better for me. I afternoon coffee break at work now consists of going to get cold brew since it’s so hot out. I’ve evolved from Flavia cappuccino in the morning to and Americana in the morning with a decaf Americano or a cold brew in the afternoon. I’ve had friends talk about brewing the cold brew at home. at the time of the discussions with them I wasn’t as interested. A few weeks ago I came across an article mentioning that sale on a cold brewing pitcher on Amazon. I researched it and it turned out to be one of the top two best-selling. For the price I figured to give it a try. It came this weekend while we were away at my sister-in-law’s. At the time of this writing but likely not by the time this gets posted I haven’t used it yet. Hopeful it’s not that much of a hassle to clean.

The cold brew making pitcher now makes six separate coffee preparation devices I have in my house. If six sounds excessive you are most likely correct. On a day-to-day basis I only use two of them. MC uses one other one. The coffee maker is only for company and we use it a few times a year however when we do use it it’s invaluable so it’s not something it’s going away. I don’t use the mocha pop often because it’s cumbersome to clean. I like the coffee but it’s not worth the effort. Was also very cheap to get so unlikely I’m going to get rid of it since it doesn’t take up much space. I do use the Nespresso machine several times a week however not usually for morning coffee on the weekends. I’m curious to see if I’ll actually use the cold blue pitcher however I have a feeling it might be very useful for summer months.

One interesting thing that I noticed was as much as I like a cappuccino I find that one of the most basic coffee preparation methods the French press is one of my go to options. I thought of that since I’m reminded of the most basic form of shaving options also seem to be the best. And am loving my new old-school mechanical keyboard. So even though I like high tech stuff I’m fascinated that for some things I’m drawn to old school stuff.

There you have it high 10 to 12 year evolution from not having any coffee to my twice a day fix. Nowadays I do try to have decaf in the afternoon except for when I’m doing colder since let’s face it half the point of cold brew coffee is the caffeine.

The W Sisters and the Assorted Stories From 19-August

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Having a 2 1/2 & almost 4 year old makes for great entertainment.  I like to say they are our entertainment budget.  I have been making a more active effort to journal the funny things they do and say.  Up till last week I didn’t take the time to clean up the writing to make it more “presentable” for public posting.  I am going to keep trying to do that because it is funny stuff (at least for me so I want to share) and it contrasts the geeky technical stuff I typically post.

This post is a collection of a few brief stories from 19-August 2016.  Some of this stuff wouldn’t be as amusing if it wasn’t for the fact they were from a 2 12 and almost 4 year old.  It amused me anyway.

While I was changing Amelia into pajamas Teagan was by my computer.  Both girls like to watch the photo slide show that plays as a scream saver. Teagan must’ve seen something that she wanted to show Amelia so Teagan called out to Amelia to come see. From across the apartment  on the changing table. Amelia replied “I’m busy right now”

A few minutes after finishing changing her when I put Amelia down on the floor she slapped my arm a couple of times. It was playful and didn’t hurt however I cautioned her that hands are not for hitting since we do not want her hitting even if playing around. Her response was crying out “I don’t want to hit the couch”. I assumed that was something she was told to try when she wants to hit someone.  I later confirmed with MC that was correct. I asked her then what she wanted to hit if not the couch. Instead and she told me her Dee Dee (Paddington Bear).  I gave her Paddington bear and she proceeded to lightly slap it two times and walked out of the room.

Later that day playing with he really big Legos that are bigger than the duplo Legos the girls were arguing. Teagan wanted to walk out of the room. As she was walking out Teagan asked me to keep an eye on Amelia. I said okay and glanced at Amelia for a second and continue cleaning in the kitchen.  I was trying to complete cleaning all the 30+ year old lego so the girls could play with them. Teagan then looked at me again as she was walking to her room and scolded me and said I need to look at  Amelia.  She continued to insist that i keep eyes on her the whole time.  For an almost 4 year old it was pretty persistent.2016-08_kids_selfie