Rats! What a great idea!

For Christmas this year, we got two pet rats.  After much searching / exploring ideas for good pets for kids, rats kept coming up at the top of the list.  As G is quite allergic to cats, and I have a general disdain for them, cats were off the list.  Dogs require too much time, attention, and cost; though would be a good 2nd choice for us.  I was thinking "hamster" but they don't sell teddy-bear hamsters anymore, and the little hamsters they sell now are biters.  That would be a "no" for us - we want a pet to interact with, not just watch.  So reptiles and fish are out.  Mariia doesn't like birds in the house.  What's left?  Rats.  The hamster industry has convinced us that hamsters are cute, clean, trainable, non-biters that are fun to interact with.  They are not.  However, rats do have all of these qualities.  People get turned off by the tail (hence why hamsters are more popular - small tail).  Silly, huh?  The tail is used for balance and to regulate their body temperature.  It's what gives them such great agility.

After acquiring a large (3' x 2' x 5') multi-level cage, the requisite food bowls, chewy things, hammocks, and other cage toys, we were ready.  A quick trip to PetCo and we had two female rats (no babies here, please) - Bee-Doh (from Despicable Me movies) and Eva (from Wall-E).  M thought that she would not like them at first, but after 5 minutes she was hooked.  A true rat-whisperer.  They took to her immediately for petting.

Rats are meticulous about being clean, they love to interact with each other and their owners.  If you don't handle your rats daily, they get sad.  If they don't live with another rat, they die faster, as they get very lonely.  On day 1 we were handling the rats.  When you scratch them behind their ears, they purr.  They're soft, they don't smell, and will lick your fingers if you pet them.  You groom your friends, after all.  In essence, they are kind of like small kittens with a lot less maintenance.

We've had the rats for about a month now, and they have never even attempted to bite at us, even with my 5-year old's sometimes rougher-than-I-like handling.  They tolerate it because they want to be played with.  When we clean their cage, we let them out to roam the room freely.  This usually involves having rats climb on the closest person.  They want to be on you and play with you.  If they can get inside your shirt, they think it is great fun.  After a month we have them litter-box trained so they are not making as much of a mess in their cage.  They both come when called.  We are "clicker-training" them, so when they get a treat, you make a clicking sound.  They associate the sound with doing something good.  S has them started to teach them how to stand on their back legs.  They play tug-of-war with each other and you using a paper towel.  They're incredibly adept climbers and jumpers.  They are crazy-smart and very fast learners.

Hollywood gets a lot of things wrong (shock!).  Rats in movies / TV are typically represented as nasty critters.  They are anything but that.  They use them in movies / TV because they are so easy to train and won't even think of harming their people friends.  Urban legends hold more truth than reality here.

There are some great life-lessons kids get from owning pets.  Learning how to take care of another living thing is a wonderful lesson.  The kids understand that the rats are dependent on them for food, water, cleaning, and socialization.  They take to it every night when we have "rat time".  Some lessons are good for all of us, simply by observing our rat-friends.

Things owning a pet rat will teach you:

- The cage is your home and a safe place, but all the fun is outside the cage with your friends.

- Though you may squabble with your housemate, you still curl up with them at night.

- Trust needs to be earned, but once earned the rewards are endless.

- Be cautious of new things, but try them anyway.

- If you find a peanut, share it with your friend.

- You need to try jumping to what you want every now and again.  If you miss, you have claws to pull yourself up.
- The potty is a safe place to chew on toys and treats.

I'll Second That

The 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution is a point of great controversy in the US, as well as any discussion that comes up with regard to weapons.  I tend not to wax poetic about my political or social views in any public forum, rather intentionally.  I feel it better in most cases to shut up and listen. My views are my views, and they're likely to stay that way for a long time, and I'm not likely to be swayed by other's opinions on things.  Unfortunately, what is mostly said is hyperbole at best, and not helpful to finding solutions, or even to determine if a solution needs to be found.  I suppose if I had to summarize my point of view, it's best to do a Q&A:
Do I know people that own guns?  Yes.
Do I care to know about it?  No.
Am I going to advise anyone to own / not own guns?  No.
Do I think anyone should regulate owning guns?  No.
All of the above questions are absolutely none of my business, and I intend to keep it that way.

Do I think a reasonable background check should take place before buying a gun?  Yes.
Do I think the current process of background checks today is adequate?  No, it needs a lot of work.
Note that does not mean I think it needs to be more onerous, it is just that it is not easy to do one if I were the one doing the selling.  The background check process makes far more money than it should - we have the technology, I'm not sure why we don't use it.

On a more personal level:
Do I have a gun?  No.
Do I want a gun?  No.
Do I want anyone in our house to own a gun?  No.

If a gun were in my house, I would ensure it is kept in a secure gun safe with keyed lock.  The gun would also have a trigger lock on it at all times.  I would want to possess one of those keys and would secure it.  I would also ensure any ammunition would be secured.  Seem strict?  Sure.  But since there would never be a need to shoot the gun anywhere near the house, it seems prudent to me.  I really don't want one in the house.  Accidents can and will happen, and that's just a risk I'm not willing to live with.

So, there's my take.  It probably doesn't agree with yours, and that's OK.  I don't intend to change my point of view on this, and I'll let you have your point of view on it.  I'm perfectly happy keeping it that way.

If you are going to do something, do it well.

I'll admit it, I like to play practical jokes. Not small things either. If you're going to do something, I think you should do it well or not at all. I once put 480 tubs of play-do in a co-workers cube for his 40th birthday. When I put up Christmas lights, I try to do 20,000 of them. I've won 'best lights in town' contests twice. I've filled cubicles with balloons, post its, and drink umbrellas. I try to think outside the box on these things.

I've been doing something for a while, I call it small surprises. Typically at work, and always anonymously. It could be a plate of cookies, or a slinky on the desk. Something odd, and it leaves the person smiling a bit. I don't do it for thanks, that's why I do it anonymously. The mystery of 'who did this' is enough thanks for me. It's called spreading kindness, and it works.

I pulled a really good one today. A coworker had her 18-year wedding anniversary today, and we are on the road in Minneapolis. With her husband's idea and consent, I booked her for a 3 hour spa session. Another coworker with us wrote a card "from her husband". Was it cheap? No, but I paid for it with poker winnings, so no cash out of "my pocket" was involved. Was the shock and surprise worth every penny? You bet. My boss wants to figure out a way to reimburse me, but I said no - that's not why I did it. I paid cash, and got no receipt.

So, the moral here is that sometimes you'll notice someone needs a pick-me-up, where something small can go a long way. If you're going to do something, do it well, and reap the reward a thousand times over.

Donate Here

I'll admit it, I'm picky.  Especially when it comes to donating money to various causes.  I have some preset rules that have served me insanely well for many years.
1)  If I know you, and you're collecting money for something you are doing, say, a MS-150 ride, or a charity marathon run, I'm donating to you.  All you need to do is make me aware of it.  You're working your butt off, trust me, I know, as I've done a couple of MS-150 rides.  Donating levels apply here 100% (see donating levels rule below).
2)  If I don't know you, or you're just collecting money for whatever, and I don't know how it is really going to be used, you're probably not going to get a lot from me, if anything.
3)  I donate to my church, I know where it is going, and it does some good.  How much I donate is my business, not yours.  My church does not tell me how much I should donate, and if it did, I would stop donating immediately.
4)  I used to donate to the United Way above a "leadership" level, when it was matched by my company.  I may do this again in the future, but they give way too much to the Boy/Girl Scouts, which I have personal issues with nowadays.
5)  I do not donate to people that come to my house.  Or at least, rarely.  I will support high-school band members that come to sell something to support band trip or instrument buying.  I get the fact that their budgets are near zero and they are paying their own way.  I will not support 'for the school' fundraisers - especially with elementary school kids.  This is more to make money for the company selling the junk than for the school.  It scares the hell out of me that parents send their first graders door-to-door unsupervised to do this.
6)  I have not, and will not send my kid door-to-door to sell stuff.  Ever.  I think it is a poor use of their time and talents.  I instruct the teachers on Day 1 of school that they are not to include my children in such sales, or even worse, school assemblies done for the purpose of telling the kids to sell things.  If they want $20, I'll give them $20, no questions asked.  It'll be more money than they will get from the fund raising company.  I will also not hawk school's crap to you that my kid is (not) selling, and I'd appreciate if you did the same.  I think it is in bad taste to do so.  Schools should be focusing on education, not 'general' money raising.

My donation levels:
If I know you, and I'm donating to something you are actively involved in, expect at least a $100 donation from me.  If I'm going to donate, I'm not going to donate 'small' to you.  Yes, this does surprise some people when they want $5 or $10 from me, and I donate $100 or more, but I figure you're doing the work, the least I can do is support you.

Not the way I intended to spend Father's Day

It's Father's Day. 
Instead of being at home in Corvallis with G and S, my two incredble kids, I'm sitting in a Hilton Garden Inn at Maple Grove, Minnesota.  I'm here on business, and I'm not knocking the purpose of the trip, it's a good thing that I'm here.  I've been here for the last two weeks, and I have one more week to go before I go home.  I'm just not sure if there is a lonelier place to be than in a hotel room by yourself in the middle of the Minneapolis suburbs, when you could be at home having fun with your kids. 
I probably could have flown home on Friday night, had a Saturday with the family, then flown back on Sunday afternoon.  But, as my previous post indicated, airplanes have taken on a new form of punishment for me.  It's a tradeoff.  I'm sure my family would have been happy to see me and all, but my leaving 30 hours later would probably have made things worse than they needed to be.
It may have been easier to get through this weekend if I had something to do, but because we're doing a code and data drop today, I can't get on our system to do any testing.  I'd much rather be doing that, it makes the days blur a bit.

Yesterday was the first day 'off' I've had in a while.  A co-worker, Nate, and I went to the Mall of America.  It was as expected, a huge mall.  It was more like an amusement park with a mall wrapped around it.  The Lego store was cool.  They had some huge Lego scuptures - a helicopter, a 20 foot Transformer, that kind of thing.  Very crowded place, and I dislike crowds.  We had lunch at Dicks, which is an experience of sorts.  Nate got sick from the food.  My hamburger was quite 'pre-processed' and not very good.  I guess I have an iron stomach.
Later, I got a haircut as I was getting a lot 'shaggy', then went to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Resurrection of Christ, which was essentially the front of a house in a neighborhood.  It was a very small church, they had bench seats (which is unusual for a Russian Orthodox Church, but that was probably due to space constraints.  I had a good talk with their Deacon, John.  I got to have a couple of minutes of peace, which was a quite welcome respite from the week.  I'm going to have to return before I leave.
I then went to J Cousineaus for dinner.  Buzztime had it highly rated, so time to give it a try.  It was a pain to find, but once I got there, it was definitely a 'quirky' place.  They had a sign on the door about how they had a #1 bar in the country score a couple of weeks ago.  That's a good sign for a trivia-bar.  The clientelle were an older-than-me type of crowd, and most were playing trivia while watching the US Open.  Nick, the barkeep, was very friendly.  I'm used to walking into strange bars and beating people at trivia.  This crew gave me a good challenge.  One game, I got 12th in the country, and for getting my name / bar name on the 'board', I got a token for a free drink.  Ahhhh... that's why this place is so popular for trivia.  :-)  I had an interesting bacon/cheese/peanut butter hamburger.  It was sweet-salty in a good way.  I really didn't want to leave J Cousineaus as the hotel room has become a very lonely place to be.  But, it was best to check in with e-mail and make an effort to get some sleep.

A lot of co-workers are coming back this week, I suppose that's a good thing.  This last week was rather empty, except for our COO who was there all week.  I'm not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.  He's a nice enough guy and all that, but he also adds a stress level to all of us that isn't really needed.  I'm hoping that my co-workers who were here last week got some much needed time away from this project - they both needed it quite badly.  I'm hoping I can find a quick resolution to the lingering problems.  I'm sure it will be found, but the solution may not be the prettiest in the world.

Confinement

I don't know if it's claustrophobia or some other classification, but I really hate being confined. This is why I want the aisle seat at a movie, concert, or airplane. I want an escape. Operas or classical concerts where you really can't leave your seat for an hour may as well be torture for me. Airplanes are hell - especially from the time I get on the plane until it takes off. Once the plane is in the air and I know I can get up, I'm fine again. Then from the time the plane starts to descend until it parks at the gate is painful. It's not that I dislike flying or planes, quite the opposite actually. I just hate not being able to move freely. It's not a sitting thing, because standing on a subway train or in a line is bad as well. Meetings at work are bad. I can last about 20 minutes and then I need to *get out now*. I have the same reaction in large crowds of people. Close-in spaces don't bug me like a traditionally classified claustrophobic, which is why I think it is more of an issue with confinement.
I wish there was an easy cure for whatever this is, but I doubt it. I know it's all in my head. It's gotten worse as I've gotten older, too. Odd, eh?

Trying something new

I think it's always hard to start a new habit, like blogging. I'm working on it. I've enabled my phone to allow me to write posts - hopefully that means I'll write more often.

Blog writer MIA, but not being held hostage or anything

I haven't posted much to this blog for a couple of months, thought I'm not sure as to why.  I guess the habit did not 'sink in' the way I thought it might.  There's a lot going on and getting my hands around it is difficult.  I do want to post more, it's just a matter of time for me.  I'm going to have to rev up the mind again.

The Art of Negotiation

The scene:  our kitchen table at dinner.  S has a plate of food in front of him.  He's hungry, but being stubborn because there is so many better things to be doing than eating dinner right now.
Me:  S, eat your dinner.
S:  No!  (3-year-old's favorite word, whether they mean it or not)
Me:  Eat your peas and you can have a cookie.
S:  (thinking really hard about that deal and separating a pile of peas from the pile) I'll eat this many peas and get a cookie.
Me:  OK, eat all your peas and some noodles and you can have two cookies.
S:  Thinks really hard, then starts eating his peas.  Gets through the first 'approved' pile, announces he gets a cookie.
Me:  Here's a cookie, but eat the rest of your peas and some noodles and you can have another cookie.
S:  (eats the rest of his dinner)  All done, I get another cookie.

Later that night, as I'm working on the laptop, S comes upstairs to play with the nerf football.  At one point, the balls goes to the other end of the room, I get on my hands/knees to get it.
S:  OK!  You be the horse, I'll be.... me!


The lesson:  Negotiating with a 3-year-old can be challenging and oatmeal-raisin cookies are like money to a kid, but 'being the horse' is a job only a dad would take.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

There's something about fresh-fallen snow that wakes you up and makes you feel like a kid.  We had this weekend what usually turns out to be the only snowfall of the year.  We may have gotten 2 inches of snow, and it quickly froze to ice, but not before we were able to get out and make the requisite snowman.  G and S were both overly joyful at 6 AM when they saw the snowfall and wanted to immediately go outside to go sledding.

My son meets Senator Merkley

Oregon's Senator Jeff Merkley visited the nearby town of Monroe today for a town-hall meeting.  We decided it would be a neat idea to take G, our 9-year-old to this event.  He's been doing a lot in his Social Studies class on how to get involved in his community.  Here was a direct way to do it.  We got to the American Legion hall, got a raffle ticket to be able to ask a question, and sat down.  G came with a question in hand about picking up trash left in parks and forests by hunters.  It was a good question from a 9-year old.  In the crowd of about 100 people (standing room only by the time it started) were all the Benton County Commissioners, the mayors of Monroe, Corvallis, and Philomath, the head of the Corvallis School Board, the county fire chief and a police chief.  It was a decent group to ask questions of, since many of the questions were both locally impacting and nationally impacting.  Of the crowd, G was the youngest one by far (a high-school senior was there, as were about 3 college age kids).  Most of the crowd was in the 50+ age.
The Senator gave a nice non-stump 5 minute opening talk and then opened it up to questions.  The questions ran the gamut from Christmas tree burning and supporting that industry, to the gas pipeline they want to build from Canada to Texas, as well as a potential new gold mine in Alaska.  A student from OSU (VP of their student Democrat group) asked how OSU could get away with not following the ADA with their new buildings.  We didn't get called on via the raffle system, but at the end, he wanted to open it up to 'any other students'.  An OSU student went first, then it was G's turn to end the event.  He got up and did a nice job asking his question about how to get hunters to pick up their trash in the forest.  The Senator gave a good response about being good custodians of the land. He then asked where he got this idea from.  G answered that he takes a lot of hikes, he's talked to a lot of people, and "I talked to my mom about it".  That last bit got a good deal of applause from the audience.  My wife beamed at that response.  Senator Merkley asked G how old he was and where he went to school.  After learning he was 9, he said in the 109 town-halls he's held since he took office, my son was the youngest person he's had ask a question.  Cool!  G also liked saying he went to 'virtual school', though the Corvallis School Superintendant wasn't too thrilled.
So, we got some pictures with the Senator (some taken by his staff), got his business card and headed out.  A good event, G was impressed with the wide variety of questions that got asked by people in the crowd, and got a good appreciation for how some things work in the country / local area.  Hopefully we'll be able to tend more of these events in the future.

Sometimes, it pays to be spontaneous

Cabin fever.
It was a typical foggy, grey winters day in Corvallis.  G and I were both getting a bit of cabin fever around 3 PM, so I said to him "Get your shoes on, we're going for a walk".  It wasn't a request, it was a "we need to do this".  As we're walking out, M asks where we are going, and I tell her "to downtown to walk along the river."  She says that she thought we were going to Marys Peak.
Marys Peak is the highest point in the Coastal Range of Oregon, at about 4000 feet.  The view from the top is extraordinary.  On a clear day, you can see the Cascade Mountain Range from Mt. Rainier near Seattle to as far south as southern Oregon.  It's rare, but it happens.  The problem with Marys Peak is that the road to the top in winter can be tricky to get up, it's not maintained during the winter at all.  Also, a cloud at the top can mean that you are seeing nothing but cloud.  It's always a risk, but when it pays off, it is always worth it.
As we're driving out of the neighborhood, I noted that we could see the Cascades, and mentioned that if Marys Peak is clear, we're going there.  From our far-away view, you could see lots of clouds, and Marys Peak poking out from the top of them, clear as day.  Off we went!
Marys Peak is often extraordinary.  Tonight was phenomenal.  The sun was setting, giving a gorgeous sunset over the Pacific (which is also visible from the top).  It was turning all the Cascade mountains a nice shade of pink and orange.  On top of all that, there was a gorgeous full moon.  We took the path to the top of the hill, and at every turn, it would take your breath away.  This was one magical trip.  We were almost alone at the top, except for a couple of photo-buffs that knew better than to stay down in the valley on a night like this.  There was enough snow at the top for some excellent sledding, and one family was taking full advantage of their good fortune.  We would be doing the same the next day, I was sure of it.
We came off the mountain a little lighter on our feet.  It was difficult to describe the beauty at the top.  Words could not do it justice.  Cabin fever was wiped out.  I took as many pictures as I could, fully knowing that they would not match up to what we could see, feel, and experience.  We got home, I thanked M for her 'suggestion' and said we're going back the next day to go sledding.

Sledding Day
It was another foggy day in town, but I knew better.  Once we got over 1500 - 2000 feet, the sky would clear up and we were in for a real treat.  We took G and S, wore better winter clothing, and brought the sleds with us. Unfortunately, it had been sunny on Marys Peak as well, and a majority of the snow had melted.  But, we found a good shady location that still had plenty of snow and had a blast sledding down the hill.  Another family with 2 boys from Newcastle, England were on the hill with us, and fun was had by all.  We are definitely going to keep Marys Peak in mind when we want to go sledding in the future.  It's a lot closer than going up to the Cascades!  The view today was extraordinary.  You could see Mt. Rainier and all the major mountains in the Cascade Range today.  Another phenomenal day on the hill, definitely not to be missed!

My duty, as a dad

I believe it is my duty as a dad to make my kids laugh out loud, often excessively, every day.  Sometimes this is done via some joke that they can repeat ad nauseum, sometimes it's a funny story I tell, or some funny voice I can make up.  This morning we had a 'super-slow-motion-pillow-fight'.

Acai

What is an acai berry?  Why can't you buy them in a store, but you find acai juice in stuff like vitamin water?  I don't recall ever hearing of acai until about 3 years ago - introduced as some 'super fruit'.  I heard that and thought of one of those fruit-of-the-loom guys as a super hero.  It's Mighty Mango - to the rescue!!  I've never had a raw acai - are they even edible, or is it just the juice that you want?  Perhaps one of these days I'll find an acai bush (tree?) and try one.

What to say and how to say it

I read blogs.  I have some I read fairly often, others I may glance at on an every-now-and-then basis.  They cover a variety of topics:  Life in the world of being a CS / IT guy, Life as a Dad, Life as a practical joker, and musings and observations of life in general as it comes at you.  I like all of them, and it makes me wonder what I should write about.  Should I be topical?  I doubt I want to write about my opinions of life so as to seem like I'm trying to convince myself or, good gravy, try and convince others that my opinions have meaning. 
I have always thought that the first part of writing something of interest is to start.  The words will eventually flow from the thoughts that are rambling about in your head.  I am pretty sure I don't what my blog to be topical, but rather, just a collection of stuff.  What's good, what's bad, what's funny, and what's interesting.  Hopefully, I can look back on this and gain some insight into things that I didn't previously have insight into.  But, I'm probably wishing for far too much.  Another side of me hopes my kids may eventually find this and get a sense of why I did some things the way I did them.  Again, good luck.
In the end, I think this blog may be a combination of a lot of stuff.  Places I go, things I do, stuff I see, observations on the banal and exciting both.

Joining the 21st Century

Yes, I'm blogging.  I am not sure why, but am curious where this may take me.  Time will tell, I suppose.