Guam will capsize if we increase troop levels...

I saw this on youtube. A real US congressman, expressing his reservations on increasing troop levels in Guam:



It reminded me when I was about 8 years old, playing Risk against my big brother Mark, who was about 14 or 15 at the time. I had finished conquering the Americas, and was looking to invade Europe. Those familiar with the game will of course recognize they way you do that is to invade Iceland from Greenland. I turned in my cards for about 40 new armies, and added it to an already stacked Greenland for about 70 armies, looking to deliver the knockout round. But after I obliterated his garrison, and was trying to move about 35 pieces of plastic over tiny Iceland, Mark stopped me: "Um, like, you can't do that. You've got too many armies. Look at the board Craig, your armies can't fit on Iceland."

This is way Mark used to win his games. Of course, he's very clever, and can often win games without resorting to such tactics, but if you're playing, say, Monopoly with him, beware when he generously offers to be the banker.

A Whole Bunch of Pics

Events include: Legoland trip with cousins (July), Spencer's blessing (August), the kids' favorite mind-melting activity (could be almost any day of the year), the kids' favorite outdoor activity, Stan and Virginia's visit (August-September), and Bryce's pirate pumpkin (October), Becky's birthday (with Spencer thinking, "that's a LOT of candles"), and some nice professional pics. More to come, hopefully.

Our busy past 9 months?!!

Our poor neglected, abandoned blog. I have had the best of intentions to make an update, but somehow have not found the time to actually do it. So now while the baby is actually sleeping some place other than in my arms, I thought I would try to write something and to post some pictures.

The biggest change in our lives has been the birth of our third child. Spencer is now a month and a half old. Emma and Bryce have been wonderful with him. Much better than I could have imagined. Emma is often giving me suggestions on how best to help Spencer and she is very often right. She was the one who discovered that classical music is surprisingly soothing to him. She also tricks him out of fussing sometimes by saying "waa, waa!" right back to him. Bryce too helps take care of the baby. He will sit next to him in the car and perform the duties of "pass patrol" (i.e. putting the pacifier back in the baby's mouth if he starts to cry). Spencer is smiling quite a bit now and the smiles, along with the cute cooing sounds he makes bring me a surprising amount of joy.

Emma and Bryce have also changed and accomplished much since our last posting. They both tear around the block on their bikes, much to my dismay, as I try unsuccessfully to keep up with them. Emma finished her first year of Kindergarten. She loves to both read and write. She is endlessly writing and illustrating new stories. I love to hear her read to me and she often helps by reading to Bryce when I am busy. Bryce finished his first year of preschool. He now proudly writes his name. He is such a social kid. I have no clue where he got that from, definitely not from me. When we go to the park he always seems to make new friends, going up to other kids (even big kids). I hope he will always be so friendly. Even on my grumpiest days he never fails to give me a hug and tell me he loves me and that I'm his best friend.

Our busy August 2008

August is our birthday month, so we were busy putting on 2 birthday parties and making cakes, etc. But there were also some other fun things that happened this month: we had our Griffin family reunion in Sacramento, we drove to Roaring Camp to visit Thomas the train, we went to the Ringley Bros, Barnun & Bailey circus in San Jose, and Emma began Kindergarten. So all in all, both a busy month and a very fun month. Here are some of the photos we took of the festivities.

Everett Family Reunion, Park City

We had a really great time with Becky's family in Park City last month. We were able to rent a big enough cabin to fit us all comfortably -- a real feat, considering there were something like 23 people. Surprisingly, we were able to coordinate the activities so that nearly every day, all of us were able to go to the activities together.

One day we visited the Park City resort, where we rode the alpine slide, the alpine coaster (kind of like a roller coaster build on the mountain), and the smaller children bounced around on these kind of enhanced trampolines that made you bounce higher than usual. Some even tried out the zip line spanning several hundred yards.

Another day, we all congregated by a lake, where we played football, and some games the smaller children enjoyed. But the most intense activity of the day was capture the flag. Among other interesting aspects, the game included jail breakouts (legally and illegally), spies (my team would have won had Jessica -- an 'observer' -- not tipped off our entrapment of Nate, leading to a mass jail breakout), covert operations (Jeremy took off his shirt & tried to imitate the local fisherman to get close to the flag), police investigations (the 'real' police -- what would an Everett reunion be without one), and injuries (Nate and Jeremy at least). The game eventually ended in stalemate after an hour and a half.

Also, it snowed. Emma and Bryce's first experience in the snow -- in June. Fortunately, it was just one day -- I think we packed a windbreaker for each of us. 3 days after that, it was 95 degrees. Um, I think we'll stay in California. But I must say, it was very fun for a day; we made snowmen, snowballs, and got to use the hot-tub outside in the snowy weather.

Emma's dance recital

On Saturday, Emma had her tap and ballet performance. I thought this was a good opportunity to figure out how to transfer my video to the computer and how to post it to the blog. Enjoy!!

Amazon Kindle

Well, I can finally say that this is what I've been helping to build for 2 and a half years. It's been a long time coming -- at times it seemed it wasn't going to happen. But Amazon put the device up for sale this morning, and the orders are coming in now. Already a lot of press has been given the Kindle -- Jeff Bezos and the Amazon marketing folks really did a good job of getting early positive press coverage. It even looks like it will be on the cover of Newsweek this week. So for better or for worse, my work is now going through the grinder of hi tech criticism. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks and months. It is quite nerve-wracking.

Halloween 2007

This Halloween, Emma decided to go with what worked well for her last year: Little Bo Peep. Bryce, however, did not want to be her sheep again. In fact, I doubt that little sheep costume would even fit anymore. Besides, that costume was so hot on him that when I took him out last year he was drenched in sweat. Instead, he decided on being a monkey, no doubt in honor of his favorite action hero, Curious George. He especially liked the little banana that sticks out of the right pocket.

In other news, I finally ventured down under our house in the crawl space (see above) to pull out the surround sound system the last owners had manually installed. I sure hope we don't decide in the future that we actually want the surround -- that area under the house almost made me claustrophobic. Some areas I had to turn my head sideways and squeeze between the dirt on one side and pipes on the other. Emma could hear where I was underneath the house, groping around, avoiding the sewage pipes and inhaling liters of dust. She would keep screaming, "DADDY, ARE YOU ALRIGHT.....? Mommy, daddy sounds very bad under there. I think he's probably stuck" I told her afterwards I was doing my yearly spelunking -- I don't think that's the right word, but if she ever mentions it, now you'll know what she means.

Pumpkin Patch '07

Each year since Emma was born, we've made a point of enjoying the harvest season and doing things to celebrate our favorite time of year. Last year we visited Hudson with Stan and Virginia to enjoy the beautiful autumn season in Ohio. The 2 years before that we visited Apple Hill in the Sierras with my parents. I don't know how age has affected us in this way, but we both have come to really enjoy the fall season more than others. Maybe I didn't before because it represented the start of another long year of studying.

In any case, I'm not sure we're going to take a trip this year, but at least we made it to the pumpkin patch. There are several cool ones around here; this one had more than enough pumpkins to choose from, a cool train that went around the field, and an enormous prize pumpkin that weighs 1300 lbs.