Cerebrate Good Times

I've started a few posts lately but haven't felt strongly about publishing any of them. So here are a few random updates. James turned three a couple weeks ago, and my parents came for a visit along with my sister and her family. It was nice. The kid's stinkin' cute. Yes, that's Nacho Libre in the background. Sam's been struggling a little bit with teenager-hood. We finally took him to a counselor, and they diagnosed with with some anxiety and OCD tendencies. So we're working to find the best way to treat it so school isn't so overwhelming for him. I think a lot of it has to do with his troubles sleeping, but we'll see how things go. We're going to visit Utah in a couple weeks. My sister recently moved back from DC with her husband and little girl. They're staying with my parents while they look for a place, so we'll go down and spend some time doing family-type things. Last time we took Cinder, but he was just a kitten. Now he...

Okay, that's a reference to What about Bob? Which is a movie that probably downplays the seriousness of mental illness, but nevertheless is a very fun watch. Anyway, last week Samuel went to a young men's camp for three days. He's never been away from us more than just overnight before, and even then only a couple other times. So while he was gone, Allison was the oldest child, at 9 years old. It was interesting to sort of go back in time a few years so the problems you're dealing with as parents are different. Samuel deals with teenager issues now, so things that seem much more serious, particularly given his responsible personality. Allison, on the other hand, is still at the stage where it's about sharing her toys and eating dinner before dessert. So it was nice to have a bit of a break from the all-consuming existential crises of a teenager. That being said, we were happy to have him back.

Well, this was a first. Last week Allison got her ears pierced. This is a rite of passage for a lot of girls, and it's even more interesting in our family. My mother doesn't have pierced ears, and neither does Katie. So it's kind of a first. But she had been bugging us about it for weeks, because one of her friends just got her ears pierced. Katie and I had discussed this before. I guess the reason she had never done it herself was more because of the pain rather than an objection to the practice itself. I've always admired that she had never done it (I'm honestly not a big fan of the ridiculous things women have to do for appearance, including makeup and even shaved legs), and I wasn't sure how Allison would fare. She is rather sensitive to pain. We can't even brush her hair without her screaming about it most of the time. So that she was willing to undergo this said something about her determination. Anyway, she reported that it barely hurt, and ...

For a while I've been wondering if it's possible to train cats. I mean, I knew it was possible , because they're in movies and whatnot. But I've never trained an animal and didn't know how to go about it. Then in my regular Internet wanderings I came across a book a couple years ago called The Trainable Cat . Then I finally picked up a copy shortly after we got Cinder. Training them younger is supposed to be better, so I thought I'd see what the book has to say. It took me a few months to get around to it, and I still haven't finished the book all the way, but here's what I've learned in general. You're supposed to reward them for doing the thing you want, not negatively reinforce things you don't want them to do. The reward also has to immediately follow the action, because they associate whatever their mind is focused on at the moment with what is happening. You're also supposed to train them in a quiet, distraction-free environment. ...

It was Clara's birthday this week. How dare you take my photo?! The last year has been interesting for her, and she's definitely had her ups and downs. Clara's favorite thing to do is to draw, and it's been really fun to see her unique artistic style develop. In reverse chronological order, for some reason. When not drawing, she has a very mischievous personality, particularly where Cinder the kitten is concerned. One moment she's covering him with a blanket as he naps, and the next she's yelling in his ear or pushing him off the chair. But overall we have seen an improvement in her behavior over the last 12 months. And sometimes she is actually more obedient and helpful than James or Allison, so that's interesting. Clara's relationship with Allison is a constant source of frustration. Allison wants to play with all her toys by herself, and Clara will take one of them and run, making Allison mad. No matter how we try, we can...

All right, time for another boring running post. As I'm sure you remember, I had knee surgery last fall. After a couple months I was slowly able to get running again, with good results. The swelling was gone, and the scar cartilage seemed to be coming along nicely. In March I ran my first half marathon post-procedure. Meanwhile, at work we learned that the company would reimburse anyone who wanted to enter the Idaho Falls Marathon in July. So I decided to give it a shot. I still haven't registered, but I started training last month. I'm also training a little differently than I ever have before. I'll try to keep the details minimal, but in the past I've always run a consistent 3 to 5 miles a couple times a week, then increased my long runs on Saturdays until I got to the marathon distance. This time I am following a specific training plan I've been eyeing for years. It involves just three runs per week (most plans have you run 4 to 6 days a week), which ha...

This is kind of a weird thing to think about, but sometimes I get as sad about a company going under as I do a person having struggles. October 2013: I purchased a Pebble watch. As far as I know, it was the first smartwatch on the market. I loved getting notifications on my wrist, and being able to send canned responses without getting my phone out. I could control my music, customize the watch face, track running stats, and do a few other things from it. It was just black and white, but it lasted several days between charges. Later they developed a color display, which I also got, and loved it. Then other companies started releasing them with touchscreens and other bells and whistles. Eventually Pebble went out of business and was acquired by Fitbit, which would supposedly incorporate some elements from the Pebble operating system to their products moving forward. I now use a Garmin smartwatch that is heavy on the running data and GPS but doesn't have quite as many everyday fu...