Silly spam questionnaire

My sister sent this to me ages ago, And I forgot to finish filling it out.  Had a moment so, here it is.

1. What is your occupation?   programmer, although I am a cook, babysitter, father, husband, grouch and so on.

2. What color are your socks right now?  White...ish.

3. What are you listening to right now? iTunes has "Combe Magna" from the Sense and Sensibility soundtrack by Patrick Doyle queued up.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? A bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast burrito.
5. Can you drive a stick shift?  Yup.  Learned to do that when I couldn't even drive a automatic too well.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? I hate crayons.  Unlike my redheaded sister, my personality type is not red.

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Mom.  She told me to stop being so grouchy when practicing music with the kids.

8. How old are you today? 33 and 330 days old.
9. Favorite drink? A nice tall glass of ice water....and red cream soda...and root beer.

10. What is your favorite sport to watch? Chess...just kidding.  Dunno, whatever happens to be on that's not golf.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? No, but I kinda bleached it once.

12. Favorite Pets?  Not anymore.  Pets are a nuisance.  Speaking for one that had to clean up a large pile of undigested doggie barf the other day.
     
13. Favorite food?  I had this soup in Budapest last year that was to die for.  It was so freakin good.

14. What was the last movie you watched?  "Dan in Real Life"...liked it.

15. Favorite holiday of the year? Holiday??? I think the last holiday I had was when I got knee surgery and was laid up for a couple days.  Holidays are strenuous.

16. What do you do to vent anger? I grouch which includes yelling.  I used to slam doors and stuff, but Ira really gets pissed off at that, so I stopped.  I also withdraw into my Josh shell.

17. What was your favorite toy as a child?  legos and action figures probably.

18. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Yes.  They are not summer or winter.

19. Hugs or kisses?  Depends on who is the receiver and who is the giver.

20. Cherries or Blueberries? both

21. Do you want your friends to email you back? Not really, I prefer to chat.

22. Who is most likely to respond? No one, this is a blog.

23. Who is least likely to respond? No one, this is still a blog.

24. Living arrangements? Home in Orem.  Live with wife, kids, pets, and soon we will have a house guest...i am so thrilled. yuck..I mean yay (houseguest is gone, now have mother-in-law).

25. When was the last time you cried? Real men don't cry, they get something in their eyes.

26. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes and other misc. items.

29. Favorite smells?  Winter.  Pine trees.  Beef roast on fast sunday.

28. What did you do last night? Made dinner, reviewed homework, cleaned up from dinner, read with kids, read to wife.

30. What inspires you? Music, certain people and speeches.

31. What are you afraid of? The world...it's a scary place.

32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?  Yes.  Hamburgers are tasty.

33. Favorite dog breed? My neighbor's dog.  Just because it isn't my dog.

34. How many years at your current job? 4...with a six month sabbatical

35. Favorite place you've ever been?

36. How many states have you lived in? 2, plus a couple of foreign countries

37. Favorite day of the week? After a hard week at work, Friday.  After a long weekend at home, Monday.

38. Ever driven motorcycle or heavy machinery? Been on a motorcycle...in minus centigrade degree weather in the winter on snow and ice.  I also drove tractors.

39. Who's your favorite NFL team?  Don't have one.

40. Do you have a house phone that is not cordless? Yes.  In the hall.

Pres Hinckley

Since President Hinckley died the other day, I have been perusing many of the tributes found in the media. I don't watch much TV, especially since Ira put a month-long moratorium on it, so it's been mostly what I can find on the internet.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that both the BBC and a russian news site had articles on his passing. In fact, the BBC article was headlined on their site longer that the CNN article was. So much for being an "American" prophet. I also really enjoyed Glenn Beck's tribute.

Now that the brightest of feelings for his passing have burned lower, I can at my own little tribute. Pres. Hinckley was one of the greatest men of our time. His ability to communicate and reach people at all levels was truly spectacular. I was always eager to hear him speak. He was non-trivial, non-apologetic, to the point, direct and right. But even when he was calling people to repentance, he did it in such a way that you would not be offended by it. That was because everything he did and said was driven by the Christ-like love he had. He was and is a true disciple of Christ.

Praise to the man!!!

An update

The household update:

Ira is still pregnant. She regresses even more into her sleepy shell as time goes on. We have been reading the book for her book club together...that is I have been reading it out loud while she listens until she falls asleep. She rather enjoys it.

Alisa got into "trouble" recently at school for not staying on task because she is too busy reading a book in class. Had to have a talk and threaten her with punishment aside from restricting her reading activities to recess and home. It's a double edged sword. On one hand it's a good thing she likes to read. She has a good memory and books fill her up. On the other hand, her grades took a dip this semester (in class grades, homework was fine). And I have to admit that I get extremely frustrated when doing her math homework that I have to explain concepts behind problems she has been doing ALL YEAR LONG!!! Line graphs are the worst. But other than that, she is a good helper, especially with Misha. Of the three kids, she bonds with him the best and he reciprocates.

Kiril also was mentioned by his teacher as being disruptive in class. He will raise his hand, then not say anything. He also talks and turns around. Which is what he does at home. At the dinner table, I have to threaten his life so that he will sit down in his seat and eat instead of jabber. It was his birthday yesterday and got some Star Wars Legos and the starter set for the Orc/Knight battle game. He also recently started Irish step dancing and was complimented on his first day for one of the dance moves. All his talent will come to frutation, it seems.

Dasha is usually quite a bit of fun. She also started Irish step dancing and enjoys it. Whereas Alisa will find a book and sit reading for hours whether or not she is supposed to be doing something else, and Kiril will demand your attention to keep him busy, Dasha can occupy herself quietly and productively for a long time. Where Asya will sit and hum some random note progression like a broken radio, Dasha will make up songs to sing to herself. She is quite independent and times, but enjoys the company of mom and dad. Yesterday she and Ira went for a walk with the dog to deliver invitations to Kiril's party. On the way, Dasha talked and talked and then told Ira she wanted to go for walks every evening.

Misha is...well....Misha. He has hit a plateau of sorts with some things, but still progresses slowly. He still does things that surprise me. On Sunday at Mom's, he was wandering around and ended up near the TV. He picked up a DVD case, got Ira's attention, pointed the video, then at the TV. And it wasn't even a video that he watches. In explanation, he is quite sensitive to new audio/video entertainment. Ira has to force him to read a new book several times before he accepts it and will ask to read it. New songs make him cry and run away. Videos are similar, but I think the visual stimuli is more tantalizing and he is more forgiving. He has started to show Ira when he wants his diaper changed, like when he is stinky. That is great news. We might get him potty trained before he starts preschool. Its a lofty goal, but it would be cool.

And me, I am just me. I ride the bus to work. I work. I come home, do dinner, help the kids with the homework and read (the month without tv/games is nearly over, heh, heh, heh). Life is fairly simple in most respects.

It made me sad

Yesterday, I was perusing the news, as I usually do and hit an article which really hit me for some reason. It was about some single mom, somewhere in America who was recovering from a drug addiction. According to her family, she was turning her life around. She lived alone with her toddler, a young boy about two years of age.

Evidentially, the boy and his mom were found dead in their apartment. The mother had died of natural causes. The boy had died from starvation days later. In my minds eye, I saw the boy wandering around the apartment and mommy isn't talking to him. She is asleep. He gets hungry and thirsty and begins to cry and cry and mommy isn't doing anything. They said he was trying to scavage some food, but couldn't. In the end, I could see him lying there too weak to cry anymore. It made me sad because this kinda thing could happen to Misha. Not only that, but Misha had a fever yesterday and was just lying there. He was feeling too poorly to sit up or stand on his own or even do much eating. So I kinda had a glimpse of what it would be like.

Misha's first word

Misha has a vocabulary of a dozen words or so. Most of them are animal sounds, like "a-khiii" for cat (it sounds like the russian word for cat..."KI-sa". Or dog..."av av", or goose..."ga-ga-ga". His best word is "up!", which he pronounces quite crisp. And there is mama, baba, papa and a couple others.

Misha also signs several words. More, again, milk, eat, drink, sleep, yes, no, etc. One day, while putting him to bed, I noticed that he was showing me a new sign which I had never seen before. I have watched his Signing Time videos several times and couldn't remember that one anywhere. But it was so appropriate and understandable, it was easy to figure out. He put one finger in his mouth and moved it back and forth..."brush my teeth". Amazing...he can't speak it, but he is smart enough to make up his own sign that makes a lot of sense.

Misha has also started comforting people when they are "hurt". For instance, when he gets frustrated, he will sometimes hit myself or Ira, but whenever he does we tell him that it hurts, which instantly turns off the frustration and he has started giving hugs. Or when one of the other kids hurts themselves or is crying, he does the same thing.

Another major progression was that the other day, I noticed him while he was playing using a toy in an appropriate role. He was crawling along on the floor and found a small matchbox size car. He did his car noise (kind of like a raspberry with his lips), then flipped it over onto its wheels and moved it back and forth. This is great progress. He is picking stuff up really fast right now. It's exciting.