It has been a fast month.  I can scarcely believe that the month is over.  It feels as though school began just a few days ago.  Now we are already half way through the marking period.  I can't help but recap the events of this month in my mind.

School started (and has moved through the first month).  So far, despite any political and economical concerns, it's been a good start to the year.

I am not teaching a class at Baker this term.  I have been able to use some of my time to play outside and spend more time after school getting things done at Lincoln.

Janelle's brother visited for the month, staying at her sister's house.  We got to play Carcassonne, hang out, and watch as the tree house he was building got better and better.

We made our annual visit to the Renaissance Festival.

Rowen started preschool.  While initially unwilling to talk to his teacher or most of his classmates, he seems to be enjoying it more now.

The new TV season has begun.  Janelle loves Outlander (which is why I have read the first book).  Dr. Who has been a bit less than I would hope, but I like the new Doctor.  Gotham shows some potential.  The Blacklist started with a great opening.  The Big Bang Theory's first two shows were quite entertaining.  I'm looking forward to the Flash, Arrow, Resurrection, Bones, the 100, and Elementary.

I made one entry to a writing contest.

I'm certain that there is more, but that hits most of the main points.

As I have a bit more time on my hands for the first time in over eight years, I have decided to spend a bit more of it outside.  Otherwise we have all been spending too much of our time either watching TV or playing computer games (especially now that Connor has caught the video game addiction).  And so for the past few days, my boys and I have been taking walks around our neighborhood and finishing with a few shots with the basketball.  

Connor is riding his new, but already too small, bike.  He's still getting the hang of the pedals, and today was the first day that he made it up the first hill by himself (I still had to push him up the second hill).  The training wheels are still on, but he needs a bit more practice with the steering and pedaling before they should come off.  Rowen, meanwhile, is learning to stay to the side of the road and is able to run for quite a while.  It is cute to see him bend a bit and rest his hands on his knees when he gets a bit winded.  Trevor still likes to prove that he can beat all of us home.

My basketball skills have certainly atrophied, but my boys make me look like a pro star.  Connor can nearly get the ball up to the basket, Rowen just throws the ball randomly, and Trevor thinks hitting the post makes his shot a "close one."  Today, a neighbor child came over with his football as well, and so I found myself juggling a football and basketball as I seemed to be the boys' favorite target.

I have also liked our walks and time outside as I've been seeing more of my neighbors these past few days than I have almost the entire time that we have lived here.  I truly did not realize how much my extra work was isolating me from ... well ... everything.  It is clear that I need to get us all out even more often.

My shoulders are sore.

Growing up, I loved spending time hanging from trees, running obstacle courses in my yard, and jumping around playground equipment.  I climbed up the outside of spiral (actually helical, but what's in a name?) slides, dangled from the outside railings around my grandparents' deck, and used any narrow flat surface as a balance beam.  By the time I was in middle school, I felt that there wasn't anything that I couldn't do.  

Today, the closest that I get to the same feeling is when playing Assassin's Creed.  There is a middle-school portion of my brain that believes the actions of Altair, Ezio, Connor, and Edward are realistic, and that (with mild practice) I would be capable of doing the same things.

On Tuesday, I watched as my youngest child had similar thoughts while playing on various playground equipment at both Ella Sharp Park and the St. Mary's school parking lot.  Watching him play with enthusiasm (and still some caution in higher locations), filled me with nostalgia.  One set of monkey bars was built sturdily enough to hold my weight, so I dangled from them for a few moments, quickly coming to the realization that I could not even pull myself up half way to a chin up, let alone swing from one bar to the other.  In my mind, I remembered being able to pull myself up and flip over to the top of the bars.

It seemed so tantalizingly close, but instead I think I might have pulled something.

We went to the Renaissance Festival in Holly, Michigan, as is our annual tradition (aside from my years in Alaska, I have gone every year since 1990).  We went with Janelle's brother (who is only in town until next week) and sister (and her family).  Despite a dire weather forecast, no storms (let alone major ones) marred our visit.  Here's the quick run-down:

A Zucchini Brother is back.  While still one of my favorite shows, his final act just seems desperate.

Ded Bob is still funny.  It's been a few years since I've watched the show, but although his voice seems slightly different and his "dummy" is considerably smaller than before, the old act still holds a massive audience.

One Step Further, the show that proceeded Ded Bob, was pretty entertaining, especially the "wall of jorgoling."  Some of their pop references went over my head; I feel old.

Prices are getting even higher: $2 pickles, $7 turkey legs, $6 bag of kettle corn (which I did not purchase) and $3 for a 1/4 pound of fudge (which I also didn't get).

Trevor bought a wooden sword to replace the one we bought him last year that he then broke by trying to smash ice with it.  I bought the other two boys wooden swords.  This was Rowen's first, and the one Connor wanted just looked cool to me.

We brought canteen backpacks that only hold about two water bottles worth of water but were well worth bringing due to their convenience.

My want list from the festival: a cool (in more than one way) hat, a leather (brown?) pirate overcoat, sturdy pirate-ish boots, comfortable pirate pants (are you sensing a theme?), and a new shirt (although the one Jenni made still works pretty well).  I like my current garb, and I really cant justify getting another outfit that I only wear one day out of the year, but I have been wearing it for about 15 years.  Still, see the note about higher prices ...

I have gotten spoiled ... well, more spoiled.  Earlier this year the toilet seat which we had used since soon after buying our house finally cracked and had to be replaced.  As long as I was replacing one, I decided to replace the one in the kids' bathroom since they were complaining about the current one anyway.  For them, since Rowen was in potty-training, I got a more expensive seat that included a built-in potty chair (which he hardly ever used since he insisted on using the "big" seat) and a "no-slam" lid.  Considering the abuse my children put their toilet through, I felt the no-slam feature was a good investment.

A few months later, the cheaper seat which we purchased for our own toilet cracked (please, don't comment).  While some might make jokes about my weight, the culprits included the seat itself, which was not the most sturdy to begin with, and a young child or two who were slamming the lid.  Despite my wife's concern about the cost, I again went with a no-slam lid and a higher quality seat.  Now, I haven't had the chance to use it during cold months, but thus far it is the best toilet seat that I've used.

There is, however, one small problem.  I am in the habit of shutting the lid before I flush, a habit I developed after watching demonstrations of how much fecal material ends up on bathroom ceilings if the lid is up.  Because the lid is "no-slam" (and because I am a bit impatient), I have to use a little more force to get the seat to a spot where I am comfortable flushing.  This does not cause any real difficulty while I use the toilets in my house.  Unfortunately, few other places have no-slam lids, and I now find myself using more force than necessary (or at least not being as cautious) when closing other toilet lids.  I have become a toilet-lid-slammer.

I am guessing that this is why my cheap toilet seat took so much abuse in such a short period of time; the boys were used to the no-slam lid on their toilet and had forgotten that we didn't have one on ours.  I now have to give myself a mental reminder when I go to other people's bathrooms that I need to be careful when closing their toilet seats.  I think that I'm getting better about it, but I still have lapses.  I now find myself wishing that everyone got the no-slam lids.

Ah, first world problems ...

For the first time in over eight years, I will not be teaching a class at Baker College of Jackson in a fall semester.  With my wife's broadening schedule and some changes in my school schedule this year, it was not practical to teach an evening class, and due to lower student enrollment, they are not offering the Saturday classes that I used to teach.

It did not fully hit me until I sent the email declining a class this fall, but I have been at Baker for quite a while now.  I have been teaching classes there nearly every term since only two months after we moved to Jackson.  I have been teaching there since almost a year before Connor was born, let alone Rowen.  When I first started working there, George W. Bush was still President, Jennifer Granholm was in her first term as Governor of Michigan, we had not hit the "great recession," and the first iPhone had not yet been introduced.

I am concerned about how this will affect our overall finances, but I hope that I will see an improvement in my health during this reprieve.  Last year at this time, I was teaching two classes (although one was independent study).  The issue with teaching extra classes during the school year isn't just the class time, but the number of hours that I spend every week preparing for class and grading assignments.  During weeks when papers are due, I often lose the entire weekend.

One way or another, this fall is going to be different than any other fall semester than I've had at Lincoln.  I hope that it works out for the best.

Due to a large-scale power outage, my district already has its first "snow day."  It's only the second week of school.  While I, of course, enjoy having a surprise day off from work, I am concerned about what this might mean for the end of the school year.  Truthfully, I would prefer to go in to work today if it meant that I wouldn't need an extra day tacked on to the end of the school year (or the loss of a different planned day off).  My AP course, in particular, has a hard deadline for its test and thus benefits more from having school now rather than having school after the test.

A lot of people (meteorologists, farmer's almanacs, etc.) are saying that we are looking at one of the snowiest winters in my lifetime and that we can expect not just school closings, but entire area shutdowns.  While I do enjoy snow days, this only increases my concerns about having a school year that extends past its usefulness and well into June.  Despite there being almost no correlation between number of school days and how much students actually learn (see nearly any college or university course), and even evidence that suggests the practice of "making up" days does not benefit students, we are looking at doing just that.

Still, I plan on enjoying the day.  I am already able to catch up on my blog, and I plan on getting in some quality video game time.  This day off even gives me the opportunity to see my youngest off to his first day of preschool.  I won't be as happy as I'm adding time at the end of the school year, but I need to enjoy the present since worrying can't change the future.

Time to go shovel ... oh, wait ...

Yesterday, a friend of mine was explaining how he needed to change one of the questions on the opening survey he gives to students for statistical purposes.  The question was "How many of the Lord of the Rings movies have you seen?"  This summer, for the first time, not a single student in his classes answered "All three".  He asked me if I remembered watching Happy Days as a kid, and if I thought then that the 1950s seemed like they were so long ago.  He then pointed out that the 1950s were closer in time to us when we were watching Happy Days than we are now to when we were children.  Time seems to be moving so quickly now.

This made me think about some other issues of time that make me feel old.  Trevor was born the year before the 9/11 attacks and he's now in the eighth grade.  I have now lived more of my life being married than not, and more of my life being a father than not.  None of my children have lived in a world without the World Wide Web.  I have had my Yahoo email account for nearly half of my life.  Connor and Rowen have always lived in our current house.  Rowen never rode in our Green Silhouette.  Should my daughters have children, those children will probably be closer in age to Rowen than Rowen is to them.

There are some positives to this.  I get to watch Star Trek the Next Generation about every six years.  We're doing so right now since Trevor doesn't really remember seeing them and he's now the age I was when I first watched them.  Considering how little Connor and Rowen stay in the room, we will probably be doing this again.  I will get to do the same with other shows and movies that I love.

It's no wonder that so many of my "pop" references seem to go over my students' heads.  Even video game references which I used to think of as recent (e.g. "The cake is a lie" or "Would you kindly") are met now with a completely blank stare.  It's amazing how fast time has gone by.

With the exception of the years when I lived in Alaska, I have attended the Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly, MI, at least once a year since 1989, when I was first introduced to it.  While I have a few complaints about the way the fair is run, the experience is more than enjoyable enough to have us come back year after year.  We usually bring other friends along with us, and since 1997, we have dressed in Renaissance fashion and encouraged those friends to do the same.  

This year's Renaissance festival in Holly was quite enjoyable with a few minor bumps. Overall, I had a good time.  My favorite part of the festival is the live entertainment.  While I enjoy the various musicians who are scattered about the fair, my favorite shows are the comedy routines.  Unfortunately, many of my favorite acts through the years have retired, and I have yet to find an act that can be deemed as a "favorite."  It's been over a decade since Don Juan and Miguel, or Byte and Bannister.  Gone now too are the Zucchini Brothers.  While Rick Roc is still going strong, his act, though entertaining, never quite hit the height of the others I mentioned.  Rogue Blades is over a decade old, and while they steal elements from some of the earlier acts ("a mortal wound"), they are missing an element of authenticity and timing that the other acts had.  I also avoid a large number of acts due to either their bawdy or outright disgusting nature of their shows as I am usually tied to the stroller and my youngest sons.  I look forward to the day when I can freely roam the festival with another like-minded person without having to spend hours of my time there at the children's play-land.

My largest complaint about the festival is the lack of watering holes.  This past weekend was sunny and hot (though not the hottest festival that we've been to) and I had to spend entirely too much money on cold drinks (usually around $4 for 12 oz.) and bottled water ($2 for 12 oz.).  The experience has made us want to bring in a stroller in the future, even when we don't have children of stroller age, just to cart a pack of bottled water around with us.  Maybe I can get one of those backpack water containers instead.

My second largest complaint is that the event isn't smoke-free.  Most disturbing to me were those morons who chose to smoke at the children's play-area.  One white-trash mother actually had a lit cigarette in her mouth as she took her two-year old girl up into the playground and went down the slide with her.  Still, even those complaints didn't eclipse the enjoyable experience that I had.

This year, Katrina brought three friends (including her boyfriend) who all dressed up and seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.  Surprisingly, we didn't run into them all day until our appointed time (when attending with a group, always set at least an end time and place for everyone to get back together).  Alex spent much of the day going to acts (especially Tartanic, where she got a hug from the lead drummer) on her own, and my mother (who usually attends with us) was able to explore on her own while still meeting up with Janelle, me, and the boys.

I didn't get to see many acts, let alone new ones, but I did enjoy the new group (at least to me), Sirena the Sirens.  This musical trio had fantastic aquatic make-up, synchronized choreography, and enjoyable (if disturbing) music.  They also went through the audience and played with men's (or girls' who kind of looked like men's) hair.  To paraphrase Garth, they made me feel kind of funny, like when I used to climb the rope in gym class.  Unfortunately, that made me feel a bit like the dirty old man as they were all at least a decade younger than me.

My family had a good time.  Alex and Trevor both got new hats, my mother got a hip flask with a leather holder, Janelle picked up her yearly mug, and Connor got a new wooden sword.  Rowen got pushed around be a little girl while at the playground, and Trevor was taken onstage at the beginning of the Rogue Blades' act.  No one was arrested from our group, but Rowen was terrified of the jail.  And while camels were available to ride for the first time that I can remember (there have been elephants a couple of times in the past), no one from my group wanted to ride them in the hot sun.

All in all, we were there from about eleven (we had a late start) to six and had a great time.