It may be surprising that the 48-year-old smoker has a shot at a title. But Maute says he follows a strict training regime to keep in top form.
Each morning the former world and European champion stands before a mirror, where he spends 15 minutes grooming his trim, Kaiser Wilhelm-style mustache. His training gear? “Hairspray … and hazelnut mustache wax.”
(From National Geographic, via BoingBoing)
Thomas: “Dad.. this is the FAMILY room!”
On Wednesday, the kids and I threw a costume party here! Costumes were required for children and moms!
There were nine moms and twenty kids.
Everyone brought food to add to a smorgasbord lunch, which included munchies (chips, crackers, pretzels), cookie-cutter cut peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches, fruit salad. For desert, we had jello jigglers and a mud pie.
We played games, including a blindfolded “guess the object” game. My favorite was a jar of pickles. Other objects included dry rice, a fork, sunglasses, an army guy, bar of soap, a spoon, a plastic horse and a shoe. We also played, “musical squares” (using construction paper instead of chairs).
Aiden was a cowboy.
I was Mary Poppins (yes, that’s a brown bag on my head).
Tabitha was a princess.
Thomas refused to wear a costume, and picked out a sweat pants outfit instead. We all decided that his costume was that of a college student.
Click on the photo in this blog to see more pictures from our party.
Always trying to improve. Here’s a thought on parenting.
If a parent gives a child a task to completed that is out of their range of sight, and the parents comes back a half-hour later and it’s not done and the child says that they “forgot” that their parent had told them to do something, it’s probably because the child didn’t immediately obey in the first place.
If children are in the practice of obeying immediately when they are in sight, knowing there will be punishment if they do not, they will be more likely to obey when out of sight.
This means when a parent tells their child to do something, there are no second chances. If the child is not immediately hopping to their feet to obey, they are actively disobeying. Read the rest of this entry »
Everything was fine until we got into the studio room. Read the rest of this entry »
Right before I left for Australia, I found out that my friend and coworker Bill was really sick down here. He missed work a few days, and when he went to the doctors, they told him that he had all the symptoms of mono. He was out of it for a few days, and we all felt really bad for him.
Yesterday morning, I woke up coughing. I wasn’t too worried about it, since I had a Cohiba the day before, and cigars tend to irritate my throat. But, as the day progressed, the cough got worse. In addition, my body starting to ache, and I started to get a fever… all symptoms of mono.
So, we had the day off today (it’s Canberra Day), so I’m being confined to my bedroom, where I will watch BBC News and continue to drink water. Please keep me in your prayers, as I need to get better in order to finish my work down here.
The number one search string to find our website this month is “roppongi foreigners death”, due to this post. I’m actually the number #13 link on Google for the terms. Weird.
Actually, I was in Roppongi this trip, and I had a good time, and never felt at all unsafe.
Now that’s more like it. Remember when I was saying how the United lounge at Chicago O’Hare disappointed me because I had to pay for my wireless connection in the business lounge, and because I had to pay for the alcohol? Well, they can take a lesson from the Qantas lounge at Narita Airport in Japan.
There’s free, all you can drink, good alcohol, and free, all you can use, wireless Internet access (802.11g, no less!). This is truly what an airport lounge should be.
It’s 6:20pm, Tokyo time, and I’ll be hopping a flight to Australia in about 2 hours. I’ll be down there for a couple more weeks, or until the work is done, whichever comes first. I am committed to being home for my brother’s wedding, and hoping to be back so we can head down to The Borgata in Atlantic City a few nights before. Anyway, please keep my and my family in your prayers, as it’s hard to be apart.
I didn’t even have time on this trip to get Thomas his Mothra toy. I’m a lousy father.
I think the acronym Cilley uses, and the fact that it spells a word meaning what happens as a result of clutter is just fabulous:
Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome
“Is your perfectionism one of the main reasons for clutter and chaos in your life and home?”
The first instinct of those of us who suffer from perfection paralysis is to say, “I like my perfectionism! I can handle everything! Hey, who is this FlyLady anyway??” Read the rest of this entry »
How sad is it to be in one of the most amazing cities in the world, and not being able to take the time to enjoy it? I’ve been working 12-14 hour days for the last week, and it’s really starting to take a toll. Thankfully, though, we turned the system back over to the users, and it seems to be working well.
Deo volente, I’m getting on a plane for Australia Friday night to help down there. I’m taking a vacation when I get home.
A few thoughts that stood out from the first chapter:
“Your home did not get dirty in a day and it is not going to get clean overnight”
“It all starts with a shiny sink.”
Baby steps!
The “Shiny sink” philosophy is that if your sink is shining before you go to bed each night, it will greet you in the morning and cause you to smile. Read the rest of this entry »
Part II: So how does one move from maintenance to nurturing?
First, we must realize that children are not ours, but the Lord’s.
Yes, we carried our children for an average of nine months. Yes, we are responsible for their care. We are very, very involved in the raising of our children.
Yet, while we carried our children, we did not have to spend days meditating to channel energy to physically create the inner workings of their ears. Read the rest of this entry »
I recently subscribed to a Christian listserv called “QuiverFull” for parents of large families. I have found it very encouraging to hear everyone’s ideas on ways to take care of all of their children and yet prevent individual children from slipping through the cracks.
One of the recent threads was on responding to people who make stupid comments about your large family. It is amazing how nosey people are when it comes to children and how personal and degrading the comments can be. Everyone on the list can relate.
I especially liked this one:
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 11:06:47 -0800 (PST)
From: Jenny
Subject: Don’t you know what causes that?My husband gave quite a response to this question over the weekend. This certainly won’t work in a lot of situations, but hubby is military and was once again bombarded with questions at drill this weekend. Sure wish I could have been there to see the reactions….
Q: Don’t you know what causes that?
A: YES, whipped cream
I think that stopped the conversation in its tracks!
Jenny
Tom would kill me for posting this… except that he’s not here!
The monkeys have taken over the radio station.
–
“Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send it to a whole bunch of people (including the person who sent it to you–me The theory is that you will learn a number of things about your friends, even if you have known them forever. ”
1. What time did you get up this morning?
You can’t really wake up if you don’t sleep in the first place
2. Diamonds or pearls? Read the rest of this entry »