In church yesterday, one of Drew's shoelaces came undone. Mary was about to tie it but Drew insisted, "No, I'll do it." And so, for the first time ever, Drew tied his own shoe laces.

And, he did a great job too. It made it all the way home and wasn't about to come undone by itself!

Turkey Day was a huge success with the Grandparents, Uncle David and Aunt Catherine. I don't know if Ma got any sleep after cooking a 23 pound turkey along with all the other food and assortment of pies. While waiting for Mary to change into her hot-pink t-shirt (Will didn't care much for Mary's black blouse and let her know it by spitting up on it), I took the opportunity to teach Drew about sneaking tastes of turkey and stuffing. Afterwards, Pa "rested his eyes" while Will dreamed about the day he can have turkey first-hand.

And, turducken isn't a myth or urban legend, it's for real.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I liked this item because one of the questions it asks involves "Don" and "Dawn" which are two very distinct words which sound nothing alike...unless you were born and raised in Oklahoma. I swear, every native Oklahoman I've met pronounces them the same. The other is the fact that it confirmed the fact that I have no accent.

(I tried centering the box but wound up centering the red bars too since it's not an image but rather a table. I could center the box and then individually left justify the cells, but I'm too tired. Besides, I'm fairly certain I'm the only one that cares.)

[Update:] Mary took the test and scored: "The West - Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.

This past week I've been working on putting together a single-page temporary website (left) for a friend who is a patent attorney. The site is IndePatent.com, "patent advice for the independent inventor." Head on over there if you have a patent law question you'd like to get some free advice on.

I also worked on putting together a permanent website (right) for him. After trying a number of options and despite being a Movable Type user and advocate, I went with WordPress which just seemed easier to install and customize. It's not ready to go live yet, still working out some kinks and details, so only a thumbnail for now.

At Will's two month checkup, the little guy was Mr. Ten-Percent: 10th percentile height, 10th percentile weight, 10th percentile head circumference. Today, at four months, the nurse was rubbing his belly for good luck weighing in at 16 lbs 8 oz jumping to 75th percentile while his height, 24 3/4", and head both came in at the 25th percentile.

Drew stayed consistent at the 90th percentile in both height 39 3/4" and weight 37 lbs, 9 oz.

They both got shots...Drew didn't cry. Will on the other hand was not pleased, but Drew helped calm him down and in no time, he was back to his happy self.

Drew got to celebrate his birthday again yesterday with Ma, Pa, Aunt Catherine and Uncle David. Mary whipped up another cake starring Lightening McQueen and Mater from the movie Cars.

Like before, party hats were mandatory. Unlike before, Will was awake to see the festivities.

On this Veterans Day, 2006, our deepest gratitude and admiration is given to all who have served on behalf of our nation. Thank you.

I couldn't help but notice the MSN media coverage of the holiday seemed rather identical to that of a different holiday, Memorial Day, which has a much more narrower focus. Now realize my criticism or just observation is premised by whether you can ever honor too much those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. And, if you want to say you can never honor them too much, I can only agree and the discussion ends here.

My observation is that the MSN coverage was not on all veterans, as dictated by the nature and purpose of Veterans Day, but rather, aside from parade coverage, almost entirely on those who have died complete with images of wounded, coffins, grave markers and the playing of taps. Don't get me wrong, it was all very respectful, but the focus in the multiple coverages that I caught was almost entirely on the dead. In other words, a Memorial Day news story. This leaves the following options:

1) You can never honor too much those that have died in service to our nation so, never mind.
2) The MSM is just ignorant and doesn't actually know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
3) The MSM knew exactly what they were doing, don't give a crap about honoring those that serve, in fact look down upon the majority of those who serve, and were taking the opportunity of the holiday make a political statement by inordinately focusing on the dead.

I hope it's one, I doubt it's two and, if it's three, there is a special place in hell reserved for those who play politics with valiant souls.

The last two weeks Drew, with a little help from Daddy, has been working on painting his room, getting it ready for him to move out of his crib and into his new room with a big-boy's bed. Like most projects, it didn't wind up to be as easy as first imagined. Click "continue reading" to see various stages and the final result.

After repairing some nail holes and other blemishes, we brushed in the edges around the top half of the room and then rolled on one coat of paint on the ceiling and two coats on the upper walls...easy enough.

Painting the bottom blue brought the first sign of trouble. It required five coats of paint before it finally covered without roller marks. Little did I know that paint is a product of bizzaro-world where light paints cover easily while dark paints which are full of pigment but little "base" don't cover well. This is why there is a thing called "base/primer coat"...who knew?

After contemplating taping with the assistance of a laser and/or a level, I went with a simple verticle stick measuring from the carpet up and made marks the same height all along the walls where each tape line would go...this was one of the smarter things I did. Next, the tape was placed over the painted portions to block in the final red stripe. (If Drew had had his way, the entire room would have been his favorite color, red...so we settled on a red stripe instead.)

Next, skipping what I actually did, the thing to do would be to paint over the soon-to-be red side of the tape with the color that the tape is covering so that any bleed-though would be the same color of paint. In other words, paint the bottom edge of the top tape line with light blue and the top edge of the bottom tape line with dark blue.

The red stripe took seven coats before it fully covered everything underneath. With so many coats of paint covering the tape, simply pulling it up creates a very jagged line due to the thick latex (rubber) paint ripping unevenly. However, a little precision work with a straight edge and a box-cutter created a surprisingly sharp crisp edge. The final result, not a bad looking boy's room.

For what it's worth, the paint was Behr Premium Plus interior satin enamel acrylic latex, color Saltwater, California Poppy and Deep Royal (top to bottom).

For Drew's third birthday, the house was all decorated and we had everyone's favorite homemade chicken enchiladas for dinner. Dessert was, of course, ice cream and birthday cake. Drew said he made a wish, although, no one knows what it is...possibly not even Drew.

Mommy, Drew and Daddy posing with dessert. Drew loved the ice cream and the icing. But, cake isn't really his favorite thing...for him it's really just an icing delivery device.

After dinner and dessert, Drew was so excited about opening presents he was ready to burst. He opened everything by himself and checked out every toy, puzzle, book and clothes before moving on to the next. One of Drew's favorite gifts was a $4.50 bargain-bin remote control Buzz-Lightyear car.

Will, held by Aunt Donelda, showing his serious look and, later getting ready to go to dinner, his happy face.

We all went out to Fleming's steakhouse for dinner tonight. It's an upscale restaurant and Drew and Will were the only children we saw there. However, even I was impressed by their behavior. If you had been sitting at an adjacent table with your back to us, you never would have known that there was a three-month old and little boy just a day shy of three years behind you. Oh, and the food was incredible. The bone-in rib eye was possibly the best rib eye I've ever eaten.

Finally, Ma Danz finished the night off reading stories to the boys.

Today, Ma Danz, Aunt Donelda, Mary, Drew and Will traveled to Goltry, Oklahoma, to see friends, relatives and the family farm where Ma Danz grew up. Everyone got to see Will for the first time while Drew got up close and personal feeding horses and cows.

I can still vividly remember the water that used to come out of that windmill back in the 70s. To me all waters taste the same, bottled, tap or anything else...at best it won't have any flavor or aroma. But, the water that came out of that windmill straight from the ground was amazing, it was incredibly cold and tasted so good...I can't describe it and I've never had anything like it since.

Drew and Aunt Donelda all dressed up and ready for the Bears game. Daddy, Will and Drew watching football...perhaps it was a good thing that the Bears weren't on TV here in Tulsa since they lost, bringing an end to their undefeated season.

Drew wearing his "I'm the Big Brother" shirt and Will wearing his "I'm the Little Brother" shirt hanging out watching a movie together while they await the arrival of Ma Danz and Aunt Donelda.

From the time we first brought up the subject of Halloween and dressing up as something this year, Drew was insistent that he didn't want to wear a costume. After a few weeks of showing him pictures from last year, showing him kids dress up on the internet and reading several books about Halloween, we finally hit on the secret formula to get Drew to dress up as something...costume = candy!

So, with Halloween just a few days away, Mary pulled out the in-case-he-changes-his-mind costume...Tigger However, Drew was adamant that he did not need a nose and whiskers in order to get candy. He had out smarted us as we had failed to include face painting in the candy formula.

Drew and I wound up going trick-or-treating while Will the bumble-bee stayed home and helped give out candy.