Quick School Update

Yesterday was the start of week 3 for Kade at school. As usual, we started the morning with our ground prep bombing campaign which consists of any and all ways which we can include the word school in a fun and exciting manner. To my surprise, for the first time it went swimmingly. I asked him if he would like Dad to take him to school after breakfast and he replied with an enthusiastic "OK". Wow - shock and awe.

So we finished up our breakfast of Lego Eggos and put on his shoes, coat and hat...so far so good....no tears. Then we started to head out to the truck and he informed me that he wanted to go and "smash snow in the truck". This is a game we have picked up lately since most of the roads in our subdivision are still single lane. Finally we load up with his Dora-Vuitton and head on out to smash snow. [Sidebar: snow plowing flash game - you gotta try this one] We have a great time further breaking my truck [sidebar: I still am putting coolant in my truck] and when we turn the corner to the school he pointed and said "there's my big boy school"...still going well.

We get inside, take off his winter gear and get him situated with Mrs. Newcomb coloring some green cardboard boots. I stay for a minute (just long enough for him to start doodling) and then tell him that "I am going to go and that mom will be back before lunch to pick him up"...his reply...the same "OK" we started the day with - a little less certain but still positive. When Jen picked him up he was happy and the teacher said that he did great....Hallelujah!! Hopefully we have FINALLY turned the corner.

Digital Camera War SD500 and Rebel XTi

Sunday At The Cavitation House: Every Sunday night we usually put a little extra effort into cooking up a good dinner for the famola. This is also where Jen usually pulls out some of her "magazine" recipes in the eternal search for the perfect dish for those special occasions with friends and family. This Sunday was no different. We ended up with honey-apple glazed game hens on a bed of apple wild rice pilaf and a side of Dijon broccoli. Looks yummy but in the end the hens were average from a flavor standpoint/above average from a moistness standpoint, the rice was kind of blah and the broccoli was just downright awful. Imagine that, the broccoli was terrible ;-)

The Ultimate Exersaucer: We have had a few people comment on the new exersaucer which Payton got for Christmas so I figured I would put a link to it here to answer the question of "Where can I get that". To be honest, at first I was a little skeptical of this toy...it just seemed a little odd. In the end, Jen prevailed and we got the replacement. Wow - it is a super cool toy. It is totally inverted from a normal exersaucer seeing as the kiddo cruises around the outside instead of turning in the inside. This is great as it allows Payton to run around in circles vs just standing in place. It also has the added bonus of allowing Kade to push her around in circles at warp speed...something which they both seem to enjoy a great deal ;-) I will upload a video of that sometime as it really is pretty darn funny. In the end I highly recommend the Bright Starts Around We Go Activity Station...a 4 out of 5 stars.

Sonicare Elite 7300: Damned battery stopped charging after just one month...its going back ;-( I guess that lowers the rating from 4/5 to 2/5 stars.

Digital Camera Wars: So I tried to take some quick ultra long distance test shots with my two leading cameras...the Canon SD500 (7MP) and the Canon Digital Rebel XTi (10MP). The subject is Rocky Mountain National Park as taken from my dining room door (~35 miles estimated distance). It was early dawn so the light was still pretty soft...but that was kind of the point. I quickly realized that my approach was significantly flawed as you will see below. The white balance between the two are way different and that really makes a huge difference in the end pictures. So what I did was take three pictures at max zoom (see below) then cropped them to compose roughly the same image. I did save them as JPG but I did do it at the highest resolution to try and preserve as much detail as possible. Click on the images to see the actual results...

1. SD500 at 3X optical (true spec: 37-111 mm)
2. XTi at 55mm (stock lens: 18-55mm)

3. XTi at 300mm (telephoto lens: 75-300mm)

Comparing the three it becomes apparent that the white balance really screwed things up for me. In the end these went down pretty much as per the max zoom capabilities. The SD500 111mm outperformed the 55mm wrt detail and the 300mm kicked everything else's butt...duh. I guess I will have to spend a little more time and think about how to even things out in my next round. In the meantime, here is a sunset pic I captured with my XTi the other evening...at least it appears to capture color pretty darn good...something that my Canon G1 sucked at. Resolution is down-geared to make it 800K vs. 3.2M...but your monitor will likely not know the difference ;-)
G'Night.

Build-A-Bear..what a Pooh-rific time!

Welcome Soccer Monster: Today we decided to finally dust off that $25 gift card that Grandma Judy gave Kade (about 9 months ago) and head on over to the local Build-A-Bear. At first, Kade didn't really want to go...but what is new, he just wants to stay at home and play imaginary airport with daddio or cook on his new play kitchen with anyone. Once we got through a much longer than planned lunch at On The Border, we headed over to see what fun we could have. Well, much to our delight...Kade had a great time. For those who have never been, the store name pretty much sums it up with one glaring exception...they forgot to mention that once you build your bear you will be inundated with a million accessories to go with said bear to make sure you don't leave without spending an arm and a leg. The whole thing only took about 30 mins and went a little something like this:

First, Kade looked at the 30 or so bear options and much to his parents surprise...he chose the most expensive bear...he must get that from Jen ;-) He also chose the most obvious bear in the whole wide world...Mr. Pooh. The amazing thing was that there was no ambiguity about the selection process. We went down the line and he knew exactly which one he wanted. Didn't throw a fit about it (much to daddio's delight)...he just said that he wanted Pooh...like John Winger (Bill Murray) in Stripes..."That's a fact, Jack". Next, we head on over to the stuffing machine where Kade got to pump up his Pooh (see foot pedal pic). After super-sizing Mr. Pooh he got to go pick a heart to put inside Mr. Pooh...and interesting twist which I was not expecting. When the lady instructed him to kiss the heart before putting it into Mr. Pooh I was like...hey...what are you trying to do to my son...turn him into a soft leftie? Then we went over to accessorize Mr. Pooh....what a scammola! Of course Kade chose the soccer outfit as a tribute to his favorite Backyardigan's episode...Soccer Monster (see previous blog). But no...we were not done with the accessorizing....we needed to pick out some skivvies for Soccer Monster...so he has clean undies just in case he got into an accident on the way home...just like yo momma told you. In actuality, that one was a desperate effort to get him re-engaged with potty-training...but that is a different blog altogether. Finally, the Pooh-Man is fully decked out, so its time to head over and print his birth-certificate...that's right...you heard me right. So now we officially welcome the latest addition to the Cavagnaro family...baby Soccer Monster...born on 1/28/2007...hey do I get a tax deduction for that one ;-) Seriously though, Kade loved the whole thing...which should make grandma proud...despite the fact that i still ended up shelling out $10 when it was all said and done.

It's a good thing that this bear was not in the house or I would have gotten soaked for an additional $41...although Grandpa Russel would have been the happiest little camper in town!!

P.S. - these were taken with the SD500...not the XTi

P.P.S. - Kade insisted on sleeping with Soccer Monster tonight...oh joy...bless that little beating heart.

Picture Archives From Jen

• 4/10/2007: Easter pictures...coloring, hunting and Zups
  
• 2/2/2007: Pictures of Kade's 3rd birthday in Fort Collins...the sledding party!
• 12/5/2006: Kade and Payton Halloween pictures.
• 11/1/2006: September pictures. Mainly Chicago trip for Cole's baptism and trip up to Estes Park
• 8/16/2006: August Pictures. Carnival and summer swimming fun.
• 7/15/2006: July Photos. Payton's baptism and Rockwell 50th anniversary
• 7/15/2006: June Photos. Laura's bday, Denver zoo and Wiggles concert
• 5/29/2006: May Photos. Baby Payton and Zup/Cav family hike.
• 4/23/2006: April Photos. Easter photos (no Payton yet).

Forwarded Funny

This one came via company email...I think Jen would agree...
I will put up a post tonight as I have been a total slacker this week...

10 Years at The Company

"Best of Pics": Continuing on with the series of "best of pictures"...here are a few more. Today I chose to theme it up with some nature shots. The first (rock in foreground) was taken atop Vail mountain in CO. It was a great weekend thanks to the gracious generosity of Flogger - who lets us occasionally use her timeshare in Vail. The picture is looking South across the valley at Holy Cross Mountain. The second two were taken in Oregon on some hiking trail between the Tillamook air museum and Newport. I am sure we have the name of the trail written down somewhere but not going to go fishing for that tonight...The trail was pretty easy and the falls at the end were really impressive. I especially liked the water running through the hollowed out log...that was pretty neat. Anyway...I have a whole series of lighthouse pictures from the entire OR coastline...sometime I will put all that up. [For those who have not figured this out yet...you can click on any photo for a much larger image...none are full resolution as I knock 'em down for uploading but still you can see much more detail]

10 years: So a few weeks ago was my 10 year anniversary at The Company. The was it works is that every 5 year major milestone you get an "award". This all seems nice until you start looking at the "awards". There is always the token craptacular watch with The Company logo emblazened across the face or some cheap wall clock (which by the way was what I ended up with for my 5 year). But then I noticed a few "interesting" items. First was a golf club set...so I said to myself "self, this looks promising". Well, upon clicking for more details I found out that it was just a driver...hmmm...retail value of ~$80. Then I look at a telescope which looks promising...again upon closer inspection it is the cheap knockoff of the good one...retail value ~$90. Then I look at the final item of interest...a radio scanner...looks ok, its nothing I will ever buy for myself...~$90...ok I'll take it. Well I got it and its also a piece of crap...quite useless as it does not support digital transmissions or trunking. About the only thing that I get loud and clear is the baby monitor in Kade's room...uh, note to self...that is not so secure ;-) So I guess the moral of the story is...The Company pretty much values their employees to the tune of about $10 per year...makes me all warm inside just thinking about it!

'When is grandma-Judy coming back?"

Sorry about the lag...but between illness and the weekends festivities there has been no time. So here is a longer one covering most of the action...

Grandma Judy's Visit: So in her regular tradition, Grandma Judy made the quick trip out for Kade's birthday. It was a nice trip and the kids really enjoyed having her around especially Kade. He really put her to the test keeping her busy playing castle, cars, kitchen and other various games. Here are a few pics of her and the kiddos having a good time. And then she was off as fast as she came...next visit is in May ;-)

The big Penguin Party: So Kade's 3 year birthday party in CO was this weekend. In an effort to integrate the lovely weather that we have had lately we decided to make it a winter party theme with the main event being a trip to the local sled hill. It was an absolute blast and I can honestly say that everyone appeared to have a great time. I have attached some pictures here just so you can see for yourself...Thanks to grandma Judy for slogging the 7 disk sleds out from CT...they were an absolute hit with the kids and adults as they were the fastest sleds on the hill! (I will post about the camera taking these pictures...our new digital Canon XTi camera with 300mm lens soon...it is awesome! I plan to do some comparison test shots with our 4 cameras)



Bloody Mary: Now for those of you following along, most of the Cavitation family has been a bit under the weather lately. Rob decided to power his way through the penguin party with the help of our old friend Mary. Given the fact that I can not taste a thing, Mary really fit the bill. If you just add enough Tabasco sauce...then you can actually feel the drink - clears the sinuses too...bonus!! Add in a bit of our friend Mr. Robitussin and you pretty much have yourself the perfect 6 hour solution to a serious head cold.


The Cake: Every year Jen and I make it a point to try and make a special cake for the kiddo's birthday. Once the theme is chosen...Rob makes it his mission to find a way to bring that to life. This year was no exception and the resultant was "Kade's Sledding Hill - 2007" - in accordance with our winter sledding party theme. Here are a few pictures showing the creation. Please note the tobogganers flying through the air at the bottom of the hill and the tuber stuck head first in the hill just below the sled ramp ;-) Ingredients:

• Mountain and ski/sled ramp: White Funfetti® cake
• Snow: White frosting, coconut and sugar
• Tubers: Gummy bears and gummy life savers
• Tobboganers: Gummy bears and blueberry tape gum

For those of you who have not seen the creation from last year..."Kade's Engine and M&M tender - 2006"...here is a quick picture. It was built using yellow cake with chocolate frosting, twizzlers, graham cracker sticks, M&Ms, chocolate cupcakes, marshmallows, gumdrops and various food coloring colored frostings.

Kade Sayings: From the mouth of our 3 year old...

• Chinese Restaurant: After the madness of the "Penguin party", we all decided to opt out of making dinner and brave the cold. We finally landed at a local Chinese restaurant where there is never a wait (a real plus with a 3 year old and a cranky dad). The food came out quick and given my inability to taste anything (due to this damned cold) the food was quite good!! While Kade and I were going through the contents of my soup, we found one of those baby corn things. Kade immediately grabbed it, looked at it and proclaimed that is was in fact corn. While I basked in the glory of having such a brilliant son...he then proceeded to tell me that "little corn comes from a cow's butt". And there you have it - the truth behind the little corn.
• Grandma-Judy: So this morning was the first morning without Grandma Judy at the house. Kade was following his typical routine of watching cartoons while I took my shower. Then we went downstairs for breakfast. When we were halfway down the stairs Kade looked at me and asked "When is grandma-Judy coming back?". So ma, I guess you know where you stand now ;-) That afternoon of laying on your back trying to get into the castle WAS worth it after all...now where are those damned Doan's pills.
• The other night when we were returning from the Chinese restaurant Payton started crying in the car. Kade turned to her and said "Oh sweetie [pause] it's OK, we are almost home". That one must have come from Jen ;-)
• Finally, this morning I woke up and found Jen on my side of the bed and Kade taking up the other side of the bed. Payton was starting to stir so I got up to go get her before she started crying. Once I got in there and put her on her changing table, she saw her bottle from the previous night. Seeing as she has no patience when it comes to food - she immediately had a breakdown because I would not let her have the 12hr old bottle. Much to my surprise, Kade was running own the hallway at a full sprint...seeing as he was just out cold a minute before. Jen was laughing and she informed me that Kade (upon hearing Payton crying) had woken up, rolled out of bed, looked at her, said "Payton NEEDS me" and then bolted out the door. Too funny!

It is late and I did not proof read everything above...so there are probably mistakes...eso es la vida!

Starbucks Coffee for the mini-me...

Kade's Coffee: So a quick post about a funny thing that happened yesterday. Kade and I went to get his haircut yesterday at costcutters (seeing as I do not believe in paying the $17 for a kids haircut at cool cuts for kids). Kade sat there like a big boy and only occasionally moved due to being "tickled". After, we decided to walk over to Safeway and see if they had any remaining clearance toys - as we have found some Geotrax on clearance there before...and Geotrax is pretty much the coolest :-) Alas, the Safeway did not have any toys but we did pick up some chocolate teddy grahams as a "reward" (since we needed some anyway). Then we walked over to the Starbucks stand to get something for the drive home. Well, they had some little sample cups of their latest contraption...the Cinnamon Dolce Latte (360 calories and 15 grams of fat). Since they were approaching cold and it was in a little cup I grabbed one for the Kade-man. Then we sat down at the bar and Kade proceeded to drink his coffee, eat his chocolate teddy-biscotti-grahams and tell me which carts were "coming to the store", which were going "bye-bye" and which ones were "REALLY full". He was very excited and the man sitting at the table next to us was laughing along with me. I really with I had a camera because Kade's smile was infectious...he really enjoyed sitting and drinking coffee with dad (dad's drink of the day: white chocolate mocha w/ 510 calories and 24g fat...ouch). Maybe dad should re-think that one.

>> One addition: Jen reminded me that I forgot to mention how PROUD Kade was to be sitting in a big chair having his coffee...his head was held high and he had the biggest grin on his face you ever did see ;-)

3rd Day at School

Return to School: Tuesday was Kade's third day back at school. He was doing great while we were getting ready to go and when we first got into the car. Then he asked for me to play his "cartoons" (a.k.a., Backyardigan's CD) which he usually sing's happily with in the back seat...well, this time he wasn't singing at all. Let the apprehension begin. Then we finally get to school and as soon as we enter the front door...the meltdown begins. Luckily the teacher and I were able to distract him long enough for dad to make a clean get-away! His bud Zack was there too which apparently helped throughout the day. The teacher said that once he settled in, he actually did pretty good...whew! Once we picked him up from school he was in pretty good spirits and said he wants to go back. He is always talking about the "big gym" and how they get to play football or "soccer monster". For those of you who don't follow the Backyardigans, that is from one of their episodes...

Monster Detective: PABLO is a noisy but lonely Soccer-Ball-Monster who hordes soccer balls in his castle's gym. TYRONE is a no-nonsense, Dragnet-style Detective. He and his client, UNIQUA, must brave the Monster's Castle and rescue UNIQUA'S kidnapped soccer ball. 60's Rock underscores this action- packed investigation. Will they get the job done without being turned into Monsters themselves?

But I digress. All in all, it appears that we may be making some headway...hopefully. It does appear that mom taking him to school works better. Probably because the first go around with daycare it was always me who took him...

GMAIL: Jen and I both have had email accounts through my web hosting service for our family website cavinet.com. Our main complaints regarding this service had been two fold. First, SPAM!!! The spam explosion is unstoppable and I could not keep up with it. I tried both server based blockers as well as client based blockers but both were just a pain to maintain and generally failed. The second is PC migration. I tend to rebuild our systems about every year (I will be doing Jen's in another week or so...maybe I will publish directions as I do it...) and migrating email is a MAJOR headache due to Outlooks clunky import/export mechanisms. As such, I looked at multiple options and settled on GMAIL..."the Google's" email service. I know that many of you already have gmail accounts but for those who don't...it is really great.

1. Their spam filters are wonderful. They immediately started catching about 90% of my spam and with their "report spam" button they are now catching about 98% of my spam with little to no effort (Jen really likes this a lot).
   
2. There are no migration problems as everything is stored online so you can easily access your email from any computer!
   
3. They do not have "folders"! I really hate having to move email to folders because to me that takes too much thought and ultimately you get it wrong and end up searching forever to find that email you misplaced. Obviously "the Google" has the technology to make that problem go away...basically you just dump all your email into one archive directory and then you just search for what you want. You would be surprised just how easy it is to pull things back out.
   
4. It is free and has no annoying pop-ups (although there are ads on the sidebar but those don't seem to bother me).

And conversion is a snap...all I do is forward our email from *@cavinet.com over to *@gmail.com and we don't miss a beat...easy as pie. Gotta run...Payton is calling.

PS - message from Payton (who wants to type): uhj bbbbbbb trchyubnuhy yhhu uuuu uj. And there you have it, Payton's first JOURNAL entry ;-)

Could the mother-in-law be right?

Imagine the horror ;-)

So a little while ago Jen and here mother were having a conversation about blogs. She had heard of ours, visited it and was left asking herself....huh? Now, truth be told, she is not the only one who has asked me why I would spend time doing this...but she was the only one who described it as "his online diary". (Oh, I know she is blushing now) At first, I laughed it off not thinking too much about it...since in reality I simply started this as an easier way to pass along updates to the family (the static website was just a little too much for me and blogger makes it pretty darn easy). But it didn't take me too long to quickly devolve into rants about non-family stuff...note the first blog was already starting the trend. So I guess...[pause for effect]...this HAS become in effect an online diary (henceforth to be called a journal). Shock...horror, the mother-in-law was right ;-)

Now, having said that...an interesting thing happened along with that discovery. Besides the fact that I quickly replaced the work diary with journal (as somehow journal is less sissy) [insert snarky comment from CherkyB here] I also realized what it means to have a journal. The most important element of journaling (and thus blogging) is the actual process of evaluating your experiences and distilling them down to something which is important enough to write down. Ouch...my head is starting to hurt...

The most interesting consequence of the blogging experience so far has easily been the way it has changed the way I see the world. Before I was always seeing things from the participant role. Now I find myself more frequently stepping outside and looking at life from an observer role....thinking "how would you tell people about this story/event...what are you seeing...what are you hearing...etc". This seems simple and insignificant but it is not! You really do see things differently when you step outside for a minute. The biggest change I notice is the ability to see things with less of a bias. This actually comes in quite handy with the kiddos as you can laugh a little more at the quirky things they do...and it also comes in handy with the spouse as you can better understand where they are coming from (even if you still disagree with their conclusion). Once I started seeing things this way...I gained a better appreciation for just how much our personal biases color our world. Not in an obvious racist or bigot kind of way...no, in a much more subtle way. It is much like bringing a bad day at work home. If you are not aware of it your responses are generally more terse and confrontational than on a good work day. Not because you have suddenly stopped liking your family...it's just due to your disposition. Once you realize what is going on (usually the spouse will do this for you with a glare of some sort) you suddenly snap out of it. So in effect, I guess I am talking about "self induced snap". Next step is to actually stop saying the stupid things BEFORE saying them...

So I guess the answer to the question of "why do you blog" is now more complex than I ever imagined as it is also helping me to better understand myself - rather than just help others understand me. Ironic.

And I thought the Christmas pictures were a disaster...

One huge advantage of having a PC in our living room is that we are able to do slide shows with all our digital pictures over the years. Well, we have been taking digital pictures for about 7 years now so each time I watch the slideshow, I see new pictures and wonder...when the heck was that. I am amazed at how many great and/or funny photos I have forgotten. As a result, I decided to just go back and quickly look through all our pictures and pull out some of my favorites to make sure they don't get lost in the shuffle. Well that was not as easy as I thought. After my fourth hour (only through the first 2.5 years) I stepped back and looked at how many pictures we actually have...well that came in at roughly 10,290 pictures.... YOWZERS! This is going to be a bit of a project. Now I am about 4 years into the photos and I have already pulled out quite a few gems. So I decided that I would post a few of these from time to time just to share them with all of you. These will be in no particular order - with the exception that I started with the oldest directories so these will tend to be a little older at first. So here we go... The first one cracks me up (being a man and all). Kade took over the kid recliner & remote control and proceeded to do what men do best...started scratching! Apparently he is a natural as he intuitively adopted the face that all men assume when in this position. The second is from our wine tasting trip in CA the summer after Kade was born. He really enjoyed playing with the glasses and we caught this picture (no, he had not polished off the glass himself). That might explain why he is such a laid back kiddo ;-)

Ok, onto a more contemporary update. Yesterday was Kade's second day back at school. Apparently he did ok but it seems like he may be slipping back into his old habits. He made a polar bear which he really likes to show me (over and over again) and they also played football in the gym. Next Tuesday he goes back again. This time his bud Zach will also be there so Jen and I are hoping that things go better. Tonight he woke up about 9:30 crying and he was saying that he "did not want to go back to school". Not sure where that one came from but we will just have to hope it does not get worse. I guess he just loves being at home with his mom ;-)

And a final update for those of you on the East coast (or Hawaii)...it is damned cold here! All those liberal jokers who are spun up about global warming should come run their mouth off around here...I could use the extra hot air to help keep the house warm. My thermometer is currently reading -3 degrees F which is the same as it was when I got up this morning. About 2pm this afternoon it reached a soaring +3 degrees F. The snowfall has been small though...only about 2 inches or so which is a relief to my aching back! This morning when I came back into the house after clearing the snow off the driveway (I won't even call it shoveling) my glasses fogged up so badly I couldn't see anything. So I set them down on the table. Kade grabbed them and put them on...which explains the last picture in this blog post. It is damned cold...oh yeah, I think I said that before. Reminds me of Crapchester...I mean Rochester.

And as a special treat for me...it is currently midnight and for some reason Payton's damned sound machine just decided to switch from the soothing sounds of "waterfall" to crazy ass loud Mexican music...isn't that just craptacular. Hmmm, maybe it was made in Mexico and it is actually programmed to do that in the middle of the night in a grand conspiracy to get everyone to like Mexican music...that would explain the bizarro popularity of the Macarena....nah!

So now that I have Payton back to sleep...its time for me to sign off...hasta luego!

Kade's Big Day - Part Deux

So first, let me begin by apologizing to the CherkyB for not referencing his website. It was a gross oversight as the CherkyB management has helped the staff at Cavitation immensely. Please note that there will be a permanent link on the left nav bar to the CherkyB from now on.

Second, thanks to everyone for NOT calling me Sunday night immediately after the NY Giants meltdown (I know that it must have been killing Russ). The odd thing is that I was fully expecting them to lose a heck of a lot worse, so it was not all that bad of an experience. Unfortunately for Joe and Ellen (who happened to be over at our house), they pretty much got to witness me in all my idiotic-Giant-watching glory. Having said that, it was still pretty friggin' disappointing to have to sit and watch the defense implode again...oh well.

Third, the results from the poop poll. An amazing 88% of you said that you would have helped the poor-pooper in some way...LIARS! Only 1 person was honest and said "book it outta there Danno!" In all honesty, the real answer was not listed. The correct answer was this: get ready to book it outta there...but first, take one square of TP and tape it to the bottom of the stall so the other person thinks you have left them an escape hatch. When they realize what you have done, you should be able to hear them from outside the latrine :-) Oh and this brings me to a second poo-point (which I have discussed with a few of you before). How useful is a single square of TP? Ahh...I will let you contemplate that one...ya know...while you are taking care of business.

Fourth, just a few pics to keep my mom happy. The first is of the 4 amigos (Kade, Megan, Laura and Payton) which turned out pretty good. The other is of Miss Payton in her pretty new dress.

Finally, Today was Kade's first day at pre-pre-school. While we did try daycare once before (which went terribly wrong), we managed to get Kade back in the saddle through Bribery (of course). You will note the new backpack he is sporting...its a classic Dora-Vuitton. He was pretty excited about it all and managed to make it through the morning session without incident. We head back again on Thursday, so we will see how it holds up. Note to family: you can always leave comments for Kade on the blog and Jen or I will make sure he gets them ;-)

Well - alrighty then...

Cleaning House...

Alright, sorry about the hiatus this weekend from posting to the blog. It was a busy weekend of doing not much of anything...kids tend to do that for you ;-) I have been collecting a bunch of random thoughts/comments so I will punch them out here and now! Here we go:

1. First off, Jen and I got the Sonicare Elite 7300 toothbrush this xmas. While this may seem old news to many...Jen and I were tricked into this one by our dental hygenist (something about all our teeth falling out if we don't make the change). Anyway, just to give a brief rating, I give it 4 out of 5 thumbs up. Within a few days my teeth actually did feel cleaner and I really like the fact that it does most of the work...so on the lazy scale it gets a 5 and on the effectiveness scale it also gets a 5. I did have to ding it one point though because if you forget to turn it off before you take it out of your mouth...it leaves hundreds of little bits of toothpast all over your mirror (ok that one is not really thier fault)...something that both Jen and I have done at least once. Oh yeah, it definitely takes a few times to get used too...
2. This one is for Jen and Ellen. This was a Martha idea which didn't immediately get flushed from my brain so I figured it was worth mentioning. It is a pretty cool looking chalkboard calendar...the details are over here. Maybe someday this one will grace our walls at home. One can only hope that if the message is literally written on the wall and it is in two foot letters that even I can remember things!!!
3. A funny story about the rise of international technology espionage in the silicon valley. You will have to read the article to understand why its so funny but I am pretty sure that this is why Jen doesn't let me go to San Jose, CA anymore ;-)
4. This article goes against everything in the fabric of my being. Somehow...this article makes it sound like it is a good idea for women to wear a bra??? Geez, that's all the single men out there need...yet another reason for the bra to stay on ;-)
5. Jen and I recently went to see the movie "The Good Shepherd". While I thought it was pretty interesting as it closely mirrors the actual roots of the OSS/CIA, Jen just barely managed to stay awake through the whole thing. One interesting element of the movie (in my mind) is how it depicts the CIA at a crossroad. It outlines the need for such an entity but also clearly pointe out the potential hazards. Di Nero clearly makes his opinion made regarding which direction the CIA has taken near the completion of the movie: "I remember a Senator once asked me when we talk about CIA why we never use the word "the" in front of it, and I asked him, 'Do you put the word "the" in front of God?'".
   
6. Last one: For those of you who do not use Google Earth from time to time to check out your local donut shop (ok, that is just Darren I suppose), it is basically a program designed to waste lots of your time. It is a nice interface where you can zoom in on satelite images anywhere around the world. There was a contest to see who could find some of the more interesting things out there...here is what some people found:
1. This one is an odd picture which Apple would be proud of
2. Who can pass up a 65,000 sq. ft. rendition of the colonel
3. This one is just downright odd...not sure I believe this one but makes for an interesting picture...
4. Last one is my favorite just because it involves a little bit of mystery - which the article figures out for you...

and there you have it...not much about anything - Rob style.

Jr. and Danica

The kiddo's loved their new electric cars. The blizzard is getting to be a pretty good driver after a little practice with Great Granpa's car. Kade is still not quite sure about the whole steering thing. We did keep trying after we got back to Fort Fun but with all the snow he pretty much drove from snowbank to snowbank crashing. Good clean kiddo fun! Here are some of the highlights from that first day with the cars:

Since Dear Abby did not cover this one...

The other day I ran into this situation at work and to be honest I was laughing my arse off about it for about a week. Since I really did not know the appropriate action to take...I naturally turned to "The Google" for the answer. I searched for "What do you do if you knew that the person in the stall next to you just dropped a load before checking to see that their TP was all gone?". I got 26K hits but no real answers...although I did find an interesting article at poopreport.com regarding public pooping responsibilities. So naturally I turn to all of you...let me know what you would have done...and if it is something else let me know via comment...but please keep it "clean" ;-) as family does read this!

If you knew that the person in the stall next to you just dropped a load before checking to see that their TP was all gone...would you:
	Hurry and get the hell outta there before they ask you for some TP
	Proactively ask them if they need some TP
	Lift your feet and pretend like you are not there
	Quietly roll down your TP so a little is showing below the stall divider...a help yourself kind of approach
	Slap yourself for moving to the next stall when you noticed the shortage in the first place
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Privacy Policy

So apparently I need to post a privacy policy to be in compliance with some of the "free" services which I am using to run this blog. As such here is mine:
(posted with permission from Me, CherkyB since it is basically a copy)

We here at Cavagnaro Blogger value the privacy of our readers. No personally-identifiable information is collected from our readers. We do, however, collect some non-personally-identifiable information through the use of a cookie. Examples of such information are operating system, name of internet service provider, and browser version. This data is collected so that we at Cavagnaro Blogger can better tailor our offerings to the readership.

No personally-identifiable information is ever collected, nor is any personally-identifiable information ever associated with any information that is collected. The information that is collected is never sold to or shared with any third party. It for the sole use of the staff of Cavagnaro Blogger

Thank you,
Rob

Have it your way, Mr. Fallon

Those of you who know me, know that whenever I feel particularly disgruntled about something, I always say "They are going to get an email (or letter) about that". Many people over the years have asked me "what the heck do you actually say in those letters". Well , tonight I spent the better part of an hour writing my complaint letter for our recent experience at the Burger King in Las Vegas, NM. After writing the letter, I also remembered that a few blogs ago I stated that I would fill you all in on what happened at the King. So I guess I can kill two birds with one stone here. It is a little long, but I figure that the President of any major corporation should have a few minutes for me ;-) . As such, here is the letter which I am sending to Burger King (just as soon as the postal service decides to re-open).

Mr. Chuck Fallon
President, North America Operations
5505 Blue Lagoon Drive
Miami, FL 33126

January 2, 2007

Mr. Fallon,

I am writing in regards to a recent visit my family made to your Burger King establishment located in Las Vegas, NM. I am not writing you (the President of N.A. Operations) regarding a simple matter of poor service or food preparation. In this particular case, I feel compelled to raise a larger issue regarding the corporate culture/framework upon which you operate your business.

On December 23, 2006 my family and I visited your restaurant located in Las Vegas, NM for dinner (roughly 6 pm). My 3 year old son and I approached the counter and ordered a Whopper combo with cheese and a cheeseburger kid meal with no mustard. Twenty minutes later I received one Whopper combo with no cheese and one cheeseburger kid meal with mustard. When I approached the counter employee and explained the situation they promptly replied with the following: “We are really sorry for the mix-up, but you must understand that it is really hard for us now – you know, dinner time and all”. Obviously I would not expect the official position of Burger King to be “Visit us at off hours if you would ‘Like it your way’” so I was able to simply ignore this statement. I was not very happy when I received my “new” Whopper. What I received was the same Whopper I had given them before with a piece of cheese added and apparently it had been put into a steamer as the bun was soggy and the cheese was as hot as molten lava (no, I will not be suing as it was only my mouth which was burnt and I do not believe in that kind of stuff).

While the service and food quality was well below average, the most troubling aspect of my visit was what occurred in the midst of the aforementioned events. An exchange between the manager on duty and a worker in the back (I will call him Mr. B.) is why I am directly writing you today. The exchange was over a miscommunication between the two individuals. Mr. B. apparently made someone else’s order incorrectly and the manager indicated that it was Mr. B’s fault. Mr. B. immediately retorted that “it was his f*ck-up”. The manager then replied that it was “put in correctly and that it was his fault”. This drew a second retort from Mr. B. which again clearly stated that “it was his f*ck-up”. Unfortunately I witnessed this exchange while holding my 3 year old son in my arms. I immediately interrupted and asked “who is the manager on duty”. The man whom I suspected was the manager informed me that he was in fact the manager. I immediately conveyed to the manager that I found it tremendously improper that the employee in the back had just used the F-word twice in front of customers (especially my son). Furthermore I added that I expected him to explain to the individual that this is not proper behavior and to ensure that this does not occur in the future. To his credit he did take the employee to the back of the store and talk to the individual but I can not confirm what in fact was stated.

To be honest Mr. Fallon, while I am disappointed by the behavior of Mr. B. I am regrettably not surprised. I suspect he was making next to minimum wage with little tutoring on the corporate policies/guidelines of Burger King operations. Conversely, I am absolutely taken aback by the fact that a uniformed manager would engage in such a conversation and not immediately recognize/address such an egregious violation of normal business conduct standards. I would sincerely hope that this incident in no way reflects the official framework upon which Burger King bases their corporate service standards.

I can unequivocally describe my recent experience with your company as “NOT having it my way”.

Sincerely,
Mr. Robert Cavagnaro

And there you have it...our wonderful dining experience at the King!!! I fully expect to get a gift certificate good for exactly one free steamed w/ molten cheese Whopper in return for all my efforts...but somehow I don't care...it just feels good to get it off my chest!

Now...let see...what about all that lovin' we got from Hertz...yup...I do believe that one will get a Rob letter too......I know that Jen will make time for me to write that one!