Maegan joined the girl scouts. Today was her first meeting and she came home very excited about it.

I don't know much anything about the Girl Scouts. Do they actually go camping? Maegan and I planned to go camping this summer but time got away from us. I'd be up for camping with Maegan and her troop in theory, but I definitely wouldn't want to be the only father and I'm still not sure I could handle the 'group of girls together acting like a group of girls together' (you know what I'm talkin' about).

And what's the deal with the cookie mafia? I love thin mints but I don't want Maegan bugging all the neighbors.

Labels: Maegan

Big congratulations to Maegan. She was just informed today that she has been named to the North Carolina Elementary Honors Chorus. Maegan was the only student chosen from her school and only the top 150 musicians are chosen throughout the entire state. Their big concert will be held in Winston-Salem on the 8th and 9th of November.

Maegan auditioned a few weeks ago, but otherwise she's never even joined her regular school chorus before. This will be a totally new experience from top to bottom.

Labels: Maegan

Last week Maegan's school planted pinwheels for international "Pinwheels for Peace" day. Since this was Maegan's school I was assigned to cover it for the school system's tv news. And since I was there covering the event anyway, why not grab a quick sound bite from my own daughter...

Labels: Maegan, video

Maegan had her 10th birthday party today at the Pineville Ice House. We got there around 12:30 and the parking lot was nearly full. That seemed odd. When we walked inside it was literally packed! Hundred and hundreds of people. The mascot of the local professional hockey team was there too with several of the team's cheerleaders. What's going on here?

Apparently today was a huge open house event that we didn't know anything about. Ice skating was totally free to everybody and so was all the food too. My initial concern was the overwhelming crowds, but seconds later I realized something of paramount importance - I paid (quite a bit) for Maegan and her friends to go ice skating and eat food - but skating and food was totally free to everybody today. Why was I the only person in the building who had to pay for anything? If we had all just shown up unannounced we would've paid nothing. WTF?

More on that story later.

The kids didn't care about the crowds and had a great time. Here's a photo of Maegan skating, taken near the end of the party when the crowds had gone.








Here's a photo Patty skating with nephew Connor.










And here's a cute photo of Darah's first time on the ice, being "walked" by her Uncle Ian.

Now back to that story about us paying for a free day. I spoke with the manager and explained about both the excessive crowds and the fact that we were paying for things that everybody else was getting for free. Apparently there was a mistake and nobody was supposed to be able to book a birthday party today. The manager agreed with my points and was extremely nice and appologetic. We had put a deposit down but they didn't charge us the remaining balance.

Since the kids had fun I have to ignore the crowd inconvenience. It was nice of them to forget the remaining balance, but $50 still seems a bit high for the only items that wouldn't have been free from the open house - an ice cream cake and soda.

Labels: Maegan

* Tuesday was the MLB All-Star Game. I stayed up late and watched all 15 innings. Unfortunately the junior circuit won again (the NL's last win was in 1996) but that was an amazing game with four extra-inning outs at the plate and the game winner was a split-second play too.

* Maegan just completed her second and final week at horse camp. Unlike last month, I was able to attend her presentation at the end of the week. Here are a few photos, and a link to a short video.

Here's Maegan the horse-whisperer gracefully persuading her animal to the mounting area.







Maegan gives her horse a hug while waiting her turn.








Show time.









* On my way to see Maegan at horse camp, my tire completely blew out at 65 MPH. I had to change my tire on the shoulder of I-485, but thanks to my NASCAR-like pit stop, I wasn't even late for Maegan's show.

* We have yet another baby bird on our lawn. He's been down for 48 hours now. The momma bird has been nearby but we've not seen her actually go up to the baby. I keep flagging off the area of the front lawn he's in so nobody steps on him.





* And here are two more photos from the past week: Patty playing bubbles with Darah, then finger painting.

Labels: baseball, Darah, funny, Maegan

Here are two photos of Maegan and her horse (for camp), Nellie.

Labels: Maegan

Today was Maegan's first day at horse riding camp, and she loved it! She got to ride a horse (a pony) for the first time. Her horse for the week is named Nellie, and she also 'gets to' take care of Nellie and another horse named Ona. (no photos yet)

Labels: Maegan

Maegan's last day of school was yesterday. She scored in the 98th percentile on her end of grade math test, earning Most Improved Student in Math. Her 4th quarter grades across all subjects were the maximum 3 out of 3 for all 37 possible categories. She was also named to the Principal's Honor Roll.

Labels: Maegan

Maegan got her braces off today.

Labels: Maegan

We just got proofs back from Maegan's fourth grade school photos and they are literally the worst school photos ever taken. Maegan looks fine in them, or at least she would have looked fine if you could actually see her in the photos.

Check them out. I did not alter these photos at all. These are the actual proofs we got back, with the entire top half of Maegan's head cut completely off. WTF? Was anybody actually looking through the view finder?

Sure, I'll buy a set of these photos... not.

Labels: funny, Maegan

Saturday morning I got up at sunrise and took Maegan to Carowinds Amusement Park. Her class was walking for charity to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This was the 18th annual walk, which started and ended at Carowinds. 6,500 walkers participated, and I was one of them too.

Most other parents dropped their kids off but I had a few different reasons for walking. First off, I've never done a "long distance" walk before and I wanted to test out my ability to accomplish the 4+ miles because I plan on hiking farther than that sometime in the next few months. I also wanted to see how Maegan held up because she plans on coming with me on my hike. Skipping to the end of that story, Maegan was way ahead of me, skipping and running the entire 4+ miles, and even pulling other kids on a wagon.

Another reason I decided to walk, even though I wasn't registered and didn't raise any money myself, was because I didn't feel there were enough parents around to watch all those kids. Sorry to say so but I was right. I found one kid in the group walking alone (buddy system apparently not working), and another group of 4 boys that fell at least a quarter mile behind the group. Since I knew Maegan was in front of me and with friends, I stayed back to make sure everybody made it okay. And don't laugh at that part either. We lost a little girl from our group in the first half mile - literally picked up by ambulance after she fainted.


I found this photo of the event in a slideshow of the News14 website and actually found myself. That's me with the black hat and white shirt.

My personal assessment was that I was tired after 4+ miles but I could have done another couple of miles. My feet were sore but no blisters. I have no idea how people like Ryan Carpenter can walk 1,800 miles, averaging 20 miles every day for 3 months.

Labels: Maegan

I let Maegan stay up late tonight to see the total lunar eclipse. The weather was perfect; cool but there wasn't a cloud anywhere in the sky. We went outside just after the shadow would be obvious at 9pm (when she would normally be in bed already) and looked at the moon through binoculars. Then we checked its progress every 20 minutes or so until around 10pm when the eclipse became full. It was pretty cool. And then right off to sleep because Maegan has school tomorrow.

P.S. Patty didn't come outside to see it. :-(

Labels: cool, Maegan

Maegan had her first school dance last night. She got all dressed up and danced with her friends all night. There was a D.J. and special lighting and everything. Maegan had a blast! But am I the only one who thinks it's odd to have a real, prom-like school dance in 4th grade?

P.S. As you'd expect, very few boys were reluctantly dragged by their parents to a function called "The Princess Dance".

Labels: Maegan

Happy New Year.

On New Year's Eve (Day) Maegan, Patty, and Darah came with me to plant my first two letterboxes in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte. In the evening I posted my plants on AtlasQuest. Less than 24-hours later, both of my two boxes had already been searched for and found by three different letterboxers (or families of letterboxers) each, for a total of 6 finds. Wow that was quick! Each letterboxer was up bright and early on New Year's Day to try to be "first finders". One lucky letterboxer was rewarded with a bonus hitchhiker.

Also today, Maegan carved her own personal signature stamp. (She's wearing a glove in this photo so she wouldn't cut herself.)

Labels: letterboxing, Maegan

I hate raking leaves. Maegan loves when I rake leaves.



P.S. You'll notice that Maegan is wearing shorts. It was in the mid-70's today.

Labels: Maegan, video

I took Maegan to Paramount's Carowinds Amusement Park today. It was a lot of fun.



Maegan's first real roller coaster. She was scared to go at first but she loved it by the end, which was a reoccurring theme for the day. She also went on a different roller coaster too.

Maegan loved the Whitewater Falls ride. We got totally soaked, and then Maegan stood on the bridge over the splashdown area to get even more soaked. Since she was already drenched she decided to go again. This second time she went all by herself. You can see her in the 2nd row of this photo.

Labels: Maegan

Chris Rooney was right.

Maegan and I tried Geocaching last week and liked it despite the fact that we don't own a GPS device. Chris read my blog entry and suggested Letterboxing instead, so we gave it a try this weekend. We found an easy letterbox online that was nearby and Maegan and I and my mom who was visiting took a very short trail into some woods, followed the step-by-step directions, and found the hidden letterbox behind a large tree about 10 yards off the trail.

A letterbox is similar to a geocache, but instead of signing the log book when you find it, you rubber ink stamp the log book with your own personal stamp, and stamp your own personal log book with a unique custom stamp that is also found in the letterbox. We had neither stamps nor log books since we were just checking it out but it was a lot of fun. I think Maegan and I will probably get ourselves some rubber stamps and log books and try to find more letterboxes in the future.

Thanks Chris.

Labels: letterboxing, Maegan

Maegan got exactly what she's always wanted, a Nintendo DS Lite. Notice I didn't say that we bought her a Nintendo DS Lite. Maegan bought it herself with her own money. How did she save that much money? Well there was her successful summertime business venture, and she also collected some cash for helping a family member stuff envelopes.

Patty and I did buy her the game she wanted, Nintendogs, so the game system wouldn't be useless. She adopted a virtual Siberian Husky named Stanley and a virtual Beagle named Cole. In the mean time, her real dogs are sitting next to me wondering when their water bowl will be refilled.

Labels: Maegan

Maegan and I found our first geocache today. Geocaching is basically a treasure-hunt for hidden objects using GPS devices. People hide geocaches (small containers) in various places and using nothing but the GPS coordinates you try to locate the cache. Sometimes the geocaches contain small trinkets you can take and replace with a new trinket, but ideally the journey should be it's own reward.

It always looked like a lot of fun but we don't own a GPS device, which makes geocaching extremely difficult. But using Google Maps, Maegan and I found a geocache location nearby listed on a website that was easy to find without a GPS (not deep in a wooded area). We drove down to the location and easily found the spot we were looking for, but not the geocache. We searched high and low for 10-15 minutes, befuddled that we couldn't find something that was described as being "right out in the open". Then right before we were about to give up and leave I saw a symbol lightly imprinted on to a rock. I picked it up to discover that the rock was fake and hid a small plastic container inside. Eureka! We didn't have any small trinkets to trade but we signed the log book and left it for the next geocacher to find.

Labels: geocaching, Maegan

Patty and the girls went to the coast this past weekend but I didn't go with them. I have plenty of vacation days remaining but I'm not allowed to use any of them during sweeps, and it would be pointless to spend 4 ½ hours driving to the coast on Saturday, only to have to turn right around and drive back 4 ½ hours the very next day - especially with a baby. So I stayed home so that they could all stay at the beach longer.

They all went with her twin sister and her family to Sunset Beach, NC. The 4 ½ hour trek there ended up taking 9, and Patty and Darah came back yesterday having never actually seen the beach. Maegan stayed behind with her aunt, uncle, and cousins and should be back tomorrow. While she was away she turned 9 years old, which marks the first time that I wasn't with her on her birthday.

Labels: Maegan, Patty, vacation

I took Maegan camping this weekend at McDowell Nature Preserve, which is just a few miles from home. After setting up the tent we set out on a long two hour hike, half of which was on trails we've never hiked before. Maegan kept proving to me why she's a straight-A student, constantly teaching me about nature along the way. For example, I pointed out some pine cones and Maegan informed me that they were actually called a conifer cones (I had no idea) and all about how the cones contain seeds that help repopulate the forest.

After our hike Patty met us at the campsite with Darah for dinner. We all had your typical campsite food... Chick-fil-a. Patty and Darah couldn't stay long so it was just Maegan and I again after the sun set. We talked, played board games, roasted marshmallows, and made s'mores.

We chose this weekend to go camping because the forecast was only 20% chance of scattered showers (about as good odds as your going to get in the North Carolina Piedmont in the early summer). We've had it rain on our camp out every time we've ever gone... so why should our luck be any different this time.

1:00 a.m. - It starts raining. After 15 minutes the rain fly begins to leak in several spots, including spots over both Maegan and myself. But it's just a slight drip and by 1:30 a.m. it's just a slight drizzling so after moving Maegan away from the drip, I go back to bed. 5:00 a.m. - Lightning and thunder roll in, along with more rain. This rain is much harder. I turned on the radio to get a sense of how quickly the storm may pass by but in just a few minutes it becomes apparent that it's irrelevant. The rain fly is leaking much more and in many more spots. We're both getting wet and it's time to abandon ship. I grab the electronics and other non-waterproof items and we jumped in the car and waited. After a half an hour the rain continued but it was much lighter. Maegan wanted to go back to the tent but I knew it would still be soaking so in the pre-dawn darkness we left the camp site (tent and all) and headed home. 7:00 a.m. - The storm finally passed by but Maegan is now asleep in her bed. I'm going to wait as long as I can to let the sun dry out the tent. 12:00 p.m. - I returned to the camp site by myself. The sun had totally dried out all of the tent above the ground, but not the floor which was literally submerged. I collapsed the tent, dragged it to a dry, sunny spot, and flipped it over. This worked surprisingly well and I was able to pack up the tent and leave by 1 p.m.

As usual, camping was a lot of fun until the rain ruined it. Next time I think I'll just go hiking with Maegan and then come home.

Labels: camping, hiking, Maegan, weather

This video was shot in 2003. Apparently the funnest part of this ballet class for 5-year-olds is when they drop the gym mat on the floor and blew all the girls' hair back.

Labels: Maegan

Today our neighborhood had its annual community-wide yard sale. It always draws a large number bargain hunters from around the area and Maegan wanted to use this opportunity to sell her homemade lemonade.

I set her up with a table, tent, and chair. Last night she made a sign and we bought the necessary ingredients. I paid for the lemon juice and sugar but I made Maegan pay for the plastic cups. I taught Maegan the meaning of the word profit, and how she would need to sell more than the $2.25 she paid for the cups just to not lose money. I also made her figure out how many cups of lemonade she would need to sell. At 75 cents a cup, that's three to break even and four to turn a profit.

The morning started off slow. Nobody wanted lemonade at 8:00am and it wasn't hot out yet either. But as the morning went on she sold one, then another, and eventually made her investment back. Then after 10:30am the customers (half of which were yard-salers and the other half neighborhood kids) began to roll in. By the time I took down the tent and table, Maegan had sold 18 cups of lemonade, making a profit of $11.25! Plus she sold a few of her old stuffed animals as well.

Labels: Maegan

I read in U.S. News & World Report about a social networking website geared specifically for kids called Club Penguin. It's a website where kids can register and become a cartoon penguin in a virtual world. You walk around and explore this snow covered land, while you play interactive games and communicate with other penguins. Penguins can dance at the night club, snow-tube down a mountain, go ice-fishing, and then go to their home igloo to care for their fur-ball pet known as a Puffle. It sounded like something Maegan would thoroughly enjoy but my first concern is Maegan's safety so I checked in to it in more detail.

While most kids can chat openly penguin-to-penguin by typing on their keyboard, parents are able to set their kid's penguin so that there is no open chatting allowed. A kid in "ultimate safe chat" can only communicate with other penguins by choosing a from a limited selection of a few dozen common words and phrases. More importantly, nobody else can communicate to a kid who's in "ultimate safe chat" except by using those same preselected safe phrases. This makes it impossible for anybody to give or to get personal info from Maegan. After testing it out with my own penguin first, I signed Maegan up with an account.

Maegan absolutely loves it! When she's not on Club Penguin, she's talking about it. When she's not talking about Club Penguin, she's drawing pictures about it. We need to limit her time on Club Penguin or else she'd spend her whole day there.

Club Penguin has been described in the media as MySpace for kids. It is not. While it does share the element of collecting "buddies", MySpace (which I can't stand) is all about sharing personal information and photos, which Club Penguin does not allow. Club Penguin has also been described as Second Life for kids. It is not. While it does share the element of freely navigating a virtual world and communicating with others doing the same, Club Penguin is totally family friendly and players can not freely reshape their world beyond simple structured customizations.

Labels: internet, Maegan

Today Maegan, my mom, and I went to the Morikami Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. We took a really nice stroll around a large pond, immaculately maintained in traditional Japanese style. Bamoo structures, bonsai trees, rock gardens, and a waterfall. Maegan even got to feed the nearly 100 coy. We got lots of great photos and I'll upload them to the photo album when I get a chance.

Note: This post was uploaded on 4/13/07

Labels: family, Florida, Maegan, vacation

Greetings from Florida. I'm currently on vacation visiting my mother in Florida. Maegan is with me but Patty stayed in Charlotte. We got our tickets back in December under the assumption that Patty wouldn't be able to fly in her third trimester. Within the past week the doctor gave Patty clearance to fly but now a last moment single ticket would cost over $600 (and not even to the same airport).

Maegan has enjoyed swimming in the pool every day, just like ever year. Today we went to the beach. We normally go to Delray Beach but this time we traveled 20 miles to go to Deerfield Beach. Much nicer. It was much more crowded, with thousands of people as far as you can see just like those oldtime photos of Coney Island - but that was actually nice because it had almost a fair-like atmosphere. Maegan ventured waist deep into the ocean and loved jumping into the big waves as they crashed ashore.

Between swimming, the beach, and other activities, Grandma also bought Maegan both Happy Feet and Charlotte's Web on DVD so we all watched those two movies the past couple of nights. I'll try to write more before I get back but this 26k modem is just killing me.

Labels: family, Florida, Maegan, vacation

This morning Patty and I went to see a play that Maegan's class was performing. Each child was assigned a historical figure to portray. Maegan was Annie Oakley and she did a great job. She nailed all her lines without hesitation, speaking clearly and loud enough for all the parents to hear. She's never shown a particular interest in acting before but I think she may do very well and enjoy participating in school plays in the future.

On a sad note, I "learned" today from the class play that:

• Albert Einstein invented television? (Einstein didn't have anything to do with inventing television.)
  
• George Washington lived in the White House? (The capital of the United States during Washington's presidency was New York City. The White House wasn't even completed until after Washington died.)

Labels: Maegan

This afternoon there was a bank robbery in Fort Mill. Police chased the thieves in to Charlotte where the car crashed. One suspect was apprehended quickly but another darted in to a nearby apartment complex. Dozens of police cars were called in to search for the missing bank robber, as were two police search helicopters, and the S.W.A.T. team. The whole area was completely shut down for hours.

Maegan's school was on one side of the standoff and school was about to let out. Patty was at home on the other side of the standoff with the doors locked. I was far away at work watching events unfold live on television. Although there was a period of uncertainty, Maegan's school held her and other students at the school until the standoff ended. Police still have the road closed off but the bus took an alternate route around the area and Maegan got home about an hour late.

News Story

Labels: Charlotte, Maegan, news, Patty

Maegan went to school with a wand, wearing a black cloak. Apparently today is "Book Character Day" at her school and she wanted to dress up like Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series.

Labels: Maegan

Here's a short video of Maegan practicing her electric guitar by playing Jingle Bells.

Labels: Maegan, music, video

Maegan has become an intense reader lately, reading for hours each night. Last night Maegan finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which she got for Chanukah just about a six weeks ago. Now she's trying to decide between going backwards to The Chamber of Secrets or forward to The Goblet of Fire. She must get the reading-bug from my mother and Amy, both of whom read a book a week. Patty and I are very proud of her.

Labels: Maegan

We just returned from our family vacation trip to Washington, DC to see my sister Amy. Amy visits us in Charlotte at least every year but we hadn't traveled to see her in DC in three years. We drove the 420 miles from Charlotte to Washington on Thursday, taking the slightly longer but much more scenic route through the Shenandoah Valley of western Virginia. After seven and a half hours of driving we didn't feel like going out so we rented the 3rd Harry Potter movie (Prisoner of Azkaban). Maegan's been into Harry Potter recently and it was a good thing that we saw it with my sister, since she actually read the book and was able to explain things to us when we became confused.

The next day we went to the National Zoo (including a ride on the Metro for Maegan) and got to see the rare Giant Pandas. Patty didn't want to over-exert herself so in the afternoon Maegan, Amy, and I went to the National Museum of Natural History while Patty rested at the apartment. There we saw full-size dinosaur fossils, as well as the famed Hope Diamond. After another full day we decided to rent the 4th Harry Potter movie (Goblet of Fire), and my sister once again explained all the details that were missing from the book.

So far it had been a nice family vacation. The next day we planned on driving to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Then suddenly at one o'clock in the morning those plans ended as Patty and I were awaken by Maegan "getting sick". Then a few hours later I joined Maegan in "getting sick". Maegan and I continued to "get sick" repeatedly all night long. I soon developed a fever, severe chills, and aching muscles, but thankfully Maegan never showed those symptoms. Poor Patty and Amy stayed up all night with the two of us, as well as the entire next day. In total, I didn't move from that one bedroom apartment for over 40 hours, until it was time to leave to come home on New Years Eve. So we ended up taking several of our vacation days traveling a total of 15 hours and 840 miles by car just to spend 3/4 of a day sightseeing followed by 2 days of feeling like hell and exposing Patty and Amy to whatever Maegan and I had.

Labels: family, Maegan, Patty, vacation, Washington_DC

Maegan was this year's top fund raiser in her entire 3rd grade (thanks in large part to Sharon) so she was allowed to pick one of many really cool prizes presented by her school. Maegan LOVES art and music, so being the creative type she chose a guitar.

It may look like a toy in this photo but this is a real, quality electric guitar designed especially for girls. It rocks and Maegan can't wait to learn how to jam with it.

Labels: Maegan, music

Before driving back to Charlotte we made a stop at Boone Hall Plantation. The drive up had the mile-long row of big, hundred-year-old oak trees just like you expect on a typical plantation in the deep-south. We toured the main house which was very nice and interesting but we were a bit disappointed to find out that although the plantation was over 300 years old, the house was actually built around 1930. After the tour we watched a little play and then walked over to the slave cabins. One of the cabins featured an excellent presentation on Gullah culture. At the end, the woman giving the presentation asked the audience for volunteers for a song called "Ranky Tanky". Patty thought it would be funny to point towards me but the woman said that she always picks the person who does the pointing rather than the person they're pointing to so Patty got dragged up on stage instead.

[Note: This blog entry was post-dated after we returned]

Labels: Charleston, family, Maegan, Patty, vacation

Today was our only full day in Charleston. Almost everything is closed on a Sunday morning in "The Holy City" but luckily we were able to take an early guided tour of the city. We got to see all the historic houses and sites like The Battery, Rainbow Row and more. Kudos to an excellent tour guide at Gray Line Tours.

After lunch we headed to the South Carolina Aquarium. We tried to take Maegan to the aquarium in Charleston a few years ago but were surprised to find a three hour line to get in due to the fact that tickets were only $1 for Community Appreciation Day, an event they failed to publicize ahead of time on their website. After a three and a half hour trip to Charleston we had to turn around and head back home empty handed. This time I called ahead of time to double check that the same thing wasn't going to happen again. The staff told me that although there was a festival that day in the adjacent park, there would be no special discounts that would create a similar situation to the experience we had a few years ago. We got to the aquarium at exactly 2:00pm and got on a line of about 40 people. We then discovered that starting at exactly 2:00pm they were offering tickets to the aquarium for just $1. The aquarium staff totally lied to me! By the time we got to the beginning of the line 10 minutes later, the line was several hundred people long, stretching all the way down the street in a de ja vu of our last attempt to go to the aquarium, but we got lucky by getting there just at the perfect moment to save us from paying an extra $70. Long story short, the aquarium was very nice.

Later that evening we met up with some relatives of mine who live in Charleston. My second cousin, Norman, is a professor at the College of Charleston. Being only three and a half hours away from Charlotte makes him my closest relative (geographically), however I don't think we've ever met before. We had a nice dinner on the waterfront in nearby Mount Pleasant. Norman, my mother, my sister, and I discussed family connections and genealogy research. Maegan spent half of dinner trading making-faces with her one of her new cousins. Until this weekend Maegan only knew of one cousin on my side of the family but she now knows three more. I enjoyed meeting family I didn't know I had and we plan on getting together again in the future.

[Note: This blog entry was post-dated after we returned]