The Sackrider Family Blog

Fisher-Price has released a Knows-Your-Name Elmo (http://www.fisher-price.com) that can, among other things, say your child’s name. I don’t keep up with these things, but I learned about the new doll from this disturbing news report – wait, before you watch it, I want you to know that it was disturbing to me for a much different reason that you might think.

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Some people might be disturbed by the ‘offending’ elmo comment, but it seems very obvious to me that this mother is looking to hit the lawsuit lottery. She says that she was upset to hear her son repeating the phrase, but plays it several times while the child is in the room. She said it was her son’s favorite toy – so much so that her son was “climbing up the counter, up the closets to get it”, but the entire time they film the news report James is ignoring his ‘favorite’ toy while his mother plays with it to show it to the news cameras.

Did she try re-program it? Did she take it back to the store for an exchange? Did she take the batteries out so her son could play with his favorite toy without hearing the offending phrase? The answer is, No, No, and can-I-get-a-lawyer-NO! She said she called Fisher-Price and they “didn’t even sound concerned”, as a parent I wouldn’t have been concerned about it either – I would have simply offered an exchange or sent her to tech support to walk her through re-programing it. But if I were a Fisher-Price Lawyer, I might be preparing my case, since this chick is sue-happy drunk with the lawsuit-lotto mentality!

The Magic Alley

We were on our way home when we noticed the fireworks. The closer we got to the house, the closer we got to the fireworks. I don’t know why they were lighting fireworks, but we pulled over to enjoy them. Zander and I love a good fireworks show – Actually, I think I love any fireworks show, even a bad one. At the end of this one, they lit up several large colorful fireworks and Zander yells in a very excited tone – “Its the magic alley, Daddy – the magic alley!!!”. It took me a second to realize what he was saying, so I asked him to be sure – “Zander, do you mean – the BIG FINALE?”

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Foggy Fog

There was recently a lunar eclipse but we weren’t able to see it due to an unusual overcast. Zander and I were watching the moon when it started but just as the eclipse started, we lost it behind the clouds. While explaining the eclipse to Zander, I told him that the moon was ducking behind the Earth – when it went behind the clouds, Zander says, “no daddy – it didn’t go behind the earf, it went behind the foggy fog.”

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God’s Camera

Zander was very interested in the thunder and lightening, during a recent electrical storm. It was right over us and more intense than I think I’ve ever been through. It was so intense, I actually was concerned about standing outside during the storm. Several times the lightening lit up the whole house, including down the hall ways! The following thunder would crack and bang so loudly that it rattled the windows and set off car alarms in the neighborhoods.

When I put Zander to bed, he was concerned about the storm and said he couldn’t sleep while it was happening. He kept saying “the lighting is going to die God, Daddy”. I was tired and just wanted him to stay in bed. After several times of explaining that God is in no danger, I snapped “the lightening is God taking pictures, Zander! He isn’t going to die from taking pictures.” (I know, I know, not a good way of dealing with it). Regardless, it seemed to work because for the next fifteen minutes Zander was quiet and stayed in bed. Then my wife heard Zander praying, “God, stop taking pictures, I can’t sleep!”

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Zander’s Prayer

In the car on the way home from church, Lexi started to cry and wouldn’t stop. I reached back to give her a pacifier but she was not interested. Zander is very compassionate toward Lexi most of the time, but he does get frustrated at her as well. Between her crying, his idol chatting, and the radio, I was getting audio overloaded. So, I turned off the radio and I asked Zander to quiet down until we got home. Lexi continued to cry. A few minutes into the Lexi only sound track, Zander says, “God, help Lexi – she doesn’t know how to be quiet… AND she is fragile.”

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Zander the chauffeur

On the way to church, Zander is chatting away as he often does about whatever is going on in his mind at the time (I wonder where he gets that from…hehe!) Usually his noises don’t bother me, but he kept making this clicking sound by sucking on his teeth that was really starting to get to me. I was going to ask him to stop, but thought I would take a look in the back seat at what he was doing first. His hands were in front of him as though they were on a steering wheel, moving back and forth a little, and he would ‘honk’ the horn which appeared to be beside his steering wheel instead of on it. Then whenever I would pull up to a stop and turn on my turn signal (yes, with the tic, tic, tic sound the car makes) Zander would start his ‘clicking’ sound.

I asked him what he was doing – he said “I’m driving you around Daddy!”. I’m glad I didn’t ask him to stop…

Let me start by asking – did you notice the new tag line for my site? “Attempting to Live Life On Purpose…” I think that is a better fit over my old tag of “Another way for me to avoid doing any real work”. I enjoy working and I don’t consider myself lazy as a rule (I do have my moments). Just wanted to point it out… Let’s move on:

I am going to cycle commute to work… Again… No, really this time! I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it here on the blog, but I recently changed teams at work and I changed building that I report to – so now, instead of almost 19 miles to work each way, I have a mere 8.3 miles to work each way! The new building does have a shower and lockers and the bike route is mostly on-street bike lanes just as my old commute was. So, now I can get to work in about 45 mins instead of an hour and 40 mins.

I rode my bike to work yesterday, but I did not ride it home. I got caught up in the new job functions and worked until after 7:30 so I had Stephanie drive up and join me for dinner. The bike’s night lights (required for street riding) don’t have good batteries. Anyway, I also rode my bike to work today, this time both ways, and I was still able to get home in time to get to church! Stephanie and I have felt the pressure of being a one car family and my being able to ride my bike to work again should be a big help.

Plus, I’m training for the next D-Tour which is going to be riding along the Katy Trail in Missouri. Its a short 225 mile trail and I will be joined by my brother-in-law in Sedalai. It should be a lot of fun and we plan to finish in about five days. I think we might even be able to finish three days – since there are no mountains to climb. It all depends on how in shape the two of us are. Both of the scenic pictures in this post are from the Katy trail.

Back on point – My goal is to ride my bike several days a week. I even purchased a bluetooth headset to allow me to listen to music from my phone while riding without having to have the cable draped across the handle bars. I’m not excited about its performance so far… I’ll save that for a possible future post.

P.S. – I still owe Aaron Delong (http://tru-magic.com) a D-Tour AZ-TX, 2007 T-Shirt – which I am going to send him, as soon as I design them, have them made, and pay for them…