It's been a busy week at our house. The kids were naturally excited about the approach of halloween. Rebecca and Kirsten decided they wanted to be Trixie the Halloween Fairy from the Rainbow Magic series. Ethan wanted to be Peter Pan, and Jon wanted to be Sonic the Hedgehog. We used to try to coordinate our family costumes, but the kids are getting too independant in their costume ideas now. Some girls from church also came along to help the kids go around the neighborhood. They really enjoyed trick or treating and got loads of candy. Lena took out a bunch for Christmas and other holidays and they still have a lot. Pictures for your enjoyment follow.
Mike didn't have much time for a costume, but we found the Frodo Baggins costume that Lena's brother Sheldon made a couple years back. Mike was excited to put it to use. He and Sheldon are about the same size and Sheldon did a super job making it. The hardest part was making the tops of Mike's feet hairy like a hobbit's. We trimmed a little of Lena's hair and stuck it on with double sticky tape at first. Unfortunately, it was clear that hair would be shedding all day. So then Mike got some elmer's glue that did the trick for keeping it both together and on his feet. Some people thought it was really cool and others thought the feet were really gross. Despite that, he took 3rd place in the costume contest at work and first place in the adult costume contest at the church's trunk or treat.
We've had some pretty significant computer trouble this week. For some reason, Windows XP stopped booting properly and the computer would reboot before the login screen over and over. Mike had set the computer to dual boot with linux a while back and we are able to get into linux. We're currently running openSUSE 11.0. We're able to get access to our old files, but some software support is missing. Although Mike could get most of the functionallity back with similar software on linux, it would be a time consuming process. He's trying to back-up the critical files from the windows XP partitions before attempting a repair install or re-install of Windows XP. Linux has come a long way since Mike first started looking at it a few years ago. The first time it took him a few days to get it working right. This time around, he had it up and running in about an hour without having to really tweak anything. Setting up and fine tuning things like the WebCam and financial software takes more work, but it's getting a lot more user friendly. We'll probably stick with windows though due to specific software that is really only available in windows at present.
Another difficulty we ran into this weekend was that Kirsten got in the van before we were ready to go clean the church and stuck a small plastic piece in the ignition switch and it broke off inside. We didn't realize it until Mike tried to put the key in and it wouldn't fit. We tried to get it out, but to no avail. We'll have to get a locksmith to come disassemble the ignition switch to get it out, but they weren't going to be open until Monday. So Mike went to clean the church with the older kids in the car and Lena's parents came along to help. We still got done in time to go trick or treating afterwards.
Mike is starting week 3 of the P90X physical fitness program. He got interested in it when he saw an infomercial at the airport. Whe he likes about it is that he can do the workouts at home with a pull-up bar, push up bars, and some hand weights. He also picked up some exercise elastic bands for when he travels. The X is for extreme and each routine is about an hour, six days a week, for 12 weeks. The first week was pretty intense and he got so sore he could hardly move. The second week was much better though with almost no soreness.
The program consists of a mix of strength training and cardio/flexibility routines that are mixed up and rearranged during the 12 week period to utilize a method called muscle confusion that is supposed to produce results for fat loss and muscle development faster than normal. Mike's not doing the diet that comes with the program, but Lena does a good job of making sure our meals are well balanced with the various food groups. So we're fairly confident that will be adequate. It will be interesting to see how his fitness improves. If the program works out, he should be in really good shape by the new year. He's also doing the physical fitness merit badge with the Boy Scouts where they have to do the fitness tests every two weeks. His first test turned out as follows:
Sit ups: 49 (one minute)
Push ups: 63 (one minute)
Sit & Reach: 8.5 inches (1/2 inch past toes)
Pull ups: 18
1-Mile Run: 8 min 15 sec
It will be interesting to see how this improves over the 12 week period. The cario/running and flexibility are the two areas Mike needs to improve on the most. Obviously, he won't be losing much in the way of fat since he has almost none to begin with.
Mike didn't have much time for a costume, but we found the Frodo Baggins costume that Lena's brother Sheldon made a couple years back. Mike was excited to put it to use. He and Sheldon are about the same size and Sheldon did a super job making it. The hardest part was making the tops of Mike's feet hairy like a hobbit's. We trimmed a little of Lena's hair and stuck it on with double sticky tape at first. Unfortunately, it was clear that hair would be shedding all day. So then Mike got some elmer's glue that did the trick for keeping it both together and on his feet. Some people thought it was really cool and others thought the feet were really gross. Despite that, he took 3rd place in the costume contest at work and first place in the adult costume contest at the church's trunk or treat.
We've had some pretty significant computer trouble this week. For some reason, Windows XP stopped booting properly and the computer would reboot before the login screen over and over. Mike had set the computer to dual boot with linux a while back and we are able to get into linux. We're currently running openSUSE 11.0. We're able to get access to our old files, but some software support is missing. Although Mike could get most of the functionallity back with similar software on linux, it would be a time consuming process. He's trying to back-up the critical files from the windows XP partitions before attempting a repair install or re-install of Windows XP. Linux has come a long way since Mike first started looking at it a few years ago. The first time it took him a few days to get it working right. This time around, he had it up and running in about an hour without having to really tweak anything. Setting up and fine tuning things like the WebCam and financial software takes more work, but it's getting a lot more user friendly. We'll probably stick with windows though due to specific software that is really only available in windows at present.Another difficulty we ran into this weekend was that Kirsten got in the van before we were ready to go clean the church and stuck a small plastic piece in the ignition switch and it broke off inside. We didn't realize it until Mike tried to put the key in and it wouldn't fit. We tried to get it out, but to no avail. We'll have to get a locksmith to come disassemble the ignition switch to get it out, but they weren't going to be open until Monday. So Mike went to clean the church with the older kids in the car and Lena's parents came along to help. We still got done in time to go trick or treating afterwards.
Mike is starting week 3 of the P90X physical fitness program. He got interested in it when he saw an infomercial at the airport. Whe he likes about it is that he can do the workouts at home with a pull-up bar, push up bars, and some hand weights. He also picked up some exercise elastic bands for when he travels. The X is for extreme and each routine is about an hour, six days a week, for 12 weeks. The first week was pretty intense and he got so sore he could hardly move. The second week was much better though with almost no soreness.
The program consists of a mix of strength training and cardio/flexibility routines that are mixed up and rearranged during the 12 week period to utilize a method called muscle confusion that is supposed to produce results for fat loss and muscle development faster than normal. Mike's not doing the diet that comes with the program, but Lena does a good job of making sure our meals are well balanced with the various food groups. So we're fairly confident that will be adequate. It will be interesting to see how his fitness improves. If the program works out, he should be in really good shape by the new year. He's also doing the physical fitness merit badge with the Boy Scouts where they have to do the fitness tests every two weeks. His first test turned out as follows:
Sit ups: 49 (one minute)
Push ups: 63 (one minute)
Sit & Reach: 8.5 inches (1/2 inch past toes)
Pull ups: 18
1-Mile Run: 8 min 15 sec
It will be interesting to see how this improves over the 12 week period. The cario/running and flexibility are the two areas Mike needs to improve on the most. Obviously, he won't be losing much in the way of fat since he has almost none to begin with.
2 comments:
Sounds like you had a fun, candy filled Halloween! :D The kid's costumes were really cute! Thanks for the idea of how to do Reed's costume, it turned out nice. Good luck to Mike and his fitness routine!
That is awesome about Mike's feet for Frodo. Too funny. Glad you had a fun Halloween!
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