Nerf Vortex series in one word: awesome!

The rapid-fire Vigilon:
my weapon of choice

I was at Target today to pick up a gift, and as I wandered the toy isle with my son, we saw the new Nerf disc guns, their vortex line.  After a second's reflection - after all, we must be responsible parents - I got two pistols, one for me and one for my son.  I chose the Vigilon, a quick-reload pistol that holds 5+1 discs.  My son opted for the smaller Proton, a single shooter that reputedly shoots farther.

As soon as we got home we proceeded to lose 2 discs after a brief shoot-out.  I have to say, these guns are awesome.  The Vigilon, specially, with the quick reload function, can dish out massive damage in short order.  I wasn't as impressed with the Proton.  You have to hold the spare discs on your hand, and after every shot, you need to pull our the loading tray, load a disc, and press a side lever to load.  A bit clumsy, specially when you have to dodge discs being fired by a maniacal father.

Overprotective?

When it comes to my children, I'm way overprotective.  My eldest is 14, and she just took her siblings walking to K-Mart, which is essentially one block away.  Curiously, I believe this is the first time they have walked by themselves to a store...ever.  Well, this can be easily explained by the fact that when we lived in Los Angeles, our house was on the hills, and the nearest store, a Whole Foods, would be literally a couple of miles downhill, on a winding, one lane road without sidewalks.  Obviously we never allowed our children to go walking to the store by themselves.

Here in Central Florida, everything is flat.  There are no hills, dips, valleys.  You can see for miles, it feels like.  Since we live near a major street, there are lots of shops and markets around us.  As a matter of fact, a couple of weeks after moving here, I recall taking one of my children and we walked to the local Publix supermarket.  It was muggy and hot, but fun as well.

Adventures on the way to getting passports

The key to travel overseas

Ah, passports.  Those little blue booklets that enable you to cross borders, travel to distant places, become a source for potential ID theft (for those fancy, RFID tags).  Since we're planning on travelling overseas at the end of the year, we decided that we have to renew our children's passports.

For those that don't know, the renewal process for an adult passport is ridiculously easy.  Fill out a form, online if you want and print it, write a check, put your old passport, completed form, and filled check in an envelope, and mail it.  About five weeks later, a brand new document that makes you feel like Jason Bourne or James Bond arrives in the mail.  That's it.  No hassles, no pain.

Animal Kingdom

This Friday I took my son on a field trip to Animal Kingdom which his school sponsored.  First time in an Orlando area amusement park, and I must say, I'm impressed.  I have been to Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Universal Studios Hollywood, etc., so I have a frame of reference, and Disney has really done a nice job with their Animal Kingdom park.

For starters, the place is huge, has many rides as well as places where one can see animals.  Their "safari" is particularly interesting, as well as the walk one can do in the area around it and see the gorillas, birds, and other animals.  The park also has some well done live action shows, of which we saw two: the Lion King show and the Finding Nemo show.  The Lion King show is a circus type show, with acrobats, singers, a rope artist a la Cirque du Soleil, as well as dancers and large animatronic puppets of Simba and other characters.

Finding Nemo is a stage version of the movie, abridged, of course, but still seemed to run a good 30 minutes.  The way they present the characters on stage is particularly clever.  Actors hold large puppets of the various fish, sharks, turtles and others above or in front of themselves, and move the mouth and eyes with little hand levers.  The action is mesmerizing, and soon you lose track of the person and fix on the puppet.  Truly enthralling, and the scene with the turtle is amazing.

Children and sports

I was never a very active person back in school, or through most of my life, as a matter of fact.  Even now I have to constantly push myself to even do a basic 20 minute run on the treadmill.  My hope, therefore, is that my children will be more involved in sports and learn good habits from an early age so that they can continue looking after themselves as they grow up and into adulthood.

Yesterday was my daughter's middle school volleyball game.  It brings me untold pride that she has struggled through try-outs, stuck through practices, played for most of the season in the "B" squad, but finally managed to make it to the "A" squad for yesterday's matches.  She is by no means the biggest girl - as a matter of fact, she is the smallest in the team, nor the most athletic, but she is tough minded and works very hard, as well as listens to her coach.  She is also extremely happy and proud of her accomplishments.

She serves as an example to myself, during these days of studying, to keep pushing myself.  That I can accomplish things if I put my mind and body into it.  I think I will go study now.

Family or how no one wants to go to the bar alone

Studying for the bar exam with family is different.  The first time I took the bar, we were married and our first child was born a couple of weeks after graduation, smack in the middle of bar review.  As you can imagine, things were hectic, nights were short, days were long, and dirty diapers were everywhere.

Wish my car was this nice.  Do they
give frequent miles to Dad drivers?

Through all that, my wife has always been a steady presence.  She is blessed with near infinite patience, a kind heart, and a true love for her children.

This time around, we have more than one kid, they are older, can basically take care of themselves.  As a matter of fact, they are busier than I am.  Their homework load seems a lot larger than what I had to do back in the day.  They pretty much stick to their own schedules, do their own thing, but we try to leave weekends as family time.  There is more house work to be done for us adults, but the children help more and more.