Homemade Hardware – Laptop,
originally uploaded by inky.

Tyler made a laptop with an innovative fliptop keyboard that reveals a couple of new buttons not normally found on any QWERTY keyboard – one for "Rock Music" and another for "Soft Music." Notice on the screen he has drawn in the all the icons for a browser as well as the one box display for a search engine.

He also made a set of iPods and a Gameboy. Julia decided to make a kite.

We’re at Disneyland for a few days to escape the dust in the kitchen and take advantage of a Friday and Monday holiday that the Alameda School District has scheduled. The sky’s threatened rain all day (with a brief downpour while we were eating lunch and I was sampling a fine Patron tequilla) but each time we were out under the skies, all four of us would puff our cheeks and blow air to keep the clouds at bay and, I have to say, it worked!

After a day of rides, Tyler, in the elevator of the hotel said in a tired voice, "I feel like I watched too much television." I think he nailed it. Overstimulation.

Pictures will follow (including a hilarious one of Tyler mouthing out, in a full exagerated Franco accent, "Crème Brulee!") will follow when I get home and can pull the photos off the digital lightbox.

Now that we’re out of a kitchen, we mooch dinner whenever we can. This weekend we decended upon Mie & Dav’s place. Mie gave the kids a bubble set and Dav took this really great photo.

Tyler’s getting into the Star War movie series. Julia, who’s had enough of Luke Sykywalker and the gang and tells Tyler she’s sick & tired of his "star horse" movies. Izumi and I almost lost our morning coffee.

Tyler’s onto us. Izumi set up a little system with the kids to reward them for good behavior. The way it worked is that we had a jar of glass beads. Whenever they did something that we wanted to encourage, like make their bed without our asking them, clean up their room, or otherwise help out around the house, we’d reward them a pebble or two. Wnen we started, we made a little ceremony of it each night and would hand them the pebbles explaining what each one was for and clearly linking the deed to the payout which they would keep in their own little plastic cup. At the end of the week, we would exchange a pebble for 10 cents and they could then use the money to buy something for themselves.

Over time, there was less and less to reward them because they were regularly making their beds and clearning the table. Sometimes we would take pebbles away if they did something bad but usually nothing especially good happend so days went by without any pebbles.

This morning, Tyler told me he’s figured out a way to get the pebble supply flowing again. He spelled it out to me in plain logic as a grifter would explain his latest scam.

If I’m good all the time, you don’t really notice when I’m good. If I make my bed everyday, you stop giving me pebbles for making my bed. What I should do is stop making my bed for a few days, then make my bed again. Then you notice and you’ll give me pebbles!

Nuts.

Sometimes are kids come blurt out the strangest things. Just tonight, out of the blue, Julia let us know that, "When I’m picking my nose. . .  I’m looking for diamonds."

Izumi and I looked each other just to make sure we heard the same thing then, busted out laughing.

Tyler told me yesterday that he learned a few new songs at school but couldn’t remember some of them because his brain "deleted" them.

I’m not sure if I should be more worried that he used a technical word out of it’s normal context or that he referred to his brain as something beyond his control.