Now it can be told

Now it can be told. Last Thursday, Andrew had an accident at school. The gym class was playing football, but not  in the smartest location on the school grounds, because there happened to be a light-pole along the side of their field. Andrew was running, looking back over his shoulder trying to catch a pass. He turned to face forward right before he smacked into the light-pole and gave himself a pretty gruesome gash on his forehead. It was more of a “rupture” than a “laceration”, and judging by his clothes and shoes, it was very bloody. 

Coincidentally, his mom happened to be heading into the school for a conference when she was told, “Don’t go into the office. Some kid in there is hurt pretty bad.” “Who is it?”, she asked, noticing the trail of blood leading to the door. “Some fifth-grader named Andrew.” Well, even though there’s more than one fifth grader named Andrew, Michelle’s worst fears were soon confirmed. An on-campus doctor had gotten him bandaged up well enough to travel to the emergency room. Michelle drove him there and that’s where I met up with them. (Thanks for the lift, Joey.) 

Though I’ve had a history of some pretty bizarre injuries myself, I’m sorry to say that when they unwrapped his forehead, it was the worst looking wound I’ve ever seen in real life. To preserve Andrew’s handsomeness, Michelle asked that a plastic surgeon be brought in at the very beginning, to make sure he got the best stitch-up job possible. The doctor did a great job and Andrew was unbelievably brave. He’s only 10, but he never shed a tear at any point during the ordeal. Through the waiting, cleaning, anesthesia injections, stitching, and several bandage changes by us, he has been a real champ. 

Apparently, “never shed a tear” can’t be said for several of his friends who saw the accident happen or even just heard about it. Andrew had a few choked up messages waiting for him on the answering machine when he finally got home.

The next day, he stayed home from school, but Michelle did take him in at the end of the day to pick up his homework. It was about the same time of day as the accident had occurred, and his class was again in gym. He went over to say “Hi” and he was immediately swarmed by all his friends wanting to see how he was doing. To hear him describe it, it sounded like a real “Hail the Conquering Hero” moment. Also, all the kids in Holly’s class made him “Get Well Soon” cards. Most were very sweet, but a couple were rather morbid. One had a picture of a bleeding head, but my favorite one said “I’M SORRY YOU CRACT YOUR HEAD OPEN.”

He has written up his (rather terse) version of events on his website, along with a couple of post-stitch-up photos. Go to www.acesbase.com and look for the Dec. 5th news, or click on the photo above to see what he had to say. 

For his cousin who is jealous of how photogenic Andrew has always been: This is your chance to see possibly the first “bad” photo ever taken of him. (You know who you are.)

Holly’s 8th Birthday

Holly’s 8th Birthday. We’ve got a photo gallery of her “Build-a-Bear” party and another of her at-home family party. Also, Holly’s Page is updated with a few new photos.

Custom Concentration Game

Custom Concentration Game. I wrote a simple “Concentration” or “Memory” game in Java and the kids helped me make some of the card graphics used in the game. Now that the game is written, it is easy to customize it by adding new card sets. Check out this page to see what we’ve got so far.

If you would like a custom version of the applet for your own web page, let me know. If there is enough interest, I may set up a page with instructions on making your own graphics and installing the applet on your own web page.

Jigsaw Puzzles – Our Latest Family Hobby

Jigsaw Puzzles – Our Latest Family Hobby. We have been on a kick of doing jigsaw puzzles together. Tons of fun and everyone gets involved. We had completed 3 largish puzzles and had planned to take individual photos with the whole family gathered around each puzzle, but we put it off too long and an emergency house-cleaning forced us to finally put them away. I did have time to snap a shot of the kids with the 3 puzzles.

Michelle’s New Hobby

Michelle’s New Hobby. Michelle has started taking art classes once a week and after only two sessions, she is already at the top of her class. (That’s me bragging, not her.) Here is a sample of some of her practicing. Check back soon to see her work as she progresses through the lessons.

Kids Fall Studio Photo

Kids Fall Studio Photo. This is what they were practicing up for in the photos below. I don’t know if my scanner has gotten worse, or if I’m just spoiled by my digital camera, but the photos I’ve scanned in lately just don’t look as good to me as the ones we’ve taken ourselves. Don’t get me wrong; the kids are still super-handsome and/or -cute, but the digital image quality is somewhat disappointing.

DVD Link Update. Added IMDB links to all the DVDs listed in the answer to What DVDs will best show off my great new home theater? on the Advice Page.

I added “Family” pages for Andrew and myself (basically just placeholders for now), and fixed those links in the popup menus (they previously led to nowhere). I’ve also fixed miscellaneous pages where the menu was being squeezed over onto the main page when viewed at lower resolutions or with smaller browser windows.

New Game: Simon

New Game: Simon. This time Andrew helped with the programming. We wrote this game in the course of one evening. Sure it’s a simple game, but programming anything is almost always more complicated than you expect it to be. This was no exception. But Andrew learned tons of stuff and understood 90% of what the program was doing. Plus it was fun working with him. Click here or on the image at the right to try to beat Andrew’s record of making it to Round 25. (My 11-round performance will be easier to beat.) Sorry the sound effects are so annoying right now. We’ll try to find some better ones soon.

New Michelle Page

New Michelle Page. Michelle was somewhat neglected on this site, so I threw a bunch of pictures of her together and now she has her own page. Click here to see the hodgepodge of photos.

Boomsmith.com Update. Finally, I’ve done a little work on Boomsmith.com. Check it out.

New DVD Database

New DVD Database. Sure, my list is still about 2 years out of date, but it has never looked so good! Mostly as a learning exercise, I have written a new PHP and MySQL -based DVD database system. Check it out here or read more about it here. [Minor update: My DVD list is now up-to-date]

The kids got their school photos back today

The kids got their school photos back today. Possibly the last photo taken of Holly with her long hair and you can’t even tell it’s long! (Click here if you haven’t seen her new short haircut.) As usual, Andrew is wearing his red “power tie” and looking way more mature than I feel comfortable with. Click these images to see a larger-sized shot.