Merry Christmas!

Just When You Think You Are Ahead...

Charlotte's elementary school has been celebrating the "Twelve Days of Cheer."  Char gets really excited to dress up for each day's theme. Yesterday was Hawaiian Day. Char and her mom spent quite a bit of time on picking out clothes and accessories to go along with them on Sunday night. In the end, Char had two outfits to pick from, and she wanted to wait until morning to make the final decision.

Daphne leaves early on Monday mornings, so it was up to me to get Char ready. The first thing I did was to get Char to choose an outfit. Once she was dressed and her breakfast was eaten, we got on our coats and shoes and headed for the car. 

Usually we pull out of the garage at 7:04. I don't know how it's possible, but even if we put on our shoes at 6:55, something happens and by the time I lock her seat belt, it's 7:04. It's like we get sucked into a third dimension time vacuum, and we get spit out at the exact same point. This morning was different, however. The dashboard clock read 7:02 when I put the car in reverse. Two minutes early! I felt like a boss.

Charlotte still goes to Kim for daycare until school starts at 9:00. When I gave Char her goodbye hug at Kim’s, Charlotte tugged on my sleeve and asked me, “Dad? Did you forget my accessories?”

I had. 

Her ring, headband, bracelets, necklace, and flower were still on the bathroom counter. Dangit! I thought I was doing so well! At first I tried to include her in the blame, "Why didn't you say something when I asked if you were ready?" But I quickly owned up to my mistake. I told her I was sorry, but I had to go to school. I couldn't be late on finals week. She looked very disappointed, but honestly, she took it pretty well. 

By the time I entered the school at 7:21, I realized that the first period exam didn’t start until 8:15. More than once my principal has said that he understands that mistakes happen, and you can be late once in awhile if you have to get something that you forgot. I figured this fell under that category, and I ran to my car. I timed the drive from the moment I left the school grounds - it was a 13-minute one-way trip. I sprinted through the house, scooped all the accessories into a stocking hat, and flew down the stairs. I got back to Kim’s by 7:55, and I was in school building by 8:03. I even did one lap of my hall duty before the first testing period started. Whew!

You should have seen how big my girl’s smile was when I showed up with the forgotten gear. She was on the couch watching TV. I placed the hat in Char's lap, and she said with wonder, "Dad... You came back. Thank you!" Her tone made every stressful second worth it. 

Kim's email with pictures of a Hula-dancing Charlotte popped up on my desktop when I opened my computer to take roll.

I don't think I'll be crowned Dad of the Year anytime soon, but it sure made me feel good knowing I fixed my mistake. 

Accessories are a big deal.

Under New Management

It didn't take long for the The Windy Pants Pinball Arcade to change its name.

 Daphne informed me when I got home from work, "Charlotte made you something for your arcade."  Then a beaming little girl ran across the kitchen floor with a piece of paper in her hand, "Here Dad! I made you this!"

This is what was the paper.

I took a moment to decipher Char's handwriting, and then I asked, "Does this say 'Sad Club'?" Char smiled and nodded.

"Explain it to him," Daphne prompted.

"Well, it's called Sad Club because when you're sad you can go into that room, play some pinball, and then you'd get happy!"

Can't argue with that.

Room For One More

I brought home an old Williams "Grand Prix" pinball machine last Sunday. The pinball machine allegedly worked when the previous owners placed it in their warehouse ten years ago, but it's going to be a project to bring it back to life.

I do think it's going to clean up well. The cabinet, playfield, and backglass all look pretty good.

We'll see how long it takes to get a Grand Prix high score on the official Windy Pants scoreboard.

FYI: Windy Pants Patrick is the name of a character in one of Char's easy reader books. Hilarious. I found the Pepsi sign at a local flea market, and I scored a set of letters on eBay. I imagine the name of my "arcade" will change pretty often.

Here's the current lineup at Windy Pants:

It took me eight months to get my Royal Flush playing at 100% (okay, 99.5 %). Hopefully, the Grand Prix is in better shape and won't take as long.

Busy Weekend

Charlotte's dance team performed at the mall on Friday night. I can help getting Char dressed, but Daphne gets the hair duty.

I was always a worry wart when it came to any type of public performance, but Charlotte didn't inherit that from me. First, she put her jacket on backwards.

Then she posed for a few pictures with friends that were equally nervous.

I didn't have very good a spot for filming, but here's the end of their dance.

Char gets to pick where we eat after a performance. She chose Tsing Tsao because she loves their eggdrop soup. Here she's playing with twist ties while we wait for our food.

Our tiny dancer chose frozen yogurt for dessert.

Grandma Betty visited for an early Christmas on Saturday.

Char couldn't wait for Grandma to see how her presents were wrapped, "I bowed them, Grandma!"

How many facial expressions does it take to open a present? Let's find out.

Some gingerbread construction also took place.

We had the Christmas Pagent at our church on Sunday. Charlotte was an angel. Again, she was really nervous.

Check out the chime action!

"Glooooohohohoreeeeeaaaaaah! In eggshell shes day oh!"

Instead of soup, Char was rewarded with some lap time with Grandma.

They also spent time reading books in Char's tent.

Later in the afternoon, Char did a ballet pose in front of the "new" pinball project that I brought home.

More on this later.

An Omaha Zoo Visit

It's not a secret that I don't enjoy going to zoos. It's not because I have some ethical problem with animals imprisoned in elaborate cages, I just think that zoos are boring. I'd bet the animals do too. But since my wife and daughter really like them, we go. Heck, sometimes I'll even suggest that we should go to the zoo. I'm dumb like that.

Here are some pictures from our last zoo trip. We stayed inside for most of the day since it was late November.

The rope bridge in the Lied Jungle is a popular spot. 

No, you cannot swing on that!

Pondering the puffins.

Somewhere I have a picture of Charlotte and me that was taken in this same spot a few years ago, but I can't find it. I suppose it was one of those family pictures that were hijacked last January when my old PC was infected with the CTB-Locker ransomware virus. 

Char enjoyed "swimming underwater" with her penguin friends.

She called this "Oook-Oooking".

Lastly, when you're a kid you should always take the opportunity to walk on the masonry. It's a law.

Thankful

I didn't blog during Thanksgiving week because I caught Char's stomach bug, and I felt slightly nauseous the whole time. On the bright side, I had no appetite, so I didn't gain any weight.

On the brighter side, Char surprised me with theses notes on Saturday afternoon.

Translation: Dear Dad, I am thankful for you.

The bottom note has made my "Top Ten Best Notes Ever" list.

Up Chuck

The evening of the 19th was a Daddy-Daughter night, and we headed over to Chuck E. Cheese's for an elementary fundraising dinner. Char had plenty of friends there from her kindergarten class, and in between playing "games" and eating cold pizza I talked to a few fellow sufferers - a.k.a. parents I know. While we were leaving Charlotte declared, "We're coming here for every Daddy-Daughter night!"

I felt like a hero.

But then Char was uncommonly quiet on the way home. When I asked her if she liked the pizza tonight she vomited her reply onto the floor mat in two, wet splats. "Oh, Char..."

I could see her teary eyes in the rear view mirror when she cried, "I'm sorry, Daddy." I have no idea why she felt the need to apologize. "It's okay honey; it's not your fault. You just got a little sick."

Charlotte responded with a longer heave. This time, I thought I could feel debris hitting the back of my neck. "Ohhh, that one sounded bigger... are you doing okay?"

"Yeah..." her voice trailed off into round three. There wasn't much strength in it, but the smell was now filling the car. It was a relief to turn the corner and see our driveway. I stripped Char down in the garage, and we headed upstairs to get her cleaned up in the bathroom. She later threw up during the night, and on Friday morning Charlotte woke up with pink eye.

Oh, man. That's not what I had in mind. Tonight we have another Daddy-Daughter night, and instead of Chuck E. Cheese Char wants to go to the Pizza Ranch.

I hope they don't have a chuck wagon.

The Holidays Are Sneaking Up

Do you have all your shopping done?

Pinball Laundry: Cleaning the Apron

On a pinball machine, the pinball rolls on a surface that is called the playfield. At the bottom of the playfield, closest to the player, is part that holds the instruction cards. This part is called the apron.

Here's an example of an apron that is in very nice condition (it's not mine).

I'm pretty sure my Royal Flush pinball machine spent a lot of its life in a bar. There's a phone number scratched into its head, it has been played so many times that some of the playfield's paint is worn away, and the bottom of the apron was really rusted - most likely from beer that had been spilled on it.

Last winter I used sandpaper to get rid of the rust. I covered the bare metal with white Testors paint and then put a sticker on to cover up my poor paint job.

The apron didn't look too bad, but I decided it was time to do the repair correctly. My first step was to order a new decal from pinballrescue.com.

Pinball Rescue is located in Australia, so I had a couple of weeks to get the apron ready before the decal would arrive. The next step was to strip off all of the old paint. I used a chemical stripper that we had from a previous wood project. What a messy job. I didn't take any pictures of because I didn't want to get corrosive material all over our camera.

I installed the bare metal apron, so I could keep playing my machine on school nights.

Next I sprayed painted the apron with gloss white paint. I let the paint cure for a couple of days. Then I installed the apron again while I waited for the package from Australia to arrive.

On Saturday night I got up the courage to apply the decal. It wasn't difficult. All you have to do is spray the apron with a mixture of water and dish soap, slide the decal into place, and then squeegee the bubbles out.

I downloaded some free images of the instruction cards and used a laser printer to print new labels on recycled manila folder stock. I cut the old folders into sheets the size of typing paper (A4) and ran them through the printer one "page" at a time. I think they look pretty authentic.

Overall, that's a big improvement! And I only messed up a little. On Sunday morning I used my finger to work a bubble out from under the left blue arrow. I must have been too enthusiastic - a bit of the blue ink rubbed off. The ink isn't gone; it's just a bit lighter in that one spot. I should have been more patient, the bubble dried up on its own later in the day.

That's disappointing, but I won't make that same mistake again. Besides, if the apron looked perfect it wouldn't look right on this machine.

I bet I forget about it in a couple of days.

At Least Someone is Having Fun Today

Every so often I page through my list of old blog posts (there over 600 of them), and I'll see one that is marked as a Draft.

I'll open it and wonder, "Why didn't I post this?"

I suppose I got too busy, found something else to write about, or simply forgot. If the post has pictures or videos, I'm going to publish it. Who cares if they aren't current? I don't want to lose track of these again. Pictures are too precious.

Here's a post from April, 2012:

"Nothing brightens my work day like getting an email from our daycare provider with action pictures:

 

I sure wish I was standing at that bottom of that slide right now."

2015 update: Do you see that building behind Charlotte the two-year-old? That's where Char attends kindergarten now, and tonight we'll be there for our first parent-teacher conference. 

Time moves faster than that little girl on the slide.