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Family Matters

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Teach a Kid to Fish…

Monday, March 19th, 2007

One of my rationales for buying a new PC was to give my son, Avery, our old PC. Well, thanks to some good, 24/7 tech support at Linksys, I finally got wireless connectivity in his room this weekend, and I’m pleased to report that the investment showed returns in the first 24 hours.

Avery’s school puts on a “Variety Show” each year, which consists of each class doing a dance routine to a recording of a (semi-)popular song. This year, Avery’s class is doing Dancing on the Ceiling, by Lionel Ritchie.

So after putting the Internet in his room on Saturday night, I’m sitting in my home office on Sunday morning, and suddenly the printer starts printing the lyrics to Dancing on the Ceiling. It seems my 6-year old typed “Dancing on the Ceiling lyrics” into the Google toolbar on his web browser, clicked on the first link, recognized the words, and clicked “Print.”

The Internet was born three days before I was, although I didn’t start using it until college. Today, my aptitude with it and related technologies not only enable me to make a living, but enhance the quality of my life in numerous ways.

Google was formed eight months before my son was born, and he’s learning to use it in the first grade. I can hardly imagine the benefits his aptitude with it and the related technologies to come will bring him as he grows up.

I am pretty sure, though, that they will be worth more than the price of a new PC in 2007.

Categories: Family Matters, Tech Talk | Comments Off on Teach a Kid to Fish…

Valentine’s Day Trivia

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

Question: How long do you have to be married before an acceptable Valentine’s Day gift can be cobbled together at FYE Music Store, Duane Reade Drug Store, and Penn Station New York between the hours of 5:30pm and 6:00pm on February 14th?

Answer: 12 years, 7 months.

(Obligatory note to horrified females married less than 12 yrs, 7 mos: her gift to me was purchased entirely at Hallmark, and I’m absolutely fine with that.)

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My son, the socialist…

Saturday, November 11th, 2006

This conversation took place over lunch at a local diner between me and my older son, Avery:

Avery: Daddy, why does that sign say “Please Seat Yourself?”

Me: So when people come into the diner, they know they can just sit down, without waiting for someone to help them find a table.

Avery: But doesn’t that take away somebody’s job?

Categories: Family Matters | 1 Comment »

How Snow Can Make You Feel Warm Inside

Monday, February 13th, 2006

The northeast got hit with about two feet of snow this weekend, so I got to take my two boys out for a romp in it this afternoon. Before we went out, Avery drew the above picture (some work in oils, some in clay, Avery works in blue highlighter and pencil. You gotta start somewhere).

For those who don’t read the ancient language of 5-year old spelling, the inscription reads (roughly) as follows:

“Fun in the snow. Signed by Avery Greenberg and Daddy Greenberg.”

If there were any justice in the world, all the snow on our property should have melted right then & there…

Categories: Family Matters | 1 Comment »

It’s the thought that counts…

Monday, December 5th, 2005

I had a little stomach flu last week, and here’s the e-mail I get from my 5-year old son:

Categories: Family Matters | 2 Comments »

Homecoming pics ain’t what they used to be…

Friday, December 2nd, 2005

Every year, at the University of Pennsylvania’s homecoming, my kids bring along their toy trumpets and have fun playing along with dad. It’s become a bit of a tradition for someone from the alumni magazine to shoot approximately a roll of film of the kids doing this, and then include one of them in both the online photo album and The Gazzette, the alumni magazine.

Well, this year’s version has broken with that fine tradition. Not only are there no pictures of my kids, there aren’t even any pictures from the football game. Just a bunch of shots of old folks in formal dress (some gala reception or some such thing, I guess). There’s one picture of cheerleaders, but even that’s taken indoors (as opposed to on the track during the football game where, you know, they lead cheers).

Anyway, in my ever-so-humble opinion: bummer.

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Kids today…

Monday, November 21st, 2005

My wife is flying back home from a business conference in Orlando today. My mother-in-law is babysitting the kids until my wife or I return home. There’s some nasty weather in the northeast, and her flight was delayed about an hour taking off.

My mother-in-law called the airline a couple of times to get a status and ETA on the flight. My 5-year old son showed my mother-in-law how to get on the internet, find the airline’s website and bring up a (near) real-time map showing the plane’s current position along it’s route and ETA.

I’m told he’s also drawn a map on paper, and is tracking the flight as it makes its way home, just so Mommy knows what happened while she was in the air.

Remember that movie where the teenage kid builds a space shuttle in his spare time & launches it through the roof of his house? Talk to me in 2015…

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Important People Born on This Day

Friday, November 18th, 2005

Sojourner Truth (1797)
W. S. Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame) (1836)
Dr. George H. Gallup (1901)
Imogene Coca (1908)
Alan Shepard, Jr. (1923)
Mickey Mouse (in the first Steamboat Willie cartoon) (1928)

and oh yeah… ME!

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A bad influence…

Friday, October 21st, 2005

Now, this is funny…

WYRM – I’m sorry to hear you think I’m a bad influence on my children. You may be interested to know that that kid is five years old now, and when I told him that the World Series starts in Chicago tomorrow night, he said, “That’s because the White Sox won home field advantage, right Daddy?” With this kind of head start, I’m guessing that when he gets to be your age, he’ll know what the squiggle is above the ‘n’ in Spanish words…

Oh, and by the way, he has a brother who I’m similarly corrupting…

Categories: Family Matters, Sports Talk | 1 Comment »

You Can Go Online When You’ve Finished Cleaning Your Room!

Sunday, June 5th, 2005

This is fantastic news:

Some 23 percent of children in nursery school

Categories: Family Matters, Tech Talk | Comments Off on You Can Go Online When You’ve Finished Cleaning Your Room!

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