Parliament!

Me again. Finally got out with my camera on Friday evening and walked around the Parliament. Here's a shot I got from out front:


Here's the beautiful rotunda in the back, which I'm told is the Library of Parliament:


There are a lot of beautiful statues on the grounds, known as "Parliament Hill". Most of are of former Prime Ministers. Here's on of the cooler ones:


Here's a statue of the head of state, Queen Elizabeth II:


My co-workers told me that the Queen still has the legal authority to veto bills in Canadian Parliament. And of course she is on some of the paper and coin money.

This next one threw me. There is a small little shelter just for feral and stray cats on Parliament Hill, right next to the Parliament. I have a hard time thinking this would be accepted next to the U.S. Capitol building.


Lastly, this is the final week of the Ottawa Tulip Festival, so there are tulips EVERYWHERE. I'm told there is a really large planting at the other end of the Rideau Canal, but there were quite a few around the Parliament grounds, here's a close-up:

You can also see some in that picture of the cool statue up above. The link above tells you:

The Canadian Tulip Festival has grown into the largest Tulip Festival in the world from a gift of International Friendship given six decades ago. In the fall of 1945, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands presented Ottawa with 100,000 tulip bulbs. The gift was given in appreciation of the safe haven that members of Holland's exiled royal family received during the Second World War in Ottawa and in recognition of the role which Canadian troops played in the liberation of the Netherlands.

That's about it from me for touristy stuff for now. There's a lot more that I hope to walk over and see in my free time, and will get some photos when I can. Ottawa is a nice place, but I definitely miss home!

First View of Ottawa

Here's the view from the balcony of my hotel room in downtown Ottawa. My office is just on the next block. There's some awesome sights to see that I'll get pictures of later this week and upload them to my Flickr set.

Due to some bad weather in Chicago yesterday, I had to wait in the Green Bay airport for 3 hours. Fortunately my connecting flight to Ottawa was also delayed, and I just made it on before they closed the doors.

So far the biggest differences I've noticed are that people pronounce "process" with a long "o" sound, the same hockey game is broadcast on two channels, one each for French and English, and that I should qualify for this TV show.

I'll try to get more pictures and shorter, more frequent updates for the next few weeks.

Three Knots!

Liam re-enacting a scene from one of our favorite movies "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen". He actually does an AWESOME Berthold, I'll just need to get it on video.

The Next #4 to Be Retired ...

Catherine has started playing soccer! She plays for the YMCA program on Saturday mornings. Contact us for a schedule if you want to come watch! See more photos on our flickr page.

Catherine draws her escape plan

Catherine didn't appreciate being cooped up with Liam in the den while mommy and daddy tried to get some things done around the house. She even took to diagramming for us that she and Liam (on the right) need daddy (on the left) to open the gate (noted by the arrow).

Daddy's Trip

Hi Catherine! Here's the pictures I promised for you to show you what I'm doing.

Here's the view from my seat in the school. You can see my teacher, Jim, teaching us stuff ... probably something awesome about recoverying from datafile block corruption!



I'll try to get a picture of the outside of the school building. It's a tall building called the Zurich Towers in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Here's the view from the hotel room where I sleep at night. No, I don't sleep at the school!


Here's the pretty fountain in the lobby:


Those are the pictures I have so far. The rest were too blurry. I'll try to take some nicer ones tomorrow. It's not a very exciting place and I miss you lots. See you on Friday!

UPDATE (21-Mar-08):

Here's a picture of the school building, although the school is only on the 16th floor.


Here's a picture of the car when I walked out of the hotel this morning. It is snowing a lot down here now.


See you tonight! xoxo Daddy.

Sicko Kiddos

This is what we have been doing for the whole of 2008 so far. Lying on the couch and being sick. We began the year with vomit and moved on to serious head colds with phlegm and then we went through super high fevers with headache. Hooray. So far it has been a great year!!! We will update when we actually do something.

HIDING!

Here's Liam in his hidey hole, which also happens to have all the potato chips and pretzels and fruit snacks.

Catherine ROCKING OUT

Here's Catherine doing some serious head-banging in 2004.

You Can't Touch This

Here's my mom during her rocker days. So glad I found this pic on an old scratched-up CD in the bottom of my desk drawer.

Here's the whole band. The one on the left has some attitude. My mom is seated in the front.

Liam doesn't need no stinking sled!

Here's Liam running down the sledding hill, where he would normally just fall on his face and then get up and try to run off. He didn't want to use the sleds. He was very naughty.

A Blast from the Past

Chris just had me dig up his photos from the old album, and I re-discovered the old photoshop contests. I uploaded the Catherine 2005 contest to our Flickr. I'll upload the Brooke one later. Perhaps we need to start up this tradition again!

Catherine riding the bus!

Catherine started taking the bus to school on Wednesday!

Playing in the Snow

The snow has come and gone, but the kids got out a couple times and had some fun.

Hoppy Holidays

Uncle Douggy gave the kids a Jump-o-lene for Christmas. It's already been patched once but gets well used every day. Catherine has discovered that you can turn it upside down to make a big tent, although Liam still likes to jump on top of it.

Liam also likes to leap into it from the arm of the couch. He has some real daredevil in him. We'll probably plan to put more into the flex-spending account in the next few years.

Elfed!

We Elfed Ourselves.

Cheese!

Just a little pre-Christmas picture for everyone.

Snow!

It snowed a lot last night! After daddy shoveled (and a neighbor helped with nice snowblower), Catherine got to go outside during Liam's naptime.

Happy 5th Birthday, Catherine!

Catherine turns 5! Here's a look back and her birthdays so far, plus one just prior:


Mommy-to-be with Catherine out front!


Hello, world!


First birthday, 2003.


2 years old in 2004.


3 is a magic number, 2005.


4 more years! 2006.

Wishful Thinking!

Here's Cat and Liam looking through all the Christmas toy catalogs that seem to come in the mail daily.

Catherine meets Google

Catherine called me over to help her find a Barbie pajamas dress-up game on the web. When I got to the computer, I saw that she had already done some searching on her own! She is truly hooked on phonics.

Trick or Treat!

Jane turns 29 for the 4th time

Up North!

Here's Catherine doing all the work to make uncle Jay look good. More pictures from our trip to Brooke & Jay's northern retreat on our Flickr set.

Catherine Goes to Kindergarten!

Catherine started her year at the new 4K program at the YMCA this week!

Life's a (Bay) Beach

The Seilers and Maurers made a trip to Bay Beach. Don shared his big slide technique with Owen and now demands a rematch! See more photos here.

Liam's Jeep Ad

Jeep used a picture of Liam with the remote control Jeep he got from Hummy for Christmas. It appeared in the NY Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today on August 13th and 24th 2007. See if you can find him!

Original picture of Liam and his Jeep.

Happy Birthday Liam!

For pictures, check out the birthday set!

Hillbilly Bonnie

Liam Flaunting the Rules!

NO JUMPING!

All I learned I learned from Sesame Street...

Don wants to know why I get a kick out of pushing people's buttons. I must have learned it from the master... Ernie! (Also, I love Bert's psychotic laugh at the end.)

The Lighthouse Family

The Lighthouse Family, originally uploaded by Seiler Family.

The Seilers and aunt Lauren took a walk out to the lighthouse yesterday. Lauren snapped this picture, there are more in our flickr pool.

Domino Rally

Another racing Junior

Pictures 062, originally uploaded by Seiler Family.

Knock-knock Joke Transcription and Analysis

Some of you might not fully understand what's being said here, so I'll provide a transcription and some explanation to help out.

Joke 1

Catherine: Knock-knock
Liam: Who's there?
Catherine: Peach!
Liam: Peach Who?
Catherine: Peach you gonna lock the door?
Liam: Ha ha ha.

It took me a few days before I realized that the joke should have been "Orange you gonna lock the door?" where "Orange" is like "Aren't" in classic knock-knock verbiage. Catherine probably assumed that all fruits are interchangeable and went with our fuzzy friend, the peach. Liam still liked it.

Joke 2

Liam: Knock-knock
Catherine: Who's there?
Liam: Ahhchoo!
Catherine: God bless you who?
Liam: Ha ha ha.

This one is a bit easier to understand. Liam gave the punch-line when he should have just said "Ahhch" and Catherine responded in kind. Then Liam laughed at his own awesome joke.

Prepare to have your sides split

Huh?

Catherine Posing at the Milwaukee Zoo

Thanks to aunt Kate for the photo!

Owen's Nuptials

I just showed Catherine the footage of the movie that James took of Owen's First Communion.

She said "I didn't know Owen got married!!!" She was very shocked.

My mother-in-law the child pornographer

As many of you know, up until recently I hosted some Gallery installs for my family and my in-laws. I've stopped offering this and have convinced most to switch to flickr, but I hadn't yet removed the old pictures.

So last week, the ISP that hosts those old galleries forwarded me this email:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Telefono Arcobaleno" <reports@telefonoarcobaleno.com>
To: <redacted>
Cc: <newyork@fbi.gov>; <children@interpol.int>;
<nit.procura.siracusa@giustizia.it>
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 5:48 PM
Subject: Pedo hard pics (4290/2007)

>
> Hello,
>
>
> we wish to inform you that the following internet site/s hosted on your
> server/network were marked out as containing pedophiliac material (pedo
> hard pics)
>
> http://www.vater.us/gallery/v/Family-Album-2005/album31/album26/
>
>
>
> Thank you in advance for your co-operation.
> Awaiting your kind reply to
> reports@telefonoarcobaleno.com
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Telefono Arcobaleno (Rainbow Telephone),
> a non-profit making Association for Children's Rights
> via Cavour, 68 - 96012 - AVOLA (Siracusa) - Italy
> http://www.telefonoarcobaleno.org
> +39 0931 562098 (phone)
> +39 0931 564950 (fax)
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 

That's right. The FBI and Interpol were even brought in. I've since pulled all of the galleries, not because of this garbage, but simply because I had been meaning to do it since the end of last year. That particular link went to an album that my mother-in-law had set up entitled "Rub-a-dub-dub, Three kids in a tub" and had pictures of my daughter Catherine and two of her cousins, Gavin and Quinnie. NAKED IN THE BATHTUB!!!!!!111

I pulled a backup and am presenting you with the most offensive picture in the group, tastefully censored for God-fearing eyes.


The scandal! Thankfully this was the only photo where YOUNG PENISES were on display. I'll say nothing of the bare, female chests. AVERT YOUR EYES!

The rest of the photos pretty much only show above the waist, and anything below the waste is always underwater. Leave it to Italy's finest to keep things in line.

What does a horse say?

The Revenge of Liam

I finally bought a normal doorknob and baby-proof doorknob cover for the downstairs bathroom and installed it. Liam proceeded to do the following...

Pulling himself up and over the gate on the stairway he made his way upstairs where he raided the game cupboard and spread its contents on the landing. On the way upstairs he grabbed the wood ducks and took them to his room where he jumped on his bed and pulled everything out of the closet. Then he went into my room and unpotted my flowers spreading the dirt throughout the room. Next he raided Catherine's room where he went through the closet pulling down everything that he could reach and then he unplugged her night light and dumped it in the hall. Finally, I found him in the bathroom with all of the toys in the tub. (Thankfully with no water in it.)

Maximum time frame: 10 minutes

While I was upstairs cleaning up the mess...

Liam vaulted over the gate at the door of the den and ransacked the kitchen cupboards getting out a bag of chips and eating some and dumping the rest on the floor. Then he opened the dishwasher and took out most of the silverware and played with it.

Maximum time frame: 5 minutes before I heard the dishwasher crash

Also today:
- dumped over Catherine's 3 story dollhouse and used it as a stool to reach the lights in the living room and twist them upside down
- emptied a pitcher of water from the fridge all over the kitchen floor

If anybody thinks that stay at home moms have it easy I challenge them to watch my son for 1/2 hour. Welcome to hell.

Liam auditions for Metallica

Liam auditions for Metallica, originally uploaded by Seiler Family.

Now grandma can stop worrying that he doesn't play with her present!

O Catherine! My Catherine!

On the ride home from mom and dad's house for our weekly Sunday gathering Catherine was having a conversation with one of her imaginary friends in the backseat and I overheard the last part. Here is our following conversation...

Catherine: ...so scruffles rhymes with scruffy.

Jane: No sweetie, scruffles doesn't rhyme with scruffy. Fluffy rhymes with scruffy. Just like cat rhymes with hat. Now let's try another one. Let's see... what rhymes with house?

Catherine: (long pause) cowse

(Don laughing)

Jane: Well, that is true. But cowse isn't a word. I was thinking of something else, like mouse. Mouse rhymes with house.

Don: How about something to rhyme with dad?

Catherine: waaad

(Don laughing)

I guess she gets the rhyming thing.

Classic Sesame

This is the good stuff. Real Sesame Street!!!!!! What is that crap they show now?? Check out Kermit's reaction to dancing with the old lady.

Move over Little Richard ...

Liam tickles the ivories
Originally uploaded by Seiler Family.

Winter Wonderland

Tree in front yard
Originally uploaded by Seiler Family.

Back-to-back days of big snowfall means back-to-back days of digging out. At least the trees look nice.

Jane with sick babies

Jane with sick babies
Originally uploaded by Seiler Family.

Catherine and Liam both have ear infections (Liam has a double ... AGAIN!).

Valentine's Help

Amazon has a list of what NOT to buy your loved one for Valentine's Day.

America's Next Top Model

Catherine made her debut as a runway model, joining her mom and aunt Jen and cousins Draven and Ae-Na in the Affairs to Remember bridal show. Click the photo to view the set of pictures that we have. (Some of the last ones are blurry due to someone's fat thumb accidentally changing which mode the camera was in)

Sledding!

The Seilers, Maurers and a Vater hit the hills this past weekend, and there was much rejoicing.

This Could Be You!

Found this and thought you guys might like it.

Moving to Flickr.com

Pretty soon, the photo galleries that we've hosted at http://pictures.seiler.us and http://vater.us/gallery will be going away. The server itself has an unreliable connection to the internet, and the galleries are using an excessive amount of storage space for a pro bono service.

What does this mean for you? If you want to share your photos online, you'll have to find another photo-hosting service. The Seilers are now hosting theirs on flickr, and you can see our gallery here. You can sign up for a free flickr account (it uses your Yahoo! ID, you may need to create one). The biggest limitation is only showing the most recent 200 photos. We've bought a "pro" account ($25/year), and can upload and share unlimited photos. We definitely think it's worth it. Hosting on flickr means having BIG PIPES to upload/download photos, not the tiny, unreliable connection we were using before.

Don has downloaded your photos (except for some new ones) and can burn you a CD if you need it.

A Very Sneaky Christmas

Early this morning Santa brought Catherine a new dollhouse for her Barbies. Mom and dad were anxious to all wake up and go down together to see her reaction!

Around 6 AM Catherine woke up mom and dad and everyone went downstairs. However Catherine wasn't so surprised, she was just pleased to show us everything. When dad looked, he noticed one of the dolls that Santa had carefully placed on the 3rd floor couch was now in the 1st floor bathtub! Some of Liam's toys were re-arranged as well!

"Catherine," mommy said, "were you already down here?"

"YEP!"