Dave: All right you Chipmunks. Ready to sing your song?
Paulvin: I’ll say we are!
Theodore: Yeah, let’s sing it now!
Dave: Okay, Simon?
Simon: Okay!
Dave: Okay, Theodore?
Theodore: Okay!
Dave: Okay, Paulvin?…Paulvin?…PAULVIN!!!
Paulvin: OKAY!

Remember, you’re only as old as you act. Go here to see the original video and song.

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Igår, när jag frågade min treåriga syssling Alvin om man verkligen får slåss (jag var tvungen att veta), så svarade han “Nej, nej, Vanja. För det är ju lite fusk.”

Herregud vad jag tycker om honom.

Läs. Klara är bra, hon. 

Adjö.

Det är storm i Skåne. Hade inte kakelugnen varit ca 100 grader varm så hade jag nog hållt i den just nu. För det låter som om – och ser ut som om, den ska lyfta och flyga ut ur vårt innertak. Det viner och låter något så fruktansvärt. I varje vrå.. Barnen var lite rädda för alla nya ljud och hade svårt att somna ikväll. Och ändå är det antagligen ingenting. Bara en liten vinterstorm.

Idag har Wilmer haft sitt livs första simskolelektion. Det är stort. I mitt liv mer än hans, antar jag.
Han var kaxig, showig och ville visa upp sig för fröken (och för sin bästis Clara som också var där) mest hela tiden. “Titta på mig, jag hoppar på ett ben!”. Att hoppa från kanten (ner till mig) och flyta med armarna utsträckta som ett flygplan, var inga problem alls för vår yngling. Det som inte lockade var att hämta märkliga saker på botten. Där gick hans gräns idag. Alvin satt stolt på kanten och drack CocaCola. Så nu, nio veckor framöver är det tidiga onsdagar på jobbet för min del – för att hämta tre glada barn på förskolan. Det blir ju ingen pool på vår tomt innan barnen kan simma har vi sagt. Så nu är vi ett microsteg närmre den drömmen

Ett litet boktips så här i stormens hetta bjuder jag på också. Tyckte inledningsvis att boken var lite pretentiös och att författaren ville för mycket med sina utsvävningar. Men det gjorde helt plötsligt ingenting, för hela historien växte och blev inte bara vacker utan också spännande. LÄS! Eller köp till en bokmal i julklapp. Den kommer att uppskattas. Jag lovar.

Paper & Co. in a playful mood on Saturday afternoon

FOXHUNTING is on hiatus for now while the deer hunters are abroad in the countryside, and that gave us a chance to check in at the Iroquois kennels to see how the puppies are doing.

Paper, of course, has been out hunting now and is gradually maturing into an adult pack member. He’s had important lessons all summer and fall, and now the real education starts on the hunt field. There, he has to confront new situations and work professionally with the hunting pack. I guess to put it in human terms, he’s getting his university degree, and by next year he should be a full-time contributing member of the working world.

But what about our youngest puppies, Baffle’s litter and Dragonfly’s huge son Driver? They’re still in elementary school, but the lessons they’re learning now are critical to their future development.

These puppies were born in the spring, and for the last couple of months they’ve been getting their first exposure to working in a group, to pack manners, and to coming when called, Iroquois kennel manager Michael Edwards explained to us on Saturday.

Room to roam: all the hounds--puppies, current working pack members, and retirees--get plenty of free exercise in the two-acre field adjacent to the kennel

After breakfast each day, the 10 young puppies spend about three hours out in the kennel’s two-acre exercise field, one of the best tools the Iroquois staff has for the young hounds’ education.

“They stay out here while we’re getting stuff done in the kennel, and they play and play,” Michael said. “I try to get them out twice a day, once at the end of the day, too, so that they get four to five hours outside.

“Right now, the girls in this litter seem a little more rebellious than the boys,” Michael said of Baffle’s puppies. “The two bigger girls, Bangle and Bandstand, they’ll be the ones that won’t want to go in their kennel. But they’re all very lovable and want attention all the time.”

Assistant kennel manager Alan Foy (seen in the photo above with Baffle’s puppies) has also been working with the youngsters to start developing their sense of pack identity and cooperation.

“Alan’s been taking them out back here, just trying to teach them to stick together and respond when he calls them, and they’ve done really well at that,” Michael said, adding that it’s too early for most of the puppies to have learned their individual names yet. The kennel staff is trying to learn the puppies’ names, too! Many of them look so similar it can be hard to distinguish them, with a few exceptions. Bagshot is the woolly male of the litter; Bashful and Banknote are easy to pick out because they are the two smallest; and Driver, well, he’ll always stand out in a crowd due to his size and dark coloring.

Driver back in July.

Driver today with kennel manager Michael Edwards. A VERY big difference!

“Driver is the biggest baby out here,” Michael said, meaning both the biggest baby and the biggest baby. Recently, Michael set a five-gallon bucket out in the kennel yard, spooking Driver.

“He would not come out here on this concrete while that bucket was sitting there,” Michael said. “I had to get it and move it all the way out by the far gate before he would even come in here, and even then he came in looking at it real carefully. So we’re going to do something we did that worked well with the ST litter (Stam, Stax, Star, Stanza, etc., born in 2007). We’re going to put a windsock in their kennel, something that’s moving all the time so they get used to it. It made a big difference with them.”

In addition to their mini-houndwalks around the property, the puppies also have ventured farther afield with Iroquois joint-Master Jerry Miller and huntsman Lilla Mason. On those, they rode in the hound truck to the old point-to-point course, the same place the older hounds have their early summer walks and pond exercise. Like the older hounds, the puppies got to practice sticking together in a wide open space–their first formal exposure to that critical lesson in the company of the people who will actually hunt them someday.

“All that is important,” Michael said, “because they’re learning how to be a pack.”

The hunt and kennel staff have found it’s useful to start building the pack sense early with puppies.

“With the PA litter (including Panda, Parish, Parody, etc., born in 2005), Lilla and I would take them all through the area together,” Michael said. “By the time we incorporated them into the pack, they already had an idea what was going on, so they just blended right in.”

The puppies don’t yet have the attention span of the older hounds, but already they are focusing on people when they are out on walk, said Alan.

Baffle's litter, shown here with Michael, seem all grown up at seven months of age, but their lessons are just beginning. "I'd say they're like teenagers now," kennel manager Michael Edwards says. "They're just kind of lanky, but they're getting well-balanced."

In the case of Baffle’s puppies, it helps that they are part of a nine-hound litter–a ready-made pack, in a way. For Driver, a singleton, it was especially important that he learn group dynamics as early as possible.

“He lets the little girls chew on his ears,” Alan said. “He’s just a big, goofy puppy. But he’s fit in really well. I agree with Michael that he’s a little passive in the group, but I think it’s because when we first mixed him in with the other puppies he was so much bigger than they were. Now, he’s not quite as much bigger. Barwick and Backfire are getting pretty close to him in size. I think he knew he was bigger and couldn’t play as rough.”

“That all started when they were all at the lower kennel,” Michael said. “He was so much bigger at first that I monitored him closely. If he would be rough, I’d kind of get on him about it and growl at him.”

That lesson seems to have stuck. As Driver romped around with Baffle’s puppies, he was a perfect gentleman with his smaller playmates.

“One of the reasons we wanted to get him in with a group early was because an only child can sometimes have some trouble integrating,” Michael said. “When they’re on their own too long, I think they don’t get socialized with the pack. They don’t learn pack manners and how to respect other hounds. That’s why it was important to get Driver in with the other puppies as soon as we could, especially as big as he is. The longer we waited, the harder it would have been for him to understand that he is part of a pack.”

Baffle's litter in April.

“They learn how to be hounds from each other,” Alan said.

The next step, Michael said, is to start occasionally introducing older hounds to the puppies. Paper was one candidate, but evidently he felt pretty strongly that, having moved up with the big dogs in the pack, he was now too important to deal with the little kids anymore.

“He didn’t want any part of those puppies,” Michael said. “He jumped up on top of a bench and growled about it. I thought, being as young as he was, he’d adjust to it pretty quickly, but no, thank you. On the other hand, Panda went out there with them and loved it.”

“She educated them,” Alan said. “She didn’t get aggressive with them, but she let them know when they went too far and she let them know she didn’t want all of them piling on her at once. If they did that, she’d run away and hop up on the bench, and they couldn’t get up there with her. Then she’d wait until they scattered. Then she’d jump down again and play with one or two of them until all of them would pile on her again. She trained them in her way, which was very gentle.”

“Introducing older hounds to them out in that paddock is where I think they really start to learn about having manners toward other hounds,” said Michael. ”I think they learn a lot out here in this field with each other, just about how to be a pack. Look at these guys out here right now. They’ve been running and playing for almost an hour. They’ll play to the point that somebody gets a little grumpy and growls, and then they’ll stop. These guys will say, ‘That’s enough,’ and it doesn’t escalate. Then they’ll play again.”

“Nobody knows more about being a hound dog than a hound dog,” Alan said. “We can let them know what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable. But those hounds know even better how to tell each other what’s acceptable and what isn’t, and they know how to tell each other how far it can go before something becomes unacceptable. You’ll see them do it on houndwalk. A puppy will go off from the group and do something goofy, and when they come back, and older hound will growl at them to chastise them. Glog is really good at chastising the younger hounds on houndwalk when they do something wrong. He gives them a little scolding, like he’s saying, ‘That’s not how we act around here.’”

Paper (right) at play. Playing is an important part of learning.

While we were at the kennel, we checked in on the new English hounds, too. Cottesmore’s Samson, Strawberry, Structure, and Hawkeye arrived about three weeks ago and are adjusting well, Michael and Alan report. Like the puppies, they are having to learn their place in a new pack, and Michael and Alan are working to figure out which clique within the pack works best for them.

“I think a lot of their ability to adjust easily has to do with Neil,” Michael said, referring to the Cottesmore huntsman, Neil Coleman, who raised and hunted the four in England.

“Look at Samson over here,” Michael said, pointing to the group just turned out in the two-acre field. “He’s in there with all those males. They’re all at the age where they’re trying to show who’s top dog: Paper, Gaelic, Hailstone. But Samson’s the type you could probably stick him in any group and he’d adjust. Because he’s not aggressive. That has a lot to do with the way Neil has raised them. And the others are the same way.”

Cottesmore Samson, the red-and-white hound closest to Michael here, has settled in well. Michael and Alan report that he is easygoing and adaptable.

Structure, Hawkeye, and Strawberry are kenneled in a run with the SA litter that includes Sassoon, Savvy, and Saracen. “They’re pretty easygoing, too,” Michael said.

One of the most important jobs Michael and Alan do is figure out which group of hounds should be kenneled together. Getting the mix right requires some experimentation, but it’s key to the hounds’ physical and mental wellbeing; getting it wrong could result in dangerous friction in the kennel.

“When I brought the English hounds up from the lower kennel (near Michael’s house, where they were quarantined before joining the rest of the pack at the upper kennel), I just started sticking them out in the field with different groups to see how they responded to each other. When they’re outside together with a lot of room, they’re more interested in what’s going on around them than they are in each other, and you can keep an eye on them. I stuck them in with the SAs and never had any issues with them, so that looks like a good fit.”

The process–the two-acre turnout paddock and essentially letting the hounds choose the clique they’re most comfortable with–is unusual, as the English imports let Michael and Alan know.

“When we first turned them out, they all just stood at the gate looking at us like, ‘What’s going on?’” Michael recalled. “But after a few minutes, they sort of went, ‘Hey, look at all this room! Let’s run!’”

Once the hounds have chosen their own group of friends, how do you get each set to merge comfortably with the pack? “We turn different groups out together,” Michael explained. “There are only a few groups that have a little trouble mixing closely, and you have to know all that, especially when you are loading them up in the trailer to take them to a meet. For instance, we can keep some hounds in the back of the hound truck instead of in the trailer if we need to.”

It’s also critical to know who the dominant dog is at any given time, Michael said. At the moment, it’s Alvin.

“Stalker was the big dog before we retired him,” Michael said. Stalker, one of our most beloved hounds, is now retired under the care of the Hound Welfare Fund. You can read his story here. But now that he’s retired, he spends more time in the kennel office, where he can relax and keep warm, and suddenly he’s a mellow retiree.

“Showing his dominance doesn’t seem to concern him so much now,” Michael said. “I guess he’s old enough to realize he’s got it made in there!”

• Houston moves from 16th to 5th on Milken’s best performing city list.
• China is very close to restricting debt on property purchases.
• Houston’s commercial real estate sales down 84% from this time last year.  Is this a buying signal or is there more room to run?
• Two Japanese banks are merging to create the country’s fifth largest bank.
• Recession’s impact on the Houston office market.
• The NAIC has approved a plan to develop a new credit rating model.
• Green Building projects expected to skyrocket.  8 million jobs within 4 years-per projections.
• According to the Fed, banks are continuing the practice of extending and pretending.
• Bargain buys are reducing rental rates on the east and west coast.
• Is Singapore about to make the same mistakes the rest of the world made in regards to a real estate bubble?
• Net investment chart of commercial real estate (2001-Current).  This shoe has already dropped.
• On a separate note, REITs helped surge the stock market to its 52 week highs earlier in the week.
• Alvin TX’s north side is to get a $50 million Christus Health Hospital.
• Believe it or not: Commercial mortgage restructuring guidelines are getting results.
• HBJ reports Houston consumer spending slowing.  But optimism abounds.
• Of the 386 housing permits (projected new homes) in Sugar Land, 369 are from the Telfair Development.
• Chase is hiring 1200 mortgage loan officers to increase its capacity by 60% by the end of 2010.
• Tough couple weeks for the small business lender.
• Peak Demand or Peak Consumption?  Read the Oil Drum’s take.
• This just in: Banks are actually having success selling their toxic assets.
• Houston home sales up 10% from last quarter.  Median remains $160,000.
• Retail might be hurting, but its getting a big boost from institutional investors.
• Marq*E Center on I-10 & Silber to undergo a renovation to make it more retail friendly.  Interesting note: the Fed Reserve was involved.
• The Tenants Rights Act is adding liabilities from landlords.
• Texas’ electricity rates: Largest increase in prices over last 8 years…anywhere in the US.
• Sam Zell: Pending doom for CRE is a myth.
• Texas Employers can expect a tax hit for the jobless.
• No CRE to buy? Try looking north of the border, eh?
• Commercial Real Estate lending still tight.  Demand up, Supply Down since July.
• Britan’s Lloyd’s is scrambling to recover $1.1 billion after the collapse of Kenmore Property Group.
• Houston Downtown Tower purchased.  Aaaahh, some good news.
• Myspace.com losing $1 million a month due to office vacancy.

~Llenrock & Lowery Blogs

Story of the day:  Step out and smile

Ruth Ryan, wife of Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, had one moment she looked forward to in every one of her husbands’ games.  In Covering Home, she writes:

It probably happened the first time on the high-school baseball diamond in Alvin, Texas, in the mid-1960’s.  Then it happened repeatedly for three decades after that.  Inevitably, sometime during a game, Nolan would pop up out of the dugout and scan the stands behind home plate, looking for me.  He would find my face and grin at me, maybe snapping his head up in a quick nod as if to say, There you are; I’m glad.  I’d wave and flash him a smile.  Then he’d duck under the roof and turn back to the game.

It was a simple moment, never noted in record books or career summaries.  But of all the moments in all the games, it was the one most important to me. [Ryan, Ruth.  Covering Home. Word, 1995; as seen in Reader's Digest, September 1995, 87.]

Quote of the day: Craig Larson

“Those who love us long for us to acknowledge them, to give them our attention.  This is true not only in marriage and family, but in our relationship with God.  Throughout our days, in both the big and small moments, God enjoys it when we “step out of the dugout” and smile in His direction.”

Bible verse of the day:  Proverbs 3:6

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You so much for my marriage.  Father, may I find ways each day to acknowledge the greatness in my spouse.  May the words that I speak be encouraging, uplifting, and full of love.  Thank You for sharing my spouse with me while I am here in this world.  May we make the most of each day that You have blessed us with.  Father, I thank You for always being a part of my life, no matter where I go, and teaching me how to love unconditionally, just as You do.  I love You and thank You for this day!

In Jesus Name I pray,

Amen

Efter legolek och skype med Mormor & Morfar hade vi onsdagsmys i vardagsrummet. God kladdkaka hade vi bakat som vi mumsade med vaniljglass (en sån extra god med svarta prickar i). Kung Fu Panda lärde oss några moves under tiden på TV. En bra onsdag helt enkelt.

Alvin vill fortfarande inte bli fotad så det här är vad jag kan bjuda på. Håret är oruffsigt och ögonskuggan antagligen helt försvunnen efter en dag med bus och stoj, armringarna och halsbandet ligger i min jackficka Han ser mao inte så väldigt utklädd ut längre haha.. söt är han ju iaf

Idag när jag kom hem från jobbet så fick jag en smärre chock. Wilmer såg ut som en misshandlad liten kille. Men tydligen hade han och Hjalmar trillat från gungan på dagis och Wilmer hade skrapat upp ansiktet rejält. AJ. Stackare!

Mörbultad Grabb!

Den stora killens simintresse har tyvärr minskat drastiskt sen en incident på simskolan förr förra veckan då en tuff kille puttade i en kompis. Denna stackars kompis fick panik och sjönk… De kan ju som sagt inte simma, det är ju det de är där för att lära sig. Alvin blev ganska skärrad av detta och sen dess har han börjat gråta varje gång han ska hoppa i den djupa bassängen och på egen hand (med simlärarinnan brevid i bassängen såklart) simma ca 10 m. Riktig panikgråt!
Så nu är det simskolepaus och vi har försökt diskutera detta – väldigt pedagogiskt & lugnt, men han vet inte riktigt själv varför han känner så här.
Han vill ju gå på simskola! Han vill simma! Stackaren. Måste vara riktigt frustrerande med bubbliga känslor som man inte förstår.
Vi får ta en långpaus helt enkelt och se om det blir annan aktivitet eller om han vill återvända till mammas hemarena – klorstinkande kallt vatten. Taekwondo eller nåt annat kanske till våren?

Kast med liten Alvin!

Nej – det är inte detta fina, höga, tiopoängskastet som är anledningen till simskräcken. Lovar

Voici quelques photo de l’alvin & friends :

Voici quelques photo de l’alvin show d’hier désolé j’ai oublier de prendre des notes!

demain 28/10/09  a lieu dans la viproom l’alvin show a 18 h soyez au RDV pour une heure de fun et de cadeau avec alvin et BIGmodder!

He will be proposing to his girlfriend, rachel, where they met working at an online portal, Youth.SG. They’ve been together for 2 years and alvin is now proposing to her on this BIG BIG day as it’s both alvin and rachel’s birthday!

These are ways that you can help alvin in his Project R

You can help alvin by spread this on your blog, twitter, facebook, friendster of whatever other social media channels as long as it reaches people who knows Rachel personally and can inform her about this. If you know Rachel personally, you can do the same plus SMS, MMS, email her so she is swarmed with hundreds of proposal messages.

Let’s wish them happiness 祝你们幸福哦！

visit http://blog.omy.sg/alvinology/ for more info

Alvins sänka var hög – över 134.. så efter grubblerier (har bara andrahandsuppgifter, känns lite osäkert kanske? Ring Mattias om ni behöver mer ingående, personlig uppfattning och detaljer om hur läkaren såg ut och vad/vem han var!) kom de fram till att de inte visste vad det var!

Wow! Tänk hur det måste ha känts. Minst 9 års utbildning, sen AT – specialistutbildning, kanske lite annat på det.. så typ – 12 år på universitet och ändå inte kunna bestämma vad en 5 åring har för sjukdom.
Stackars läkare! Jag hade inte känt mig helt stolt efter det. Samtidigt letade de inte efter något tydligen. Då hittar man heller inget som bekant!

Mattias var, som vanligt, stark och påminde dem om att det var samma sak för ett år sedan. Så efter konsultation med annan läkare och letandes i journalerna så höll de med Mattias om att “ja – det hade ju hänt vid tidigare tillfälle också”.

Så nu är det pencillin som gäller (men den bästa varianten Amimox som ges då penicillin V ej givit önskad effekt ) och återbesök på fredag. Kanske vågar släppa iväg honom på spökfest i 2 timmar på dagis imorgon. Han har ju sin skelettkostym som han vill använda!

Fortsättning följer ;/

Det är ganska kallt på morgonen numera – tänk om man hade en sån här fluffig väst & ett par sådana här fluffiga saker på öronen! Underbart! Hade ju inte fryst ett ända dugg efter det. Andra har UGG på fötterna, jag på öronen (eh – jag har alltså inte dem. Detta är ett ytterligare dröminlägg bara. Fönstershoppar på nätet.. ).

Fluffväst!

UGG öron!

Febern – en uppdatering; Måndags hoppade den upp och ner hela dagen. Vi var iväg och handlade en grön, självlysande skelettdräkt till spökfesten (som han kommer att missa) på dagis och då hade han ingen feber. Men under eftermiddagen gick den upp till 39.4 igen. Igår, tisdag, var det likadant igen. Gick upp 2° på mindre än en timme, så jag ringde upplysningen som tyckte att det lät som typiskt beteende för lunginflammation. Testade att få tid på det populära stället, vårdcentralen, men det var fullt.
Sov hos Alvin i natt och vid 5 tiden hade han 40.4°.. så nu, äntligen får vi komma till doktorn – kl. 13 idag. Mattias drar dit och jag tjänar ihop pengar till familjen idag. Får se om den trevliga sjuksköterskan på 1177 hade rätt eller inte. Men något är där ju. Något envist!

I know this is late but the version now is 0.961
Maybe the last version of Beta….

Canon 500D, f14, 1/160,-1/3eV, iso 100

Angående febern – detta mög – så är den tillbaka! Som en boomerang. Upp och ner, upp och ner.. wazz up egentligen med detta? Nu är det 38.5° igen. Om han nu ska vara sjuk så kan han väl ialla fall bestämma sig! Ytterst märkligt. Får väl köpa en dos tålamod och avvakta och se vad det blir av detta den här gången också.

Någon som vill gissa? Någon som vill diagnostisera? Ringa Dr House? Mattias hade nog uppskattat Dr Åsa ifs…

Vab – here we go again!