Category: Children

Pajamas in Public…Just Say No!

~ K ~ 8 Comments

I recently wrote about my travels to Kauai and how I disliked the airline system.  Upon talking with my FAA friend today, he mentioned that I had totally forgotten to mention how much I hate passengers who wear their pajamas while traveling.  Mind you, it isn’t just airline travel I see this trend happening in.  I also notice it in the grocery stores, at gas stations, and even at my kids’ school (most often parents being the offenders).pajamas in public2.jpg

It floors me to see grown ups wearing Hello Kitty pajamas at 3:20 pm in the afternoon.  For example, I was walking my daughter home with her friends and two adults were putting something in their car wearing their pajama bottoms like khaki slacks.  It is 3:20 in the afternoon and I have to see your Hello Kitty pajamas?  How old are you? Three years old?

Getting back to the air travel pajama problem, I really don’t think that as an adult I need to see your pajamas.  The only acceptable people that are allowed to wear pajamas on an airline flight are children under the age of 5.  If the kids are in Kindergarten, I’ll cut them some slack.  However, first grade and above, you need to put on your “big boy” pants and act respectful.  Heck, the next thing we’ll see is teenagers wearing diapers and pooping their pants on a cross country flight.  How would you like to sit next to that mess on a five hour flight?

So grown up and stop wearing your pajamas around like they are a pair of jeans.  Society made sweatpants so you could wear pajama style clothes in public.  Sweatpants are marginal more acceptable to wear in public.  You really should wear sweatpants when you are working out at the gym or jogging in the park.

Places I don’t want to see you wearing your pajamas:

At my kids’ school

Grocery stores

Gas stations

Post Office

Shopping malls

7-11

Liquor stores

Pizza parlors (really any kind of restaurants)

Again: Grow up, wear some jeans, some khaki slacks, or even a kilt or skirt.  Leave the pajamas at home so I can keep my lunch down.  Just give me one day where I don’t get grossed out by your lack of compassion to my sensitive stomach.pajamas in public

Bad Parenting Just Keeps Coming!

~ K ~ 3 Comments
A_guide_for_really_bad_parents_20140226_Aguideforreallybadparents
Photo from funnyand.com

I always enjoy watching the news in the morning.  It’s just a nice reminder to know that I’m not the worst parent alive. 

Just a week or so ago, we had a family let their kid climb into the Gorilla World at the Cincinnati Zoo.  The kid falls in and the zoo officials shot and killed the gorilla.  Concerned parents all over are asking “Who the hell was watching the kid?”

But let’s be honest, who hasn’t been too busy on their smartphone to watch their kid?  I mean, people text and drive and nothing bad ever happens.  Why not let your kid run around and do whatever they want?  Being a parent is hard.  Those clever Facebook posts aren’t going to post themselves.  The boy’s mother also had three other kids she was watching at the time, so losing one isn’t that bad.  I can live with a 25% kid loss ratio.  I bet that is acceptable in most places.

The other story that was on the morning news was the seven year old Japanese boy that was lost.  I wasn’t sure why this story made international headlines.  It was one kid and he had two parents watching him and yet they still managed to lose him.  Sure, they left poor Yamato Tanooka by the side of the road to discipline him for throwing rocks at people and cars but they did go back for him (after a few minutes).  Yamoto just had wandered off by the time they got back.  They probably called out for him in low voices but he ignored them because he was sobbing so hard after being abandoned by his parents.  I know I cry every time my cat Mr. Whiskers leaves me.

Don’t worry; the story has a happy ending.  He was found six days later after sleeping in an unmanned building.  No wolves chased him down.  No bears made him jump over a cliff into a river below.  At least he will have a great story to tell of how he sat around in a building for six days without his smartphone, TV, or internet.  Think of the trauma of no internet or video games for six days.

“Hey Mom and Dad…remember how you lost me for six days?  You do? Ya, so do I.  Now can I have that cookie?”

Need a Break from your Boring Day? New Drone Footage – Lake Washington

~ K ~ 1 Comment

 

Ah, the sunny skies of Seattle…Enjoy our latest drone footage featuring University of Washington, the new 520 floating bridge (longest floating bridge in the world!), me racing around in the ski boat “Mac Mac”, our and friends in their trawler “Fish Hawk”.  Also some footage of Batman on a jet ski near Seward Park.

 

https://youtu.be/p6ZKXOsgEC4

Below is a link to our YouTube Drone footage.  If you want an idea of how nice Seattle can be, take some time and watch the videos.

https://youtu.be/p6ZKXOsgEC4?list=PLV90e384HDIfB651tEIk6i-WwzwLtvoAX

 

Windows are for Winners! (and that’s why I’m sitting here by the window!)

~ K ~ 9 Comments
Image courtesy of Alaska Airlines (whom should be sponsoring my blog)
Image courtesy of Alaska Airlines (whom should be sponsoring my blog)

On my recent trip to the Big Island, I left a few days before my wife and travelled by myself. Like many others, I love to take vacations and fly in airplanes. I enjoy sitting, looking out the window at the clouds, think about my cat Mr. Whiskers, enjoying the landscape below, with the knowledge that in a few hours, a new adventure awaits for me. When my wife and kids travel with me, I give up the window seat to one of them. I’ll get stuck on the aisle seat or the middle seat (I’m usually stuck in Coach because this blog isn’t a national success as of yet and I can’t afford First Class).

So, the highlight of the flight was when the little kid next to me wanted to look out the window. He asked his mom if she would ask me if I could change seats to the aisle seat.

What? First of all; man up kid, you are five years old…talk to me yourself. Stop being a whiner. Second, I don’t want to sit by the aisle because I know this kid and his mother will have to go to the bathroom 15 times during the flight, Third, the flight attendant will bump my elbow EVERYTIME she goes by with the drink cart, Finally, you know some lady will need to get something out of the overhead bin (right above my head), it will be too heavy, and she’ll drop it on my head (thus awaking me up and annoying me). Just leave me alone.

I turned to the kid, raise my left hand, slowly pulled the shade down, and said to the kid.

“Windows are for winners and you aren’t a winner.”  Then, with a smile on my face, push the “Play” button on the podcast I was listening to (“How to be a Sarcastic Jerk Podcast Episode 167), closed my eyes and started my vacation.

(if you haven’t figure this out by now…this didn’t happen…work of sarcastic fiction…well, the flight and vacation to the Big Island did happen).

Again, why hasn't the Royal Kona Resort asked me to blog for them?
Again, why hasn’t the Royal Kona Resort asked me to blog for them?

Crazy Teacher Night- Spanish Teacher Introduction

~ K ~ 7 Comments

Bueno Dias!  Ya, that’s about it for my knowledge of Spanish.  But for some reason, my son’s Spanish teacher thought she should give her Parent’s Night speech in 80% Spanish and 20% English which equals 100% Annoying!  Now, I admire someone who wants to flaunt their foreign language ability as much as the next guy, however, I would like to understand what the heck you (the teacher) are saying.  Really, when I’m in your classroom (wasting my time), listening to you rambling on in Spanish, I’d like to know what the hell you are saying.  If I wanted to listen to an all Spanish dialogue, I’d flip on one of the many Spanish cable channels. (On a side note, why are the Spanish actresses so hot looking?)

Most of the other parents present,  were just as confused as myself, no doubt thinking that perhaps they were suppose to be fluent in Spanish BEFORE their child took her class.  Maybe they should know spanish so they could understand what she was yelling at us about.  (Why do Spanish teachers always seem like they are yelling?)

I’m was only in her class to see her grading system and how much percentage she allotted to homework points (grade) versus quiz and test points.  However, since most of her speech was in Spanish, I really don’t know what my son will be learning (besides Spanish…I hope).  I’m still not sure how she grades.  Maybe after I become fluent in Spanish, I can ask her.

There was a Question & Answer session at the end of the class period, and it took all my sarcastic willpower to not ask a question in German.  I just want to ask her ANYTHING in German, then when she said she didn’t speech German and didn’t understand, I could say “Exactly. You don’t speak German, I don’t speak Spanish, but we both speak English. Perhaps next time you could speak English and all of us could understand you.”

But I didn’t because I’m trying not to be “that” parent.  You know the parent that the teacher (and everyone else) hates.  And because the teacher hates the parent, the student gets a bad grade and the teacher acts like a jerk to kid.  My poor son has enough problems dealing with me, he doesn’t need a pain in the ass Spanish teacher bugging him as well.

So I bit my tongue and rolled my eyes in a passive aggressive way.  Then I decided to blog about it and express myself so my three followers know how upset I am.  I’m sure Cyndi (my imaginary stalker), my mom, and Mr. Whiskers are equally upset.

Enjoy your Friday! 

 

Oh, I’m sorry, did you say something about how I talk?

~ K ~ 15 Comments

I’ve been having problems with certain “words” in my life.  I’m making the effort to eliminate the following words and phrases:

Basically

Actually

Technically

….And something

… And stuff

I think…

I’ll try….

Let’s get into the meat of the situation, we all have phrases that we say that begin to drive us crazy. My least favorite is my habit of saying “and something”. 

For example:

“The battery is very large and something.”  Of course the battery is “and something”.  I feel like a dork every time I say it.  Please, help me stop the use of the “and something”.

And like Yoda says I shouldn’t “try”, I should “do” it.

Instead of me saying “I’ll try to mow the lawn.”

No, instead “I will now the lawn.” (Unless it is raining….who wants to mow the lawn in the rain?).

In an effort to be specific, I’m switching to:

I will….

Don’t forget about “basically”.  I recently started to listen to the radio show “Loveline” again (via podcast) and every time someone says “basically”, they ring a bell. Now, everything time I hear the word “basically”, I hear that bell go off in my head.  I have been conditioned just like Pavlov’s dog; I hear the word “basically” and the bell goes off.  Now where is my treat?

“And stuff”

I use “and stuff” when I’m talking and it is annoying. I wouldn’t write it but I find myself saying “Here comes Clark with the report and stuff.” Really?  That just came out of my mouth?

Please don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to come off as a snobby speaker of the English language. I’m a terrible speaker and mispronounce words all the time (I blame my parents….but who doesn’t blame their parents for all their problems?). I’m focusing on my own poor speech patterns and phrases. For pete’s sake, this blog isn’t about you, ok? These items are things I want to fix about myself. And who says I can’t change (besides my wife and kids?).

One more that I don’t use but I hate:

Honestly and To be honest with you….

“Honestly, I don’t know what you mean that I crashed the car.”

“To be honest with you, I’d never eat the last cookie.”

You weren’t honest before?  I don’t use those word phrases but they drive me crazy when I hear them.

So basically (ding), I’m trying to tell you that I need to work on myself and stuff, so that I think I can become a better person and something.

Actually, that was painful to write and then read.

Have a wonderful day! 

 

Crash of the Drone

~ K ~ 5 Comments

So….

I’ve been practicing my drone flying skills and decided to fly the drone around Lake Union a bit today. I got some nice footage of some boats, saw a sea plane landing, and then managed to crash my drone.  Actually, the drone belongs to my son and myself. As you can imagine, it was hard to tell my business partner I crashed the drone this morning.

I was flying an old ferry boat and got too close to the barge that is docked next to it. I realized that I was too close and attempted to go up which is where I got into trouble.

Once the crash occurred, I pretty much thought my son was going to kill me when he found out. Why bother trying to find it? I was a dead man.

Nevertheless, I threw the controller and the drone backpack into the back of the car and raced to the crash site.  I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to find it or be able to get to it. This is a “working” lake (meaning there are barges, fishing boats, sea planes landing and taking off) in Seattle and the drone was probably at the bottom of the lake.

I did find the drone laying on a barge and was able to recover it.  Below are some photos and the actual drone video crash footage of the damage.

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Snow…but no snow…

~ K ~ 3 Comments

Lately, we have been getting some good heavy snowfalls in the mountain regions of the Puget Sound area. Today we were excited to set off for Paradise (Elevation: 5400 feet), on Mt. Rainier, for a play day in the snow. Do some snowshoeing, perhaps even build a snow cave or even an igloo.

The drive to Paradise isn’t too bad if the road is clear. You enter the Mt. Rainier National Park though the Longmire gate entrance.  However, with the recent snowfall, and then having the temperatures rise back up a bit, plus you add some rain and you have a great situation for avalanches. The park service is pretty good at keeping the road closed if it should be closed (due to dangerous conditions).  The National Park Service (NPS) also requires you to have tire chains even if you have a vehicle with all wheel drive or four wheel drive.

We were just outside of Elbe, when we decided we had better check the National Park Service’s Twitter feed and discovered that the road to Paradise from Longmire was closed. Oh well.  Drive an hour or so to discover you can’t get into Rainier National Park.  But then again, that is the nature of winter weather.

We are hoping to return to Mt. Rainier National Park over the next few weeks if possible. 

 

New Drone Video Footage of Anderson Island, WA

~ K ~ 4 Comments

This past weekend, my son and I took a quick trip to Anderson Island to fly the Phantom 3 drone and get some awesome raw footage.  We did three flights and the video below is a short video of those flights.

On a side note, for us to keep the YouTube channel name “Seattle Drones”, we need at least 100 subscribers.  Do us a favor and hit the “subscribe” button when you view the video.  And we need you to “like” this video too!  Heck, you should post it on your Facebook page and email all your friends about this video!

Anderson Island is located in the south Puget Sound area of Washington State and is accessible by ferry boat, boat, or helicopter.  You could also land a seaplane or parachute in if you like.  I’ll stick to the ferry boat ride (I don’t jump out of perfectly good aircraft) and using the drone (or an airplane) for bird’s eye views of Anderson Island.

During the drone video, you’ll see one of the two ferries that Pierce County operates between Steilacoom (mainland) and Anderson Island.  My son Hayden ran the drone from the parking lot near the ferry landing on Anderson Island.  He doesn’t seem to trust me with flying it at this point.

The lake portion of the video is Lake Josephine with views east towards Mt. Rainier.  You can also see Oro Bay during this section of the video and we launched from Ray Park.

The third and final part of the video shows McNeil Island to the north, Eagle Island (a Washington State Park – day use only), some more of the ferry, and a gorgeous sunset with the Olympic Mountains in the distance.  We launched from Olso Point for this flight.

Below are some helpful links if you are interested in a visit to Anderson Island:

Ferry Schedule for Anderson Island Ferry

Anderson Island Information

Join our Seattle Drone Twitter Feed: Seattle Drones

 

Why I hate Grocery Stores, Children, and Old People

~ K ~ 10 Comments

Yesterday, my wife convinced me to go to the local grocery store to purchase ingredients for dinner.  Normally, I don’t mind making a quick stop at the grocery store because I’m fairly familiar with the store layout and I’m in and out in a few minutes. Well, on a normal day, I would have been in and out. Yesterday, it was POURING down rain (I know that is a major surprise in Seattle), the store was unusually crowded on a Saturday afternoon, people were parking like dumbasses, and I was in a (slight) hurry.  All of these factors mean that my trip would be doomed from the start.

Please note, I’m middle age myself and I go with the flow. Some might call me old. I don’t get upset with traffic; I just accept it. I know that it does no good to rush around the store just to gain 30 seconds, push old folks out of the way, and get out of the store just a little faster.  It doesn’t work to be a jerk.

But then again, maybe I should have rushed because the other customers in the grocery store were just pissing me off.

I just want to tell people: “Please, just move your cart out of the way. I’m just trying to buy some tomato sauce.”  It isn’t that much of a challenge to be courteous to other shoppers, isn’t it?

“Oh, please, could you walk a little slower for me?” This is what I’m thinking to the old guy in front of me…I know that is terrible but he was weaving back and forth.  Just pick a lane, please, pick a lane before I shove you into the potato chip display.

Then, I have to deal with a guy that parks his grocery cart in the middle of big aisle. It wasn’t a small side aisle. It was one of the major aisle where everyone walks through. This aisle is already blocked by the grocery store’s dairy employee’s huge cart, and then I have to watch another grandpa slowly pushing his cart with his granddaughter in tow (who just stared at me like a zombie).  I know she was thinking “Hey, I don’t care that your wife sent you to the store, you are on toddler time now.”  All I can think is that I’m just want some French bread…just MOVE!

So I get my bread, I’m headed to the check stand and there are four checkers. Yes! I can’t do the 15 items or less line; that’s ok. I pick a line. And now Murphy’s Law kicks in. My line turns out to be the slowest line.

Side note: I usually pick a male cashier. They tend not to talk as much as female cashiers and their line moves faster.  This theory was proven wrong yesterday.

Mr. Chatmaster Chad decided he would scan an item, comment about the item, chat about the item, then finally give the item to the bag boy to actually put in the bag. I was totally tricked and deceived. As the other lines zoomed by, I just stood there. I knew I should jump lines but I was in that state of denial.  You know, that thought that I was almost there, so close, my items almost to the scanner…almost….there…  Chatmaster Chad can’t possibly go any slower, right?

I’m pretty sure Chatmaster Chad found a way. The discussion about that cool new microbrew? It happened.  I’m pretty sure my teeth were ground down a bit more just standing there.

I know. I’m a horrible person. This situation isn’t that bad. But I just wanted to tell them to shut up and get the transaction done.  I just wanted to go home.  I wanted to get my groceries and get out of there.  Does that make me a terrible person?  Probably not.  I was calm and didn’t throw a temper tantrum.

Don’t you love long lines?  I know I do!

Thanks for allowing me to vent.