Girl Scout Day

March 12, 2014 ~ K ~ Leave a comment

It is Girl Scout Day!!

I almost totally forgot but it is National Girl Scout Day and it is always celebrated on March 12.

Girl Scout Day recognizes and celebrates the Girls Scouts of the USA(GSUSA). This date celebrates the creation of the first Girl Scout group (troop) on March 12, 1912.

Lady Olave Baden-Powell, founded Girl Guides and was the wife of Lord Baden-Powell (who created the Boy Scouts in 1910), she was born on February 22 (1889).

On March 12, 1912 Juliette Gordon Low started the first Girl Scout group in Savannah, Georgia with 18 girls. The Girls Scouts became a national organization, and was chartered by the U.S. Congress on March 16, 1950. Today, there are millions of girls currently involved with Girl Scouts. Both Girl Scouts of the past are still involved with scouting and continue to be involved as adults. Heck, even a few dads like myself have been sucked into Girl Scouts!

Currently in the Seattle/Puget Sound Area it is Girl Scout cookie time. In our household Thin Mints are the most popular. The annual Girls Scout cookie drive helps to teach the girls valuable skills about selling, managing money, and how to be rejected by complete strangers and their own friends and family. However, the cookie sales do generate income to support girl scouting activities like camping, canoe trips, summer camp, and horse camp.

Our Troop 42301 has eight Girl Scouts plus adult leaders that keep our troop going. This coming Friday March 14, 2014 we will be headed to Seattle to visit the Smith Tower and the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). In fact, we plan to use both the Sound Transit Light Rail trains and the Seattle Streetcar system (South Lake Union route SLU) to visit both the Smith Tower and MOHAI.

Roller Coaster Adventure Trip Part 2

March 3, 2014 ~ K ~ 4 Comments

The other day I started to write about my recent Roller Coaster Adventure Trip to California and the first stop on our tour was Six Flag’s Discovery Kingdom. However, besides roller coasters and thrill rides, I also wanted to visit with some of my friends. With Facebook, it was been nice to see what they are doing but a face to face visit is much more fun!

I honestly thought the goal of this exhibit was to kill as many butterflies as I could. Imagine how embarrassed I was to find out you weren't suppose to do that. — I honestly thought the goal of this exhibit was to kill as many butterflies as I could. Imagine how embarrassed I was to find out you weren’t suppose to do that.

Our first stop was beautiful Sacramento, California. Most people from Seattle know Sacramento as the city of the Sacramento Kings basketball team. And that we tried to take the Sacramento Kings away from this fair city and bring them to Seattle. We had hoped to turn them into the new Seattle Sonics. Needless to say, this didn’t happen. I didn’t wear my Seattle Sonics gear just in case there were any hard feelings from the citizens about this whole basketball team purchase.
We flew down from Seattle to Sacramento and stayed with our good friends Joe and Gavan and their two daughters. You know they are good friends when they let you crash at your house without a hesitation (or a moment’s notice)Zdx5. They have encouraged us to come and visit for the past several years and I was looking forward to this leg of the trip. Our friendship was built upon our years at Benson Hill Coop Preschool together as preschool parents. On a side note, we have a lot of friends from being coop preschool parents together that we still see and hang out with. I’m a big fan of the coop preschool system.
Of course, our daughters don’t remember each other but we (the parents) certainly do! It honestly seems like yesterday but it has been roughly eight years since Joe and Gavan moved back to California from Washington State. We picked up right where we left off.
I could ramble on about how time flies but we pretty much all know that already. Time does fly so you might as well enjoy life the best you can. Hmm, that really isn’t worthless advice so perhaps you should disregard that good advice. I don’t want you to think you could learn something from me.
I have to thank Joe and Gavan for opening up their home to us and allowing us to stay with them. They also picked us up from the airport, drove us to and from the Discovery Kingdom Park, showed us the Jelly Belly Factory Store, and then drove us to the airport on Monday for our flight to Burbank. You have to appreciate friends that will do that.

I want to say that on the way back from Vallejo, we stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory to load up on Jelly Belly and it was a great choice for a tourist stop. Joe kept telling me about “Jelly Belly Flops”. “Flops” are the mistakes from the Jelly Belly bean process. They still taste like Jelly Belly beans but they are the rejects. You might have two or three Jelly Belly beans merged into one or a jelly belly bean might have a funny flatness to it. Most of the jelly belly beans in the “Flops” bag look and taste awesome to me. I love them! I can’t wait to drop into a deep diabetic coma caused from my massive sugar intake from eating as many Jelly Belly beans as I can fit into my mouth.
Since we only had 15 minutes at the Jelly Belly store before it closed, we grabbed a bunch of “Flops”, ate some ice cream, sampled numerous different flavors, and started the journey back to Elk Grove.

image (8) — I have my snacks for the car ride!

image (9) — Nothing is better than instilling unhealthy snack habits into future generations!

Now, that would be the end of a prefect day of roller coasters and candy, right? Nope! We topped it off with some excellent tri-tip steak, homemade mash potatoes, wine, beer, Caesar salad, and some delicious (onolicious) Hawaiian style Macaroni salad. Then we topped it off with a nice relaxing soak in the hot tub under the stars. It doesn’t get much better than that!
Again, a big “thanks” to Gavan and Joe for being fantastic hosts for our first leg of our Daughter-Dad Roller Coaster Trip!
On tomorrow’s blog, we talk about our next leg of the trip: Six Flag’s Magic Mountain!

Father Daughter Roller Coaster Adverture Trip

February 25, 2014February 25, 2014 ~ K ~ 2 Comments

Last week, I took my 11 year old daughter on a nice Father-Daughter trip to California for about six days for a Roller Coaster Ride Trip. She is the only one in the family that enjoys the rollercoasters and other scary thrill rides that you find at the amusement parks. I personally like the roller coasters the most. My least favorite amusement park rides are the drop zone rides.

Sure...some of us were having fun! — Sure…some of us were having fun!

The drop zone rides are the ones that go up 100, 200, 300, whatever feet into the air and drop you. You are strapped in with a metal roll bar seat and there is no chance of falling out. That still doesn’t calm me. They hoist you in the air vertically straight up with your feet dangling. At the top, they allow you to enjoy the view for a few seconds allowing just enough time for you to tell yourself “Hey, this isn’t so bad….” Then you free fall down rapidly (it is gravity after all) and come to a fairly gentle stop at the bottom. I just don’t like them.

My second least favorite rides are swinging and/or spinning rides. They don’t scare me but they do make me sick if they go too long. I can handle the inverted rolls on a roller coaster but the swinging back and forth motion doesn’t agree with my stomach as at all.

I enjoy the roller coaster and I lean towards the thrill of the tight ride of the metal coasters. I will ride wooden coasters but I feel I’m bouncing around a little too much to be really comfortable. Don’t get me wrong; if it is a roller coaster or a thrill ride I’m up for it.

We left Saturday February 15 and flew into Sacramento. We have some friends that moved down there a few years back and it was an excellent visit with them. We drove over to Vallejo, CA and went to Six Flag’s Discovery Kingdom Theme park. Some of the exhibits were not open (like the water rides) but this was fine for us. The weather report said rain but we ended up with sunshine and pleasant temperatures in the 70s.

This park wasn’t bad and we didn’t have long crazy lines due to the time of year. I’m not too interested in the animal side of the park which didn’t appear to be running too many shows. Get out of my way; I’m here for the thrill rides. Our favorite ride at Discovery Kingdom was Medusa with the Superman ride coming in a close second. On Medusa, if you can sit in the front, it is definitely worth it. I think Superman was overall awesome and all seats are pretty enjoyable.

In my next blog, I’ll talk more about our vacation trip and bore you to tears. I’m assuming my readership will rapidly drop off and I’ll be writing an online diary to myself than a blog for the masses. At least I’ll always have my imaginary stalker Cyndi to read my blog.

Why it is OK to Scare Kids….(and other big babies)

February 11, 2014 ~ K ~ 8 Comments

Would you want to date this guy’s daughter?

Why it is OK to Scare Kids….(and other big babies)

My wife tends to disagree with me on some of my parenting theories. She thinks that I shouldn’t be the big, bad, scary and intimidating father to my daughter’s (who is age 11) friends. I, of course, disagree. I’m not mean, big, bad or scary to my daughter’s female friends…just to her little male friends.

I want those kids to fear me. I want them to know that if they mess with my little girl that they will have to deal with me. Is that really wrong? To be honest, I’m not threating them or verbally scaring them….I just look scary. That is the key…look scary. Nothing wrong with looking scary, right?

Sure, I’m a very articulate individual who enjoys a good conversation but sometimes the best thing to do is to keep your mouth shut. He who talks first, loses right? I want to be that father that is sitting in his chair when the daughter comes in with her friends and the boy just looks at me and knows he should be fearful. He should think “Hmm, I probably don’t want to upset her dad…he just looks scary.”

It isn’t like my daughter is dating so I shouldn’t worry….yet. However, why not plan for the future and lay the foundation now. The farmer doesn’t wait until the summer to plant his crops; he plants his seeds in the winter. I’m planning for the future. I’m planting the seeds of fear and respect in the minds of these 11 year old boys now so they know not to mess with me (or my daughter later). Hopefully, when they get into middle school and high school my reputation as a scary, frightening father grows into an almost unbelievable legend that will be passed down from generation to generation.

Of course, my professional as a school photographer isn’t exactly a job that scares kids. I also don’t have any tattoos, nor do I talk “ghetto” or “white trash”. The best I can do is speak Hawaiian Pidgin English from my school days on Kauai. Furthermore, it’s not like I’m from SEAL Team Six or on the SWAT team. The only scary thing about me is my bald head and the fact I practice aikido (a non-violent martial art). I suppose someone unfamiliar with it could possibly think I am a weapon of death and destruction.

Any thoughts on making myself a little bit more intimidating to the youth of today? Any worthless advice, tips, suggestions, ideas? Come on….leave a comment or two! And thanks for reading my Blog of Worthless Advice!

TV Show: Hawaii Life – four more episodes!

January 18, 2014January 18, 2014 ~ K ~ 4 Comments

The new TV season of the show “Hawaii Life” has started and we have been catching up with old episodes. The last four episodes (we have watched) have featured two property searches on the Big Island and two property searches on Kauai. You’ll be pleased to know, I watched these from the comfort of my couch with the gas fireplace blasting! Ah, warmth.

The four episodes I watched this time around and their price range:

Living Off the Big Island (up to $500K)

From Boston to the Big Island (up to $300K)

Boogie Boarding on Kauai ($600-800K)

Single Mother Shops on Kauai ($400-600K)

The Big Island appears to be a little more affordable than Kauai, Maui, and Oahu. At least the properties that were shown appeared to be more affordable.

The lower price range houses (under $300K) are fixer uppers. Some are just update issues but all appear to be livable. Nothing a few hundred thousand dollars of remodeling couldn’t fix.

Townhouses and condos might have HOA fees as much $511 per month (as we saw in the Boogie Boarding episode). To be fair, we have condos here in Seattle with crazy high monthly maintenance dues and fees as well.

Much like the southern United States, you also get to deal with bugs and termites. Home inspections are very important in everything state but in Hawaii, you might run into mold in greater numbers because of the high humidity. But hold on, the various islands and the location where you are on that island can also influence the mold situation. Recently, my friend moved from one part of Kauai to another and he ran into the mold issue.

He has lived on Kauai all his life and he has never had to deal with mold. He moved from a drier area to a wetter area. More dampness equals more potential for mold. The house might not have mold in the actual structure but your clothes boxed up and stuck in storage might get a moldy smell to them. Good airflow is one of the keys to fighting mold.

On a side note: I’m really beginning to hate the show’s tagline “You don’t have to be rich to live in Hawaii; you just have to want it.” One reason is that whenever the real estate brokers say it, they just look like some stoner surfer dudes. Forced smiles on their faces. Oh please.

The “Hawaii Life” show is also just a 22 minute long sales show. Whoever thought up this reality show was a genius for turning a sales show into a reality show. It is always the same real estate company and guess what it is called? “Hawaii Life”! Surprised, huh?

And on an ending note, this is my 200^th post! Yeah me! I get a gold star!

Quick! Too Much Information is Never Enough!

January 13, 2014 ~ K ~ 4 Comments

TMI & TMS: Too Much Information & Too Much Sharing

Did you hear about the first time mother Ruth Iorio that used Twitter and Instagram to document the birth of her first child?

It does sound like a start of joke but of course it’s not. Supposedly her photos and the Twitter feed went viral on the internet. She might not have been the first one to do it but she is the first one I’ve heard about. There has to be a couple hundred YouTube videos of births so what is the big deal?

Maybe it was a slow news day. I discovered the story when I watched a short video news report on the ABC News website. It was a simple slideshow of her photos and they never interviewed her.

I did watch her being interviewed on another news program and she just seemed to wanted to document the event with her photographer husband. Not a big deal; I know other people who have recorded the birth of their children but they didn’t tweet about it as it happened. I don’t mind learning about the birth of your child; I just don’t need all the details in (somewhat) real time. I certainly don’t need to see the photos either. A simple after the fact tweet of “It’s a boy, his name is Nye, and he was born at 2:41 pm today!” will work for me. Heck, throw in a photo of your son while you are at it.

Perhaps she just wanted to share the birth with a few of her Twitter friends and family. At first it was just them and then they just happen to share the link with another friend, then another, until it was all over the internet.

However, it has inspired me to share more. I plan to tweet about the next time I clip my toenails so you better sign up for my Twitter feed now! You don’t want to miss that!

A special “Thanks” to fellow blogger Honey Did You See That! Whom gave me the idea about TMS and TMI: Too Much Sharing and Too Much Information blog post today.

How to Stop Your Kids From Whining and Be an Awesome Parent!

January 12, 2014 ~ K ~ 6 Comments

If you didn’t know this already….kids whine and they whine a lot. They whine about the color of their shoes, they whine when they are hungry, they whine when you forget to pick them up from school three times in row.

Most likely, they learned the whining from your spouse (or ex-spouse). Don’t worry; you aren’t to blame. All the bad traits come from your spouse. They are probably big whiners and passed this annoying behavior onto your children. While it might be too late for your spouse to change, you can at least mold your mini-me into the person you were too lazy to become.

You can keep your kids from whining by following these worthless parenting tips from your favorite Uncle Kevin (or your Cousin Kevin or your Idol Kevin…you pick which name you like best for me). In a short few hours, your child will stop whining and you’ll be able to leave a nice comment for me below.

Listen to Your Child:

Whining is usually a call for attention from your child. This means you should probably put down your smartphone and pay attention to your child for one brief moment. Listen to them for that few seconds so they feel important and loved. You aren’t actually going to do anything besides listen to them for a few seconds, so don’t worry if you were a little slow on getting that Facebook post up; you still have time to post how cute your child is or to share the latest blog post from Kevin Hellriegel’s Worthless Advice Blog.

Play the “I Don’t Know You” Game

When your child begins to whine, play the “I Don’t Know You” game. To play, you simply pretend you don’t have a clue who this whining kid is next you. It is really fun at the shopping mall when security comes and takes your child away. The whining stops immediately and is replaced with the look of utter terror on your child’s face as security drags your kid away. It truly warms one’s heart when your child realizes you aren’t going to save them. Then the whining will stop for sure.

Schedule “Whining” Time

Allow your kids to whine. Of course, you won’t be there to hear them but at least they can whine. I personally like to schedule whining time outside, in the rain, on a Thursday afternoon when I’m not home but the kids are. Whine away, kids, whine away because your parents aren’t listening.

Ignore Them to Discourage Whining

You could listen to them or you could ignore them. Just like you ignore the salad on your dinner plate, you can ignore the whiner. The whining won’t disappear but you can at least toss it into the trash just like the salad.

Have a Whining Bank

If they want to whine, just let them know they are taking a loan from the Whining Bank. To pay back this loan from the bank, they get to work for you doing the worst of the household chores: picking up dog poop, changing Grandpa’s diaper, eating leftovers from three weeks ago (because we don’t waste food in our house you spoiled whiny brat!). If they don’t want to do chores you can introduce them to Vinny the Chores Enforcer and his baseball bat.

Overschedule Your Child

There is nothing better than having your child doing too many activities causing them to be too exhausted to even think about whining to you. As an added bonus, you can then be that martyr parent that is so busy. You can talk about how busy you are driving the kids around from place to place and you have no time for yourself. Yet you have time to post comments on Facebook. Every heard of reading a book while you are at the tennis lesson

Add a few of your whining comments below and complain about how unfair I am. Go ahead…whine away!

Kevin’s Summer Camp of Practical Life Skills

November 11, 2013November 11, 2013 ~ K ~ 1 Comment

Never Too Early for Summer Camp Plans….Welcome to Kevin’s Summer Camp of Practical Life Skills!

I’ve decided to offer a summer camp at my house next summer. Most of the summer camps work to improve the children but lack a real sense of accomplishment for the participants. The projects the kids bring home are pretty drawings and bracelets made of cheap plastic beads. Yet are the kids learning anything that prepares them for real life? In my opinion, most bead projects are total waste of time because there are millions of underpaid kids in China doing that kind of work in a quarter amount of the time and for a tenth of the wage.

It is simple economics, your kids should be learning skills that can make them money or save them money. Is a bead bracelet project really going to help them in real life?

Now some summer camps are fun. Soccer camp, swim camp, basketball game; these are all camps that your child might actually enjoy and benefit from.

But as a parent, you also need to benefit from your child attending summer camp. At my summer camp, I plan to offer such great classes such as House Painting, Deck Restoration & Refinishing, Pond Building & Maintenance, Building a Hot Tub, Yard Maintenance, and Window Replacement & Enhancement.

From my informal survey of fathers, this seems like a worthy endeavor. Imagine your children learning valuable home improvement skills and hands on job skills that will ensure future job employment. The kids will be able to bring home these skills and you (as a parent or even a grandparent) will benefit. Imagine your kids painting your house, all by themselves, at a faction of the cost of a professional painting company. For a small summer camp investment in your children, you can save thousands of dollars by having your children paint your house. It is a win-win situation.

Is anything better than investing in children’s future? The children of this world are our future; why not make sure they learn something that benefits their parents and themselves?

I’m currently working on the cost and length of training. But really, does this knowledge come cheaply? Wouldn’t you pay a few dollars for this training? Definitely a bargain at any price, I assure you. If you are interested in Kevin’s Summer Camp of Practical Life Skills, please make sure to leave your comments and ideas below.

Don’t forget to share this post with your friends, family, and fellow parents; I need the business and more blog followers!

Worthless Advice: Back to School Tips from Your Uncle Kev

August 30, 2013 ~ K ~ 2 Comments

I sometimes forget that I am here to help my readers in their life. Now, I know everyone doesn’t have kids in school and some of my readers look to me as an inspiration to when they make the choice to have children. Seriously, I am an awesome father that knows how to raise awesome children. Who wouldn’t want some worthless advice from me?

For those of you with children, you will probably learn from my worthless parenting advice that you have been raising your children all wrong. Yes, you are incorrect in the way you parent your offspring. Perhaps there is still time for you to reverse those bad parenting habits you have learned from the so-called “experts” out there.

One of the major things we worry about is when our kids go to Back to School and whether they will survive. Will they be able to make it through a day without us?

To prep your child for the first day of school (and the beginning of another exciting year of learning! Oh yeah!), you should set up an imaginary school at home.

Bullying:

Have your children dress up in the worst possible clothing combinations and make fun of their clothes. This teaches them that bullies come in all shapes and sizes and they aren’t safe anywhere….even in their own home!

Lunch:

Ask your kids what they want for lunch. To simulate a school lunch, take these tips to heart. If they want hot pizza, make sure it is cold and half cooked. If they want a cold sandwich, warmth it up so it taste terrible. Make sure the milk is warm too. Nothing like that taste of spoiled milk to ruin your child’s appetite!

School Supplies:

Do you get those crazy school supply lists? We do. I merely view them as suggestions. If every parent bought everything on the list then the teacher would have way too many school supplies. You should be that one parent that holds out and refuses to be a puppet in the educational supply purchasing machine complex that is controlled by our robot overlords.

Backpacks:

One way to strengthen your child’s back is to overload their backpack with useless stuff. Throw in their favorite rock you collected from your back yard. Add in a brick from the neighbor’s walkway. Have them take cans of food back and forth to school. What doesn’t break their little spines and spirits makes them stronger!

Reading:

Did your kids read during the summer? Well, if they didn’t your kid is probably in the same boat with about 80% of the other kids in their class. Not to worry, you can still have them read a cereal box or an old phonebook. That counts as reading doesn’t it?

Good luck with your student this year! Only 179 more school days for my kids until Summer Vacation 2014.

First Day of School! Happiness returns to my Home!

August 29, 2013 ~ K ~ 8 Comments

Today was the first day of school for the Kent School District here in the rainy Puget Sound area. To be honest, I cannot remember any first day of school being so rainy. Sure, maybe we did have a rainy day on Kauai when I was a kid but usually in the Seattle area we luck out with no rain on the first day of school. Most years, we enjoy a nice September of great sunny weather (and wish our kids were out of school in September instead of rainy June). Last year, we had awesome sunny weather until October 1^st.

That doesn’t mean that our Labor Day Weekend is always good. We’ve had Labor Day Weekends full of solid, miserable rain where we were stuck in the lake house the whole three day weekend. On the bright side, this upcoming Labor Day Weekend is looking fairly good according to the TV weather folks.

Yet happiness has returned to our household with the first day of school. Over the summer, the kids did argue and have a few fights. I know that is shocking considering what an awesome father I am and how well behaved my children are. I also may have forgotten to feed my daughter lunch a few times during the summer. But in my defense, she is 10 and knows how to make a sandwich. Besides, I was doing yard projects and my hands were dirty….well, not really I wear gloves…gotta keep my hands soft.

The kids returning back to school is always a mixed bag for me. I like having my kids around but I need them to go back before I go nuts. The internet and Xbox can only entertain your kids so much during the summer before you actually have to do something with them. You know, take them to a beach, do a vacation together, etc.

However, our summer is now over. It just blew by in a hasty mess of activities, summer camps, vacations, and trips and still left me with the feeling that I didn’t do enough with my kids.

So for the next 9 months of school, I’ll plan a really fun summer of 2014. We’ll do a bunch of hiking, road trips, vacations, river rafting, and stay weeks on end at fancy resorts paid by my hugely successful Blog of Worthless Advice! So hit that “Like” button now. Make some insane comments and have your cute photo below this post!

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