The Logan Family

Month: January 2024

  • Birthday breakfast, basketball, biking adventure

    Birthday breakfast, basketball, biking adventure

    Around here, a birthday isn’t just a day. Around here, there is a birthday with one side of the family; then another side of the family; then alone with just the family.

    This week I woke up on my actual birthday, read a book about the Old Testament, checked my blood pressure (part of my new years resolution, everything is fine), and realized: here is your sign. You are old and boring.

    Taylor and Rosie made an awesome breakfast, with a candle in the scrambled eggs for kicks.

    Rosies special sign

    Rosie even made this sign for me, and explained what each of the icons means:

    • Guitar because I like music
    • Video game controller because I like playing zelda
    • sunglasses because I am cool
    • Heart because she loves me
    • hat because it is time to celebrate
    • scary emoji because 39 is old
    • beers
    • cupcakes because they got me cupcakes
    • basketball because go tar heels!
    • burrito. Everyone loves burritos.
    • Chocolate because I like candy

    Rosie is so thoughtful. May she never change!

    UNC Basketball

    Every year Rosie and I go to a UNC game on a night when the schedule works best- typically a 7pm weeknight game when tickets are more affordable. This year happened to be an awesome year for the tar heels. They were #3 in the country when they matched up against Wake Forest.

    This year all three of the Lineberry boys got to join us, and the night was great. This year we went a few hours early to enjoy dinner, and looking at some of the stores on Franklin street.

    We spotted the famous Roy Williams across the stadium wearing a pink sweater. I told Rosie about his accomplishments, and Rosie asked if we could go see him. With 10 minutes until tipoff, it didn’t look like there was a line any more, so I said “Sure.”

    We made it all the way across the stadium. I got a little mixed up and had to jump over some seats, but we made it down right beside Mr. Roy, when “Excuse me- you are gonna have to go back to your seats.”

    Security got us. Apparently there is a cut-off for when Roy allows drop-ins. He made sure to get our attention, and the people around us confirmed what he said to Rosie and I: “Come back at halftime. I want to see you.” were his words, after seeing my smile and boldness to bring my 9 year old.

    Rosie did confess that she was a little embarrassed and didn’t want to take him up on his offer, but still. It was a fun memory.

    Also one thing we noticed is that the opening part for the games- including the laser light display on the court- was different than last year:

    Rosie and I at the game
    Got to see my friend Charlie Hiser
    Mr Igetbuckets, Armando Bacon
    RJ Davis warming up
    Not the best seats

    A small adventure

    There is an area near our house. It is a small little green space, with a little pathway removed from the road that is good for riding bikes. This little green space has a creek running through it, and is bordered on 2 sides by a slightly busier road in town. There are no sidewalks around it, which means, no one ever goes over there. Is is the perfect little spot for an adventure.

    It was going to rain that Saturday afternoon, and Taylor had been out with the girls doing this and that. So, this was the best opportunity to build up the suspense for Rosie. Her response? She is just like her mom (in the best way possible): “Why don’t you just tell me where we are going?”

    No, I would not tell her! That would defeat the purpose! But, we got the bikes and helmets ready, packed a PB&J, and rode the 3/4 of a mile to our destination.

    The first challenge? Cross the creek without anyone falling in. Luckily there was a 2×6 laying there, and a narrow-enough place to lay the board down, and cautiously cross, one by one.

    Across the creek, what did we find?

    1. No trails
    2. Lots of pricker bushes
    3. a lot of mud
    4. It was hard for the girls to walk.

    You know what Rosie’s reaction was?

    “This is so fun daddy, I feel like an adventurer or explorer or something.” That side of the creek wasn’t as grand as I was expecting. We crossed back across the creek, used some hand sanitizer, and ate our sandwiches.

    Before peddling back up the hill, we made use of our walkie-talkies and explored the large grassy field bordering the creek.

    One thing I tell the kids often these days is “If you have enough ideas, eventually you will have a good one.”

    This last picture might be hard to see the ducks that Rosie and Mercy saw in the creek.

  • Happy Birthday, Hyderabad, and Hours Wasted

    For the past several years, we have done the same thing for my birthday with the family: gone to boxcar arcade/bar to play games. It has become a pretty fun tradition.

    It was just a simple idea Taylor had a few years ago, and it works great: the kids get a chance to go and do whatever they want, and, for the first time ever, Mercy was old enough to allow us to sit, and just…take it easy.

    But there is only one thing that really matters during this particular night:
    SKEE BALL.

    Every year Taylor and I play; and every year, she wins. Last year we were fighting neck and neck for a final score of the evening:

    Taylor: 230

    Luke: 220.

    This year was going to be different; this year I was feeling lucky; this was my special night after all.

    For Taylor’s first round, she had a new PR: 270.

    Im done. It’s over. It was fun, but it wasn’t fun. Taylor won, and I gladly accept defeat, this year!

    Also, for what it’s worth, Evan got 280!

    One of these two ladies does ballroom dancing, the other does not:

    Ci Ci met her match with Amelia on the dancing game. It really was amazing to watch.

    And Rosie and I have our tradition of playing the Simpson’s game: it is super easy (just two buttons) and she knows I used to watch the show as a kid:

    Here are a few other fun pics from the night:

    Mercy loves the racing games
    Mercy just wanted to throw the ball
    Air hockey
    After some fun dancing
    Aun Evan with the skee ball

    Hyderabad

    Guess what? I’m going to India! The company I work for, storable, does software for physical storage facilities. Our team has hired some people in India, and I will be going to help train them on some of the software we have written.

    India is one place I would love to go, but would never pay my own money, and Taylor has no interest in going, so it will be a lot of fun to scratch the itch of wanting to visit some place different and eat some weird (and great!) food.

    The trip isn’t for a few months, but it is time to get the tickets, and start learning a bit about the city; and, plan for the “work” part of the trip as well.

    Hours Wasted

    This past Friday the local news showed a short clip about a guy in the area that brought his snow-making expertise with him when he moved to Greensboro, and began making his own snow.

    What a great idea! The forecast said it would not get above freezing over the course of the day, so making snow would be a great way to spend an otherwise very cold, very boring, very inside kind of day.

    All I had to do was hook up my pressure washer, and spray, and it will make snow.

    This is the pressure washer my friend Hernan Torres gave us when he moved; thanks Hernan! But, it wouldn’t start. The hoses were frozen. But that wasn’t a problem, I could just defrost the hoses for an hour, and it would be fine.

    An hour later, the hoses were defrosted: but I accidentally knocked the pressure washer over, and it wouldn’t start. No problem! I had to go to the small hardware store anyways, so I asked some advice: all I had to do was take the 13/16″ spark plug out, pull the cord 10 times to clear it, and it would start right up.

    Finally, at 11:20 am:

    It wasn’t snow. All I had was an Icy sidewalk for the mailman to slip on (the mailman did not slip on the ice though). No problem! Back to the drawing board.

    Every other year in our marriage, Taylor would have been pretty open about how this was a silly idea, and there were better ways to spend my time. She would have been right, but there is something fun about working through and trying to solve a problem.

    The articles I read online said that in order to make snow, the water source has to be cold. How can the water be very cold. but not frozen? Often a stream as a water source would work. I didn’t have a stream; but I did have a kiddie pool. All I had to do was fill the kiddie pool with water, let it freeze, and use it as a conduit to get cold water. Just run water from spicket, to the kiddie pool with ice; then, another hose feeds the pressure washer from the kiddie pool. Voila! Cold water supply.

    That’s when Taylor opened the door and saw me with a hose filling the kiddie pool with water when it was 24 degrees outside, and I realized my idea was silly. But, undeterred!

    It didn’t work. I failed to account for the gravity-fed nature of kiddie pool as a water supply: the kiddie pool would have had to have been on top of the trampoline in order for the water to flow to the pressure washer as a water supply.

    By this hour, we were running out of sunlight. It was fun; I have a feeling I was really close. It was a low-risk (not expensive!) thing to try. Maybe next time….

  • All the stuff.

    All the stuff.

    Hi! Thanks for stopping by to check out the blog! Usually the title starts out with something that rhymes, but for the life of me, I cannot get all of these random things to fit into any fun title that makes sense. So this week, it is “all the stuff” from the Logan Family for the first part of 2024.

    Speaking of stuff…

    Here is my shame.

    Twice a year, I clean out the garage. This is in an ideal situation. Before summer, I will clean out the garage and move all the winter stuff to the back, and the summer stuff to the front. It is easier to grab the lawnmower, and I probably won’t need the space heater from April to September.

    Not every year goes according to plan. If things get busy, we are out of town, if the weather is bad for a few weekends in a row during that time… as you can guess, this was that year, hence why it looked so….terrible inside.

    Some of the inspiration from this method may have come from this unique Netflix show many of us watched a few years back:

    Though the Marie Kondo method has been helpful and parts of it live on, I want to point out that even Marie Kondo gave up on the Marie Kondo method after giving birth to her second child, according to this article on CNN.

    After a couple hours, and a little friendly shame from Marie Kondo’s spiritual kin, Taylor, the garage became clean. It will live on. Should it snow, the shovels and sleds are in the front. So are many of the other items that could be used in the winter.

    What about Mercy?

    Rosie started out with Music class fresh and early as a baby. After music class, she did baby gymnastics, swimming, etc. Mercy hasn’t had as much opportunity, and she needed an opportunity to shine. She is a bit strong willed, so Taylor and I also needed a chance for her to get out of the house and try something that didn’t involve putting her will against ours. And it worked.

    She absolutely loved this baby gym class. After all of the times she has gone to watch her big sister do dance, swim team, class performances, etc, Mercy was super excited to have the fam watch her for a change. And Rosie was eating it up too- Rosie was so proud to watch her sister. I keep thinking that the end is near and Rosie is gonna be tired of her little sister, but she continues to surprise me in the joy and support that she has for her much younger sister.

    Mercy almost only played here
    She did this over and over
    So proud of herself

    We (Rosie, Taylor and I) were also all surprised to see how good of a listener Mercy was. She can put up some resistance at home, but was a great listener in her class.

    Its cool, he’s in a band

    My buddy, Daniel, is in a band. Lowland Hum is the name of the band, and here is one of their videos on Youtube that has gotten bit of steam:

    Daniel has pretty much always been destined to be a musician. Back in high school, we were in a bible study together, and while we were all excited about cars, clothes, and other cool high school stuff, I remember Daniel saved his money and bought a mixer. It just seemed so strange to me at the time, because it was hundreds of dollars.

    They do concerts, boast about how special “quiet music” is, and do home shows, which Taylor and I got to see this past weekend:

    It was a great show. I really wish I was better at keeping up with Daniel- he is the best storyteller I know, and so fun to see him up there doing what he does best.

    Carolina vs. Nc State.

    They played on Wednesday. There isn’t much to say about it, but I wanted to share these pictures as Rosie is torn: all of her in-laws love NC State. Here she is the morning of the game, holding her UNC sweatshirt afar:

    But, UNC won. And, Rosie and I are going to the UNC vs Wake Forest game next week, which I am looking forward to.

    Happy B Day uncle D!

    Every year Taylor’s mom does a combined family birthday dinner for Taylor’s brother (Uncle D) and myself. His birthday is on the 9th; mine is also in Jan.

    So, we had a fun meal together last night; Ribeyes, twice-baked-potatoes, salad, and that special dessert. It was a fun night. Uneventful, but I wanted to share a few pics.

    Also, Rosie had a dance competition. Those… are very, very long events. Luckily I got to stay home and take care of Mercy (and watch John Wick 2 for the first time, it is so good). Taylor took one for the team.

  • 2023 Blog Review, favorite things, and resolutions

    2023 is over, so its time to peel back the curtain and reflect on what the analytics say about the blog:

    • 77 posts have been published.
    • The first post was in March of 2021

    According to Google Analytics:

    • There were 1873 page views in 2023, up from 555 page views in 2022 (237%!)
    • 968 users were from the United States; followed by China (27), Ireland (15) and Sweden.
    • Average time spent on the blog: 41 seconds.

    The top pages from 2023:

    1. The home page (205)
    2. Possible diagnosis, home again, and fall . This title was bit misleading.
    3. Sisters
    4. Costa Rica part 1

    All of the numbers above mean this: not many people read this blog, and I am 100% ok with that.

    But what is the goal of the blog? Why spend the time and energy?

    There are some stressful things going on in life. Since starting the blog, some of those things have changed. However, through all of the negative things that happen at work or among extended family (and there have been a few heavy issues), my family is a source of joy, and this blog is a way to remind myself of that. It is good for my mental health to be thankful, and it still is a source of joy for me every Monday morning 🙂

    Favorite Things

    YouTube TV.

    If you are looking for an alternative to Spectrum… this might be it. After years of “borrowing” the cable login information from some benevolent in-laws, we had to get our own. We got it to watch through the ACC basketball season, and all I had to do was select my team, and it automatically finds all games and records them, so I don’t have to find the various channels.

    For kids, it can record every episode of any show your kid is into. Daniel Tiger? Check. Bluey? Check. Peppa Pig? Check.

    Nespresso Coffee Maker.

    We got this three years ago, and still love it. A great cup of coffee every day. It has been consistent, and something I look forward to each day. A bit of money, yes. But, it is a quality machine that just keeps working for us.

    Garmin Vivoactive 4 watch

    This is my second Garmin watch. I would have kept the first one, but after 3 years, the battery just couldn’t last a day, so I was forced to upgrade. If you don’t want all the bells and whistles (and cost) of an Apple Watch, check this one out. It does all the fitness tracking I need, and alerts of text messages, and a lot more features too.

    Nintendo Switch

    I got this for myself for father’s day, partly as a goal to play games with Rosie. In a few years, she will be old and not interested in hanging out with me, so I thought if we could play Mario Kart (or something else) it would be fun. That didn’t really pan out like I wanted. We do play Mario Kart on occasion. She does like the dancing game she got for Christmas. And I LOVE playing Zelda, Breath of the Wild on there. Pro tip: Get it on eBay. It doesn’t matter if it is used. I think I payed $140, and it retails for $299. The Zelda game? $18 on eBay. highly recommend.

    Season Tickets to the Tanger Center.

    Ok, I stole this from Taylor, but it is a favorite thing for both of us. My list is mostly things that can be bought from Amazon (the rest of the blog is a list of my other favorite things). There is a new performing arts center in town that opened up right after Covid, and has some broadway performances that come through. We bought season tickets this year, and they have been fun dates to look forward to. Aladdin, Chicago, Cats, and a few others have come through town.

    high-speed phone charger.

    We got these from Costco. They are $29 and come in a pack of 4. They charge phones WAY quicker- I think around 4x the speed? Anyways, it is quick, for when you are about to leave the house, and your phone doesn’t have juice.

    Resolutions

    Two years ago I saw my general practitioner and he said my blood pressure was a bit high. I got myself a cuff and measured my blood pressure over the course of a few weeks, and found it was mostly low in the mornings, so I haven’t thought much about it. And many people in my family have had high blood pressure, but no recorded strokes or heart attacks to my knowledge. Let me know if I am wrong though…

    The numbers seemed good last year, but it is still something to keep an eye on. So my resolutions for this year are to:

    • Get 7 hours of sleep each night. Sometimes I sleep too little, then make up for it the next day.
    • 30 minutes of exercise each day, no matter what. It is easy to let that slide.
    • Little to no alcohol. There are a few times in January when a drink is important.
    • Drink enough water. Sometimes I look at the clock at 3pm, and realize the only thing I drank all day is coffee, and I feel a bit weird.
    • Measure my blood pressure each morning. Hopefully the steps above help.

    After 7 days, the blood pressure dropped a bit, and I feel great. If I can’t get it to a number I am happy with, I may have to tighten the screws a bit and change my diet too, but I am trying to avoid that. A doctors appointment was scheduled for next month.

    Getting old is great, right?