Thursday, March 30, 2006

It's begining to feel alot like Spring time

The Robins have returned and the sounds of all kinds of birds are beginning to overshadow the low rumble of the boats in our harbor.

I hadn't noticed how many Blue Jays that we have flying around our yard until recently. Apparently they must take off for the winter too. The Cardinals are pretty much the only birds that I've seen all winter long. We even have a lone Mockingbird hanging around looking for a mate. Good luck!

We are starting to examine our yard a little more carefully now to see what we have and what we'd like to do to make our landscaping a bit more our own. We have some overgrown bushes that we will either shop the hell out of, or remove completely. The jury is currently out on this one.

I would like to get some actual grass to grow in our back yard. It is mostly sand and back rocks right now. I'm guessing that at one time, the hill that our house is built on had been a sand dune. We have all kinds of small stones and beach-like sand in our back yard. Since it is mostly shady back there, grass doesn't have much of a chance of growing. So we are looking into types of plants that enjoy the low-light environment.

I'll start snapping photos of the current landscape this weekend and start posting some of them out here. Maybe some of you will have some tips to share as well...

As always, enjoy a little Calvin & Hobbes for today...


Parenting 101: Starting a Club

Jonah recently came home from school very excited. He and his friends were starting their own club. He was very excited to be making plans and figuring out cool things that the club was going to do.

Again, refelcting on my own childhood, I recall myself doing the same kind of things when I was a kid. My friends and I built forts and planned clubs and had secret codes to get into the cool forts we would build. Our best fort that we ever made was made from old logs and some old plywood that we had ripped apart from our old deck. The logs made perfect walls, and the plywood was the perfect roof.

Ah... to be able to go back to the innocence of childhood... We couldn't wait to grow up and be independent. What were we thinking?

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

New Baby Engel

Here's an e-mail that Holly sent out today. Enjoy the pictures!

The earlier pictures are first and the most recent pictures are further down.

You can click each image to get a larger view of that picture.

Hi Guys,

Here are a few pictures of Baby Engel 2006. We thought that you might enjoy seeing the little guy even before he makes his grand entrance.

Enjoy!

Love,

Holly, Matt, Jonah and Brielle




























































Parenting 101: Housework

Cleaning day in our house is on Sundays. We try to keep up with the clutter throughout the week to make it a less daunting task on Sunday, and seem to be succeeding more often than not.
Trying to get the kids to clean is generally more work than the cleaning itself. But they are getting better and better with this and with fewer complaints. This past Sunday Jonah was awesome with the cleaning. I don't think I heard one complaint as he picked up his room and cleaned up the toy area(s) around the house.

Brielle is the ever helper. She wants to help no matter what. This isn't always all that helpful, but we encourage her anyway. When it comes to the laundry, shes right there eager to pull everything from the basket and hand it to us to fold. Unfortunately this includes the previously folded items as well. But she's almost 2, so who can complain?

Cleaning is not all that fun, but we try to get it all done so that we can have some fun as a family. Generally we are too exhausted to do much of anything other than hang out in front of the TV and watch movies with some popcorn. Jonah loves popcorn more than anything. If we play a game and have popcorn at the same time, forget about it. His hand and mouth are in constant motion until that bowl is empty. If we want any, we better grab it while we can before the popcorn-monster swallows the bowl.

He reminds me of me when I was younger. I used to love popcorn too. I used to tell my mom that I had a popcorn-headache. Only popcorn would make it go away. More often than not we got the popcorn. It wasn't as easy as it is now... We had the old hot air popper that would blow the kernels around and shoot them out the top into the waiting bowl. The attached butter melter that would drip the golden deliciousness onto the kernels rarely did more than soak 1/3 of the kernels leaving the others dry. But we liked it just the same.

Our personal favorite is the crank style popcorn popper. This one is a small kettle with a lid that has a crank attached to a "beater" of sorts. This one makes great popcorn and you get to have a little exercise while you are making it. Ours has sinced passed on, so we'll have to obtain another one sometime in the future.

I'm not sure how I got from Sunday cleaning to the popcorn frenzy of our household, but here's a Calvin & Hobbes comic to bring us back to the original topic.


Friday, March 24, 2006

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Control of the Remote...

I learned something soon after my wife Holly and I moved in together. This was a very important lesson that I'd like to share with all you guys out there, married or not... It's about control of the remote. You see, there's an unwritten and unspoken vow you take when you get married. It's a clause that I have yet to see in writing, but am completely aware of, and the consequences that can incurr if not followed.

The ownership of the remote transfers to the wife immediately upon uttering those two little words 'I Do.' There's little to no negotiations about this and please don't try to gain the ownership back. Just step away from the remote and live with the fact that you will no longer have access to it when she walks into the room.

Luckily I can stomach pretty much all of the shows that Holly has on. I enjoy American Idol... There I admitted it... I'm not that crazy about the Apprentice anymore. The Donald's hair is just too annoying to me... America's Next to Model. As a guy, I shouldn't mind being subjected to these shows, but, I almost ashamed to say it, I'd rather see some good explosions and action sequences than pretty girls being catty with one another... So unfortunately the shows that I really like to watch are missed. However, once again my savior in this respect, the Internet comes to the rescue.

I don't have Tivo, and my VCR's leave quite a bit to be desired. So instead of being high tech and getting a Tivo that I have to pay a monthly subscription for, I download each episode of the shows that I really like to watch from the Internet and what them when I have time. I get them without commercials, and in High Definition quality.

Some of my favorites shows are CSI Miami, NCIS and 24. These are not on Holly's list of favorite shows. The best part about being able to download each episode is that I can watch several episodes back to back without missing anything. With 24 it's the best. I hate having a cliffhanger ending and waiting a week for the next installment. This may seem a little weird, but I've been waiting a couple months to start watching the episodes. I've download half of the season and start watching them a couple at a time. It works for me and I can watch them whenever I want. Well, almost...

These shows aren't suitable for children. So I have to wait until the kids are in bed. For the most part, it's best if I wait until Holly goes to bed as well. Since we both work, we don't get a whole lot of time to spend alone without kids fighting around us. So late-night-viewing is the best option. Well, I also watch them during my lunch at work. I bring my lunch in and each episode, sans commercials, lasts about 44 minutes.

We all make out concessions when we get married. I don't mind having to fit in my shows when I can. Thanks to the Internet, I don't have to miss my shows.

If your are curious about how I do it, Write in a comment to tell me you are interested and I'll post my favorite sites as well. To the best of my knowledge, downloading current television shows is NOT illegal. Older shows available on DVD are probably another story...

Parenting 101: Weekend Mayhem



Our weekends are not as colorful as this, but to a lesser degree we have our moments.

Parenting 101: Dinnertime Fun

Little boys love to think about eating gross things...



Generally we use dinosaur references for Jonah. He's getting a little old to fall for it now, but if we catch him in the right mood it can be pretty fun...

It reminds me of the cruel joke I tried to play on my niece one Easter a long time ago. We were all getting ready to eat dinner. Abby was playing with olives at the end of her fingers. It's a cute thing that I recall doing as well... So I said to her.

"Oh, I see you found the bunny eyes..."

I got a pretty strange look from Abby as she asked, "What?"

Pointing to her fingers, I said again, "The bunny eyes, you found them!" She didn't believe me...

"Dad," says pointing her black olive tipped fingers at my brother, "Uncle Matt says these are bunny eyes."

My brother, never missing a chance to mess with his daughter went along with the trick. But of course our mother, who was still slaving away in the kitchen told us to knock it off.

Abby never really fell for it, but it's still a funny story to revisit during family gatherings.

"Pass the Bunny Eyes please."

Monday, March 20, 2006

Global Warming Part 1 (Where Were You?)

This is a parallel post with my Rants and Raves page.

Holly and I were watching 60 minutes last night and part of the show was about Global Warming called Rewriting the Science. Of course this specific topic got me a little fired up.

Some people are very concerned about the environment. This can be for several reasons. One they feel very strongly about conservation and the environment in general. This is pretty popular and tend to have people that are involved in many organizations from Green Peace to other environmental protection groups.

I've never considered myself as a "tree hugger", although I don't have anything against anyone that has a fondness for trees. I think they are pretty, but I've never felt the need to give one a quick squeeze. I feel that this term seems to be more negative than positive, so I don't even use the term. Except in this type of situation where it's a widely realized term.

For the past several years, I've started feeling more and more strongly about the use of fossil fuels. This is probably stemming from the attacks on 9/11. Like the majority of Americans on that day, I recall everything in great detail as I heard the news over the radio on my commute into work. I hadn't experienced this phenomenon before, but had heard numerous people describe it when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Many people could recall every minute detail of those moments.

In retrospect there are a few other historical events in my life time that have similar but lesser effects than 9/11. When President Reagan was shot and wounded I was practicing the Piano before going to my piano lessons. When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on take off it was my Freshman year. The news was brought to us while I was in my typing class. I even recall that I was wearing a Space Shuttle T-shirt that day. (We had recently returned from a vacation down to Florida where we were hoping to see the launch of the shuttle.)

I'm curious what events others recall and where they were when historic events occured during their life time. These are the events of our life-times that everyone has shared in one degree or another.

I'd like to give this topic the focus that it needs. I will be breaking this subject up into several parts to give it the attention it deserves. Please read the article, Rewriting the Science and video, then read the follow-up posts here.

Parenting 101 The things we do for our kids...

I wonder if my father felt this way with me too...



Ever feel this way?

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Friday, March 17, 2006

Parenting 101: Mornings

Why is this sooo true?



In our house this occasionally happens on the weekdays as well... However, this usually occurs at or around 5:30 a.m. If Jonah gets up, chances are he will make just enough noise to wake up his little sister. Then it's all over...

With Jonah, we can tell him to go back to bed. If Brie gets up, the whole house knows about it...

MAMA!!! DADA!!! MAMA!!! DADA!!!

She generally doesn't cry, but she can bellow pretty well. Yesterday morning she woke up because of me. I scratched my back and slammed my elbow into the night stand, DAMN!. She was up a few minutes later... she started chanting her morning mantra of "MAMA!!! DADA!!! MAMA!!! DADA!!!". She then proceeded to babble... which is pretty darn cute... Can I sleep through this? No.... Because she's so darned cute! Then she began singing Twinkle, twinkle little star... That was it, no possibility of falling back to sleep...

Such is life...

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Thursday, March 16, 2006

Will "The Dancing Machine"

First off, I have to say that Will made me do it... I read his Blog today (Top O' The Morning To You) and recalled that I had a picture to share... Oh Boy!!!

So I couldn't resist. Enjoy the pic... We've been enjoying it for years!

Is that an Irish Jig?

I apologize for the fuzziness of this shot, but you can get the idea...

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

OPERATION: Night-Light

Holly’s Mom and Merlin came to visit this weekend.

As always, it’s great to have them come to visit. I don’t know if they enjoy it half as much as we do. We get to sponge off their invaluable advice on home repairs and interior decorating.

This weekend was no exception. While Holly and Sandy were doing some painting and working on window treatments, Merlin and I were tackling the installation of an exterior security light. When we eventually have a tenant in our lower level apartment, we wanted to have them be able to navigate the exterior of the house without falling into the woods to be carried away by the raccoons.

We had purchased a nice two headed halogen floodlight with motion sensing action from the local Home Depot. (My buddy Clifford is cringing at the mention of his least favorite place on earth.)

The most difficult part of the project was finding a location for the new light. As there was no light on this side of the house before, we had to do some cutting. The area where we wanted to light up was on the path leading to a gate that takes a tenant into the backyard where there is a rear entrance to the apartment. When it’s late at night it gets very dark in this area. The handy sodium vapor orange glow from the street does not penetrate to this area.

With Merlin’s expert advice, we found that the best location was near the fence and opposite an electrical outlet that we could connect to for power.

After getting all of the necessary equipment, I set to work cutting into the drywall for the switch to operate the light. We then fished the power cable down to the electrical outlet, after tuning off the power to this part of the house (I’ve learned the lesson the hard way).

The next step was to climb our five foot ladder to drill the hole through the asbestos siding and into the wall to put more wires through. This wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. Our ladder, being 5 feet tall was not nearly tall enough. So I, being the daring Tim “The Toolman” Taylor-type, stood on the very top of the ladder to do the drilling.

When it came time to mount the light, it was too far over my head to be able to see the wiring. Luckily I mounted the light between the fence and a storage shed. It happened to be just wide enough for me to play Spiderman and suspend myself between the two. Did I mention that it had rained earlier in the day? That just added a little extra danger. Unlike the original “Toolman”, I was able to complete the project unscathed.

In the end, everything went together and mounted just as Merlin had planned it. He was a lifesaver on this project. For that matter, he has been a sanity saver on all the projects that he has helped me out with since buying our first house. Thanks for all the help Merlin!

The light works great. I haven’t tested the sensitivity of the motion sensor yet. When someone walks down the sidewalk toward the gate of the fence it trips on without blinding the person. That was one of my main concerns when setting this up.

I’m hoping that it will be sensitive enough to ward off the late-night bandits that enjoy rummaging through our garbage. Their preferred route seems to take them past this area. Time will tell…

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Parenting 101: True.. But Why?!?!

Why does this happen. Both Jonah and Brielle do this and it drives us up the wall... Especially with hardwood flooring... (Can you say ECHO, Echo, echo...) AUGH!


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Weekend projects...

I'm drafting out the projects that we accomplished this weekend. Due to kids being sick and general life happenings the project log will be slightly delayed. I'll have the first project posted tomorrow with some images to share.

I'll have a Parenting 101 post out later this morning.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Parenting 101: Snacks...

Every kid loves to snack. Jonah must ask for snacks 20 times throughout the day. At least on the weekends... If it's a half hour before lunch of dinner time we generally say "No". Followed by incessant whining and repeating of the mantra, "I'm starving!"

I'm pretty sure I said that at his age as well, but I don't fall for it any more than my parents did. If we are feeling especially generous we'll give him a choice of grapes, banana or raisins. All of these he normal wants in abundance, suddenly become the worst thing he's ever tasted.

"Can I have a popsicle?"

"No, you can have some grapes."

"I Don't want grapes!"

I don't want to be so darned good looking but I have to live with it, so can you..." He never finds this comment funny... Neither does Holly....

"Can I have some yogurt?" This is the Trix variety which tastes more like ice-cream than like the yogurt I grew up on. I will sometimes fold on this one, but...

"How about some raisins?" I ask.

"I hate raisins!"

"Then you must not be very hungry..."

"Mom?"

"Don't bother, she's going to give you the same answers as I am..."

"AWWWW!" The sound of stomping feet, and flopping down on the couch to watch more mind numbing cartoons.


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Friday, March 10, 2006

Parenting 101: Reading between the lines...

You don't have to have ESP, just remain one step ahead...


This situation is text book. The next common one has to do with monitoring what they are watching on TV. Just listening will do.

If you just half listen, pick up the idea of what's happening on their show, whatever question they come up with will probably like to the show. This can tip you off right away. I do this while cooking in the kitchen. It works fairly well.

Let's just say theres a cartoon and they are parachuting somwhere. If you get a question like, "Dad, where do we keep the extra sheets?" or, "Where's the really tall ladder?" Tip off!!!

The obvious answer is always "No". Repeat after me... NO

You generally don't have to discuss it further, they already know that they can't fool you, but they have to try anway. It's their job...

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Thursday, March 09, 2006

Parenting 101: Bath Time

As a whole both Jonah and Brielle like takings baths... Actually, Jonah likes it, Brielle LOVES it!

They both have their own toys that they like to play with. Jonah has his Dinosaurs and other guys that tend to constantly fight or get eaten by the sharks lurking below the surface of bubbles.

Brielle likes to play with her sesame Street bath set, specifically Elmo and a jet ski. She loves Elmo. When I took her to daycare this morning she grabbed two Elmos and started running to the play area...

Generally neither of them wants to get out of the tub, but they seem to like to splash... A LOT!

That's why this specific Calvin & Hobbes seemed to fit so well. Of course, Jonah makes MUCH bigger splashes than his sister, but she's still in training...

Tomorrow I will have some family pictures to share. Until then...

Enjoy the comic...

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Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Parenting 101: Listening


Could this be any more true?

Why, as parents, do we have to repeat ourselves over, and over, and over again?

They say that as a child learns its the repetition of things that gets them to learn. Then why do I have repeat the same thing day in and day out again and again?!?!?!

But they are adorable, for the most part... One minute you will want to hang them from the chandelier by their toes, (my daughter would have a blast with this...) the next they give you a big hug and say they love you... It works every damn time too!!!

Sometimes I still wish I had gotten the order that I asked for when signing up for kids. I asked for a pause button, power button and mute button. I didn't think it was too much to ask for. Wouldn't you know it? We ended up getting the stock models that pee on you when you least expect it.

Maybe God will grant the order on this next one... I won't hold my breath.

Of course, with all this said, it's all just a joke. No matter what, we love our kids and nothing can change that. I seem to recall not listening all that much as a kid too, hence why I can relate to the calvin comics so much. It's easy to lose sight of that when you are in the moment and at your whits end. But I wouldn't trade fatherhood for anything in the world. I have two great kids, with the third on the way... (confirmed to be a boy!)

Just remember all the cliche remarks you heard as a kid... "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt..."

Have a great day!

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Monday, March 06, 2006

Parenting 101: Dinner table manners

We've been teaching Jonah, and now Brielle, manners at the dinner table. For the most part Jonah is doing very well. An occasional reminder to keep his mouth closed while chewing is about the extent of it.

Which brings me to the subject of manners while eating. I do not profess to be the ultimate in manners... But, I have an office-mate that apparently was never taught to chew with his mouth closed. Or, for that matter, drink quietly!

My God! First off in the morning I hear the loud slurping of coffee followed by the smacking of lips. (cringe)

Then if I'm unlucky enough to have him bringing his lunch back from a near-by restaurant I get to listen to the masticating of every morsel.

I swear it sounds like a washing machine when you leave the top open as it starts it's agitation cycle. It drives me up the wall! I thank heavens that Jonah has better eating manners than this 29 year-old.

If I have the misfortune of turning to talk to him while he's eating it's quite a show... I'm reminded of my friend Buck back in college when he had an Iguana. Bucks manners were fine. Stimpy, that's the Iguana, would devour his broccoli with his mouth wide open. Kind of creepy to look at, but the poor lizard doesn't have any lips! So I can't blame him for his table manners.

I almost feel sorry for my office mate. He's the joke of the entire office. Everyone is always chuckling as he leaves to pick up his lunch before the big show. They can at least walk past and watch, much like feeding time at the zoo. But my desk is 5 feet from him...

Oh no... Here he comes with Chinese food. Oh God... and Soup! Serenity Now!!!!!!! (Slurp)


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Parenting 101: Dinner

Sometimes a parent has to do whatever it takes to get them too eat their dinner...



With Jonah, we usually have to say something about it turning you into a dinosaur. Specifically a Velociraptor, that's his favorite.

So far Brielle will eat pretty much anything, but when she's done, she's done. Without warning the plate gets over turned and thrown to the floor followed by her juice cup. Then she starts chanting popcicle...

What kind of stories do you have?

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Friday, March 03, 2006

Parenting 101

This is the first installment of a section I'm calling Parenting 101. I'm hoping that you will all find this enjoyable whether you have children or not. For those with children, however, these can be especially fun as you have probably experienced things similar to these.

The first installment of parent techniques to string your kids along...

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to pull something like this off successfully? Ah... The many way's to twist the mind of a child... :)

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Spirits Part 2

My Mom and her friend Bev used to have the best luck with getting the Ouija Board to work. They would have the planchette slide around the board very quickly. So quickly in fact that either my Dad or Bev’s husband would have to write down the answers because the speed was too quick for mom or Bev to read it.

They would ask it silly questions like how may coins were in my Dad’s pocket. My Dad didn’t even know how many coins he had in his pocket, but the Ouija board had the correct answer.

They would then ask how many ice cubes were in the freezer. Who the hell counts their ice cubes?

The Ouija answered correctly here as well.

In 1969 they were playing with the Ouija board and asked about the health of Bev’s baby who was due the coming February. It replied that the baby would be ok, but would have a pronounced birthmark. This concerned them a little but only enough to be disturbed by it.

The following February Bev had a baby girl with a large birthmark covering most of her left arm from forearm past her elbow and nearly to her shoulder.

The most disturbing situation came when Bev asked if her husband, an avid game hunter, would be getting his Moose on his upcoming hunting trip. The reply shocked all of them and I believe that this was the final time they used the board.

The answer was Yes, if it doesn’t get him first. I don’t know exactly the wording of what followed as I was not yet born, but from descriptions from my parents it went on to say that nature does not need the likes of you. Apparently this spirit was not fond of hunting wild game.

I’m not saying that I believe that the Ouija Board is controlled by spirits. I have no idea what makes them say what they say. I haven’t used one in a very long time, but I’m still curious as to what makes them tick…

Anyone else have experience with these things? Or have any spooky stories of their own? I know my friends Pete and Autumn have a number of stories that they could share. Please feel free to post some if you get the chance guys. I’d like to hear them again and I’m sure others would be interested as well…

Till later…


Thursday, March 02, 2006

Jonah was hoping...

We were supposed to get pounded with sleet and snow last night... Well, 4 - 8 inches... Depends on your location I guess for the definition of "pounded"...

This morning Jonah came in at 6:15 stomping into the room, then whispering that it didn't snow last night. He was hoping for something like the following image:



Such is life... *sigh*

We will start getting hit later this morning. We'll see what turns up...

*** UPDATE ***
I just received the notice that Jonah gets to leave school early today due to snow... Guess the inside out pajamas worked out!

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Spirits...

Here's a topic I have yet to bring up...

How many of you out there believe in ghosts? I should probably be leaving this topic for around Halloween, but since it's so far off at this point, why bother waiting?

I have had very little, if no, experience with the supernatural. I have only one story that fits into this situation and that was dealing with a Ouija Board.

New Years Eve, 1987

A High School friend of mine Cory and I were going to celebrate the New Year eating Pizza and watching MTV ring in the new year. My parents were out at a friends house celebrating the new year so we had the place to ourselves. My house was in a decent sized neighborhood, the house was ranch built in the early 60's by my parents. The house was not haunted and no supernatural things had ever happened there to the best of my knowledge.

Considering I was a pretty straight-laced kid I wasn’t the type to go out drinking can carrying on or even sneaking a little drink here and there out of my parents liquor cabinet. (They had, and still have, this old wardrobe converted to a liquor cabinet in the living room.) I was happy not to get involved with all that until I was older, which I still never went overboard on the drinking.

This particular evening we decided to play around with the Ouija board. I don't know how many of you have ever used a Ouija board, or anything like it, but it’s pretty strange. You have this device called a Planchette. It’s a small heart shaped device with three small pegs tipped with felt for legs. A small circle towards the point is cut into the small table like device to show the letter that the “spirits” are pointing to for communication.

At first the thing didn’t move at all. We sat on the floor with our legs crossed facing one another. The board rests on both of your knees with only your fingertips lightly touching the edges of the planchette. Slowly but surely the pointer started to move. We kept asking if there were any spirits with us, as the small felt tipped pegs slid slowly in a circle around the board.

After a few minutes of slowly gaining more and more speed we asked again if there was someone who would like to communicate. The planchette slid to the word “Yes” at the corner of the board.

Now throughout this entire circling-the-board thing I watched carefully as did Cory to me to see if either of us were the one’s moving the board. Neither of us could tell if the other was truly moving the device. We really wanted to see if this worked so we trusted that neither of us was trying to pull one over on the other.

Unfortunately I no longer recall any of the stupid questions that we asked. However, I do recall that the planchette was moving faster and faster after we would stop for a few minutes to think of more questions to ask. Instead of just circling the board, it now moved in a figure 8 around the board.

Each time we came up with more questions and set the board back up there was no wait time at all. It would immediately start sliding in the figure eight and seemed to move a little more erratically each time.

The final time that we paused to think of more questions it was nearly 1:00 am. While discussing what our next questions would be the lights went out with the sound of a kachunk as if the power switch . located in the basement beside the breaker box was pulled.

Now this wasn’t the normal, lights flicked off and back on again like you see in the movies. It was as if someone hit that main power switch. The power was out for only a second or so when the corresponding kachunk returned with the lights back on and the furnace blower kicking into motion.

If it were possible for our eyes to bug out of their sockets, they would have at that moment. Wide-eyed we both looked down at the board at our feet contemplating what caused this temporary power loss.

Our first inclination of course was that the spirit we were speaking with wanted to communicate more. We put the board back on our knees… STUPID! And put our finger tips back on the planchette. (this is where the movie goers would be yelling at the stupid people to leave well enough alone.

The Planchette started moving right away again. We asked if it had caused something to happen to let us know it wanted to talk to us. It pointed to “Yes’ immediately, then spelled out L-I-G-H-T-S.

We prompted let go of the planchette and threw the board back in the box.

I’ve never had an experience like this before, but my parents in the late 60’s early 70’s used to play with one at their friends house. I'll chat about that one tomorrow.

Anyone else have experience with these things? Or have any spooky stories of their own? I know my friends Pete and Autumn have a number of stories that they could share. Please feel free to post some if you get the chance guys. I’d like to hear them again and I’m sure others would be interested as well…

Till later…