September 9th, 2019 – The Zoo

It’s 9:04 pm, just put the kids to bed. It has been a week since my last post and I’ve been meaning to do a post to capture the last week and especially the weekend. I don’t remember too much of what we did last weekend. The pictures indicated we took the kids to the playground on Saturday and took them to the children’s museum on Sunday. Nothing too exciting.  Harvey was tired from the week and fell asleep in the stroller at the playground apparently.

 

During the week we took the kids to the playground on Monday, went for ice cream at Maple View on Tuesday, went to the grand opening of the new Harries Teeter on Wednesday, went to the library on Thursday (it was raining because of the hurricane) and went to the playground again on Friday. The kids got pretty tired and cranky from not sleeping in the afternoon Mon-Wed since they are at Meme’s. That can be hard to deal with sometimes, especially when Harvey screams. Fortunately, the school didn’t close during hurricane Dorian. The Durham county schools closed on Thursday and Friday even though nothing happened, just a little rain.

 

Saturday, we went to Duke garden. I took a bunch of pictures on plants since we’re looking for what plants we want to use around the new house.

 

Sunday we went to the zoo. We met Keira’s friend Yan and her daughter Elaine there. Elaine is 4 months older than Alexandra. The highlight was we got to feed the Giraffe some leaves. The Giraffe had a very long tongue that was rough. It reminded me of a cat tongue in the texture. But it was much thicker and it could grab and pull the leaves. Alexandra had a really good time on the Carousel, but even after she went three times she still begged to go more. I took her one more time. I spent $21 on carousel rides. We also ate some ice cream and a pretzel. I talked with Dad on the way to the zoo and mom on the way back.  I was pretty tired when we got home. I slept for 30 min on the bed. Alexandra wanted to sleep next to me. That was nice to take a short nap together.

https://youtu.be/K4iT7_ZK06g

August 31st, 2019 – Last Day of Summer

Yesterday (Friday) we went to the annual bulls junk food dinner hosted by the chemistry department. We ate burgers, bean, mac and cheese, hot dogs, and chips. I also had a beer and bought ice cream for the kids and Keira. We were at the game from about 6:30 – 7:30 pm. After we left we stopped by this bar called something like “Mini Bull” that had this small putt-putt course in a bar. Pretty cool idea.

 

Thursday we also ate burgers from the Only Burger food truck that visited the neighborhood.  I had the impossible burger for the first time, which was surprisingly similar to a real hamburger, I really couldn’t tell much difference. The kids and Yingying played on the playground while Keira and I went for a swim in the pool. The pool was kind of cold, so maybe that was the last time we will swim in the pool this year.

 

Wednesday I think we also went to the playground for a bit, I can’t really remember, but the pictures of us on the playground indicate this was the case. These days all the days are blending together. Thus the diary.

 

Another milestone Friday was we fired up the pure hydrogen grill in my lab for the first time. It easily fried a veggie burger. This was a project for one of my undergraduates over the summer. The idea is to generate and burn hydrogen from water electrolysis powered by solar power instead of burning biomass or propane. Indoor air pollution caused by burning biomass is the 3rd largest killer of people on the planet.

 

Today we took a walk on the Hillsborough race track.  I didn’t know this thing existed before today. It was a NASCAR track from 1949 – 1968, after which it became a park. There were many people jogging around the track. They had a couple old cars, and the grandstand was still there. Seeing the grandstand made me think about my idea to make a huge pyramid out of concrete, how long would such a pyramid last?

 

Yingying went home early this morning. We will miss her! The kids really enjoyed playing with her.

August 26th, 2019 – Second day of school!

Seems like things went ok yesterday overall. The kids seemed pretty happy if a bit tired. Harvey slept in until almost 8 am this morning. After I got home yesterday, we ate and headed to the playground around 6:30 pm. Then we got the kids to bed by 8:30 pm so they could sleep a bit longer.

 

This morning Brittany and her kids Isaiah and Avian were at the front door. Isaiah hugged Alexandra and Harvey.

 

I added some pictures and videos below from times at the playground, at the hot pot place in Savannah, GA, in the rain, and at the eye doctor.