November 2006 News
Calvin Steven King Born: Nov 15th, 1:16pm. Click here for pictures.
October 2006 News
Special: Currently designing the Brazoria County Democrat web page. I will then be changing from publishing the family web page on Frontpage over to Dreamweaver. Should be much better!
Still working on the Democrat web page. It's coming along, and it has the vital information up. There's still a ton to put up there, but I think it's looking good. Still, it probably won't be until after the election that I get around to creating a new family web page. I've removed my Precinct 59 stuff because it's out of date, and I'm working on the official county page.
I've quickly updated the pages for August through now, since I'm printing off stuff for tomorrow's Democrat meeting and have the computer time.
Baby Update: Still no name for the baby. There's just so much going on, that it's hard to take the time and really think of a name. Still, we've committed to naming him before the end of October.
Chrisann King: Chrisann will be promoted to Tiny Tiger red stripe in October after her test. She knows up through brown stripe level, so the test will be a breeze for her. After that, she tests for Junior Yellow Stripe, then she'll be in the normal Junior's class testing for normal belts. Something just clicked in her mind a month ago, and she's really started trying.
Family: We'll be selling our old 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee to family. Took it in, and had to spend an unexpected bundle, minimizing profit. Fortunately, we'll be purchasing my Mom's old 2000 Lexus. It's in (almost) great condition. We still have our old 1999 Nissan mini-van though with 90k miles on it. It's still running well, so we'll probably keep it until it dies when we replace it with another minivan.
Family: We picked up the Xbox Live Vision camera. We've video conferenced with our friend in Florida, and expect to be doing more soon. It works very cool, but we're disappointed we couldn't video conference with more than one person at a time (except in games like Uno, but they reduce the screen capture size significantly). Hopefully someone will put some software out there that lets us conference with multiple people at a time. We will be able to video conference with family in Illinois during the holidays, which is very cool. It will become especially important
Family: Got the attic floored, and set up the baby's room. The baby's room is very cool, but very much like Chrisann's since we bought neutral furniture and bedding and were planning on having another baby. Now I need to put everything in the attic and organize it. It's a lot easier now that it's cooler. By mid-November everything will be complete in the house!
Chris King: Chris was at the Kuk Sool Won world tournament. He won 4th place in hyung (forms - katas, essentially), and 2nd place in soo (throwing techniques) in the Yellow Belt men, ages 35-44 category.
Matt King: Matt helped filming for the first time. Chris & Matt filmed the Kuk Sool Won world tournament with two cameras. Unfortunately, the old cheap shotgun on Matt's camera was faulty, so he recorded no sound. Fortunately, I had him take the Marantz solid state audio recorder with him, so we have Sunday's audio. Still, it's going to be a pain to find and sync it together. Better than nothing, though. Generally, he did real well at framing the shots. Good practice for November's wedding shoot.
Chris King: Purchased a considerable amount of audio equipment, continuous lighting, and a nice suitcase for video production.
September 2006 News
Chris King: Chris was promoted to Yellow Belt / Blue Stripe this month.
Chris & Keri: Finally started in local D&D campaign. It's been a long time, but we had a blast. Now I'm thinking about running an Ars Magica game.
Family: We all started taking meditation classes at the Chung-Tai Zen Center of Houston. It lowers blood pressure and aids in concentration.
Chris King: Work wrapped up at Allstate this month as Chris completed training a replacement, and he finished up the 2007 budget. Now it's off to find a new job.
August 2006 News
Special: The Kings are hosting a meet & greet with Congressional candidate Nick Lampson on August 20th at their house.
Chris King: Chris joined the Black Belt Club (BBC) at Kuk Sool Won (TM). This is a four year commitment to KSW and getting a Black Belt. It also involves going to KSW at least five times a week. Yes, it's time to change the lifestyle and truly become active.
Chris King: Chris was elected as Secretary of the Brazoria County Democratic Executive Committee.
Kids: All kids have started up school. Matt's in junior high, while Maverick & Chrisann are at elementary school.
Matt & Maverick King: Both kids tested and received their Yellow Stripe on their White Belt. They made their first progression!
Chris King: Early in August, Allstate and I decided it's time to stop with the remote working. They wanted me to come back up to Illinois, but we are too established here - especially with the kids doing extremely well in school. To go back up to Illinois in as good a school district as we have here, we'd have to move to Lake Bluff or Lake Forest into a tiny house (since housing is so expensive in those towns). Plus we'd have to deal with snow again and no pool. We just weren't up for that. So Chris will be training a replacement, and completing the 2007 budget, thus staying on through the end of September.
July 2006 News
Matt King: Matt got his braces. They were painful at first, but he's adapting.
Family: We went on vacation to Illinois and gave Jim Hajek a wonderful surprise birthday party, where all of his children and their families showed up. We also got to go to the zoo and saw the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum.
Chrisann King: Sadly, Chrisann had an infection of her front tooth (caused by trauma a few years ago). Due to this infection, she had to have one of her front teeth removed. The tooth was loose, but it will take a few months for her adult tooth to descend.
June 2006 News
Matt King: Great news! We received confirmation that Matt has been accepted to the Harby Junior High School magnet program for gifted and talented. That means that he goes to a different Junior High that's a bit further away, but it will be well worth it.
Chris King: Was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the North Brazoria Democratic Headquarters. He will be filming local candidates and creating a DVD for them to use in all their HQs.
Matt & Maverick King: Joined Kuk Sool Won (TM) martial arts. That makes it the whole family!
Chris King: Visited his grandfather, Gus Herzik, Jr., in Austin. They had a great visit, and will be visiting more often. Chris also started interviewing him with a genealogy questionnaire, filming it, "for the record."
King Family: The whole family spent a few days in Dallas. Chris visited the Dallas Allstate office, and attended the Texas State Democratic Convention. Meanwhile, the family visited the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. They saw the entire process of how money is created. They also went to the Stockyard Station where they got to see some longhorns rustled. We also all saw the Legate family up there - the kids had a great time swimming with Molly and Danny. David Jett was working in Dallas, and he was able to come out to dinner with us.
Matt King: Matt has withdrawn from Scouts. We gave it a year, and the friendships just didn't form. Matt will be taking a vacation from Scouts while he starts up Kuk Sool Won (TM), and also starts up 7th grade.
May 2006 News
Matt King: Congratulations to Matt King for graduating from 6th grade! His first year of Junior High starts in August!
Maverick King: Maverick has successfully negotiated the trials and tribulations of fourth grade and has made it onto the honor role!
Chrisann King: Congratulations to Chrisann King for graduating from kindergarten!
Chris King: Congratulations for being elected to the Democratic Precinct Chair for Brazoria County Precinct 59!
April 2006 News
Family News: Chris and Keri are having another baby! They designed their new house with an additional bedroom downstairs just for this baby, and are looking forward to the wondrous event in late November or early December! Until we find out it's gender in July, we're just calling it Jalapeņo.