Category: Uncategorized

a few vignettes from the kids:

The other day, Katie with my parents:

Katie says “we’re all related anyway.”
mom: “what do you mean?”
katie: “well, we’re all related to each other anyway if you go back 5000 years.”
mom: “and what was before that?”
katie: “cromagnets.”
mom: “ah. And what was before the cromagnets?”
katie: “spiders and cats.”
mom: “and before the spiders and cats?”
katie: “thats all i know about that subject.”

———–

Today, ellen and i are at “funplex” and she wants to ride on go karts. As they’re $10/ride, i decline. There are some soda machines nearby and i suggest we split a soda. As i’m going to buy the soda, ellen says “opening the soda bottle will constitute a binding agreement to allow me to ride the go karts…”

——–

More to come if i can remember…

According to the blog reading level meter:

So I see no excuse for you all not to be reading it. I know most of you are at least CLOSE to this level.

Today I voyaged an hour north to get a 1975 full sized pinball machine that I found on Craigslist. I’ve been looking for months for an inexpensive but still quality, working machine, and I found it on thursday from a very nice guy in Katonah, NY. I was, apparently, the first person to contact him about the machine and although he had more than 30 people contacting him over the next day or two, many offering more money, he did the nice thing and still sold it to me.

It came apart easily and, fortunately, fit in the Saab with the seats down (good to know for future pinball machines…*hums quietly*), and made it to the basement easily and smoothly. It plays great and the kids love it. A good first “real” pinball machine and now the kids are all hot for an arcade in the basement. We’ll see what I can pick up over time.

Of course, this entry wouldn’t be complete without a picture:

I see these things from Japan and I can’t help but thinking that this would have been something Greg would have found and sent me, or at least bought if he could have found it…

At least they’re cheerful.

Two short snippets here today:

First, a few days ago we were at the dinner table and Kim was quizzing the kids on who was on what currency. So, she asks Ellen “If Jefferson is on the front of the Nickel, what is on the back?” Katie pipes up with “Tails!” Couldn’t call her wrong, could we?

Second, we’re walking to school yesterday and they’re talking about a book Ellen loved called “Pinky Pye”:

E: Did you read the epilogue, Katie?
K: No. What’s an epilogue?
E: It’s like a prologue, but it’s at the end of the book. Now ask me what a prologue is.
K: What’s a prologue?
E: (giggling) It’s like an epilogue, except at the front of the book.

Smart ass.

Last night we had Ellen alone, as Katie had a PJ party at a friend’s (10 or so 6 and 7 year olds for 5 hours…um…no thanks!), so we decided to watch “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” As this is clearly a movie that would scare the bejesus out of Katie, we needed a night when it was only Ellen and us. So, about 8:00 we queued up the movie and the little squirt sat in rapt attention for 2+ hours as one of my all time favorite movies slithered its way into our living room. Much to our surprise, she wasn’t scared by some of the corpses or exploding heads or snakes or other bits of movie nastiness, but, to illustrate her naiveté, she did ask early on if the people who were getting killed in the movie were really dead.

What I liked best were two things. First, regarding the scene with the Germans getting their faces melted by the wraith of God after opening the Ark, she said how great the “graphics” were. Trying to conceive of a movie made before there was computer animation in it boggled her mind. Second, when it was all over, and I asked her how she liked it, the simple answer was “That was amazing!”

A new, life-long fan, and well deserved.

Katie has a weekly assignment to write either a journal or a story or poetry over the weekends for class. For this weekend, this is what she came up with (and she drew a picture to illustrate it):

Lilly, Lilly ballerina. Lilly lilly on the wall. balance standup very tall. skips and twirls across the stage. Oh, no an “F!” Towering rage. will she do a good job? yes! bravo! Encore!

Cute, isn’t it?

Today, the family bid adieu to our beloved hermaphrodite, Joe-Anna. The resident snail of Ellen’s bedroom, and mother/father to fully 16 currently living offspring (which may explain why s/he died…), passed away today at an indeterminate age. The truly interesting part of this story, however was the funeral service that Ellen came up with and performed.

She asked that we all wear something black and follow her outside where she would conduct the funeral. With Ellen standing on the deck, after she guided us to stand in front of my apple trees, she read first from Genesis, and then recited from memory (and as dramatically as you can imagine, complete with hand gestures and dramtic pauses) the story of Pandora and how Death was released upon the world. According to Kim, Ellen thought it appropriate to say something about how life started and ended.

Finally, she finished by digging a small grave and putting Joe-Anna (who had been sealed inside a single egg carton shell) into the ground. After covering him/her with dirt, she allowed Katie (who was quite bored by this point) to place the headstone dedicated to Joe-Anna the snail, indeterminate birth date, date of death September 8, 2007.

Safe passage, Joe-Anna. Ellen will look after your children.

God help me, but apparently Ellen has now begun quoting the peasants from Monty Python and the Holy Grail when being forced to do things she doesn’t want to do. Lines such as:

“Help! Help! I’m being repressed!”

and

“Come see the violence inherent in the system!”

regularly pop forth from her mouth if she feels she is being underserved by the resident parent population.

Sigh.

Just got back from a nice 5 days visiting with my buddy David down in an area sort of mid-way between us called “Chesapeake Beach” Maryland. A small town, with a decent resort in it, the Chesapeake Beach Resort and Spa (clever name, huh?) Rooms were nice, although the A/C sucked (don’t they always at hotels?). However, in the realm of giving the people what they want, instead of what they need, the hotel had just finished putting 40″ flat screen HD TV’s in all the rooms, so we plugged our XBox 360s and Wiis into that and damn if it didn’t look great. Yes, folks, I go on vacation and spend time playing video games. Geek that I am.

We also fished (we caught about 14 fish), played golf (shot a 50 on 9 holes, played really well, though), tennis (damn, I suck–it’s been a LONG time), and just generally vegged out. Watched some movies on DVD (yay for big HD screens!), bobbed in the pool, and overall relaxed. This is one of those vacations I didn’t need a vacation from afterwards. Here’s a shot of the two of us on the boat. I’m the shorter, rounder one.