More Mini Painting

I haven't painted in almost a year, but I recently go the itch to get back to it. Since the last time I posted we got our own digital camera and I painted two more minis. Here are two that I painted in the summer of 2007:

The crypt:



The Barbarian Giant:
I'm pretty proud of them both, but the camera sure picks up all the flaws in my paint job. Still, I'm looking forward to picking up my brushes again. I just ordered this model and am waiting for it to be delivered:

Phase 2: Complete

My "grow your own geek" project has completed an important milestone.

Last night Simon and I had a boys night out to go see the new Iron Man movie together. This was great for a number of different reasons. First off, the movie rocked. Definitely one of the best super hero movies I've ever seen. I collected the Iron Man comic for many years in my youth and it was amazing to see him finally hit the big screen.

Also, it was great just to go out and do guy stuff with my son. He had a good time and is also excited about going to see the new Indiana Jones movie with me in a couple weeks. He even said he'd go see The Hulk when that comes out later this summer. This is new for us. I tried to get Simon to go see Spider Man 3 last summer, but he was still afraid of non-animated action movies. This year he's totally cool with it.

Mostly though, it reminded me of the time when I was 7 years old and my father took me to see my first "grown-up" action movie. It was the 1976 King Kong and I loved the fact that it was just my dad and me going to see it together. It was the first in a long, long line of me and dad going to see action & cheesy horror movies. Just me and him. No chicks allowed.

The funny thing that occurred to me as we were leaving the theater is that my first movie with my dad and Simon's first movie with me both featured Jeff Bridges. What's up with that? It's like my father, me, Simon and Jeff Bridges are all doing this Circle of Life thing together... but Jeff Bridges doesn't even know about it. I wonder if I should tell him?

But seriously, it was weird how such a simple thing, taking my kid to a movie, was so strangely satisfying... both for its fun in the here and now, but also for its nostalgic value. The super-hero theme, the remembering of times with my dad, the realization that there's a whole new activity that Simon and I can do together that we couldn't before because action movies scared him... all of these things made it a fine, fine evening.

Now I just have to wait a few more years to teach Simon how to play pool. Two (or more) guys + action movie + hanging out in a pool hall afterwards = best times ever!

He Did It!!!

It's official!! Hawksbill graduated yesterday!! Woo hoo!! He now has a Master's in Social Work from U of M!! The whole family went to his graduation ceremony and we are all so proud of him!! The last 2 years have been busy, crazy, exhausting, but it was worth every minute!! It is kind of weird having him actually finished now. What to do with our evenings? Hang out? Cook dinner instead of buying pizza for the 10,000th time? Take a family walk? So unreal!!

The above shot is Hawksbill lining up before graduation. Simon, Gwen and I sat in the very back row of the auditorium with my parents. I tried to take pictures inside, but the lighting wasn't great for photos.

A blurry shot of Hawksbill being "hooded" onstage.

Hawksbill with Simon and Gwen after the ceremony. It was a very windy day, but also nice and sunny. This was the first day I really noticed that spring has sprung. I have been so tired, exhausted, stressed out, etc. waiting for graduation, that I hardly noticed winter ending and all the trees blossoming. Wow--it is nice out and I have been missing it!

Finally, a family shot outside of the auditorium. I am glad that we brought the kids to Hawksbill's graduation, however, I have to say that it was difficult trying to make Gwen behave through the entire ceremony. I can only hope the keynote speaker didn't hear Gwen shouting, "Big Armpit!" while she was addressing the audience. I do want to apologize to the people sitting in front of us who were videotaping the ceremony, as the first 30 minutes of their tape is going to consist of me saying, "Gwen, please sit down, please be quiet, please, I'll pay you..please stop touching your brother...no, I don't have gummies, please stop! Give me my camera back!" etc. and so forth.

Two years, 60 credit hours, and countless sleepless nights, but you did it! So, congratulations again, my love! I am so proud of you! You did it!!!

My addiction

When I first applied for and was accepted to grad school I was required to send in a couple hundred dollar deposit to "hold" my spot in the school of social work. That was three years ago. Then I started school about two years ago, took out a ton of student loans and recently finished up all the classes and whatnot. But, for some reason the school never applied my deposit to any of my classes. A few weeks ago I called them about the negative balance on my account so they just sent us a check back for the deposit amount.

So, what do you do when you get a couple of hundred dollars you weren't expecting to get? I asked my lovely bride who said: "I don't care, spend it on whatever you want."

What else was there for me to do? I Promptly ordered another dozen board games for me and Simon. This time I picked out six games that were mostly kid oriented and six that were for me and the Foot Foot gang. They arrived last week.

In all I got: Amazonas, Babel, Caribbean, Castle Keep, Chateau Roquefort, Hare & Tortoise, Jambo, Mykerinos, Elfenland, O Zoo Le Mio, The Thief of Baghdad and Vikings.

So far they seem to be a fine batch o' games, but we've still only scratched the surface of all the games we've bought lately. Of this batch Simon and I played Chateau Roquefort and Hare & Tortoise a couple of days ago. And, the other night the Foot Foot gang had a gaming night and I played Vikings with Paul and Larry. Everything else is still shrink wrapped.

So far, Chateau Roquefort is about the coolest family game I've seen in a long time. The physical game itself is a bit of an engineering marvel. It is difficult to describe, but the game is played on 3 layers of thick cardstock representing the roof, and two layers of floor of a castle. Each player controls 4 mice who roam the castle in search of cheese. But the players can move the floor tiles underneath themselves or their opponents. This may either move a prized piece of cheese closer to your mice... or it might move a hole in the floor underneath an opponent causing one of their mice to fall into the "dungeon" and out of game. It is really quite clever.

Hare & Tortoise is a great game that Paul introduced me to some years back. Simon and I enjoyed playing it the other night and he does understand the rules, but still has a hard time choosing an optimum move out of all possible options. I consistently had to point out several good options for him to choose from when it was his turn. He did end up winning, but I wasn't entirely doing my best.

I'm also very pleased with Vikings, although it will be a long time before the kids can get into that one. In it each player controls a band of Viking explorers trying to find new islands in the north Atlantic. The game uses a number of familiar mechanics like an auction phase and tile placement, but it combines them in a very unique way that feels completely original. In the end of our game I tied with Larry on the scoring track, but he beat me on tie-breakers because he had ONE more gold coin than I did. Yeesh!

So, in the end I have a TON of new games to play and I can't wait to get them all to the table. I still have a big wishlist of still more that I want to buy though.

I can stop any time I want to. I just don't want to.

No more teacher's dirty looks!

A little earlier today I went to my last class and submitted my final assignment for graduate school. I have one more day of internship left on Friday. Then, a week from Saturday I graduate with my Master's degree in social work (MSW).

This most recent semester was much less stressful than the Fall semester. This time I only had 3 classes and the workload seemed significantly lighter overall. It was quite a relief because I really thought I was losing my mind last November / December.

This year my internship has been at an urban Detroit hospital where they have a therapy program for children and adolescents who had either been witness to or been victimized by physical or sexual abuse or they had witnessed the death of a loved one. Along with conducting therapy sessions I was also responsible for interviewing families who had a child in the hospital for medical reasons. In these cases I had to determine what, if any, additional resources the family might need. I also had to ferret out possible child abuse and neglect.

Overall I filed about a half dozen cases with the local Child Protective Service agency. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'm glad if I helped remove kids from dangerous situations in their home. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that these same kids won't face equal or worse abuse/neglect in foster care. There are very few good options for children in this situation.

This was a very different internship from the one I had last year. Last year I worked with adults who were violent offenders with schizophrenia. This year I worked with children and teens who were victims of violence in some way and with families dealing with difficult medical situations. Both were great internships, but this year's was more emotionally draining.

This year I saw dozens of families in moments of absolute crisis. In therapy I worked with kids who had witnessed terrible things at home, ranging from arguments and chair throwing between parents all the way to witnessing one parent murder the other and then commit suicide. On the inpatient units I worked with families who were living through nightmarish scenarios, such as a child's severe spinal injury or the diagnosis of a horrible disease.

This year I saw some people be unwaveringly strong and others demonstrate incredible stupidity. I talked with parents who showed admirable bravery in the face of Hell, and I called security on parents who couldn't control themselves and who started fighting in the hospital hallways. I worked with successful middle class, two parent families from the suburbs and I worked with impoverished, unemployed, homeless mothers with as many as ten children and no family or friends to help out. I saw the system work sometimes and I watched helplessly while children were taken away from their mother for no other reason than that they were poor.

All in all my classes were pretty good. Some of the classes were kind of a joke, and some were very difficult, but it was at the internships where I got my greatest education. It's been a good couple of years.

It may sound corny or schmaltzy, but one of the things I learned the most this year was sheer gratitude for Barb and the kids. My family is intact and not affected by divorce, violence, illness or poverty. After spending all that time at the hospital this year, things like divorce, violence, illness and poverty started to feel like the norm. It's easy to take our happy and pleasant life for granted.

Now I have to find a job. I have a couple of irons in the fire, as they say. I have my resume out to an outpatient adolescent medical clinic where they want to have a mental health therapist on staff and another resume out to an adolescent HIV/AIDS clinic. Barb's sister knows people at the local V.A. hospital and sent my resume to them yesterday for work with traumatized and/or addicted veterans.

So, that's it. The only thing left between me and my Master's is the graduation ceremony, which I wasn't even going to attend, but Barb is making me... and my mom is flying in for it as well. Even Simon is excited about it.

Until then, I just get to hang out, goof off, be lazy and play with the kids.

Tax Return = Games, Games, Games!!!

So, we got our tax return back the other day and allocated some of it as "fun money" for each of us to blow on anything we wanted. I, of course, spent my share on games. Board games, in this case. My shipment just arrived and I can't wait to try them out. Some of them are family games for me, Barb and Simon to enjoy now, and some are for when the kids are a bit older. And some of the games are for me... ones that I thought the guys would like also. All in all I got:

10 days in the USA, Arkadia, Aton, Blue Moon, Cartagena, Hera and Zeus, Lost Cities, Niagara, Odin's Ravens, Saint Petersburg, The Downfall of Pompeii and Zooloretto.

The other day I made a geeklist of all the games I'd like to get to have around the house for the kids (both for now and as they age a bit more. I selected these because a lot of them got good comments on that list.

Simon is really looking forward to Niagara. I borrowed it from Steve some months back and he really liked it and keeps asking when we'll get a copy. I also played Zooloretto at Steve's and I think Simon might like that one as well.

For our gaming group, I picked out Saint Petersburg, Downfall of Pompeii, Arkadia and Aton, unless there are only two players when any of the Kosmos games might be a good time.

Fun stuff. I can't wait to play 'em all!

Update:
Simon and I played two games of Niagara tonight and it went quite well. I thought I might have to simplify the rules a bit for him, but he did just fine and we were able to play with all rules as written. He doesn't really get the strategy yet, but he really does like the whole gem collecting aspect. But, he made me exchange the canoes for little paper stars he colored earlier and has been playing with all day. So, instead of canoes we were paddling stars up the Niagara river. Go figure. He says he can't wait to play more tomorrow. Woot!

(home)school in the news

Around here we typically only discuss the pro-homeschooling arguments, like this recent Washington Post article. Well, this week on the Diane Rehm show there was a pretty balanced discussion between pro-homeschooling reps from the HSLDA and some Stanford professor arguing for greater oversight of homeschoolers. Both sides raise some good ideas and it's a pretty good all around discussion. (Thanks to my attorney for sending the link.)

And, then, for another side of the story altogether, here's a link to a video highlighting some really interesting educational advances the Tampa, Florida school district is experimenting with. If this had been going on when I was in high school, I would have ran away from home just to go to school in Tampa! The video tries to explain the situation like it's controversial or something, but, they're just putting a negative spin on it.

Ok, yes I'm being completely sarcastic there. That link is to a news video describing three separate arrests in two weeks in Tampa of women teachers who were having sex with their 14-15 year old male students. That's THREE completely separate incidents in two weeks in one city. It apparently brings the total in Tampa up to 10 since 1995. I'm sure this is nothing new. It's very likely that women teachers have been seducing students since the 1870's and we're just now starting to pay attention to it. Just as male teachers have been doing the same thing (but in much higher numbers that hardly ever get media attention).

Other than the prevalence rate the only real difference seems to be that men get sent to prison and women get probation and told not to do it again. But, it makes sense. Judges don't like sending pretty women to jail. There are good reasons for this. I guarantee that if you're a judge and you send a pretty woman off to jail... she definitely won't sleep with you. Nothing turns a women off like incarceration! Probation on the other hand... totally different story.

And, finally (and more seriously), here's an article from an Arizona paper about some parents of autistic kids who are having quite a bit of difficulty with their local school district. The parents have organized and are trying to collectively encourage the school district to treat their special-needs children humanely and to, you know, educate them. Here's a good paragraph from the article:

District officials argue that the complaint process in some cases didn't end the way that parents would like, dismissing concerns about specific administrators who in one case denied a mother's request that staff members stop using physical force on her 5-year-old son.

The comments in the article are pretty interesting as well. Lots of fed up and frustrated parents and a few pro-establishment folks who feel that parents who complain too much when school staff use "physical force" on their autistic 5 year old kids are just a bunch of "whiners." It's like: Dude... you're kid's autistic. What'd you expect?

Well, that last bit was supposed to be more sarcasm, but there may be a point there. If you have a child with special learning needs and you send them to an average American public school... what do you expect? If you aren't rich enough to move to an affluent neighborhood or to put them in a private school you're just kind of screwed. Or, to be more precise, the students are screwed and the parents just have to put up with it.

So, I guess the overarching lesson is this: If your child is attending public school but is autistic or has other special needs... or if they go to school in Tampa... they're screwed.

Is it spring yet?

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????



Sniff

Two posts in one day

You can tell I am home sick :)

I forgot I wanted to post about this, but it is mostly so a year from now I can re-read THIS post and say, "Oh, what was I so worried about!" Yes, Gwen is now 3 years and almost 2 months old and no closer to potty trained than the day she was born. I am getting grief over this because, "She is a girl and they always train so easily!! She'll be out of diapers before her 3rd birthday!" Yes, well, that didn't happen.

I know Simon was almost 4 (yes, 4) before he was potty trained...and I know I am not the only mother on the planet with a 3-year old daughter who isn't potty trained, but I just dread doing this whole thing again. We went out and bought "big girl underwear" and a new potty seat a few weeks ago, which resulted in Gwen announcing she was a big girl and didn't wear diapers anymore. That lasted about 3 hours--the amount of time she held it before she peed her pants, freaked out and said she wanted a diaper again.

She will sit on the toilet about once a week now and do nothing. She can hold it ALL NIGHT long and sometimes even an additional 2-3 hours after she wakes up. She tells me when she needs a new diaper, and you always know when she has to do #2 because she hides somewhere and shouts, "Don't look at me!"

So, why is she not potty trained? Is it because I am too tired and lazy? Probably. I am too tired right now, that is for sure. I was hoping she'd be trained by this summer so we could go camping without having to drag 500 diapers with us, but I doubt we'll be so lucky.

So, the point of this post is just to vent about the lack of potty training that is going on here...the fact that diapers went up about $5 a box and she has to wear a size 6 diaper...which means you get about 12 in a box for $40 now...we even bought the cheapo brand this time which reminded me why we stopped buying the no-name brand--they leak like crazy and do not come in a size 6.

Anyway...my hope is that 1 year from now, I will read this, and will not have a single diaper in my house. The diaper genie and changing table will be things of the past, and I will never have to change another diaper again.

Wednesday, March something or other

I am home sick today. Well, I work from home Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but I have some horrible throat/nose/cold/ache thing going on...it was bad enough yesterday for me to go into the doctor, only to be told that I didn't look that bad and take over the counter stuff. Does it make anyone else mad when you wake up in so much pain you cannot even talk, your abs and back hurt from coughing so much, and the dr says, "Oh, you look fine." Thanks...this is why I almost never go to the dr anymore...unless I am in extreme pain (like yesterday). Lot of good that did...I thought for sure I had strep throat, but I won't know that until tomorrow. Probably not--probably just a cold...from hell.

Simon is forcing me to watch every episode of Star Wars...yesterday we watched Episodes I, III, and V, (the odds) and so far today we have watched Episode II. I imagine we'll watch the IV and VI when we finish this one....I like the original movies from the 70's but do I even have to comment on the new movies?

Simon is plugging away with his schooling. I had to explain away homeschooling to the new dr and the rest of the office staff yesterday which I wasn't in the mood for. The question I have been getting a lot lately, and yesterday was no exception, was what "state standards and tests" did I have to put my kids through in order to homeschool. As usual, I got the usual looks of horror when I said I didn't have to do anything in the State of Michigan while homeschooling... I just had this debate with some coworkers last week who don't even KNOW that I am homeschooling and was surprised by the ones who said, "Why should the state decide what your kids need to know." More importantly, why should your kids have to study and memorize a bunch of stuff they are going to forget the minute after they take a test because it is boring and they aren't interested in it.

The conversation on homeschooling continued yesterday when a physician's assistant asked Simon, "Don't you want to go to school so you can have lots of friends?" Yes, I thought. I had SO many friends in school. Note sarcasm here. Not that I would expect my kids to be social outcasts like I was, but it tends to run in my family. I was then asked if I was doing the homeschooling (as opposed to Hawksbill) as it seems like that is what people think--it is the mom's responsibility or something...but no, I said we were both teaching him. I don't know why this question bugs me so much. As if only one person should be doing this, the mom only, the certified teacher only, I don't know...it just kind of irks me. I should have been more polite or more excited while describing homeschooling, but I was tired, sick and feeling a bit defensive yesterday and wasn't in the mood for the list of usual homeschooling questions so I made some excuse about not feeling well (ha!) and left.

Simon has been learning a lot of Spanish words lately. He was mad that the Spanish word for "no," is "no," because it isn't different. We were reading some book the other day and I said to Simon, "I wonder what the Spanish word for 'snake' is?" and he replied, "Uh, mommy...it's 'culebra'." I had to look it up because I didn't believe him and he was right!! I had 2 years of high school Spanish, and three semesters of college Spanish and I might remember how to count to five yet my kids know more Spanish than I do after watching Dora or reading books they find laying around.

Hawksbill is at school today. His afternoon class was canceled, but he is staying later to do homework. I have a lot of work I should be doing, but I officially called in sick again this morning. I am so tired I can't think straight, but hopefully this will pass by tomorrow.

This weekend is Easter, but Hawksbill will most likely go to Ann Arbor to study so I imagine I will take the kids to my parents' house on Sunday. I used to love Easter, but I am really not in the mood for it this year. Maybe because it is so early--March 23rd?? It just doesn't feel like a Spring holiday should be taking place so early in March. The Easter bunny still comes to our house, but I don't know if he wants to hide eggs this year...ah, we'll see. Maybe I am just grumpy since I am sick.

My found money project is going well this year. I know I started the project later last year, but I have already found more money than all of last year in these past 3 months. I have even had to pass up some potential found money...I am hit or miss and the drive through...I saw about 5 pennies on the ground yesterday, but decided to pass since I was sick and there were about 5 cars behind me in line...but if there had been some silver coins, I would have gone for it :) Yes, I admit, I will open my door at the drive through and pick up coins under the drive through window. I never would have done something like that before, but I found almost $2.00 this year in one stop by a fast food restaurant. Yes, I am a nerd or geek or freak, but hey, if you don't want your quarters, I will gladly take them.

Skittles?

Here is a CNN report about an 8th grader in Connecticut who was caught with "Skittles" in school. That's the candy. It's not a euphamism for Oxycontin or heroin. Candy.

Michael Sheridan, an eighth-grade honors student who was suspended for a day, barred from attending an honors dinner and stripped of his title as class vice president after he was caught with a bag of Skittles candy in school ...

After getting bad publicity the school apparently decided to take things down a notch and they reinstated the boy to his position on student council.

Sigh... next thing you know schools will be calling the police and arresting 6 year olds for throwing temper tantrums. Oh, wait... they already do that.

If children would just learn to act like mature adults we wouldn't have these problems!

Snow Day!

Today, I experienced something that is rare for my work--A SNOW DAY SNOW DAY SNOW DAY!! Woo hoo!! Ok, so we did get about 8-10 inches of snow last night, but my work almost never closes. It would have been a more pleasant surprise had today been a day I work at work rather than work from home (and it would have been the ultimate of nice surprises if people from work weren't emailing me with stuff to do anyway) but at least I don't feel as guilty about putting off work until evening when I know no one is in the office.


I have to say, the above two photos of the trees and the snowman are actually from last week when we had a really good snowstorm of packing snow...last night's storm is summed up in the photo below--this was the lowest point on our driveway after Hawksbill took the snowblower to it this morning.


And, I am sure Hawksbill would agree, it would have been the best day ever if HIS school would have closed for today, but god forbid someone paying their tuition miss a single day of class -- no, we don't want to worry about public safety, the nasty drive and roads, but gosh darn it, if I am paying tuition, I better get every last dollar out of my professors even if it means car accidents and slipping and falling all over campus!

Although the snow is pretty, I can say I am officially OVER winter. We have had snow pretty much every week, seems like every other day, not to mention today is MARCH 5th!! And I am looking forward to spring. I heard that we are supposed to get a couple more inches of snow tonight, and more this weekend. I have to send out a big thank you to my sister who gave us her practically brand new snow blower since she has a snow service now. I didn't think we'd even use it this winter, but Hawksbill has put it to good use twice already.

And for my parents who spent 3 hours waiting on the runway in a plane waiting to fly to Florida last night, well, at least they are in Florida for a week instead of here with piles of wet, melting snow all over the place. I hope Spring gets here soon. I'd like to see some tulips, thanks!

Gaming Day

This past Saturday was a big all day board gaming day at our house that lasted from before noon until almost 2am. We had a great turnout and almost all of Team Foot Foot showed up. In all there were 8 of us, although not everyone could stay for the whole time. It's hard to get 10 guys with family's & jobs together on a regular basis, especially when some of them live in Grand Rapids, Washington D.C. or even New York. I hate waiting until the August retreat to see everyone though, so I've been trying to schedule these all day sessions every other month or so. I've been doing very little gaming with the guys while I've been in school anyway. I've been missing it.

My attorney showed up around 10am from D.C. and we played a 2-player game of Aquadukt, which I recently ordered off Tanga for about $8.00. Simon and I had played this one the day before and although it isn't a bad game, I'm glad I didn't pay more for it. After that my attorney and Simon and I played a 3-player game of Gulo Gulo. Simon is always glad to play one of "his" games with "the guys".

By that time it was noon and Paul, Steve and Larry showed up so we played a 5-player game of Fearsome Floors, which I'd never heard of before, although it was designed by the same guy who created Power Grid, which is one of my favorites. Fearsome Floors is a game that takes place on a large off-sized grid with a monster who makes predictable yet somewhat complicated moves. The players each control three characters who are trying to make it from one end of the map to the other without being nabbed by the monster. It's quite a fun game and I'm thinking of picking up a copy for myself because I think the kids would like it some day.

After this we were waiting for Jake and Mark to arrive so the 5 of us played a filler game of For Sale, which is one of the best 10-minute fillers around. The others still hadn't shown up by the end of that one so the 5 of us moved on to a fairly short game of Citadels before they got there. By the end of that time I think both Jake and Mark had arrived, which meant we now had 7 and had to split into two groups. Me, my attorney and Mark played Colosseum, while Steve, Paul, Jake and Larry played Cuba (I think. I've never played Cuba myself although the others did rave about it.) I do like Colosseum, but it doesn't work well as a 3-player game. It really needs at least 4 so that there's enough competition over resources. But, it is a fun game nonetheless.

After that my attorney, Mark, Larry and I played a 4 player game of Thebes, which is fun but suffers from too much randomness. After that I sat down with Mark, Steve and Eric to play a 4 player game of Power Grid with the new power plant expansion set. Initially I liked the new power plant expansions, but I'm not so sure now. They seem much more powerful than the original set. At the end of the game all four of us were powering 16-19 cities, which would have been unheard of in the original set. The original set is much tighter. Maybe I'll have to try it again though.

Finally, as we usually do lately, we finished the evening with a game of Zopp. There were 6 of us left shortly after midnight so we divided into two teams of 3 and battled it out. When I say "battle" what I really mean is that we occasionally shot the puck around the board, but mostly we discussed strategy and argued about how much of the puck was over the foul line. I was just glad that I scored a goal (maybe two, I don't recall). It is a much harder game than it looks and I should really practice more. Our team (me, Paul, Eric) finally won against Mark, Steve and my attorney when Paul made a stunning (and accidental) goal from one end of the board to the other. (At least it looked accidental to me... Paul may claim he did it on purpose.) Good times... good times...

All in all it was a great gaming day. I think I won a few games like Aquadukt, For Sale, Zopp, but Aquadukt was only a 2 player before the group arrived and Zopp was a team effort. That leaves me with For Sale as my only source of pride for the day... the 10 minute game.

Special congratulations to Mark, though! He was truly on fire. I think he won almost every game he touched. I seriously hope he gets that out of his system before the retreat in August! And, my thanks to everyone for coming over and having fun. I don't get to do this often enough with my current school schedule.

Next up, we're discussing a full day in May to play a single game of Advanced Civilization. Civ is one of my favorites, but it is an endurance game and can take over 9 hours to play. It was a brilliant game back in the early 90's, but it suffers now just because better (and shorter) games have been produced in the last 15 years. Still, I like to try to play it every few years. Back before we had kids Barb joined me for several consecutive years traveling down to the Origins game convention to play Civ with me and a bunch of strangers. It has been about 3 or 4 years since we've played it though, and I'm itching to try it again.

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

It is Thursday, the 28th, (almost the 29th) and my vacation is almost over. Hawksbill has Spring Break this week, so I decided I should use some of my vacation time and take the week off with him. We have and had no plans this week. Just to not work, not think, be couch potatoes, that was it. My kind of vacation :)

I have to put in a little note for my Aunt Mary. She is having a rough week again. Last Saturday, my Aunt Lottie (her sister) was laid to rest. After she came home from the funeral, she received a call--her sister-in-law, (who was her late husband's (Uncle Mike's) twin sister) died on Saturday. Although I did not know this woman, I did go to her viewing Tuesday night. My poor Aunt Mary--in only 4 months, she has lost her husband, her sister and her sister-in-law. So, here is wishing my Aunt Mary some good luck for this year. She could use it.

An interesting fact (to me) about my Uncle Mike and his twin sister--apparently they were born on different days--he was born just before midnight on October 23rd, and she was born just after midnight on the 24th. I wonder how often twins are born on different days (or better yet, different years straddling December 31st and January 1st?)

Gwen is getting over the flu--or at least a really bad cold. She has been extremely needy, clingy, whiny, shrieky all week long. I can't move without carrying her like a baby with me. I feel like I should just get a sling or a backpack and keep her attached to me since I do not seem to have much choice this week. Do they make slings for 36-lb 3 year olds? Heh...

Speaking of weight, Simon has been watching his weight on the scale lately and I didn't know why until he ran to us all excited this week that he now weighs 40 lbs! ha ha...my 6 year old is JUST NOW hitting the 40 lb mark. He is excited because we told him he had to be 4 years, 40 inches tall, and 40 lbs before we would let him move to a booster instead of his car seat...he hit the other two goals two years ago, but my skinny, picky eater, he now just weighs in at 40 lbs (um, fully clothed that is)...which brings me to another topic...

Well child visits: Ok--is it just me, or are well child visits just a way for doctors to make you paranoid about your healthy kid? First off, in the last couple of years, I have started waiting until late March, early April to drag my kids in for this type of visit. Reason? January and February babies = flu season at the doctor's office. So, why would I want to drag my healthy kid into the doctor's office where everyone is hacking and coughing up the flu, to tell me Simon is small, and Gwen is big, so maybe we should stress us out about why Simon is so small (but perfectly healthy) and then let them catch the flu from all the sick people? I don't understand it. So, I am waiting. I guess I could have brought Gwen in for her cold/flu, but years ago I gave up going to the doctor when I had a cold/flu (unless it lasted longer than a full week) because it really grated on me that I would be home taking Tylenol and Robitussin (sp?) and go in to the doctor to be told to take Tylenol and Robitussin and that will be a $30 copay. So, sorry...Doctors I respect you, but I don't want to bring my kids in during flu season for the well child visit so don't yell at me for being 2-3 months late with it, and yes I know Simon is skinny! :)

Simon has found a new addiction this week: Scooby Doo. Ah, good old Scooby--it has been years since I watched that show, and Hawksbill decided split the cost with Simon and buy the first 25 episodes of the original show. I would enjoy it more, if it wasn't for those meddling kids! Just kidding-- please...I love Scooby Doo, too, and am glad they bought some of the original episodes instead of that late 70's early 80's crap with Scrappy Doo...not into that.

Even though it is Spring Break, Hawksbill will still go to his internship tomorrow so I will find something to do all day with the kiddos...if Gwen was 100% better and it was a little warmer, I would actually like to go to the zoo. I have always wanted to go to the zoo in the winter...I don't know why...I guess I thought it might be fun. We still have a lot of snow on the ground from Tuesday--I think I mentioned before it snows every freaking Tuesday--we finally got some packing snow and made a snowman.

Note: Might be considered a movie spoiler, so do not read if you want to see the BEST PICTURE winner and haven't already seen it: Hawksbill and I got to go out on a date tonight!! Woo hoo!! I think the last time we got to go out, just the two of us, was sometime last summer? It has been a while. We went out for Korean food and decided that we "couldn't lose" by going to see the Oscar Winning Best Picture: No Country for Old Men, by the Coen Brothers. How could we lose, right? We LOVE the Coen brothers...but, um, well...this movie sucked. OK--wait, let me give it some credit--the first 1 hour and 40 minutes were pretty darn good--I was pretty darn happy, and then something changed that. And if you saw the movie and loved it--good for you, because I still think it sucked and should never have won an Oscar for Best Picture. No way. Oh, and don't even go there with some deep meaning intellectual "REAL LIFE" bullsh*t. It sucked. They ruined it. It could have rocked and it didn't. This movie had amazing potential and they f*cked it up. So, screw you, Coen brothers!! I want my money back--and you should have to give back your Oscar because you didn't deserve it for this one!!! Losers!! I am going to go watch Raisin Arizona, Fargo, Blood Simple and Millers Crossing now and just weep for you. I might even watch The Big Lebowski!!! But you guys owe me something better than what you gave me tonight. I mean, seriously...I get to go out on a date with Hawksbill MAYBE 2-3 times per YEAR (if I am lucky) and I wanted a good movie, and you spoiled it for me. The least you could do is send me some ice cream. B*st*rds!! Or better yet--you need to COME OVER to MY HOUSE and babysit for me so we can go and see Juno. So, someone PLEASE pass the word on to the Coen brothers--they owe me a night of babysitting so I can see a GOOD MOVIE!

Well, it is February 29th and I should log off now. Thank you for letting me get that out of my system. I'll be seeing ya!

Oh my God! They're Turkeys!

Last night we were watching the first season of E.R. off Netflix and they had a Thanksgiving episode. For some reason, totally out of the blue I remembered the Thanksgiving episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, which I haven't seen or thought about for over 25 years.

In it the radio station hosts a promotion at an outdoor mall where they plan to drop turkeys from a helicopter on to the waiting crowd. Les Nessman is on site to describe the events to listeners, but Mr. Carlson made two mistakes in planning the promotion: a) he didn't tell Les what was going to happen and b) he forgot that turkeys can't fly.

After describing it to Barb and Simon (cracking them up) I thought I'd see if it was on Youtube. Sure enough... here it is... and it is as funny as I remember it.



I have two favorite memories of WKRP: this one and the one where Bailey Quarters is being wooed by a Russian diplomat who tries to seduce her with an Elton John song. Near the end of the episode he pulls her close and says: "Hold me closer tiny dancer." To this day I can't hear that song without thinking of Bailey who, for a few years in the late 1970's, embodied the perfect woman to the pre-pubescent Hawksbill.

It turns out that I'm not the only one. I stumbled across this fansite from a guy about my age who felt the same way about Jan Smithers. And he had the same memories about that Elton John song. Go figure.

Anyway, Simon loved the Youtube video above and I can keep cracking him up today by exclaiming:

Oh My God! They're Turkeys!!!

Goodbye, Aunt Lottie

My Aunt Lottie, my father's sister, passed away yesterday. I don't know how old she was because she shared a birthday with my youngest brother, Joe, so whenever they had a birthday, she just assumed his age until he turned 29. For the rest of her life if you asked her age, she answered, "29," because that was her way.

Aunt Lottie was the youngest of my father's 4 siblings. She had been in a terrible car accident in the late 1960's and was in a wheelchair, and then wore a brace on her leg for the rest of her life. She never married and had no children because she said all of us were plenty enough for her. Every birthday up until about sixth grade, she made professional bakery quality cakes for us, and she even made our wedding cake.

Aunt Lottie worked in a social services office most of her life and took care of my grandma, my Babcia, until Babcia needed more help than Aunt Lottie could provide. I never learned to speak Polish, but I remember my aunt always calling Babcia something like, "Studda Bubba" which (although I can't find it in any dictionary) meant "Old woman" or "old coot"--it very well might have meant something worse or maybe I am remembering it completely wrong, because none of the individual words translate into what I remember...but I remember hearing that, and "spanka your dupa" a lot when growing up :) I'll have to ask cousin Marie on Saturday...

It wasn't completely unexpected when my father called yesterday with the news, as Aunt Lottie has not been well for a long time, but sad to lose another relative from "The farm" after losing Uncle Mike, her brother-in-law, this fall.

Goodbye, Aunt Lottie...you will be missed....

Mama! Mia! Oh! My!

I cannot even BEGIN to say how much fun I had last night. A friend of mine from high school is starring in the touring Mama! Mia! show and a bunch of old high school buddies and I got together to see the show last night. Oh, it was so much fun!

First we met at my friend, R's, house to go to dinner. About half of us met for dinner before the show and went to Bastone's in Royal Oak which I have never heard of before, nor had I ever even noticed even though it is right on Main Street. The food was amazing...I think R described it best as a full menu of "comfort food".

Before the show we met our friend, S, in the lobby of the Fisher Theater. He is the man with glasses in the back row of this photo--S is playing the role of Sam Carmicheal, who is the "main" potential father in the show. If you don't know the story line of Mama! Mia!, basically, Sophia is a 20-year old woman about to get married on a Greek island. She was raised by a single mother never knowing who her father was. Before the show begins, Sophia finds her mother's diary from the late 1970's, and comes to the conclusion that her father must be one of 3 men, so she invites all of them to her upcoming wedding. Hilarity results as the 3 men discover why they have been invited to the wedding. And, oh yeah...there is a lot of ABBA music.



S invited us on stage after the show to see what goes on backstage and for some photo ops in the Mama! Mia! scenery. No, this isn't the cast--this is everyone who came to see S. S is front and center in the dark and light gray sweater...that's me in the lavender sweater in front on the right.


Oh, it was like a Marching Band Reunion 19 years later...that reminds me of the time, when we were at band camp!!!

Um, er...actually it DOES remind me of the time...we were at band camp...um...yeah...I was in band.

All and all, a wonderful night. :)

Happy 6th Birthday, Simon Pepper!!!

Today is your birthday, my sweet little guy! I can't believe you are six years old!!! Where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday you were running around in puppy camouflage pajamas.


Simon woke up so excited today and keeps saying, "Today is the best day ever!" but I think every day with Simon is the "best day ever!" :)

This morning you opened your presents from us and from Grandma K, and received phone calls from Aunt A, cousin S, and Grandma M. You received some care bears, a jacket, some PS2 games, and finally the Star Wars: The Complete Saga that you have wanted for so long. Today we made a blue (well, more like teal) cake with green and purple frosting decorated with Backyardigans toys (of course I do not have the amazing cake decorating gene that my aunts and cousins have so it is pretty lopsided and messy). Later, we went to Target so you and Gwen could spend some of your birthday money on some legos and then we played at the mall and play. Tonight we will wait for Hawksbill to come home so we can sing to you again and eat your lovely cake.

You crack me up the way you spin around and dance and jump all day! I am looking forward to watching you grow yet another year. I am so happy to be your mom and I love you!!

Happy Birthday, Simon Pepper...I am glad you are here to show us where the pepper is!! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, Baby!

I can't tell you how happy I am that you're in my life. You're the best wife a guy could ask for and the best mom I can imagine for our kids and I love it that we have a common vision for what we want our family to be. You rock my world!

And, as always... I love you more than bugs!

Less is more

The other day my lovely bride sent me this link to a BBC article discussing the optimal age children should start school. Apparently children in Britain start school at 5 years of age whereas children in other European countries often start at about 7. In the US children start first grade at 6 years old, but are almost always in Kindergarten at 5 years and many children are in "pre-school" even earlier than that.

The main point of the article is to question this practice of early enrollment because, as the article quotes from a Cambridge report on education: "The assumption that an early starting age is beneficial for children's later attainment is not well supported in the research and therefore remains open to question."

The cited report suggests that the origins of early enrollment had little to do with education at all. In fact... "Entering full-time education at such a tender age meant reducing the malign influence of Victorian feckless parents - it was about child protection and social conditioning rather than learning." In other words, the British government didn't trust parents to raise their own children and used the education system as a surrogate family where children would be raised in an acceptable manner.

I also like this paragraph from the article:

Last year's teachers' conferences heard concerns that children were spending so little time with their own families that they were showing signs of aggression and de-socialisation, taking their behaviour from their peer group rather than absent adult role models.

One of the pro-public education arguments I usually hear is about how school helps children learn social skills that they wouldn't otherwise learn. This has seemed silly to me for some years now as we've been organizing our homeschool for exactly the reason discussed in the above paragraph. I love it when our kids have the chance to play with friends, family and peers, but if time with their peer group so dominates their social experience that it began to exclude time with us, then I would be very concerned.

I think this happens a lot in public schools. Kids spend most of their day in classes, they often have several after school activities and then they have homework to complete before the next day. The result often means surprisingly little time spent with family, which can result in estrangement from parents and an over reliance on the peer group as a source of social identity.

Basically, I think friends are great and necessary, but I think family is the best source of social identity. And, I think that building that social identity in the best and most positive way requires lots and lots of time with family. I'm not much of a believer in "quality time". I'm all about quantity.

Overall it's an interesting article. I also enjoyed the many comments from readers sharing their thoughts on the subject.