Foot Foot '08: 9 Geeks, 9 Days, 68 Games!

Where we live in Michigan real men (non gaming geeks) are awarded a certain birthright: hunting. That is to say, real men are not only allowed to spend a week in the woods away from their spouses and children where they drink beer and shoot guns with their friends, but they are expected to do so. It's what they do and God help you if you stand between them and their hunting trips.

As you may have guessed, I am not a real man. I'm a gaming geek. So are my friends. We may drink beer, but we don't hunt. Instead, we play games. Lots and lots of games. The sad part of this is that we were somehow left out of the part where we get to leave home with our friends for days at a time to pursue our hobby without distraction from spouses, children or jobs.

A few years ago our group got together and decided that the madness must end! So, we designed the Foot Foot Gamers Annual Retreat (named, of course, after The Shagg's 1969 international hit My Pal Foot Foot). The first year we had the retreat was 2006. That year we rented a cottage on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron and gamed from early one Friday morning until about 2pm the next Sunday. Last year we took things a bit further. We arrived at the same cottage on a Wednesday night after work and played through Sunday. (You can read about those retreats here and here.)

For our retreats we designed a scoring system, logged all of our games and awarded a grand prize to the "Best Overall Gamer". The prize is a plaque with 12 blank name plates on it. If you win the plaque you get to have your name engraved on it and you get to keep it for a year. Jake won our inaugural event in '06 and Paul won it last year in '07. There are enough name plates on the plaque to keep us doing this until 2017! After that, we buy a new plaque.

My lovely bride with the coveted prize.

Anyway, this year we decided to take things a bit further. This year we rented a different cottage for 9 days from 4pm on Saturday, August 2nd until noon on Sunday, August 10th. Not everyone could show up at the same time, though, so we broke the week up into segments. From Saturday to Wednesday morning would be a free for all in which any of us could use the cottage and invite our spouses and children. Sunday, specifically, would be "family fun day". Then, from 12pm on Wednesday until 12pm on Sunday would be gamers only time. The entire week would feature a lot of gaming, but the official scoring wouldn't begin until Thursday morning at 6am and would last until we left on Sunday.

The following is a narrative of how the week went, what games we played and the other fun things that happened.

Saturday, August 2nd
Barb and I, along with Simon and Gwen (who are 6 and 3 years old), arrived at the cottage at about 4:30pm on Saturday. We were the first ones there and Paul was the only other Foot Foot member we expected on that day. While we waited for him we took some pictures of the cottage, which was much nicer than the place we rented the previous two years. Here are some of our pictures:

Here is the front/side of the cottage we rented.

Here is the back yard as seen from the patio door. Because there would be so many guys in the house for the week I opted to bring our tent along. That's chateau Hawksbill there on the left. This picture must have been taken later because Lake Huron isn't visible in the background. Must have been a bit foggy at the time.

This is the view from the edge of the bluff overlooking the lake. We spent a lot of time between games standing out there looking at the water and telling gaming war stories.

At 5pm, before Paul arrived we decided to take the kids down to the water to check out our beach access. I don't have pictures of it, but our path down to the water was by way of a very long staircase. About half way down we reached the first landing and I noticed a few bees flying nearby. I foolishly said "stand still kids... don't scare the bees." That's when the 2 or 3 bees disappeared under the stairway and came back moments later with 15-20 bees. Then they attacked! Seriously! The swarmed all over us and we all ran back up the stairs yelling. Simon and I both got stung three times. Gwen got stung twice. Barb escaped being stung at all. Nature sucks!

A little while later, at 6pm, Paul showed up and we helped him unpack. Then he and I went out and bought 2 big cans of some bee-killing chemical that sprayed 2o feet away. We went back down the stairs to investigate. We found that we could get fairly close to the bees without causing them to swarm and that we could figure out where the hive was based on their activity. It turns out it was right under the staircase. So, we planned to crawl under the staircase with the cans of Raid and hose them down from about 8 feet way. That's when we noticed something else. The entire hillside was covered (completely!) with poison ivy. Ugh!

So, our plan was this: To return to the cottage and cover ourselves completely in clothing from head to toe and then to return to the staircase where one or both of us would crawl through the poison ivy, under the staircase and kill the bees, all the while hoping that the bees didn't launch a full on counter attack.

At 9pm this is what we did. I put on long pants, tucked my pant legs into my socks, put on a hooded sweatshirt which I pulled over my face trekked back to the staircase, ready for battle. Then we decided who would crawl through the poison ivy to kill the bees. For some reason I volunteered. I don't know why I did this. I knew I was very allergic to poison ivy (A few years ago I got a horrible rash after chasing a black bear into the woods, but that's another story). Anyway, I hopped over the railing, crawled through the poison ivy on my knees and elbows and finally located the hive. Then I emptied two large cans of Raid on it. The bees didn't know what hit them. They not only didn't counter attack, they merely fell and died instantly. It turns out that, although bees may have a huge dodge bonus to melee weapons, they have a profound weakness to chemical attacks. Score one for the good guys.

After this Paul and I want back inside where I stripped off my presumably diseased clothing and took a very hot shower. Then we all took a walk down to water with the kids. I was very interested in seeing the beach because our gaming retreats are often filled with drunken midnight swimming. Here are some pictures.

Gwen and Simon on the beach.

Gwen, me and Simon admiring the big rocks.

After this it was time to prepare for the arrival of more gamers the next day. We went back up to the cottage and organized our games.

My stack of games. (Note the kids games up front... ready for family game day!)

Paul's stack of games. Lots of good stuff!

In addition to games, Paul took steps to make sure that nobody would be thirsty this week.

At 10pm Paul and I sat down to our first game of the week: Saint Petersburg. He and I had been playing this one fairly often on Yucata.

It was nice to play it again in person. It was my turn to win this time. After this we all turned in for the night.

Sunday, August 3rd:
For most of this day Paul and I were the only gamers on site. After a nice breakfast of egg sandwiches and bacon we settled down for a 2 player game of Aton before heading out to explore the beach some more. After that Simon, Paul and I chilled out to a game of Blokus, which is one of Simon's favorites. Then Paul and I played some Babel and 3 games of Blue Moon. I won Aton, Blokus and Babel, Paul won 2 out of the 3 games of Blue Moon.

Around 3pm that afternoon our pal Mark and his family arrived and after getting them all settled we all went back down to the beach for some swimming. At about 6pm Mark made us all some burgers. Then around 6:30pm Mark, Paul and I settled down for a game of Nefertiti, which I totally didn't grok. Mark took 1st, Paul 2nd and I came in last. Then, to wrap up this first day, Paul, Mark, Angela (Mark's wife) and I played a game of Settlers at around 9pm which Paul won.

Monday, August 4th:
This was a very rainy day and we were stuck inside most of the time. This morning Larry arrived and we opened up the gaming day with round of Gulo Gulo. Playing were me, Paul, Larry, Mark, my son Simon and Mark's kids Kip and Athea. Simon beat us all. He's pretty good at the Gulo Gulo! Then me, Simon, Athea and Mark&Kip (teaming up) played some Blokus and the Mark&Kip team cleaned all our clocks. Around 11am Paul and Larry played We the People (Paul won) while Mark and I played some Babel (I won). At 2pm Larry, Mark, Paul and I played some Saga, which Larry won.

At 3pm I showed Angela how to play Castle Keep in case she and Mark wanted to pick up a copy for their kids and at 3:30 me and Mark conducted a teaching session of Chateau Roquefort with Athea, Kip, Simon and Gwen.

At about 4:30 that afternoon Mark's family left and me, Mark, Paul and Larry played a game of California. I came in 1st. I'm glad to get some milage out of some of those Tanga deals!

At 6:30 Paul made us a great dinner of short ribs. Here's a shot of Paul, Larry and Mark around the grill.

At about 8:30 Paul, Mark, Larry and I sat down for our first heavy game of the week: Wealth of Nations. This is probably one of my favorite new games of the year. It is still on my wishlist. I really do need to get myself a copy.

Wealth of Nations (that's me in the middle, flanked by my minions Gwen and Simon)

About midway through the game, around midnight sometime, Paul and I did some late night swimming in Lake Huron. Midnight swimming is one of my favorite parts of the retreat. We halted the game for the night, to be complted the next day.

Tuesday, August 5th:
This morning Barb, Simon, Gwen and I went out for breakfast while Paul, Larry and Mark played some St. Petersburg. (Paul one).

After that we finished up Wealth of Nations. Mark kicked arse with a total of 103 points. I was close behind at 102. Around 1:30 that afternoon we played some Tichu, which is one of my all time favorite games. Mark and Paul beat Larry and I handily. Later we played some Magic: The Gathering (sealed deck). My notes don't say who won, but I know I choked badly. I think Paul won, if memory serves, but I could be wrong.

Later that evening, around 8:30 I played some O Zoo Le Mio with Barb, Larry and Simon. As usual, Simon won. As with Gulo Gulo, he's pretty good at this one. After that Paul, Larry, Simon and I played a round of Hare and Tortoise, which Paul won. (Hm... this is not the best picture of Gwen, I think. :)


Late this night, around 11:30 we played another of my favorite new games of the year: Primordial Soup. Larry, Mark and I played with Larry coming in 1st. Good stuff. Who doesn't love a game about poop?

Wednesday, August 6th:
The next morning Paul introduced me to the game Tamsk, which I'd never heard of before. I managed to win dispite that, though. Then I went off to breakfast with my family again while Larry, Paul and Mark played some Aquaretto with Larry taking first place. I like Zooloretto, but I still haven't played this spin off.

Then from 1pm to 5pm we played another heavy. Paul brought out Perikles which he and I and Mark and Larry played. I don't think any of us had played Perikles before and I don't think any of us liked it very much. Someone quite accurately described the game as being very much like spending several hours doing someone's taxes. Not very interesting. I won anyway, but it would have been a more satisfying win if I'd actually enjoyed the game more.

A little before 7pm that evening our buddy Steve arrived and we all sat down to a game of Glory to Rome. Mark took 1st with me coming in a fairly distand 2nd.

Then, around 9pm Eric showed up and we jumped into a 5 player game of Relationship Tightrope (with me, Steve, Eric, Paul and Larry... Mark didn't join us for some reason.) I really like this game. It has quite a silly theme, but it is fast, entertaining and pretty challenging. Larry took 1st place with only 10 points! Go Larry!

Finally, we wrapped up the evening with a 6 player game of Hoity Toity, another one of my favoirites. I really like the simultaneous reveal mechanic. Somewhere in the middle of the game Eric spilled his glass of Red Bull and coconut rum all over the table, which made quite a mess, but the rest of the game smelled quite nice. In the end Mark won and Steve came in 2nd.

Thursday, August 7th:
This morning marks the beginning of our official scoring to win the fancy plaque! From here until noon on Sunday all the games count for the big prize!

We started off splitting into two groups. Paul and Steve played some We the People (Paul won by killing Washington). Me, Mark and Larry got started with a game of Amazonas. Mark won this one. Amazonas is a fairly nice little game, but the tie breaking mechanism is terribly flawed. If I ever play again I'll push for a tie breaking system similary to O Zoo Le Mio.

Eric spent the morning sleeping it off.

Since Paul and Steve were still paying We the People, Larry, Mark and I played a game of Stone Age, which I won.

Steve and Paul playing We the People.

Mark and Larry prepping our game of Stone Age.

At 11:30am we all gathered together again for a game of Tribune. Well, all of us except Eric who was still asleep. Larry won very handily with a strategy of acquiring laurels, favors of the gods and cold hard cash. At 2:30 we split into two groups again. Steve, Larry and Mark played Antike (Mark won) while Paul, Eric and I played some Caylus (I won). After that, around 5:30pm or so Steve made us all dinner by serving up his amazing pulled pork sandwiches. Good stuff!

Then, at 6:30 Paul, Larry and I played Hollywood Blockbuster (Larry won) and Erik, Mark and Steve played Metropolis (Mark won).At 8pm Jake and Ben arrived, bringing our total now up to 8 players. We split into two 4's with Ben, Eric, Paul and Mark playing Notre Dame (Paul won) while Steve, Jake, Larry and I played some more Primordial Soup (I won). What can I say? I just can't get enough poop related gaming!


At 11pm everyone but George jumped into a game of Pow Wow, which was madcap and crazy. I took 1st while Paul came in 2nd. Then we split into 2 groups again and Larry, Eric, Steve and Jake played Situation 4 (Eric and Jake won) while Paul and I teamed up against Mark and Ben in another game of Tichu (Paul and I won). After Situation 4, Eric, Jake, Larry and Steve played their own game of Tichu with Larry and Jake winning.

That brought us all to about 3:00am in the morning and we all passed out exhausted from a fantastic day of gaming.

Friday, August 8th:
Early this morning at around 3:30am our friend George finally arrived from New York and our group hit its peak of 9 gamers. When we woke up Mark made us a fine breakfast and Paul served us up some delicious mimosa.

At around 7:30am Jake, Paul, Steve and Ben played a game of Nefertiti. Later, at 9:30am Larry, Paul, Ben and Steve played a game of Friedrich which Ben took 1st in as France. At the same time I sat down to another game of Wealth of Nations with George, mark and Jake. Mark cleaned up with 80 points and I took 2nd with 71. Mark played brilliantly. He managed to get an operational bank on turn 3 and spent the game totally focusing on money. Good stuff!

Mark and Jake planning their Wealth of Nations conquests.

At around 1:30 on Friday Larry, Eric, Steve, Ben and Paul sat down to some Puerto Rico, which Steve won and Paul came in 2nd. At 3pm, Me, George, Mark and Jake finished Wealth of Nations and tried out Caribbean, which I totally sucked at and George dominated.

Later at a bit after 4pm two new games started. Paul, Steve, George, Jake and Larry played El Grande which Paul won and Jake came in 2nd. Also, Mark, Ben, Eric and I started up a game of Stone Age. Mark took 1st while I came in 2nd.

A beautiful sunset overlooking Lake Huron on Friday night with my own personal barracks in the foreground.

At 8pm Steve, Paul, Jake, George and Eric played a game of Quo Vadis?. Steve won this one and George took 2nd place. At the same time, Ben, Mark and I played Midgard. Once again Mark took 1st place and I came in 2nd. By this time I was getting crazy tired after being up so late the night before. My ability to think coherently was seriously diminished and I went off to bed at 11:30.

After I went to bed Larry, Jake, Paul and Steve played some more Relationships Tightrope. Larry and Jake took 1st and 2nd respectively.

Then around 10:30pm a big game of Antike formed with Eric, Steve, George, Jake, Ben and Paul. Sometime around 12:30 I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so I came back inside to watch the action unfold. Finally, around 1am Steve completed his Antike domination and Paul followed him with 2nd place.

Around 2am we all packed it in and went to bed.

Saturday, August 9th:
Wow, our last full day of gaming before returning to the real world.

This got off to a bit of a slow start this morning. The gaming didn't really begin until 10:30. George, Paul, Larry, Steve and Eric played a game of In the Year of the Dragon, which Paul and George took 1st and 2nd in. At that point I hadn't played this game yet, but in the last year I've had the chance to play it many times and have even picked up my own copy. I like it quite a bit.

At the same time Jake, Ben, Mark and I played a game of Vikings. Once again Mark took 1st and I came in 2nd. Vikings isn't the best game in the world, but I find it very pleasant. I like the way it mixes a number of familiar game mechanics in a pretty interesting way.

Later on, George and Paul took 1st and 2nd in a game of Modern Art. Good auction fun.

At 1:30 on Saturday another game of Settlers broke out between Jake, Ben Mark and myself. I took 1st and Jake came in 2nd.

Then, at 3:30pm we played yet another game of Primordial Soup. I just couldn't get enough of that poop eatin' fun! Since the retreat I've purchased my own copy of this game along with the 5-6 player expansion set. I really like it quite a bit. I took 1st place while Ben came in 2nd.

While we were playing Primordial Soup, George, Paul, Steve, Jake and Larry played a game of Wallenstein. I was glad to miss this one. I never really liked Wallenstein. There are some heavy games my head flows naturally into. Wallenstein isn't one of them. It just makes my skull hurt. Ugh!

Primordial Soup and Wallenstein both took quite a long time to play. The next set of games didn't start until 8:30 Saturday evening. Eric, mark, Jake and Paul sat down for a match of Age of Steam while George, Ben, Larry and I played a nice game of Ra. Paul and Mark took 1st and 2nd in Age of Steam while George and Larry tied for 1st place in Ra.

Age of Steam took a lot longer to play than Ra, so while those guys were still playing that one George, ben, Larry and I played a quick round of For Sale (I won) and then another game of Pizarro & Co. (George and Ben came in 1st and 2nd). I have to say, Pizarro & Co. is one of my favorite auction games. I'm always happy when this one hits the table.

Then, around 1:30 in the morning Mark and I teamed up against Jake and Ben in a game of Tichu. Mark and I got our hats handed to us. It's tough sitting down against Jake in a game of Tichu. He's just plain good at it.

After that, it was once again time for bed.

Sunday, August 10th:
Ah... our last day. We all got up around 7:30am and started cleaning up. For some reason I stopped taking notes at this point so I'm not exactly sure what happened this day. I was getting a ride home from Jake and he had to leave a bit early, so I don't think I got in any gaming on this day.

I'm pretty sure that several of the guys stayed until noon and played the customary final game of Ticket to Ride, but I don't know who won or anything.

What I do remember is that on the ride home my neck started itching like crazy. By the time I got home I had a crazy, itchy, scratcy rash on my hands, neck and cheeks. It turns out that I had contracted poison ivy the Sunday before when I'd crawled around in the underbrush to kill the bee hive. I didn't know it had such a long incubation period, but it waited to hit me until the ride home a full week later. I spent the next 3 days trying not to scratch my skin off and taking lots of Benadryl. Ugh!

The next day Paul tallied the final game results and it turns out that he took the overall grand prize for the 2nd year in a row. I came in 2nd place while Mark took 3rd.

Well done Paul! Next time we will crush you!!! :)

My thanks to the whole group for all the fun and good times. I hope we can keep this up for many years to come!

What it takes to teach

Lately I've been reading John Holt's book Teach Your Own. So far I would set it, along with Gatto's Dumbing us Down aside as the two seminal books critical of public education. It it also about unschooling, which we are only partially implementing here at home, but it is a very enlightening read. I especially enjoyed an early section called "common objections to homeschooling" which you can find reprinted here.

One thing that also captured my attention the other day was Holt's description of what is required in order to teach something to anyone. One of the realizations we've come to over the past few years is that teaching is not nearly as difficult as we have been led to believe. In America, if you want to teach children in a school you are required to spend several years in a special school just learning "how" to teach. This strikes me as being very silly. From what I've learned through my own research and through talking with people who've gone through this specialized education (like my wife), it appears that teacher's schools teach primarily 3 things:

1. A lot of overly complicated theories of very simple ideas
2. How to manage large groups of children and keep them under control
3. How to negotiate the huge amount of administrative red tape required of teachers in a public school

In Holt's Teach Your Own he describes 7 principles of teaching that definitely ring true for me. These are (from page 41):

1. To help people learn something you must first understand what they already know;
2. Showing people how to do something is better than telling them, and letting them do it themselves is best of all;
3. You mustn't tell or show too much at once, since people digest new ideas slowly and must feel secure with new skills or knowledge before they are ready for more;
4. You must give people as much time as they want and need to absorb what you have shown or told them;
5. Instead of testing their understanding with questions you must let them show you how much or little they understand by the questions they ask you;
6. You must not get impatient or angry when people don't understand;
7. Scaring people only blocks learning

And, as Holt puts it, "These are clearly not things that one has to spend three years talking about"

It strikes me that the career of "teacher" has been built into a kind of priesthood where only the specially trained can hope to accomplish anything and everyone else should fear to tread there. In my opinion teachers learn how to be teachers through the experience of teaching and not by sitting in a classroom learning pedagogical theories.

If I were hiring teachers for a private school I would require that applicants impress me with a sufficient knowledge of the subject matter they have specialized in as well as an understanding of principles similar to those 7 mentioned above. I would be less impressed by people who described spending years how to teach, but who hadn't spent the same or more time mastering the subject they wanted to teach.

I don't at all mean this as a dig against teachers. But, I don't see that a special study of education in and of itself is especially necessary to do their job. Instead I'd rather see professional requirements be limited to a proven understanding of the topic to be taught (math, chemistry, etc.) through an undergraduate degree (if not actual work experience) and an apprenticeship program. Maybe a class or two in "teaching theory", but surely not a multi-year program learning only how to teach something to other people.

To be fair, I consider the same to be true of my own profession of Social Work. Especially the great majority of work that I did during my last internship at the hospital. I can't see how that work would really require a 2 year advanced degree.

The Great Rock Candy Experiment of '08

Last week we watched a new show on PBS called Nova Science Now. Simon watched the show pretty attentively and afterwards he asked if we could do science experiments here at home. We've had a few kids science experiment books sitting on the shelves at home waiting for the kids to express an interest, so we said "of course!"

A few weeks ago Simon was watching Zula Patrol (my favorite kid's show, along with Cyberchase) and they had a segment on "solutions" vs. "mixtures" so he told us he wanted to do an experiment that involved a "solution". So, we decided to make rock candy. I quickly found a recipe online and we got started last week.

We decided to make four of them in different colors so we boiled up some water and added more than 5 full pounds of sugar, carefully watching the sugar dissolve 1 cup at a time. We then separated it into glasses where we added colors. Then we used clothes pins to hang wooden skewers in the sugar/water solution. Then we set them aside to wait the alloted 7 days for the sugar crystals to form. Here's what it looked like the next day:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it seemed that nothing was happening. So, we re-read the recipe and figured that we had "cured" the wooden sticks improperly. So, we removed the sticks, rolled them in sugar and let them dry overnight. The next day we re-boiled each glass and added 1 more cup of sugar before putting the sticks back in and putting them back on a shelf. This time we had dramatic results. The following day it looked like this:

And, the day after that it looked like this:

And then finally:

And this was only after three days. I think that adding that last extra cup of sugar drastically increased the growth of the crystals. In fact, one of the candies grew so big that it stuck to the side of the glass. When I tried to remove it I broke both the candy and the glass. Here's what they all looked like after removing them from their solutions and letting them dry:
And, finally, here are some shots of happy kids & parents eating their first science experiment:


In preparation for future rock candy experiments I cured a couple of dozen sticks and have put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer. This way we'll be all set to do it again many times over the next year or so.

So, our first experiment was not only a resounding success, but was very tasty too!

Here are the most important things we learned if you want to make rock candy:

1. Cure the sticks ahead of time. Let them soak in a hyper-saturated sugar-water solution for at least a few hours. Then take them out, roll them in sugar and let them dry for a day or so. This gives the sugar crystals a preliminary surface to attach to once the sticks are placed back in the final solution.

2. You need less water than you think you do. If, like us, you're using glasses that hold 1.5 cups of water each, you do not need to boil 1.5 cups of water per glass, but instead only 1 cup of water per glass. The volume of the water will increase considerably since you're adding 2 cups of sugar per cup of water. Next time we do this we'll follow the recipe more closely and only use 4 cups of water and 8 cups of sugar.

3. Getting a deep color takes a lot of food coloring. We used 5 drops of food coloring per glass and the solution turned a deep color, but the final product was more pastel and light colored. I'm not sure what the right amount is.

4. Next time we'll experiment with adding flavors. Ours turned out great, but they were really just sticks of sugar. Adding something fruity might be nice.

Oh, and regarding solutions and mixtures, Simon said something really funny the other day. He said: "A solution is when something dissolves in a liquid. If you put monkeys in water it is just a mixture because you can filter out the monkeys with a net."

Truer words were never spoken.

Penny walks and other unrelated items

So, I haven't posted in a while, but probably because everything is just about the same as always. The only thing I have added to my day lately is a "penny walk". It is my mental break at work. To keep sane during grant writing season, I am picking a time in the afternoon and going for a 15 minute walk looking for pennies for my "found money" experiment. That way, the only thing I am thinking about for 15 minutes is finding pennies and NOT why I do not have everyone's NIH style biosketch for the grant that is due in at 5 pm, even though I emailed everyone weeks ago for the information...grrrrr.

I just started doing this penny walk about 2 weeks ago, and was excited this week when I found my first Canadian Loonie (1 dollar coin). It made me think that maybe, since probably 2-3 dollars of the loose change I have found so far is Canadian, I should separate my found money counter this year by currency since I know the coinstar machine is going to spew out my non-American currency anyway...and I was curious to see how much Canadian money I have found so far. Maybe I will do that tonight. (Edit: OK--we were bored so Simon and I separated out the currency on the sidebar. I actually had more money than I thought--I guess I haven't been keeping track as well as I thought.)

Today I found my first 10 cent Euro--would you call that a Eurodime? I have no idea...it has to be worth at least 5 bucks by now, right? Ha! But the best part of today was finding my first $5 bill. I can't even remember the last time I found a $5 bill just lying in the street. It made up for the $1 bill I missed in the student center a month ago when some other eagle-eyed student snatched it up seconds before I could get to it!! B*st*rd!

In unrelated news, I joined Weight Watchers this year. Before anyone rolls their eyes or starts mocking me (as Hawksbill promised that would happen), I was just trying to lose that darn 12 lbs I haven't been able to lose the last 3 years since I had Gwen. I knew I was in trouble when I went to the first meeting and the woman who RUNS the meetings took one look at me and said, "We have plenty of skinny people join ALL the time." Sigh...but anyway...I managed to lose my 12 lbs since joining, and have just today made "Lifetime member" status--which I thought meant they just gave me a little gold sticker, but apparently I can go to WW for free now...so that was pretty cool. I have been using the points system, which means I can eat anything I want as long as I limit myself to 20 "points" of food per day. Losing weight was easier after I discovered my morning banana nut muffin was freaking 14 points!! But, like all diets, it is mostly, eat less and exercise.

Changing the subject AGAIN, we have had a rash of crime lately in our otherwise sleepy, boring neighborhood. On our street alone (and this is all I know about) we have had the tires stolen off 2 cars within 4 houses of our own. I can imagine it would suck to wake up to find your car sitting on bricks. My next door neighbor is missing some bricks from a retaining wall, so she thinks hers were used in at least one of these crimes. Then last weekend someone broke into our favorite pizza place down the street making off with $13 from the register after smashing the front door. One of the employees said that they also tried to steal the grease trap from under the fryer, but perhaps they thought it was a safe, or maybe that it was some type of "metal" they could sell at a scrap yard. The employee said that these particular criminals have already been caught, so I am kind of hoping these are the same people who have been stealing tires...but I have no idea.

The kids are doing well. We are calling this time "summer vacation" and are not doing any formal homeschooling, but the learning is still happening. We had planned on having Simon work on his printing skills for writing letters next fall, but he decided about a week ago he wanted to start doing this on his own when he found a book with dry erase markers that shows you how to write your letters...Simon knows how to write all of his letters upper and lowercase already, however, he wasn't using anything (lined paper) as a guide, so everything still comes up all squiggly. So, he just started practicing this last week. He is also finding new planet facts to tell me about every time I come home such as how many Plutos it would take to circle the Earth--apparently the number is 17.

Gwen is learning new things, too. I asked her if she could count to 20 the other day and she looked at me and said, "20." I guess if she is counting by 20's, then technically, she is correct. :) But after a short pause, she started saying, "21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28...." and I honestly didn't know that she knew any numbers past 20. Gwen has also become obsessed with 24-piece puzzles...another skill I did not know she possessed, but she can put them together without any help. I thought that was cool. :)

Not much else is going on except that I cannot believe it is the end of June already. It is weird not worrying about Hawksbill going to school in the fall since he is done. It is weird to know that I really DON'T have to think of life in semesters anymore...however, since I work at a university, I still do and probably will for as long as I live.

I have to go sit on the porch with Gwen now. Until next time, I hope to have some more interesting information to share. :)

Hawksbill on Potty Training

Sometimes you just have to admit when you're wrong.

I really wanted to do the potty training boot camp last week for a couple of different reasons. First, because Barb sent that video she mentioned and it all made so much sense; second due to the increasing cost of diapers; but third because I got some disapproving comments from another parent at the park last week about Gwen still wearing the diapers. I'm ashamed now to admit it, but it is that last reason that really drove it.

So, I decided that, starting on last Thursday morning we would get up and put Gwen in underwear instead of diapers. Then, if she messed in her pants she would have to do the following all by herself:

1. Take paper towel, get down on her hands and knees and clean up the pee/poop (depositing poop in the toilet herself if needed)
2. Go into the bathroom, remove her soiled clothes and clean her self off
3. Go to her bedroom and put on clean clothes
4. Come back out and do it all again in 15 minutes

So, that was my plan. And can you guess how it worked? Well, it worked perfectly... sort of. She did all that without complaining at all. She was perfectly comfortable getting down on her hands and knees and cleaning her own piss and shit off the floor. She didn't seem to mind at all. She accepted all of that as a given. What she wouldn't do was to ever pee / poop on the potty.

It didn't work on Thursday so we tried again on Friday. Both days she peed all over our house. Upstairs and downstairs. On hardwood floors and on rugs. 15-20 times a day.

By the end of each day I was experiencing Hulk-like rages. I totally lost my mind. Each day when Barb got home from work I left immediately to either go to the movies or to game at Steve's. I like to think that I'm normally a fairly laid back person, but on these days I didn't even recognize myself.

And how was Gwen? Exactly the same as always. She didn't react to the potty training routine and she didn't react to my hugely increased level of frustration. She took it all in with zen-like grace. But she refused to pee on the toilet. I told Steve about this on Friday night and he said: "Damn, Gwen's a bad ass!" And he's right. She is a bad ass!

In the end it stopped seeming like I was trying to potty training her and more like I was trying to break her will, or her spirit. In the end I had to admit that it not only wasn't working, but also that this whole thing was violating every principle of parenting I hold dear. And the process was turning me into a horrible father so on Friday night we put the diapers back on. Gwen actually seemed a bit disappointed by that. She wanted to keep wearing her underwear, even if it meant scrubbing her own piss off the floor.

What can I say? My little girl is a f@$%ing bad ass!

Potty Training Boot Camp Day Two--Failed

Oh, yes...day two of potty training boot camp was yet another disaster. Gwen woke up dry as usual, and we reminded her that if she had to pee, she had to pee on the potty. So, she took off her diaper, put on her underwear, went into the living room, and proceeded to pee 15 gallons of pee all over the floor. I think the only bladder that I have ever seen bigger than this girl's would be our late Great Dane, Dunstan. For those of you who remember Dunstan...well...he could pee for about 15 minutes straight....200 lbs of pure love that dog was...of course, HE was housebroken. Grumble. Grumble.

So, Hawksbill called me around noon or 1 o'clock whilst I was enjoying a lovely shot of something blue at the world's most awesome restaurant in Greektown called Mosaic (yes, that was a plug--but dude--their food is sooooo good, but I digress). The news from Hawksbill was that potty training boot camp was going exactly the same as yesterday, except today it is raining out so all the accidents are occurring INSIDE our house. Hawksbill seemed like he was in ok spirits still, however, was starting to think maybe this experiment with Gwen the Terrible was not working so well, and maybe we should go back to a diaper or pull-up or a somebody ELSE walking behind her with a bucket...

By 4 pm, Hawksbill called again pretty incoherent...I heard mumblings of damn potty training, pee everywhere, need to leave, get out of the house...when the heck are you coming home??? You know how it goes...

So, potty training boot camp ended today by 4 pm. It was a total loss. Gwen wore a diaper for the rest of the evening with not even a hint of being interested in trying to pee anywhere except in her pants...so, I guess lesson learned is that she is actually NOT ready and we'll just give up for now...maybe another week....another year...no...not another year, but seriously...it ain't happening this weekend.

But, before I go, I did get some other ideas from someone from work who actually remembers her mom potty training her and her brothers...she said her mom would sit them on the toilet and put their hand in warm water to get them to pee on the potty...hmmmm...maybe that coupled with the food coloring in the toilet idea (you know, put in blue color so the kid can make it turn green or something) maybe something to try another day. Of course, I have to remind myself that trying to get Gwen to just SIT on the potty is about as easy as trying to bathe a cat. Until next time...potty boot camp is over.

Potty Training Boot Camp Day One--Failed

So, anyways...here is another thrilling post about potty training...how exciting. I can hardly contain myself. Really. But Gosh! Darnit! Gwen is freaking 3 years old, quickly approaching 3.5, and the news announced an expected 5-8% increase in the price of diapers (on top of the already added $5 a box that happened after Christmas this year) and that girl needs to freaking pee/poo on the potty!!!!

I can't remember if it was last week, or just a few days ago, but I stumbled across this video of the "potty whisperer", a woman in Chicago who runs a little kid boot camp and claims she can potty train your child in one day...well..when you watch the whole thing, she actually says it may take up to three days, so today was day one of our own potty boot camp at home.

If you really don't want to watch the video (don't worry, I won't be hurt!) the idea is make it the kid's responsibility for their body. Don't ask them if they have to pee--tell them, "If you have to pee, you have to pee on the potty." If/when they have an accident, they have to clean it up (you help them initially, but remind them that it is their responsibility--along with cleaning up themselves, and changing into dry clothes.

Keep in mind, it is Thursday and I had to work, so Hawksbill basically set out to do this on his own today...I knew he was in for a fun day this morning as Gwen lay in a fetal position on her changing table crying that she didn't want to wear underwear....but before I left, she was in her underwear and all excited about potty training. Uh, huh.

Hawksbill spent pretty much all of today upstairs in the part of our house without carpeting watching Gwen pee her pants over and over again...she has mastered the part of cleaning herself up, putting her wet clothes in a bucket and cleaning up her mess on the floor, but that was it. My favorite was when he called at lunch time to say she pooped in her pants and wanted him to change her, but he told her it was her responsibility and that she had to do it herself...fun!! So, after she figured out how to get her soiled clothing off, and it was messy I hear, and after stepping in said mess and being told she had to clean it up herself...well...the day just went on.

I came home about 5:30 pm to a disgruntled Hawksbill who had already picked out a movie to go to tonight and left me in charge of boot camp which lasted until 7:30 pm tonight....Gwen had another 4 accidents (but happily took off her clothes, cleaned up her mess, and redressed herself...)

So, I don't know. Was it worth it? I really don't feel like we are any closer to potty training than we were yesterday. I have a load of totally pee soaked clothing and towels in the washer right now, and Hawksbill is somewhere at a movie. Gwen is in a diaper now--not because I am giving up, but because it is almost time for bed, and I am a realist about trying to let her sleep without a diaper tonight. I know she can hold it all night--she wakes up dry, but I have only had 1 time EVER that I convinced her to pee on the potty in the morning before she soaks the damn thing.

My hope is that maybe, just MAYBE, if Hawksbill has the patience to do this again tomorrow, that she will try to sit on the potty...that maybe she'll pee just one time...or a miracle will happen and she'll just decide to do it. If you know Gwen at all in person, you know she HAS to do everything herself--feed herself, dress herself, get things down from shelves herself, she'd probably try to peel her own apple if she could reach the knives, so the resistance to free herself from the evils of the diaper is beyond me.

On a slight side note, going back to the price of diapers...don't these diaper companies (and I mean YOU Kimberly-Clark) understand that raising the price of diapers only encourages more people to not want to use disposables EVER? It makes you want to use good old fashioned cotton diapers which in turn leads to the parents potty training their kids earlier...eliminating the NEED for disposable diapers..heh heh....and for those of us who never used cotton diapers...it only makes us that much more eager to not be a slave to the diaper genie.

Our Different Drummer

Simon's not the only one who has been learning new things lately. A few weeks ago I thought it was about time we started teaching Gwen about the alphabet and the letter sounds. So, we bought her some foam letters and starting going through them, but it turns out she already knew. I don't know if she learned all the letter sounds from TV or from Simon, but she's pretty much up to speed on all the "short" letter sounds.

Next up we can start learning the "long" sounds and the difference between upper and lower case. Here are some recent pictures of Gwen being as adorable as always:


I don't know how it happened but Gwen is turning out to be quite the girly girl. She didn't get it from me, that's for sure, and Barb has always leaned towards the tom-boyish side of things. But, Gwen is a stereotypical girl if there ever was one.

It all started right around her 2nd birthday. We had a big friends & family birthday party for both kids (their birthdays are 3 weeks apart) and our friends Eric and Karen bought Gwen a "princess kit" which included silvery high-healed shoes, a tiara and a silvery plastic wand. Then someone else bought her a huge feather boa. For weeks after the party she paraded around the house wearing that outfit and saying (over and over again) "I'm a MAGICAL PRINCESS". We didn't even know she knew the word "princess" but there she was... hooked on a totally new lifestyle.

Nowadays she changes clothes many times a day and almost always dresses herself. If we try to pick out her clothes she usually gets mad at us so we just let her do it herself. In fact, she was dressing herself independently long before Simon was, and he's 3 years older.

And, she often uses her allowance money to save up for all sorts of princess related toys. A few weeks ago, much to the consternation of her mother's inner feminist, Gwen decided that the thing she wanted most in the world was a Barbie doll in a wedding dress.

When this all started we talked briefly about trying to prevent the accumulation of all the princess paraphernalia and the whole ideology in general, but we ruled that out pretty quickly. This is just who Gwen is. She glommed onto the whole princess thing in the same way that Simon became obsessed with stars and planets. Something just clicked inside her and resonated with her soul. She definitely walks to the beat of a different drummer around this house, but it's her drummer, damnit!

Finally, to wrap this post up, here's a picture of Gwen doing what princesses do best: suffer with a smile!

Oh, and for the record, she wasn't just pretending to wash the cupboards in that picture. Without us suggesting it she got a wet sponge and washed all the kitchen cupboards that she could reach. Sometimes princesses can be VERY helpful!

(As a socio-political aside: I used to assume that gender roles like those associated with stereotypical femininity or masculinity were entirely socially created. However, now that we have a child of each gender and we've had the chance to see them develop their own styles and interests, I've had to revise my views. There may be social elements to some of this stuff, but most of it sure seems to be innate. You could argue that Simon's interest in astronomy was encouraged by me... but nobody has been encouraging Gwen's obsession with all things princess.)

Kindergarten Recap

I'm not the only one in our family who graduated recently. A couple of weeks ago Simon finished his final formal assignment for his Kindergarten year. This ends our first official year of homeschooling, so I thought I'd write a bit about how it went.

First, here's a picture of our happy Kindergarten graduate.

When I had originally planned his Kindergarten year I had a very organized and structured curriculum in mind. When we experimented with that, though, it turned out that nobody was having any fun at all. The whole thing was just a drag so I went back to the drawing board and re-planned the whole thing. This is how we organized what ended up working very well for us.

First we set out to determine exactly what a kid “should” learn in Kindergarten. For this I consulted Rebecca Rupp’s Home Learning Year by Year and E.D. Hirsch’s What your Kindergartner Needs to Know. What came out of that research was roughly this:

Language arts:

• Know all upper and lowercase letters and the sounds of each
• Begin to read 3 letter words
• Recognize their own name in print
• Understand syllables

Writing:

• Be able to write all letters – upper and lowercase
• Be able to write simple words, messages & such

Listening & Speaking:

• Follow simple 1 & 2 step directions
• Retell familiar stories
• Invent & tell fantasy stories
• Memorize & recite short stories & rhymes

Mathematics & such:

• Be able to group objects into sets
• Identify and continue simple repeating patterns
• Count from 1-31
• Identify ordinal positions (first to fifth)
• Adding and subtracting number from 1-10
• Solve simple story problems
• Identify pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and recognize dollar & cent signs
• Understand measurements of length, weight & capacity
• Tell time to the hour
• Know days of the week

History & Geography:

(Note: the books I referenced above recommend starting with US history, but we opted to teach history chronologically a la the “classical” approach that I’ve written about before so we modified this to suit our needs)

• Listen to stories about ancient times including Greek & Roman mythology
• Able to use maps and globes, learning US geography and understanding the major world land masses

Science:

• Sorting objects according to physical characteristics
• Understand living vs. non-living
• Become familiar with plants
• Become familiar with animals
• The five senses and the associated body parts
• Basic composition of the earth
• Understand the seasons and weather
  

Art & Music:

• Name and describe colors, shapes & lines
• Experiment with a range of art techniques & mediums
• Be familiar with rhythm, melody and harmony

Health & Physical Education:

• Know importance of exercise, cleanliness, good nutrition & sleep
• Participate in age-appropriate athletic activities
  

Then, after compiling a list of things that a Kindergartener “should” learn in Kindergarten, the next thing we did was to assess what Simon already knew. It turned out that there was quite a bit he already knew. For example, by the time he was 5 he could read simple sentences and he already knew all the colors and shapes. Also he could already count to 100 and add & subtract numbers between 1-20 in his head without using manipulatives.

The next step in the process involved reducing the previously mentioned level of structure in our homeschool. So, we decided to decided to divide his “lessons” into two categories: formal and informal (or, structured and “unschooled” if you will).

The “formal” lessons were things that we tried to do on an almost daily basis and included the following:

1. Math lessons: for this we chose the Singapore Math text and workbook level 1. We actually started with Saxon Math level 1, but it was really boring and repetitive so we switched in mid-year to Singapore, which we all liked a lot more. Using level/grade 1 actually put him a year ahead of things in math, but he already knew all the kindergarten math basics so it would have just bored him to keep things too simple.

We didn’t do math lessons every day, but some days he would voluntarily do 3-4 days of lessons all at once so it evened out over time. From these lessons he learned more complex addition and subtraction (numbers 1-100) and even multiplication. He also began to learn the basics of division, but on a very superficial level. There were also a bunch of lessons about money… learning to add and subtract various coin amounts and whatnot.

2. History: For this we used Susan Bauer’s Story of the World Volume 1 (Ancient Times) on CD. This is a 7 disc set and every night for the past year Simon has been listening to 1 disc at a time at bedtime. I tried reading the book to him also, but he was annoyed that I was just repeating things that he already heard on his discs so I gave up.

3. Read good books: Every night at bed time we’ve been reading novels like Charlotte’s Web or The Chronicles of Narnia and also traditional fairy tales, Greek & Roman mythology, Aesop’s Fables and anything else he seemed interested in. I tried also reading to the kids during the day, but they weren’t interested in that and couldn’t sit still. Bedtime it is then.
   

That was it for the “formal” part of our lessons. Everything else was informal or “unschooled”. For us, what this meant is that we would pay close attention to the sorts of things Simon was interested in and we would make sure that he had all the books, software, videos, arts & crafts, comics and everything else he wanted to do his own research into these things. We decided not to impose any further subjects on him, but rather to trust him to develop and pursue his own academic interests. This may not work with all kids, and it may not work with Gwen in a few years, but Simon had already established himself as being able to deep dive into subjects he was interested in and we figured that would continue.

The way this took shape over the course of the last year completely met our hopes and expectations. On his own Simon continued to research and study everything he could get his hands on about astronomy. The boy is completely obsessed with stars and planets. We found a ton of books for him and also some really great free astronomy software (Celestia) that allowed him to tour the solar system, visiting every planet and moon and also to learn about the constellations. As part of this we are constantly printing out black and white pictures of the planets the he loves to color. Then we cut them out and he will carry them around with him all day talking about them. His bedroom is filled with planet books, planets hanging from the ceiling, little plastic planets littering the floor and giant inflatable planets pushed into every available nook and cranny.

What has been especially interesting about this is the way that other subjects become organized as part of his particular passions. For example, introducing him to Greek & Roman mythology was easy, once we learned that they Roman Gods have the same name as the planets. Then, when we read the myths we were, from his perspective, reading stories about the adventures of the planets. Also, becoming a better reader became important to him because he wanted to read more about astronomy, so he put a lot of effort into learning more words and letter-sound combinations. And, he became interested in really large numbers, because of the distance between the planets and the sun. So, he learned about hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, etc.

(The other day Barb and I were sitting in the living room and Simon walked in and asked: What’s 365 times 248? We said “huh”, but he insisted we find the answer so we pulled up the calculator and figured out that it was 90,520. Then he explained that 90,520 was how many days it took Pluto to go around the sun.)

But, the best education Simon is receiving happens after bedtime, after we read to him and shut his door for the night. It turns out that the boy is a night-owl. He loves to stay up late. So, after some discussion we’ve decided to let him stay up as late as he wants, long after we’ve gone to bed. The following rules apply: he was to stay in his room with the door shut (except to visit the bathroom) and he must be quiet and not disturb anyone else.

Neither of the kids will ever have a TV or a computer in their bedroom, so he spends this time (from 9pm until after midnight) reading and playing with toys. Before I leave his room for the night he will often ask me to pull some books down from high on his book shelves for him. Also, recently he asked us to get him a set of foam letters. For the past couple of weeks he has spent this quiet time with these letters and a couple of phonics books. The other night I peeked in on him at about midnight and he had the books open and was spelling out words with the foam letters. I asked him how it was going and he started telling me all about letter “blends” and what different letter combinations sound like if you put them together. We did not suggest that he do this at all, it was all up to him.

So, that’s been our first year of homeschooling. We’ve decided that there are a few things that should be learned in a systematic way (like math and history) but for almost everything else we’ve learned that we can trust him to more or less teach himself. Our job is mostly to pay attention to the kid’s interests and then to make sure the house is full of books, software, art supplies and toys relating to those interests and they pretty much do the rest.

Now that I review the list of things a kindergartner “should” learn with what Simon actually learned this year, there are only a couple of things I think we missed. Foremost of these is to develop skills associated with summarizing stories and repeating back the story’s basic theme or plot. We haven’t done much of that. Later in the year when we start first grade I plan to add an additional “formal” lesson to our repertoire dealing with general language skills. I plan to use Jesse Wise’s “First Language Lessons” which is a two year program for 1^st and 2^nd grade which is a gradual and systematic study of grammar and other aspects of English language study. It includes memorizing short poems and also begins the process of learning to summarize story elements (first verbally and later in writing).

Overall, though, Simon’s kindergarten year accomplished just what we hoped. It has become a blend of the classical approach (with an emphasis on history and “great” books) and an unschooling approach in which we follow the kid’s interests. We’ve decided that there are some things that should be taught in an organized way, but that many things can be left up to them with us more or less just supplying resources.

The way that these two elements of our homeschool are balanced may change over time, but for now this seems to be working for everyone. It’s been a good year.

Lucky 13

Thirteen years ago today I said I would love you forever...Happy Anniversary, my sweet! Here's to forever, and lucky 13!

I love you more each and every day! Thank you for such a lovely day today!

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!