Mom’s friend Sara came to visit with her lovely children Ella and Graham. She was in town for just a short while and Mom was busy as usually so it was a short visit. But Alice and Ella got to play together with the guinea pigs. I am not sure how much the g’piggies enjoyed it.
Alice had her friend Andrew over. Sadly, Andrew is not going to the same school as Alice so their romance may be at an end. Alice is still maintaining that she will eventually take (and she means that in the most forceful way) Andrew as a husband at some point. As a token of this, Alice gave Andrew one of her shirts at the end of his visit. It was a shirt from Arizona with a picture of an iguana on it. Alice had decided that she wasn’t going to wear it since it is a boy shirt. Andrew’s mom and I ended up discussing the frequent lack of boy left over clothes as boys tend to wear them out, especially pants. Alice has also become much more girl oriented over the last year or two so she’s less willing to wear anything that has made it down from her brothers. On the other hand, she decided on a recent morning to “look like a boy” and was upset that she couldn’t find the right boy style clothes to wear, although she eventually found clothes that made a passable attempt at being boyish. I offered a buzz cut for her hair to be complete but she wasn’t willing to make that kind of effort.
In other Alice visitation vs pets news we have had to lock up Polynomial the last couple of visits because she frightened Alice’s guest. Poly can definitely be a bit over-friendly if the boys are missing and she’s not getting the love and attention she so obviously deserves. I tried keep Poly in my office but she was so pestiferous that I just gave up and hung out with Alice and friend as I wasn’t getting any work done anyway.
Last night we went to Mom’s department’s annual fun fest / barbeque. There were a couple of bounce houses which Charles and Alice found them enormously fun. Corwin had some fun with some tricycles. He tried racing Charles on one of the bounce houses which was an obstacle course but it involved climbing and Corwin isn’t a climber.
Today was the annual Sweet Corn festival. Charles’ string band played as part of the festivities so we all went to see him. As well as we could, since he was behind some older and taller cellos.
We hung out at the festival for a while. Corwin played laser tag for the first time and managed to win out of a group of 10 kids. He was quite pumped afterward and said that although he had been grumpy about being forced to attend, the laser tag win made it worth while.
Next up was a musical festival at the church. We got there earlier and listened for an hour or two (out of 6 total hours) and then went over the Keith’s house for a party. Eventually, though we made it home and crashed out.
Today was Alice’s first day in kindergarten. I had hoped she head off on the bus but she whined at Mom enough that Mom ended up driving Alice in to school. Charles took the bus because he was afraid that Mom would try to talk to him on the way. Mom said that Alice was a good girl when she was incarcerated, bravely bearing up while waiting in line.
After school Alice claimed that things went OK, but that she didn’t talk to her teacher much. Mom and I expect that to change, even if Alice doesn’t report it that way. Alice has the same teacher for kindergarten that Charles did (the silly teacher actually asked us to request her for Alice). Alice should be quite the different experience.
Mom tells me she asked Alice about whether she was concerned about school. Alice said she was a little scared because she didn’t know any math. Mom told her that was OK, the school would teach her about math and there wouldn’t be any tests the first day. Alice was somewhat mollified.
With everyone gone during the day now, Polynomial spends a lot more time poking at me while I am trying to work. At least the guinea pigs are in a cage.
Poor Charles. We have been having meetings with an orthodontist about Charles who turns out to have a very narrow mouth. This means this teeth are not ending up in the right places so he will have to have braces. He will end up with headgear at some point as well. Hopefully, if things go well over the next 18 months or so, Charles won’t need braces when he’s Corwin’s age.
Charles seems OK with it for now but we will see how that changes when he’s got the actual hardware attached. He will have to give up sticky sweets for the entire period which will probably weigh heavily on him, although Charles did volunteer to just eat ice cream instead.
Today was the first day back at school for the boys (Alice doesn’t start until Friday). Oddly, Charles was the less enthusiastic of the two. He used to like school. Corwin was resignedly indifferent. I think the worst part of the day for him was having Mom sit next to him afterward and try to debrief him. Nothing makes a bad thing worse for Corwin more than talking about it.
We are in the frantic last days before school. Soccer starts today, plus Charles has acrobatics class and Alice has dance class. At least the neighborhood kids are hanging out together, either here or at another house. It’s actually less bother to have more kids here than just our own because they do a much better job of entertaining themselves rather than pestering us.
Corwin finished Season Three of Babylon 5 and the last Harry Potter book. So he got something done over the summer.
A week or two ago Charles cracked his plastic army helmet. This made him very sad. We thought about buying him a new one but Mom said “see if Dad can fix it”. I have recently started working rockets again and wanted to freshen my fiberglassing skills so I decided to try fixing the helmet that way. Charles was initially reluctant but I managed to persuade him to take the chance. We worked on it sort of together because teaching your boy about epoxy is the sort of thing a Dad should do. Charles liked wearing the latex gloves at least and I managed to get the fiberglass on in roughly the right places without too much embarrassment. We left it to cure overnight and it was looking pretty good in the morning. Later the fiberglass detached a bit from the helmet (it’s a bad type of plastic for epoxy adhesion) but it’s still intact. I think we got lucky and some of the epoxy oozed into the crack so that it’s still sticking in the critical locations. Charles thought it looked cool when it was done, much more “battle hardened”.
Mom is trying out a cell modem so that she can be connected to the InterTubes all the time, anywhere there is cell phone service. Now she’s a menace on Facebook all the time. She used it extensively on the train while we were on our last trip. She said it worked reasonably well, with just a few short interruptions. She’s moved on from Soccer Mom to Wired Mom.
We took a late morning. The kids got up somewhat early, had some breakfast and then went for a swim. Eventually we checked out of the hotel, dragging our luggage across the bleak and savage landscape of downtown Chicago. Mom wanted to the the giant silver bean at Millenium Park. She found it very exciting although the kids mostly wanted to sit down to recover from the brutal hike.
After that we found a science fair out on the northern grassy area. Mom and I thought it was interesting but the kids weren’t very enthused about that either. Alice did meet with a young woman dressed in balloons masquerading as a jelly fish. We hung out there for a while until Mom got tired of Corwin asking “can we go to the aquarium now?” and we headed out to hang out at the aquarium.
The kids had fun there, although the dolphin show was really just a dolphin practice session. The dolphin area just finished a 9 month renovation and the staff is still getting the dolphins back in shape. Even so it was packed and we had to get there about 20 minutes early to get a seat. At least it was free. The kids weren’t as well behaved so I didn’t think the kids deserved the normally demanded trip to the gift shop. Mom, however, is a softer touch and Charles had been better than the other two, so Mom let him get a … wait for it … a plush ocean creature. This time it was another white sided Pacific dolphin, but half the scale of Timmy. So naturally it became “Mini-Timmy” and Charles gave it much love on the way home, despite fighting with Alice over him. Mini-Timmy did enjoy watching out the window on the train on the way home.
After enjoying the fishes we headed back to the train station and caught our train home. The kids were actually well behaved on the trip and when we got home, the house was still there, unburned and unflooded. Which makes it a good trip from my point of view.
We all got up at 5 AM this morning to catch the morning train to Chicago. The kids were actually tolerable during the whole process. Polynomial was off at a doggie spa, having her own vacation and primping. The train was only 20 or 30 minutes late, which is good. I am not sure what the trip up was like, as I was asleep for basically all of it. We arrived in Chicago in good time and immediately headed out for our fascinating adventures in the big city!
We were able to drop by the hotel to drop off our luggage although we couldn’t check in early because the hotel computer system had crashed. After that Mom and Alice headed off for the American Girl store. The boys decided they would rather hang out at Borders. Then it was off to the highlight of the trip for Charles, the Lego™ store. Corwin and Charles got kits but Alice got a keychain with a mini-fig of Princess Leia, just like in the Wii game. By then it was time for lunch. The kids insisted that we go to California Pizza Kitchen at which Charles and Alice ordered plain cheese pizza. Corwin at least tried the BLT even though he doesn’t much like lettuce and definitely doesn’t like tomatoes. He ate about half of it. Mom and I had the BBQ chicken and shrimp scampi and both were very good.
We spent the afternoon at the Museum of Science and Industry and caught the Harry Potter exhibit. The boys thought it was OK, although Alice thought it was too scary. Mom had fun — she made Corwin and Alice go to a “dissect an owl hairball” lab. She found a gopher skull in Alice’s. By 5 pm, when the museum started closing, we were all about done in so we just headed back to the hotel. Purely and utterly by coincidence, it turned out that we were in time for free beer courtesy of the hotel. What a pleasant and complete surprise it was for the whole family, but especially Mom. Oh, there were free potato chips and goldfish too.
After that, we rested a bit then went out for dinner before Mom collapsed. Once again Mom and I had a delicious meal but the kids didn’t like anything they ordered. Gorged as they were on potato chips and goldfish, it didn’t make much of a difference.
Alice spent part of the evening practicing her Lego Star Wars poses, with Mom’s encouragement. Corwin refused to share his bed so he was put on the fold out while Alice and Charles shared a bed. I had to pull back the covers to prevent Alice from suffocating because she had shifted down until her feet hit the foot of the bed. I got stuck with Mom but at least she’s not as squirmy as Alice.
Mom has turned our little Corwin in to an obsessed fan of Babylon 5. Mom and I both liked the show when it was on TV (back before Corwin was born) and we picked up the first three seasons on DVD but never had time to watch them. I am not sure what triggered Corwin’s viewing (maybe he just saw them sitting on the stack of “DVDs we bought and should really watch at some point” pile). He’s spent most of the last week mainlining episodes. He’d watch them almost every waking hour if we didn’t schedule other activities and sometimes just turn the TV off.
Naturally, Corwin wants us to explain everything but the show is so tightly scripted and well designed that it would ruin much of initial experience if you knew what was coming. Charles sometimes watches as well and it’s amusing to have him pester Corwin with questions during the show, although Corwin doesn’t remember doing anything like that to his parents.
One thing I have noticed is that was much more foreshadowing than I remembered. Many of the later themes that play out on a large stage are pre-figured on a smaller scale in first and second season episodes. It was really a very well thought out series.
We all went to see the movie Ponyo. Mom was very enthused about it. Alice was up for it, Corwin and Charles were acquiescent. I thought it was a good movie, although not as good as some of the other Studio Ghibli films. Corwin was patient during the film but the instant it was over he starting asking “can we go now?”. But Mom liked the ending credits song so he was stuck.
Alice has been playing Lego Star Wars with Charles quite a bit lately. She actually asks to play sometimes, rather than just joining in when Charles already has it started. She can move around to some extent although she has trouble with jumps. She sometimes shoots but mainly she makes her mini-fig do glamour poses. Charles puts up with with moderately good humor. It does mean that Alice insists on a female mini-fig because male ones
Shortly after the Guinea Pig Mansion was installed, I had a short discussion with Charles.
Dad: You know, Charles, most fancy houses like the Guinea Pig Mansion have their own names, to show how fancy they are.
Charles: Really?
Dad: Yes. I was thinking you could name this one.
Charles: OK!
Dad: But not “Mr. Mansion” or “Mansionee”.
Charles: Doctor Mansion!
Mom also had a lot of blue plastic cardboard left over. She had purchased this to create a bottom to the GPM but over estimated the amount needed. She left the rest to Charles and Alice, who cut it up in to chunks, drew faces on the chunks, and then named most of them. They would then have little arguments over which one was named what, until Charles started writing the names on them.
Corwin went off to sleep over at Keith’s for a birthday this evening. Alice and Charles are off at Grandma’s so Mom and I have an evening entirely without children. Mom thinks this is the first time since Alice was born. Mom and I are so out of practice that we’re just going to go out for dinner and then watch a DVD at home. But — we get to stay up as late as we want! That’s so cool.
[At dinner. Completely deadpan]
Charles: Can I be done? I’m full. My stomach hurts. Ow.
I ended up taking Charles to his string band practice. They have a break halfway through at which point (Mom had informed me) it was necessary to buy a cookie, which because it was closing time were on sale 2 for 1. Charles told me the cookie during break was the only reason he went to string band practice. He also claimed that Mom made him just sit with her.
I checked this with Mom later and she said she had been making him play with the other children. I wondered why, if Charles was going to mislead me, he didn’t claim that Mom let him eat both cookies. I guess not having to interact with other children was more important than an extra cookie.
Mom had two projects for the weekend. One was putting up one of the walls on the tree platform. It took four of us (Mom, Dad, Charles, Corwin) to get in place.
Mom also decided to start drying clothes on clothes lines. She put one in the back yard and some sort of post in the front yard. She has noticed that drying is much slower when the sun is not shining on the clothes line.
Olivia, Zina, and Claire came over for a visit and they all had a tea party with Alice with the Mad Hatter tea set
We received Corwin back today from his big camping trip to the Far North. He was rather uncommicative about the experience, so I don’t really have anything to write about except that he’s back, he desperately needed cleansing, and appears to have all of his limbs.
The one thing we do know is that he learned a lesson about draining the grease between rounds of cooking bacon.
Today was Alice’s last day at her daycare. They take a two week break and we get to have one non-paying week which makes this the last day of the summer session for Alice. In just a few weeks she’ll be in kindergarten at Charles’ school, but first she’s going to be sent to Siberia Grandma’s house to get some end of the summer mayhem in. Better there than here!
P.S. Did you note when it was 12:34:56 7/8/9 today?
Mom’s big excitement this week was getting a new rice cooker. The one we had been using was a wedding present and it, like us, had been showing its age. So Mom mail ordered a snazzy new rice cooker and she’s become quite fond of it. She says it cooks much better and faster than the old one. What I like is that it looks just like a rice cooker from Dragon Ball. Mom claims she didn’t know that but I think we all know just how believable that is.
[Mom rousts us out to look at the sky because a big front is rolling through]
Charles: Wow, it’s like I can see the clouds moving!
Dad: You can. Mom said they were moving along at 50 MPH, like they were driving down the highway.
Charles: How do we know when it’s going to start raining?
[Rain drops start falling]
Dad: When water starts falling out of the sky.
[Charles and Dad run for the door as lots of rain and strong winds descend]
We weren’t quick enough to lock Mom out in the rain. I will also note that Mom was alerted to the incoming front by someone on Facebook.
We think that POset has finally wandered off to the great kitty litter in the sky. I was the last one to see her, early Friday afternoon. She escaped outside sometime after that and we haven’t seen her since. It seems very unlikely that she will come back if she hasn’t made it back by now. It was not unexpected but it’s still a sad occasion.
We originally picked up POset in Pittsburgh in 1991 or so as a kitten. A friend of Mom’s had taken in a stray who was pregnant and POset was one of the litter. We had Tangent and Secant who were strays with unknown origins, in constrast to POset, which is why POset was named after discrete math rather than a transcendental function.
She wasn’t the world’s friendliest cat but she was sweet with family. I spent many hours of many days with a POset curled up in my lap while I was working. She was definitely getting old by her last year. We will miss her.
There was no rest for Charles. After returning from camp, Mom recruited him to help finish off the GPM. You can see it here, almost complete except for some towels mom put on the ramp and upper deck because the guinea pigs were unlikely to want to talk on raw chicken wire.
It turns out that Alice can not only fit in the GPM, but can get through the door. We thought about keeping Alice in the GPM with the g’piggies but we decided we liked the g’piggies too much to do that.
The g’piggies seem to like it, although they’re reluctant to use the upper deck. It may be too exposed for them. Mom is hoping they will get used to it and start using it.
We love our new home! Please don’t eat us!
Squeaky was hiding in her milk carton when it was time to move on up, so Mom moved the carton with Squeaky inside, placing like a decoration in the GPM. It was a while before Squeaky even knew she was in a new place.
Charles and I made it back from our camp outing. We left late Friday (much later than I wanted but other things, like a visit from Josie and getting Corwin ready) took up more time than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, we made it there in time to get set up before it nightfall. We went to a little introduction performance around 8:30 and then headed back to the tents for some sleep. Charles was very excited (“it’s so exciting to be sleeping in a tent!”) but he did manage to get to sleep eventually. I read for a bit then crashed out, but woke up at 3AM with the “not full enough to be worth leaving the tent but too full to get back to sleep easily” bladder level. I then realized that Charles hadn’t gone to the bathroom since before we left home, so fearfully checked his sleeping bag for damp. After uselessly fretting for a bit, I decided to just endure what must be. But Charles slept through the night and in to the morning without any containment failure.
On Saturday we had breakfast then did some of the provided activities. It was unstructured and Charles checked with me multiple times to be sure there wasn’t any specific activity we had to do at a specific time. Charles enjoyed some archery, BB guns, building a bird house, and a nature hike. We had lunch but none of the afternoon activities were of interest to Charles (not even the pedal carts and the Slip & Slide). It rained a bit so Charles and I hung out in a shelter with some gold-fish snacks Mom had packed for us. The late afternoon and early evening was given over to ravining. On the way back from the shelter I took Charles on a long cut of a trail which went down the ravine next to the campsite, after which we assaulted the slope and made it back to camp. When Charles told the other kids of this, they all had to try it out. They soon discovered a second navigable slope from the ravine on another side of the campsite. This entertained them for literally hours. Charles looked interesting afterward because he was running around enough to sweat and then crawling over dusty ground, acquiring these lovely lacelike patterns of dirt all over his limbs.
The other main excitement was the fire. The kids insisted on one pretty much all day, finding it endless fascinating. I am glad none of them managed to set anything outside the fire ring on fire.
There was an evening swim (8-9) which Charles didn’t want to go to but the other kids persuaded him to give it a try. I had sympathy for Charles’ antipathy because it was a cool evening and the water was even colder. But Charles plunged in anyway. He tried the swim test, which is four pool lengths (about 100 meters total) but could only complete one length. It may have been because of all the earlier ravining but I think he needs more swim practice. At least it got some of the dirt off him. When he first declined to swim, I got out some wet wipes and wiped him down, turning the wipes nearly solid brown. Charles thought that was great. The combination of that and the pool left him not filthy that evening.
The only downside to last night’s tent was that Charles found a bug in the tent with us. A bug. That’s how low key the insect population was during the outing. The weather was great, except for the spot of rain. The nights were deliciously cool. So Charles had a very good time. Next time, I expect he’ll discover some of the not so pleasant possibilities of camping. But that will be then.
