I picked up my Cub Scout den leader shirt last night.
The Wife hasn’t stopped snickering at me since.
I finally called her on it. She quickly protested “But who was helping you out to setup the den meeting last night?” All while smiling and batting her baby-blues at me.
“Obviously, it’s only because you don’t have to wear the attire” I replied.
Without a word, she walked away with a smile on her face.
Grrrr. I hate it when she get the last word like that.
One other thing worthy of note happened today- Sparky returned to monitor the kid’s behavior from now ’til Christmas. Sparky, of course, being the Shelf Elf.
I awoke this morning to squeals of delight from the lass, so excited was she at the little Elf’s return. The Wife said she was actually dancing around the room this morning when she finally found Sparky. The boy was not quite so exuberant, but he could barely contain his own excitement and made sure to tell me the Sparky was back.
Oh to be that innocent. To believe so deeply in things so simple. To have unwavering faith in magic. To be able to watch it as a parent and see the unbridled joy on their face over something so simple as a doll and a story.
Perhaps their truly is magic.
… “they pull me back in.”
I was informed yesterday midday that the current den leader was unable to continue with our Tiger Den. So, our pack leader decided to call me up from the minors and I accepted.
Because I didn’t know any better.
So I led my first Cub Scout meeting last night.
Oy.
There’s a good reason I hadn’t posted until now. Six 6-year-olds all together with project stuff and glue is apparently a volatile mixture.
Who knew?
At least flashlight tag was fun.
I meant to post something on this yesterday, but just didn’t get to it. Check out this interception from the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game Saturday night.
I’ve watched a lot of football. That’s the best interception I’ve ever seen, college or pro. Herbstreit said it best “This is something you do fooling around in the backyard.”
UPDATE: Actually, my brother said it better: Plays like that are why we watch college football and what makes it such a great sport.
Well, in spirit anyway.
This is a modified Portuguese Sweet Bread recipe. Specifically, I’ve attempted to replace the sugar with honey as the sweetener. First the recipe, then the results. If you’re at all interested in trying it, be sure to read the recipe prior to starting.
All there really is to say is when she comes up to one of us and says “I think my tooth is loose” we have about a 24 hour window to arrange for the Tooth Fairy visit.
I Wonder if the blow knocked any sense into him…
These kinds of observations can easily be interpreted as “throwing him under the bus”; but I make it only as an observation of where the boy is at from a developmental standpoint at 6. My best guess is he isn’t too different from other six years olds, although his responses have to be more to the extreme side of things. Which makes it fun.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago he played his grandfather in a game of checkers. He barely finished the game because about halfway through he determined that he was going to lose. The other day he played the Wife in a game of Battleship which was never completed because he decided he had no chance to win. Last night, I played him in a game of checkers as well as mancala and had to force him to finish the games. To his credit, he chose to play a second game of checkers and the Wife sat down to try and help him. But as soon as I captured the first piece he started whining. The Wife ended up finishing the game.
He took his loss in mancala particularly hard. Running away crying afterwards. Not just sniffling, but big heaving sobs with copious amounts of wailing. Like I said, good times.
At this point, we try not to make any bigger a deal out of it. He does that well enough himself. The Wife and I are both counting on the fact that he’ll mature a little and start trying to make the most of losing. I’ve noted before I was a notoriously bad loser (yes, “Blades of Steel”, dented walls, I remember, ya happy?) when I was younger. Hopefully, I can use my own experience to guide him through it.
I’ve also noted that the lass seems to take after him; although it’s difficult to say for sure whether she’s just following his (bad) example, or if she has the same problem. I’m leaning towards a mixture of the two, but my growing sense if that she’s basically the same as her brother.
Like I said, no real point or insights here. He clearly hates losing, as does his sister, and hasn’t gotten any better at handling it. Maybe when he’s 7…
Just played with ESPN3 a bit here. They’ve got both the Oregon-Arizona game available as well as Boise St. versus Nevada. The laptop isn’t up to it, but my desktop is. Very cool. No choppiness. They appear to let you stream 4 games simultaneously, though with tabbed browsers I don’t see why it can’t be more. I had a picture-in-picture thing going for a bit between these two games.
I just don’t see how this can’t be the future of college football viewing. No more regional broadcast bullshit, locking me into a lame game when there may be something more interesting to watch elsewhere. Coaches will love it for recruiting purposes.
So college football broadcasts (or more correctly the resulting lack thereof) are definitely NOT a reason to have cable TV anymore. Good to know.
Thanksgiving is a weird sort of holiday.
Sandwiched between arguably the two most commercialized days of the year, Halloween and Christmas, there is basically zero buildup. In fact, my impression is that more people are concerned with the day after Thanksgiving than the day itself. Heck, even the day before is of concern since it’s the “biggest travel day of the year.” Listening on the radio, all of the radio stations have begun their Christmas holiday programming.
Perhaps Thanksgiving is a gateway holiday: it marks the official beginning of the Christmas season.
Thanksgiving is a laid back sort of holiday. Everyone knows it’s coming, and everyone has plans, but nobody really talks it up. There are no big Thanksgiving day sales. There are no formalized gift-giving ceremonies. Aside from the day itself, the only ritual I can actually think of is the Presidential Turkey pardon. Oh, and the parade.
Break out the bubbly! The President pardoned a turkey! YEEEHAW! (Resisting urge for political turkey jokes…)
But then if I think a little more about it, I realize that there’s no one formal Thanksgiving ritual, aside from the turkey eating anyway. But millions of people all have their own Thanksgiving ritual. Travelling to see family. Watching football games. Maybe you eat ham instead of turkey. Or lamb. Or you sit and watch the Thanksgiving day parades. Or not. The parade isn’t exactly my cup of tea- but that’s just me. Go ahead, you can watch it. Fine be me.
Perhaps Thanksgiving is mostly about taking a day off. One day where everyone sits back and relaxes. Eat some good food. Hang with friends and family. Just a day where work and bills and social concerns are put on the shelf. Everyone gets a chance to decompress.
Because tomorrow is Black Friday and you’re gonna have to get up early and fight like Kung Fu Panda to get that one toy that little Johnny has been pining for. Then after that it’s the weekend with hockey or football games or exams. Plus there’s less than a month ’til Christmas and you haven’t finished your shopping yet for Aunt Gretta; you never know what to get her either (she’s such a pain-in-the-ass like that). Plus there’s that holiday concert the kids are in that everyone dreads because it’s just not cool to bring the iPod along and listen to music you’ll actually enjoy listening to.
But for today, none of that matters. So sit back. Relax.
And be thankful there’s a day like this.
This weekend will mark the 4th weekend of hockey practice for the boy. The lass will enter into a 4th weekend of learn-to-skate. But she isn’t suiting up with pads and a stick… yet.
Anyway, I’ve been meaning to write something up about the hockey experience. The problem is- I can’t really think of anything interesting to say about it.
It makes for long weekends where it seems like I’m living at the rink. The Saturday session is an hour long and the Sunday session is 10 minutes longer. The practices have drawn rave reviews from all the parents watching. The coaches setup 6 stations where they drill the kids through different skill sets from stick handling to skating skills to teamwork(passing and improvised games). The kids all come off the ice with smiles on their faces and it sure looks like every one of them has improved from the 1st week.
Certainly the boy has. His skating in particular. He’s still a little wobbly when skating at speed. But he’s learning the cross-over step when turning, can skate backwards a little, and is even working on stopping. Considering where he was last year skill wise, it’s not even a comparison.
Having played football, I can say that hockey players have it all over football players when it comes to padding and getting dressed. There’s pretty much no chance the average 6 year old can put on his/her own hockey gear. First there’s the knee/shin pads; then the hockey pants; then the velcro shorts that have a cup and hold up the socks; next there’s the skates which take about 5 minutes to get on because they have to be laced up tight; then there’s the elbow pads; next comes the shoulder pads and a jersey; then a neck guard; and finally (I think) a helmet. Oops. Forgot the gloves and optional mouthpiece. Contrast that with knee and thigh pads, cleats, shoulder pads, helmet and mouth piece in football. Not even close. Frankly, the need for all that protective gear makes one wonder why you’d encourage a youngster to play hockey at all!
But other than the amount of gear and the impressive organization behind the practices; there isn’t much else to report. There haven’t been any games yet- mainly little scrimmages where the coaches evaluate. There are no goalies at the boy’s current level of play either (wonder what it’s like to get them suited up?)
So, with that, hockey is on the board. We’ll see what this weekend brings.
So today is the day that President Obama pardons a turkey- the usual Thanksgiving thing for US Presidents.
In other news, VP Joe Biden will be visiting an auto plant along with the President for some reason or other.
So it’s safe to assume the turkey pardoning went off without a hitch.
They’re already playing Christmas songs on the radio. It’s not unusual to see Christmas decorations out and about.
The only problem- Thursday is Thanksgiving. And then there are 31 days ’til Christmas.
I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but what the heck. It ain’t Christmas yet.
The Cowboys beat a team they should. Now what can they do against a team they shouln’t (New Orleans)?
I think the Jets are still the best team in the league at this point. I think the Eagles are in the top 10 league wide. I’m not really buying any arguments for other NFC teams.
I’m not sure what to think about the Richard Seymour/ Ben Roethlisberger incident. On the one hand, Ben is a jerk. On the other hand, so is Seymour. Perhaps the WWE should steal cage the two of them?
I’m not sure what to make of Michael Vick. I’ve come around to the viewpoint that he is better than he was prior to his jail time. But that doesn’t erase what he did. Has he changed? Has he really earned all of the hero-worship he got around the league? I understand “compartmentalizing” the football player from the person, but at some point those two thing have to be reconciled, right?
I can’t believe I’m about to write this, but I think Chris Collinsworth is the best color commentator for NFL games. He offers smart analysis of game play and strategy. He is honest about what he sees on replays and has pretty good command of all the game rules (but states forthrightly when he isn’t sure). He points out obscure but great individual efforts during plays and calls out guys who make mistakes. He also mixes in some stuff that’s on the amusing side of game play as well.
Bottom line- I actually enjoy listening to his commentary.
Right now, I’d pick a Patriots-Jets AFC championship and New Orleans-Eagles NFC championship. But that’s as far as I’m willing to go.
Favre really has overstayed his welcome.
I’m comfortable calling the Falcons and Bears overrated at this point. We’ll see what they do down the stretch.
Generally speaking, I try not to get too worked up about football games anymore. More specifically, I don’t go into day long funks when my team of choice loses and I don’t root with white hot passion against the teams I hate. I just have more important places to focus my energy.
But I have to say- watching the Giants lose to Philly the way the did last night brought a certain amount of joy to my heart.
Briefly.
The lass fell asleep on the way to her dance class today. Even with one so young, that makes for “tread carefully” territory. So after I parked the car, I got out and went to her door and gently started to wake her up.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long to rouse her. I had her take a sip of water, then we started to walk towards her school.
After hopping out of the car, she said “I was just resting my head there Dad, that’s all.”
Well, based on the feedback from the kids’ teachers, we don’t have to account for 4 in our retirement planning.
Yet.
Every time I look at our cable bill, I start considering how difficult it might be to go without cable entirely. The savings would not be earth-shattering, but they aren’t piddling either.
Just on a lark I did a search to see how someone else goes without cable TV and found this site which points out some other things I hadn’t considered- such as taking advantage of the digital tuner in our TV to get local stations. This point seems obvious, but I just hadn’t thought about it since I’ve used cable for so long.
I think we might have to give it a good hard look.
Not the economic kind either…
I read this and the first thing that came to mind was the Denver Broncos squad that beat Green Bay in the Super Bowl. During the build-up to the Super Bowl that year, the media basically made Green Bay into a dynasty- even though they had only won 1 Super Bowl the previous year and they had yet to play the game that year yet. Most of this was because Green Bay had a guy named ‘Favre’ as QB. Of course, Denver had a guy named ‘Elway’ who was Favre before Favre was Favre, but we have to overlook that for the moment.
Anyway, Denver wins the Super Bowl (one of the better ones to watch) and afterwards, they reveal that their media strategy was to play-along with the “dynasty” narrative for Green Bay. In reality, they were furious with the way it was assumed that Green Bay would roll over them and they hated every minute of having to answer questions and concede that Green Bay was better than they were. Shannon Sharpe was quite vocal about all of this afterward the game. They never believed it for a second, and it showed come game time.
So, given Vick’s past where he was inconsistent at best I figure the Giants are trying to instill complacency in him by telling him how awesome he is. In other words, it’s a mental game. I suppose the question will be whether Vick and the Eagles buy into it.
Here’s the latest literary work from the boy. It’s not obvious, but the dark squiggle line was what he had to work with to come up with a picture. Then he had to write a description of his picture.
I’m sure Stephen King started out like this…