Tag: thomas

Why not take all of me?

Graham is playing basketball this winter. It’s his first time and he’s a little behind some of the other kids on his team. Still, he’s doing a good job of defending and he’s getting better and better at his offensive skills. Tina has been practicing with him after school which has helped a great deal. He occasionally has problems with physicality – i.e. when somebody bumps him he’s prone to bump back harder than necessary (and the like) – but he’s learning to deal with the frustration and conflict. It’s a really important experience for him, I think. He had a double-header yesterday and really enjoyed himself.

Thomas saved money from Christmas, his birthday and allowance. At first, his goal was to buy a Wii, but that became unnecessary when we got one for Christmas. After weighing his options, he decided he wanted a new iPod. Especially after his friend, Andrew Barton, got an iPod Video. On Monday I ordered a 30 Gb iPod Video via the Apple Developer Hardware Purchase Program, where we get a slight discount. We weren’t expecting to receive it until next week, but it came on Thursday. Thomas has been ecstaticly exploring its many options since it arrived. I helped him download some shows from our Tivo and he’s learned all about the various video formats out there.

Meanwhile, Tina has been furiously working on a ten minute movie for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet tomorrow. She gathered a slew of pictures and a few videos and has set them to music in iMovie. She’s enjoyed it immensely, I think, and has been spending alot of her free time working on it. I think it will be well-received tomorrow night. I borrowed a projector from work to enhance the experience, so we’re all excited to see it.

I’ve been enduring the Oregon winter weather in the morning and evening. The rain seems never-ending at this time of the year, but I’ve been taking the shortest possible routes in order to minimize my exposure to the elements. I took Tina’s advice and bought a balaclava which helps keep my head and neck toasty-warm. Last weekend I accidentally broke my crappy front fender and have been riding fenderless all week. I repaired the crappy fender once before so this time I’m going to get something that will last longer. I need to get it soon, though, because I’m getting tired of the mud that’s flying all over.

Hey, I’m gonna get you, too

He is glad that he has no more mice in his room but upset that mice have to die for his freedom.

Another day, another mouse trapped beneath the planet of the dishwasher. One wrinkle: Tina heard it snap in the afternoon but refused to look.

Thomas and Tina cleaned out his room on Monday, including removing the large candy stockpile underneath his bed. He is glad that he has no more mice in his room but upset that mice have to die for his freedom.

Nothing can do me wrong

I burned MP3 CDs for Graham and Thomas shortly after Christmas so they both could have some new music. For some reason, Graham has latched onto a song called “Helmet” by a capella band The Bobs. He listens to it over and over and has committed the words to memory. A couple of weeks ago he started basketball practice and is playing in his first game today. His skills were raw to start, but Tina has been practicing dribbling and passing with him everyday and he’s getting much better.

Thomas has been engrossed with finishing The Legend of Zelda on Wii. They’re not allowed to play Wii during the week, so he’s been playing Runescape, a massively-multiplayer online role-playing (MMOR) game, after finishing his homework every day. He listens to cello music in bed at night while he’s reading. Sometimes he listens to science podcasts while he’s trying to get to sleep.

When Jan and Tom were here over the holidays, Tom mounted our dishwasher to the counter to keep it from tipping forward when the door is open. While working on it, he found what he described as mouse droppings under the dishwasher. Since we had never seen mice or any sign of mice in our house, we didn’t really believe it. Then last week came into the family room asking who had been eating his two pound Hershey Bar. We took a look and it had a very small tear in it and a perfect semi-circle eaten out of one corner. With tiny little teeth marks.

That night we bought a bunch of cheap mouse traps (Does Victor have a patent on that design? They look exactly the same as the ones we used 30 years ago.) and one “live” trap because Thomas asked. One went off the first night but had no mouse. Today as I was making eggs for myself I glanced over at the one on the counter and found that it had a tiny little mouse in it. Graham initially volunteered to be “in charge” of emptying the traps but when faced with an actual dead mouse, he begged off. Our success led us to check the four other traps and found a larger mouse under the dishwasher.

When I was a kid, I was “in charge” of emptying the traps in our house. I was the only boy in the house at the time, so I suppose that’s why I drew the duty. I really disliked it especially when the trap on the heat register caught one. By the time I would find it in the morning, it was half-cooked and pretty disgusting. I don’t know where I was supposed to put the mice, but I always dropped them into the two-foot space between the house and back porch. I remember always trying to open the traps without touching the mice.