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The Monday Morning Epistle |
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25 Sep 2007 |
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If anyone is wondering why the MME has been off the air for a while, the real reason is time (or the lack thereof). Between writing the MME, finding a Picture of the Week, and updating www.humble-programmer.com, the weekly MME had turned into a 2-3 hour production number, and there are simply too many other things higher up on our weekend priority list. So I'm trying something different: back to the basics; the MME started out as a quick e-mail to family and friends on Monday morning, and if I can't find 10 minutes to do that…poopy on me! Yesterday was Garion's 5th birthday, and he clearly enjoyed being “King for a Day”. We had originally invited five of his friends from daycare over for a birthday party, but only one actually attended. Fortunately, Monkey-Boy is still young enough that, as far as he was concerned, his party was a rousing success. (Mary, on the other hand, was thoroughly disgusted at the apathy and/or rudeness of other parents, who didn't even bother to call and express regrets!) With only one guest in attendance, we curtailed several of the group activities, but cupcakes were shared, party games were played, and presents were opened with great glee. The game of “place the S on Superman's chest” (think “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” by MARVEL Comics) somehow offended Monkey-Boy's sense of order: when Alex volunteered to go first and stuck his S on the Man of Steel's chin, Garion had a small cow and insisted on placing his S without the blindfold so that he could carefully and deliberately put it where it belonged! The Superman ‘bop bag’ was a huge hit, though, as was the opportunity to empty his toy box with Michael in rapt attendance. By 8:30 last night, Garion was happily parked in the middle of his bedroom floor, surrounded by a parking lot of new Hot Wheels and Cars characters, arguing with Jacob over how his new Power Ranger MegaZord morphed with the old one. All in all, it was a grand day to be 5! Despite last year's disastrous academic collapse, Alex has learned to balance work and school, and has started out 11th grade with a solid B average. He is still working at Spaghetti's (an Italian restaurant in a nearby mall) and demonstrated enough talent in the kitchen to be promoted to a full-fledged chef; more importantly, this means that he no longer lives in fear of being relegated to dishwasher (or “dish bitch” in his parlance). Mary is still recovering nicely from her PRK surgery back in early August, and no longer wears glasses or contact lenses, except for reading. This doesn't reflect poorly on the eye surgeon: we're both at ‘that age’ when reading glasses become a necessary appendage anyway. KidBit: Garion is learning to serve himself breakfast, and I came downstairs Saturday morning to find him eating cereal in the middle of a sea of Frosted Flakes that formed a neat 2 foot circle centered on his bowl. When I asked Garion about it, he admitted glumly “I had a bit of trouble pouring the Tiger Flakes…” 
PotW: The Superman bop bag gets a workout on Garion's birthday.
2007.05.07-07:05 |