Filed under: Project 365, food, kids, sports | Tags: Christmas decorations, gas, Project 365, sushi, Wii injury
Day 7: Jan. 7, 2009
I always drag my feet when it comes to putting up the Christmas decorations. The house just seems naked after all the garland, lights, and decorations come down – it’s all kind of depressing. PHDD: Post-Holiday Decoration Disappointment. The corner by the bookcase looks empty, the mantle is bare, and the staircase isn’t nearly as much fun without the twinkle lights lighting the way. Plus, I have to box up homemade decorations like these that Travis brought home this year – a tissue paper snowman and string art tree. Until next year…
Day 8: Jan. 8, 2009
Unleaded at Costco: $1.51 a gallon. I filled up the tank for just under $30, and took a picture so I could show it to the kids in 20 years, and blather on about how back in my day, the gas was under $10 a gallon, and we actually had to push our carts through the aisles at Costco rather than zip around in our newfangled HoverRounds. I’m not sure what exactly I’ll be proving – that gas wasn’t always $12.49 a gallon (at least it wasn’t for a brief period in 2009), or that we used to put this expensive stuff called gasoline in our cars. I’m hoping it’s the latter.
Day 9: Jan 9, 2009
Our Girl Scout troop went to Young Chefs Academy to work on a cooking badge. And I didn’t have to plan a thing.
Day. 10: Jan 10, 2009
Abby had a friend spend the night, and none of us wanted pizza or leftovers, so we went to one of our favorite sushi places – Origami. That yummy looking roll in the middle is called the Bob Marley – salmon, avocado and jalepeno rolled up with fresh tuna and a spicy sauce on top. Seriously good. And they have those nifty low tables where you stick your legs into the little hole in the floor – the kids love that part. And by kids, I mean me.
Day 11: Jan 11, 2009
Charming*
*Not mine
Day 12: Jan 12, 2009
Travis got a little too enthusiastic playing the Wii on Friday, and slammed his thumb into the stool that holds up the sensor bar. Since I wasn’t home to rush him to the emergency room or call Life Flight (according to Neil), he didn’t see a doctor until Sunday. The doctor was only mildly horrified that we had waited 2 and a half days, and was also shocked that it wasn’t broken at the joint, since it was roughly twice as large as his other thumb, and black and blue. He thinks he saw a chip at the tip of the bone, but there’s nothing you can do for that anyway, so we wound up with a $300 splint.
Travis was pretty stoked that he would have the perfect excuse to give up writing for a while, but his teacher wasn’t having any of that, and told him to do his homework with his other hand. I didn’t think it was possible to dread homework anymore than I do now, but oh, how wrong I was…
Filed under: kids, sports | Tags: brownies, camp champions, girl scouts, gps, kayaks
Because Camp Losers just doesn’t have the same cachet…
Our Brownie troop had a blast at Camp Champions last weekend. Or rather the weekend before last weekend (yes, I know I’ve neglected my blog). We drove out there right after school on Friday, and let me tell you, there’s nothing more entertaining than eavesdropping on 9 year old chatter from the driver’s seat. I’m beginning to understand how Neil felt this weekend when my friends Sara and Angela came into town. Only we’re probably not as interesting as the 3rd graders…
Despite having several printed maps and a GPS, we managed to take a wrong turn when we were about 500 yards from the entrance. The map said “turn right and take an immediate left” and the GPS said “yep – I agree 100%,” so right we went. Only, there was no place to turn left (well, perhaps if I had been in a Hummer, but definitely not in the minivan). So I just kept going straight. Naturally, the GPS lady sighed and groaned about having to “recalculate the route” because I had missed the imaginary street to the left that only Garmin and Google maps know about. After a bit of u-turning and guessing and gesturing and cell-phone conferencing, we made our way back to the original road, and went straight instead of turning right and left, and lo and behold – there it was!
Anyway, when we finally got there, we dropped all of our crap necessities off in our cabin, and then went to this little amphitheater to eat our sack dinners. The girls were delighted to have a stage, and it was almost like being at swanky dinner show. Only the “show” consisted of a poorly choreographed and costumed production of snippets from High School Musical interspersed with the school play How Does Your Garden Grow. With a little Hannah Montana thrown in for good measure. But we did have a beautiful view of the sun setting over Lake LBJ from our table concrete steps.
See all those kayaks? Our girls were too young to kayak, so we just looked at them.
They were even prettier up close. Maybe next year…
After dinner, we cleaned up and headed down to the other amphitheater (champions are total showoffs) for a quick sing-along. There were a few shenanigans involving a stolen pirate flag from another troop and various plots to trick the leaders by pretending to be asleep, and a few Shel Silverstein poems, and then we finally managed to get 9 girls and 3 adults into bed. And mostly sleeping. With occasional snoring, sneezing, and yes, more chattering.
To be continued…
Ok, I know it sounds a bit…babyish. But Ga-ga is a serious game! Like dodgeball in a pit. And sometimes with 2 balls.
One of our rotations at Camp Champions was supposed to be a low-ropes course (the girls were too young for the high ropes). Only, there was no low-ropes course. Hmmm. When we finally flagged down a camp counselor, he led us over to the Ga-ga pits. He explained how it was kind of like dodgeball, but you have to use your fist to whop the ball. You’re out if the ball hits you anywhere below your knee, or if you hit the ball and it flies out of the pit. If the ball hits you above the knee, you’re still in the game.
“Terrific,” we all think. “Glorified dodge ball.” Only it wasn’t. It was way cooler! I don’t really know what made it so much more fun. Maybe it’s because the pit evens out the playing field – you don’t need to throw (far) to get people out. And it’s not as intimidating, since the ball isn’t moving nearly as fast (especially when you’re playing with a group of Girl Scouts).
But let me tell you – those girls got into it! We challenged a couple of other troops, and our girls usually came out on top. They were some hard-core ga-ga players! A few of them were diving for balls and pulling some Matrix-like moves to avoid getting hit. We even had one Ga-ga injury, when one of our girls got a splinter small stick stuck in her finger – it went all the way down to the bone, and let’s just say there was a lot of blood (I’m getting queasy just thinking about it – ack!!!).
Abby was one of the last girls standing during one game:
At her age, I spent an inordinate amount of time coming up with excuses to get me out of dodge-ball during P.E. I have to say I was mighty proud to see her sticking in there until the very end. *Sniffle*
On Sunday, we took the kids to Town Lake Lady Bird Lake for a little kayaking adventure. I have plenty of experience with canoes, but always assumed that kayaks were those tiny little boats that you had to squeeze your legs down into. I had visions of flipping over as soon as I got into the water, and not being able to disentangle myself in order to escape. I’m hyperventilating just imagining that whole scenario.
But – I’ve always loved canoeing, and I kept thinking that it would be fun to do with the kids. And kayaks are supposed to be even easier to maneuver than canoes. So when my friend Rachel told me she went kayaking all by herself a while ago – I was intrigued. I took a look at the Rowing Dock’s website, noticed that the kayakers did not appear to be trapped and/or panicky, and decided that kayaking sounded like a lot more fun than doing 8 loads of laundry.
I carefully read over the FAQ and determined that I:
A) would stay relatively dry; and
B) should bring my tiny Flip video camera along to document the occasion (I wasn’t going to take any chances with the digital Rebel).
I was waaaay wrong on A), which made B) somewhat of a bad decision as well. One of our paddles was missing a stopper, which is supposed to keep the water from pouring off the paddle and down into your lap. I thought it seemed odd that I was getting a thorough soaking, while Neil was perfectly dry, but I wrote it off to his clearly superior kayaking skills. I filmed a few seconds at the beginning of the trip, then stuck the camera in the little fabric pouch, and put it behind the seat, which was nice and dry. For the first minute anyway.
When we caught up with Neil and Abby the first time, Neil asked about the camera, and I said “Oh yeah – I was worried about it getting wet in my lap, so I stuck it behind the seat where it’s nice and dr……… What the *&%#@?!?! Where did all this water come from?!!?”
I pulled out the now sopping wet camera, wrung out the bag, and handed it over to Neil for safe(r) keeping. Amazingly, it still worked, despite sloshing around in 3 inches of water for almost 15 minutes! (Actually, I knew exactly how long my beloved Flip video had been sloshing around, as I had neglected to turn the thing off before I stuck it back in the bag and behind the seat).
What you can’t tell from the video was how very different our two paths were. Neil and Abby’s route went something like this:
While Travis’ and mine went more like this:
See that one straight part on the return trip? That’s where Neil and Abby took pity on us, and kept us somewhat on track by rowing along one side. Notice that it didn’t last very long.
I think there was definitely some sort of rudder on the bottom of our kayak, sabotaging our every attempt to go in a straight line. It made for a pretty long trip, and I got to hear plenty about how Travis “KNEW he should have gone with dad!” And also “They’re going to beat us! We’ll never catch up now!” And “MOM!!!!! STEER!!!” Good times, let me tell you!
I tried to explain that we were getting so much more exercise this way, and also we could also see more of the ducks and turtles close-up, while Neil and Abby just zoomed right on by. I think I heard growling from the front seat, but I’m not sure.
Despite the crazy steering issue, and the soaked shorts, we really did have fun. And once my arms have recovered, I’d like to go again. I’m definitely going with Neil this time though.
P.S. – Several of you have let me know that you can’t comment, and I finally figured out the problem – it should be fixed now, so please feel free to comment away!
Little League is back in full swing (no pun intended – really), and our team moved up to Machine Pitch this year. It’s been a bit of a transition, but they’re making steady improvements every time they play, and they won their game tonight 4-0 (and left bases loaded in 2 innings). So far they’d only played against teams who had moved up last year, so they already had a full year of Machine Pitch under their belts. It’s a lot more fun to play when you’re evenly matched.
Travis got some good hits and caught a pop-fly, so he was pretty happy with that.
Gum addiction courtesy of mom, “micro-butt” and ginormous chompers by dad.
The belly-itcher pitcher is pretty incredible this year. He throws around 40 mph.
I just hope this doesn’t cause another baseball-related injury, like that time during practice last year when he pulled a hamstring bending over to pick a ball up off the ground. Something tells me that the chance of injury in this position is pretty low…
