Category Archives: Mr. Boy

Power outage

It wasn’t a brownout for the rancho, just a cutout this afternoon that came back on in less than a minute. Took an hour more time for some people, maybe. Crashed the main computer, of course, in the midst of Mr. B. playing, as he said, "an important duel" in Wizard 101. So he was upset to tears.

This Austin Energy release is from July 18, so it doesn’t speak to what happened today. It doesn’t even say why the "small piece of equipment" at a nearby electrical substation caught on fire to cause 17,000 customers to lose power. But it’s not surprising, given the heat wave (now 23 days above a hundred degrees for July) and the whole town running a/c to the max, not to mention more of everything else electrical because it’s not very inviting to go outside. I suppose the brownouts will be here soon enough.

UPDATE:  Mrs Charm says it seems to have half-busted the microwave. Again. Still cooks, but the fan doesn’t come on anymore. Durn thing is only little more than a year old. Fortunately we know better than to try and get it repaired.

Times Wastes Too Fast

A remarkable, very readable Web-centric piece on Thomas Jefferson, warts and all. His Aunt Judith, his father’s sister, was Mr. B’s seven greats grandmother.

Via In Search of Jefferson’s Moose.

Vanities

Mr. Boy went off to four weeks of day camp at the JCC this morning. He rebuffed Mrs. Charm’s offer to help him find his group at the flag raising. Being a rising fourth grader he’s too big for nanny stuff. He was looking forward to a hot game of Ga-ga, an Israeli form of dodge ball. With a forecast high of 102, it definitely will be hot.

Meanwhile, I was honored to have two posts linked in the new Haveil Havalim, a carnival of Jewish blog posts founded way back when by Soccer Dad. It is, appropriately, the Hot and Humid Edition. Haveil Havalim means Vanity of Vanities, a reference to King Solomon’s discovery that materialism for its own sake is a dead end. Or something like that.

Wizard 101 angst

Mr. Boy was having a crisis of confidence for about three weeks running over the Counterweight East portion of the Dungeon on multi-player Wizard 101. Over the weekend, he and four online friends finally conquered it. So happy he gave me a hug. Now he’s on to Counterweight West and Big Ben.

Reminds me of his first computer game play with Harry Potter software and some moving blocks in a canal. He kept jumping and missing the blocks and falling into the water and having to start over again. High frustration, lots of anger. But he stuck to it and, boy, was he happy when he finally beat it.

Getting even

Mr. B. got even with Eleanor on Saturday. Eleanor, which is not her real name, is a classmate who has a tendency to tattle. After he knocked her out of first place in the reading competition, back in the spring, she specialized in getting him into trouble with the teacher. Saturday they were at the same swim birthday party for another classmate and when it came time for the water balloon battle, he made sure to burst a couple on her head. Satisified him enormously. Heh. Three days of school left. He can hardly wait for the last day on Wednesday. I can, but there’s no hope for me now.

Men in Power

It’s about time young men stopped being wimps and starting speaking up for themselves in the overly-feminized world of "higher" education. Mr. B. already has his struggles with girls who know full well they are the favored ones these days. And he’s only in third grade.

Via Instapundit.

Mr. Boy scores at last

He dropped out of Little League a few weeks ago, probably for good, to concentrate on his basketball. Then his B-ball team, which goes by a number rather than a name, finished in third place in the small WAYA league of just five co-ed teams. They did it by winning their last game of the spring season, in which Mr. B. scored just a little too late (after the game-ending whistle) to add to the score.

No problem. They won the first game of the single-elimination tournament on Monday, aided by two points of his, and two more from his timely pass to a better shooter. Happiness all around. They’re at it again today at five, with back-to-back games, if they win the first one. They just might. All of their players scored in Monday’s competition, for the first time, and the opponent was pretty tough. But better teams await.

UPDATE:  They lost the first game, 31-20, so they lost the tournament. Next, we move on to the co-ed summer season.