Category Archives: Mr. Boy

The Music Box

Posted on November 6, 2007 | Comments Off on The Music Box

The Laurel and Hardy DVD I ordered came yesterday and Mr. B. and I watched the 1932 Oscar-winning classic The Music Box in which Stan and Ollie try to get a crated player-piano up a looong flight of steps. Mr. B. laughed so hard he couldn’t sit up. He actually became breathless. I began to wonder if he has asthma. Probably not, or it would affect him playing basketball, and it doesn’t. He found the hat-trading sequence the most hilarious. So L&H have a new fan. Physical comedy and slapstick just plain appeal to kids. Adults doing what kids want to do, even if they usually don’t because they know they won’t get away with it. Next up: Harold Lloyd’s "Safety Last." Later, the Marx Brothers.

Comments Off on The Music Box

Posted in Mr. Boy

Tagged ,

At-Home Dad Convention

Posted on November 5, 2007 | Comments Off on At-Home Dad Convention

I couldn’t make the show Saturday but will definitely start reading the forum. I doubt many of them are retirees, but you never know. Pajamas Media’s take.

Comments Off on At-Home Dad Convention

Posted in Mr. Boy

Tagged

Rockets over the Spurs

Posted on November 5, 2007 | Comments Off on Rockets over the Spurs

Mr. Boy exulted Sunday when a teammate’s absence meant that he got to play all four quarters of his youth basketball game at the J. Usually he only gets to play two quarters as their three-on-three games split the difference between two units on each team. His Rockets won, they said, but we’re not sure what the score was. Only the kids kept track. The coaches want it all to be fun, without pressure. Of course the kids create their own pressure. This, his third game, was Mr. B.’s best. Good sportsmanship and no tantrums when the ref corrected him. He only got called for traveling twice and double-dribbling once. He made seven two-point shots, grabbed a half dozen rebounds, and refrained from yelling at his teammates when they made a mistake. He was pleased with himself afterwards, but so thirsty he drank a whole bottle of Gatorade.

Comments Off on Rockets over the Spurs

Posted in Mr. Boy

Tagged ,

I think they’re going to lose, Dad

Posted on November 4, 2007 | Comments Off on I think they’re going to lose, Dad

Second grade boys are like first grade boys and kindergarteners. They go with the winners. They don’t waste effort being loyal when a team is losing. Thus Mr. B. decided at the end of the third quarter of the Texas-Oklahoma State game that he’d had enough. Texas was losing 35 to 14 and he had better things to do, like play his Harry Potter computer game. I was still hoping for the comeback, but admitted I was getting less confident by the minute. You’ll miss the end of the game, I said. Dad, he said, I think they’re going to lose. When they won he made me describe how they did it, and I tried, but better descriptions are here and here.

Comments Off on I think they’re going to lose, Dad

Posted in Mr. Boy, Texas Football

Tagged ,

Happy Halloweenie

Posted on October 31, 2007 | Comments Off on Happy Halloweenie

This year’s pumpkins are no better than last year. Maybe I’ll get up a picture later, after I make supper and send Mr. B. and Mom on their way out to trick-or-treating. My job is passing out the goodies to the ghouls that show up at the rancho. If any. None at all came last year, but it was a wee chilly, then. S’posed be warm tonight.

UPDATE: Eleven little goblins showed up, all but one with one or more parents. That one I judge to have been a fifth grader, which was about the time my mother made me stop trick-or-treating. Fun, anyway. Mr. B. came home with enough loot to last him until next year. Most of it will go stale and be thrown out before then. 

Comments Off on Happy Halloweenie

Posted in Mr. Boy, Scribbles

Tagged

Sticking out your tongue

Posted on October 31, 2007 | Comments Off on Sticking out your tongue

Getting a note sent home from the teacher because you backtalked her or hit another kid, I can see. Getting one for threatening another kid with bodily injury, or saying mean things, I can see. But sending a note home because you stuck your tongue out at another kid is just going too far. This is public school 2007.

Comments Off on Sticking out your tongue

Posted in Mr. Boy

Tagged

Hi-O-Silver, Awaaay

Posted on October 29, 2007 | Comments Off on Hi-O-Silver, Awaaay

An OCS buddy suggested getting some Lone Ranger DVDs for Mr. Boy. I’d already thought of that and ordered one. It took some coaxing. He wanted to watch his Ninja Turtles, instead. But a few minutes into one episode and he was hooked. "I liked the action," he said, meaning the gunplay and the way the Ranger and Tonto and the rest are always swinging into the saddle to ride off somewhere. He even liked the black-n-white episodes, when he was sure he wouldn’t. I’d forgotten how stilted and contrived Clayton Moore’s lines were. Goody-two-shoes with sixguns. Did I see them for that when I was young? I think so, but I had fewer choices then.

Comments Off on Hi-O-Silver, Awaaay

Posted in Mr. Boy, Texana

Tagged ,