Category Archives: Mr. Boy

Camping trip

Posted on October 10, 2007 | Comments Off on Camping trip

Krause-Springs-1.jpg

Krause Springs, where the water is a chilly 70 degrees year-round, is our destination this weekend for Mr. B.’s Cub Scout pack’s fall camping trip. It’s west of Austin, unlike McKinney Falls where we stayed last year, so we won’t be awakened by jets taking off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. That will be nice. I expect the boys will do what they did last year, each find a long stick and head off into the woods playing tag. They’ll swim in the cold water, we’ll watch. Campfire at night, and S’mores, of course. I nicked the photo, the best I could find, here, from a fellow who shares our interest in astronomy and has some really nice astrophotographs you should check out.

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Left-handed screwdriver

Posted on October 9, 2007 | Comments Off on Left-handed screwdriver

It took me almost a full minute to realize this was a joke, along the lines of tartan paint, or a solar-powered flashlight. Took a while because I was searching for left-handed tools on the Web–why not? they make left-handed guitars– after watching Mr. B., who is left handed, struggle to turn a screw last night at a Cub Scout meeting. It was his Wolf den meeting where tools were introduced to the boys, most of whom have seen the tools but not had a chance to try to use them. Turning a screw to the right is more difficult if you’re left handed. Like turning a door knob to the right. It’s just something he’s going to have to adapt to, probably using his right hand. Fortunately, he already bats right handed in baseball and prefers to throw right handed, as well.

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The lure of breakfast

Posted on September 25, 2007 | Comments Off on The lure of breakfast

I think I’ve discovered the secret of how to get Mr. Boy out of bed and ready for school in the morning: talk about breakfast. Do you want oatmeal or waffles, I ask innocently, knowing that he wants both. Does he want juice? He rolls over and starts to rub his eyes, a sure sign he’s waking up. When I can get him to state his preference as to what to start with, I can see the gears in his mind that are connected to his stomach have started churning in sync. Sure enough, I go off to make (usually) the oatmeal and by the time I get the bowl on the table, he’s up and dressed and making up his bed. Food. That’s the ticket.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly

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The spelling king

Posted on September 20, 2007 | Comments Off on The spelling king

Mr. Boy left this morning for school confident of another 100 (or better) on his weekly spelling test. He not only can spell the assigned list of 24 relatively easy (for me) words, but has two of the hard (for me) bonus words down after he struggled to memorize them yesterday. Try spelling "proboscis" and "spiracles" yourself. They’re from his class’s science study of caterpillers and butterflies.

UPDATE: Maybe we should demote him to spelling prince. He got a 91, having misspelled two of the "easy" words, "speak" and "bring," out of twenty. But "bring" only because he wrote a "d" instead of a "b." Likewise with "proboscis," writing a "d" instead of a "b". Got spiracles right, though. Sigh. Guess we have to work more on writing, and being careful. 

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Einstein in 2nd grade

Posted on September 17, 2007 | Comments Off on Einstein in 2nd grade

What did you learn about in school today, I asked Mr. Boy. Einstein, he said. Einstein? In second grade? What did they say he was famous for? Mr. B. couldn’t remember. No kidding. There are plenty of adults who couldn’t tell you anything about E.’s work, other than that he was a genuis, etc. Well, there is, I said, his Theory of Relativity, but most adults would be hard-pressed to explain it. The only part I know about is this: You can’t fly to the moon in a straight line. Because space is curved. (I hope I got that right. With the ToR, you can never be sure.) Wow, said Mr. B, that is cool. It is, too. And, last month, some astronomers used it to measure some really far away neutron stars.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Space

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Napoleonic analogies

Posted on September 14, 2007 | Comments Off on Napoleonic analogies

Getting Mr. Boy up in the morning for school the past few days has been tedious. Removing the covers had only limited effect. So I thought to capture his young male imagination, by telling him how bosuns of the Napoleonic-era Royal Navy did it–per the Aubrey-Maturin series. They’d come through the lower decks rousing the next watch by shouting, "Out or down!" Meaning if you didn’t get out of your hammock, they would use their knives to cut your hammock down and you’d sprawl on the deck. It got a smile, and the obvious retort from Mr. B. that he wasn’t in a hammock. But the thinking and the smile were enough to make him open his eyes. From there it was a relatively short step to getting his feet on the floor.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Scribbles

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Beating the predator rap

Posted on September 9, 2007 | Comments Off on Beating the predator rap

"Ted Wallis, a doctor in Austin, Texas, recently came upon a lost child in tears in a mall. His first instinct was to help, but he feared people might consider him a predator. He walked away. ‘Being male,’ he explains, ‘I am guilty until proven innocent.’"

The solution, as I see it, is to have children of your own. Fathers are innocent until proven guilty.

Via Instapundit 

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Scribbles

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