Category Archives: Mr. Boy

Seventh Birthday

Posted on February 24, 2007 | Comments Off on Seventh Birthday

Mr. Boy got up a little earlier than usual and opened his presents, finding among other things an acoustic mandolin instead of the electric guitar he has been pining for. Took it with grace. Strummed a little. We figure if he’s willing to learn this one, he can graduate to an acoustic guitar and thence to an electric. Meanwhile, the new Batman and Harry Potter computer games are getting a workout. Later today Mom will take him to Sports Authority to get an aluminum bat and a carrying bag for his bat and other baseball equipment. Tonight, after Muckdogs practice at 5 p.m. is his first sleepover, here, with a friend. We are braced for a late night of chatter and shrieks. They’ll go together tomorrow to Mr. B.’s afternoon party with his friends at Inflatable Wonderland.

UPDATE  The sleepover went reasonably well with no effusion of blood. The party likewise although Mr. B. got "rug burn" on his elbows from one of the slides. Another year older and deeper in debt. Us in debt, not him. He’s actually cleaning up thanks to having a retired dad on social security. 

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First grade homework

Posted on February 20, 2007 | Comments Off on First grade homework

It’s a little outrageous the amount of homework piled on first graders. The usual write-the-spelling-words-one-more-time (all twenty of them) and copy two long sentences; read a picture book on George Washington (whose birthday was Monday) and another one for a weekly reading test on Friday. All well and good. Except we also had a poster project due tomorrow on President Gerald Ford, and five more facts to write out in complete sentences on baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson. So, with Muckdogs baseball practice shoveled in, we didn’t finish it all until 8 p.m., which still allowed bedtime stories, but just barely.  If it’s this bad in first grade…

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The ring of the bat

Posted on February 20, 2007 | Comments Off on The ring of the bat

Should be the crack of the bat. But that’s for traditional, wooden bats. Metal bats ring like a bell. Practice this afternoon went pretty well. Mr. Boy was about as silly as last year in T-ball, dancing around in what he likes to call Karate moves, and occasionally flopping on the ground. But he plays better this year. Hits well, throws well, still needs to work on catching. Overall, his team, the Muckdogs, is about the same, though most are not as silly. Coaches seem more intense this year, rules of the game being explained for the first time, but so far the kids seem to like it.

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Still sucking his fingers

Posted on February 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Still sucking his fingers

I noticed, this morning before he awakened to get ready for school, Mr. Boy was sucking his fingers in his sleep. Three months after we started painting his fingernails with essence of cactus–at the request of the dentist who said his permanent teeth would come in crooked–Mr. B.’s apparently become accustomed to the rancid taste of the stuff. He doesn’t suck his fingers during the day, that I’ve noticed, but I’m going to start watching for it again. The taste of the stuff on his fingernails used to disgust him, but that’s apparently over. Unfortunately, the finger-sucking isn’t. Longterm habits are hard to break.

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The Muckdogs

Posted on February 17, 2007 | Comments Off on The Muckdogs

Mr. B. got his baseball team assignment via email this morning: the Muckdogs. Strange name. A farm club in upstate New York for the St. Louis Cardinals, actually. So why for Little League in Texas? Beats me. Worse thing is he/we don’t know any of the other boys on the team. But he’s happy."I always wanted to be a Muckdog," he said. "They’re the best." Just shows how much I know.

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Things Mr. Boy does that I never did

Posted on February 17, 2007 | Comments Off on Things Mr. Boy does that I never did

As a six-year-old, that is…

1) Plays basketball (sort of) and baseball (coach-pitch).

2) Plays with Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

3) Eats salads with his suppers.

4) Gets candy treats now and then.

5) Is a Tiger Cub Cub Scout.

6) Wears a backpack to school.

7) Plays G.I. Joe games with his mother.

8) Has an army of stuffed animals.

9) Sleeps with a ceiling fan on, even in the winter.

10) Plays computer games.

There’s more, of course (I was six in 1950) but that’s enough for now.

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Christmas in February…

Posted on February 14, 2007 | Comments Off on Christmas in February…

…in the sense that greeting card makers say Valentine’s Day encourages enough card-sending to rival Christmas, and florists and candymakers also prosper. It’s also a holiday of Christian origin, which may explain some official Muslim hostility to it, being the execution date of Saint Valentine, an early Christian martyr. And there’s some pagan influence, as the day falls on the old Roman Empire’s date of the annual love lotteries of the fertility festival:

"On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry."

Fortunately, there’s still time to buy a card, candy or flowers if you’ve forgotten. Which is not likely if you’ve been married more than a year, or have young children. Mr. Boy, for instance, was so enthusiastic about it this year that he chipped in $2 of his own funds to get Mom a stuffed bear as well as a card and flowers. Though Mom is of Welsh descent, fortunately that was a long time ago, so we’re not required to carve any wooden love spoons for her.

UPDATE  For you lucky folks in the Northeast, Alan at Fresh Bilge is posting (and periodically refreshing) satellite radar images of the (possibly historic) Valentine’s Day Blizzard. Brrr. 

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