Category Archives: Mr. Boy

No green on TV

Posted on February 13, 2007 | Comments Off on No green on TV

Asked what he learned from his visit to the KVUE television station Monday night with the rest of the Tiger Cubs, Mr. Boy said, "You can’t wear green on TV." Chief meteorologist Mark Murray was our host, showing off and explaining the station’s newsroom, studio and the weather forecasting center. They use a green screen background wall for superimposing electronic maps, radar and other images, and Mark had a handy green sheet to demonstrate how wrapping oneself in it below the neck could make your body disappear on the tube. He was pretty calm, when faced with seventeen raucous first graders, for someone who has no children of his own. When we got home, Mr. B. spent an hour or so making up his Valentines for class tomorrow, before going off to bed.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Weather/Climate

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Tryouts

Posted on February 10, 2007 | Comments Off on Tryouts

The baseball tryouts went well this morning, although it seemed kind of odd to be playing baseball before Valentine’s Day. But Mr. Boy and his chums turned out in their old T-ball uniforms for the new season, which will be strictly coach-pitch and probably new teams (requiring new uniforms) selected. Mr. B. got one solid infield hit and a foul tip. He ran smartly to second base. Then he stopped several grounders and had one good, straight throw lofted high enough for the coach to catch standing up. So he came home happy and now we’ll wait to hear which team he’s on. We know he needs an aluminum bat this year. He’s already picked out one with red flames on it.

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Posted in Mr. Boy

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Playing catch

Posted on February 7, 2007 | Comments Off on Playing catch

Mr. Boy’s getting better at throwing, but he still can’t catch worth a darn. He just holds out the glove, rather than watching the ball and moving the glove to it. We’re practicing for his tryouts on Saturday. No more T-ball. It’s going to be coach-pitch this time. Meanwhile, the rain spout on the back of the house is getting the workout. Mr. B. keeps hitting it when he tries to throw to me. Hasn’t dislodged it yet, but he’s knocked some of the paint off the siding. We practice back there so one of his wild throws doesn’t shatter a window.

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Posted in Mr. Boy

The advantages of raising children

Posted on February 3, 2007 | Comments Off on The advantages of raising children

I wish I’d known about this before Mr. B. starting walking. Just don’t tell the child protective agency:

"On Saturdays we strap sponges to his hands, knees and forehead so he can mop the kitchen and dining room floors. Sure he misses a couple of spots, but he’s learning quick that if he wants to eat the following week he’ll do the job right…Sure some people think its cruel and inhumane when they see the little guy working like a slave, but they normally quit fussing about that when I explain to them how I dust the ceiling fans with the cats."

A funny read for free. Via Miriam’s Ideas

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Scribbles

Not too much pink

Posted on February 2, 2007 | Comments Off on Not too much pink

Mr. B. is improving, breaking away (somewhat) from the I-hate-girls stereotype of some of his male peers in first grade. He had originally intended only to invite boys to his birthday party. Then, out of the blue, he announced he wanted to invite one girl, a classmate named Riley. Why? "She doesn’t have a lot of pink stuff and she plays rough like the boys do." Sounds reasonable.

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Posted in Mr. Boy

The mind is a terrible thing…

Posted on February 2, 2007 | Comments Off on The mind is a terrible thing…

…to waste, as they say, although I was thinking of another angle. How many gigabytes, etc., in there in that impossibly wet architecture? An idea I got here from Ligneus at Spiced Sass. I tried registering to leave a comment but the site won’t allow it, for some reason. Perhaps he has turned the function off. That would be nice, to turn the mind off. He calls his post Mental Bric A Brac. Reminds me of last night’s reading to Mr. Boy from the last third of "The Goblet of Fire." Dumbledore plucks his intrusive, older memories out of his temple on long, silvery threads with his wand and puts them in the Pensieve for storage–in 3-D, full-color with audio. Wish I could do that. One of the hard things about aging is that delightful current memories take a backseat to more problematical older ones which increasingly march forward as the years go by. Pity, really. Lots of clutter in there from growing up a military brat and moving about every two years, sometimes more often. Add in combat in a war, too many love relationships before, during and after, and it all gets very murky, stimulating odd night dreams and off-topic daydreams. As I say, the mind is a terrible thing…

Via Just Muttering by Myself 

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Posted in Library, Mr. Boy, Scribbles

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Birthday party

Posted on January 31, 2007 | Comments Off on Birthday party

Mr. B.’s 7th birthday is coming up later this month and, as always, he started planning weeks ago. He had vacillated on whether to have a basketball birthday in the gym at the J, or go back to Inflatable Wonderland for a second theme party of some other kind. I had argued for something other than basketball because, although he is fixated on it, not all of the friends he’s inviting care that much about it. Plus, I know they’ll all have fun on the slides and enclosed trampolines at IW in Cedar Park. Last night he seemed to have made up his mind: Inflatable Wonderland with a Harry Potter theme. We’ve been reading the Harry Potter series and are halfway through The Goblet of Fire, which is pretty exciting. Very attached to Mr. P., he is. "I wish I could live Harry Potter’s life," he said this morning on the way to school.

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Posted in Mr. Boy

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