A Lifetime of Ink-Smudged Hands

Patrick is learning that it isn’t easy being a Southpaw. As his father (me) his Grandpa Mike and his Grandma Poopy (my mom) can all attest, it is hard being made fun of by ‘common’ right-handers. But all of those people who make fun of us I say: You try writing without being able to see what you’re doing and see how well you do. It’s a right handed world, but those of us who were blessed as lefties will be better for it.
Check out this drawing that P made. I find it interesting that he is able to spell his words from left to right, but his word placement is right to left. In case you can’t tell, it says ‘I’m pulling cargo.” (It’s his tractor-trailer).

Keeping the Working Man Down

Recently I stumbed across an old copy of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Having never read it I picked it up. I am about a third of the way into it. Yesterday I came home from work to find that Bean had ripped the cover off and tried to tear pages out before Kate stopped her. I guess Bean didn't want me to learn about the plight of the working man.

"You fascist." I said to her.

"No! You fascist!" She screamed back at me.

Now that we have a fireplace I am going to have to start watching for my Orwell among the cinders...

Take that, Papa!

School Pictures '07

Whitney and Patrick came home with school pictures this week and both were equally amusing. I have also included a picture of Bean that pretty much sums her up. I don't have any recent pictes of Samantha, so I added an older one of her in the bath so that she doesn't feel too left out.

Who's Your Daddy?

Like most PC owners Kate and I rotate the background in Windows from time to time. Usually the picture is of one of the kids doing something funny or touching.

But just before the baseball post season started Kate placed a picture of New York Yankees short stop Derek Jeter.

Every time Bean sees the picture she points at it and says “That’s Papa.”
Yeah, I’m sure that’s who Mama was thinking of at the time…

Failure to Communicate

Grandpa Stretch learned a valuable lesson this past Saturday. He came over to our house to build a fireplace (so for once we won't freeze this winter). He cut about a one foot square hole in the side of our house to accomodate the venting from the gas unit. While working on the outside of the house he found himself face to face with Patrick, whose face was just big enough to fill the newly cut hole. After asking a dozen rapid-fire questions about what my Dad was doing (ala Macauley Culkin in 'Uncle Buck') Patrick hit my Dad with something he hadn't expected.

"Grandpa Stretch, I just farted." He said, deadpan.

"Congratulations" My Dad replied.

"Grandpa Stretch?" Patrick asked. "Why did you say 'congratulations'?"

Lesson learned: Kids take everything at face value. Facetious responses to unwarranted information are not understood. We learn how to be smart-asses as we grow.



Speaking of Patrick, he had his second to last soccer game this week, and they lost for the second time in three weeks. But theere are two upsides: 1) He got his team pictures and 2) His streak of consecutive games without a goal is still alive. One more week and he can complete the season without scoring. If he pulls it off he will match a record I set when I played soccer at age seven.





P.S. I saw a movie this weekend called 'Zwarkboek' (aka 'Black Book'). It was top notch. If you get a chance I highly recommend it. If you look it up on imdb.com you may be turned off because it was directed by Paul Verhoeven (Showgirls, Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers). But don't let that sway you. This is one of the best films of the year.