Now and Forever

A's looking ahead to his next birthday (yes, it's a year away...). The theme (at least this week) might be Cats. A's favorite cat at the moment is Skimbleshanks, the Railway Cat -- although based on how the CD just got reset, the Magical Mr. Mistoffelees may be giving the railway cat a run for the money.

Yes, we've broken out T.S. Elliot's Old Possum's Guide to Practical Cats in order to stave off multiple playings of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Fathers' Day Remembered

2010-06-20 Sunday

Happy Father's Day!

We went to Dutch Wonderland! Think Enchanted Forest. Think Disney. Think, electric powered, full-motion water cannons and Evil Five Year Olds.

M and J went on a quick coaster ride. It was fast enough that they got smooshed together on the curves, but not so fast that M didn't get sick. It was kind of too fast to be romantic.

M and J reconnected with Aunt M, Cousin D, and A back at the Frog Prince show. This was a diving show, featuring three guys in frog costumes leaping into a deep pool to Renaissance Knight Music. Insert Wicked Magician here, and obligatory splashing of the audience by a frog using the Old King as a target. Luckily, a quick fetal curl around the digital camera saved it.

Then we went to a portion of the park that provided Very Large Water Guns for small children to practice their marksmanship with. This place was an oasis of gushing opportunity for the wicked. While every song ever sung by The Beach Boys played. Loudly. "...Do you love me, do you, surfer girl..." Of course, A loved it; probably because he found another Evil Five Year Old, and they poured water on younger children.

We took many turns down water slides. Along the way out we stopped at various carnival rids. On the carousel, J tried to recapture the romance of the Playland Carousel with M, A insisted that his horse had gone the fastest, and M worked hard to not throw up.

When the day was over, A and Cousin D fell asleep leaning on each other in Aunt M's van (sorry no picture). They woke up twenty minutes later almost fully re-charged.

The evening ended back at Aunt M's, when J suggested that "Snap" would be a less violent card game than "Slapjack." He was wrong.

A was disappointed when we didn't go back to Dutche Wonderland the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that.

More East Cost Vacation...

2009-06-15 Tuesday


We (M, M, J and A) piled into a car and drove up to visit M, M, M & M at their new house at New Paltz. Last time we visited the house, it was mostly a shell around their old cabin. Now, it's mostly house around a Very Large Living Space. A loved the two trap doors in the floor and all of M and M's pirate toys.

The drive home featured 100,000 fireflies.



2009-06-16 Wednesday

We rented a car for a Big Road Trip to Virginia. We saw lots of toll booths. M had detailed instructions to his Brother, M's house. This was a good thing -- because who would have believed that M & J (and S & J) live just a couple of miles from the Walton's Museum (yes, as in "John-Boy").

As we drove in, the World's Biggest Thunderstorm blew in. M kept reminding me of the possibility that the river might flow over the final stretches of road. We pointed out the spooky haunted Southern mansions to A (for Sale!).

That night, as we were eating dinner, the electricity went out and we went to sleep to the quiet and the moonlight.


2010-06-17 Thursday.

The Virginia Relatives hosted us at their country house. We reacquainted ourselves with Mow the Chow (ancient) and a less older Shamus.




M set up the Monopoly board on the grass. And we had a few rounds. Uncle M dressed as Marvin (the) Garden(er). Aunt J wore beach wear as Mediterranean Avenue. Cousin J wore over-alls with a pillow tucked in and a long stem o grass in her mouth -- there was debate whether she was Virginia, Tennessee or North Carolina Ave. Boyfriend H dressed as Oriental Avenue, with a really cool Dragon Sword.

A wore his Mr Moneybags outfit, and promptly discovered that he was too warm. So I held an umbrella over his head to keep him from overheating.

We also had only one die, which added an extra dimension to getting doubles.






2010-06-18 Friday

J decided that it was too hot sleeping in the second story room, so at midnight he wandered downstairs to look at the stars (and pee). The screened in gazebo was available, and after re-arranging some futons, he fell asleep listening to the rushing water from Uncle M's fountain. And the night-sounds of distant dogs killing something.

A, M, and Uncle M went on an archeological dig, and J stayed inside, out of the bugs and sun, to write.

A, M and Uncle M returned about an hour later with a trophy from their dig -- an old cow skull. A thought it might be a triceratops skull. A showed me the teeth, which were a plant eater's teeth, and the place he thought the horns aught to go. M says that he was just playing along and that he knew it was a cow skull the entire time.

Probably somewhere around here is where A thought that "Camp M" was the greatest and that Uncle M was the coolest (East Coast) relative.

Stamp of Approval ?

We're back and we've unpacked and now it's time to write Thank You Notes.

Given that A has some pretty creative ideas about letter placement, J thought it would easier to make Thank You Notes if we used a stamp pad. So, after gluing some letters to a block, we now have a our very own stamp which reads "hank you," only as a mirror image.

Today's attempt at creating actual Thank You Letterhead featured some water color paints. J had a vague notion that A could use globs of colored paint to make individualized stamped Thank Yous. But. A) the paint was too globby and got all over the stamp, B) we didn't have an inking brayer, and C) A thought it would be best to paint the home-made stamp with hues of red and blue.

On to take two....

Dinosaur Heaven

2009-06-14 Monday

After a car swap, we M managed to drive us into the parking garage of The Museum of Natural History. A sort of knew that we would see dinosaurs, but I guess he didn't know exactly what to expect. He was in the lead, and rounded a corner into the room of the Jurassic era. His eyes widened, and I'd swear that they turned into flashlight bulbs. "Guys!" he said, "Come on!" and he was off to Dinosaur Heaven.


I think at some point M observed that 1) it was my job to photo-document things and that 2) I had a bias against A in favor of things like buildings, flowers, sculptures and architecture.

My reply was that I took photos of those things because they actually stood still long enough to be photographed. At which point (Aunt) M commented that, the ratio of blurry A's to non-blurry A's in the previous days' photos was rather high....





We wanted to take (Aunt) M and V out for dinner for all the hard work they did for A's Big Monopoly Party. The plan was to visit Times Square for a moment (A has been listening to "A Cricket in Times Square"). On the way, a man collapsed just on the yellow caution line next to the subway train, so it couldn't move (and they couldn't move the man until EMT's came).

Then in an exchange, V & M got into an elevator to spare M's joints from walking up some stairs and the elevator went down to Dante's 9th Circle. It came back.

By the time we actually got out into the light of day, A had fallen asleep on M's shoulders. He awoke on the floor of Toys R Us, a four-story extravaganza with a four-story Ferris wheel, a life-sized animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, tons of Legos, and a clerk who flew a toy helicopter into M. Twice. We're pretty sure it was some kind of geek-boy flirty thing.

The Big Monopoly Birthday Party

2009-06-12 Saturday

The Big Monopoly Party

I don't quite remember when A said that he wanted a Monopoly Party. It must have been sometime shortly after we read Mark Teague's "Pigsty," the book that started A's fascination with the Parker Brothers' classic game of capitalism.

The big question of the day was would it rain or not. So, early-ish in the humid morning, Cousin K helped with the tents and tarps, directed by Aunt M (formerly with Treasure Island).

The second question was, would I (J) have my costume ready in time. Luckily, I was; my role was "Chance, the ABBA interpretation." I taped a photo of ABBA onto my breast and had a "chance orange" caption which read, "Take a chance on me." I also had orange "Take a chance on me" cards with my phone number written on at the bottom.

A dressed up as Mr. Moneybags, with white shirt, black shoes, pants, and shoes, and tailcoat. We forgot about his cane (which was a good thing, as he very likely would have whacked someone with it).

M, with his usual flair for preparedness, strapped on his duct tape Scottie dog token, conceived, designed, created and modeled in time for it to be mailed to Grandma M's.

Grandma M wore glamorous sequins and a sash as Boardwalk (the most expensive property on the board).

LGL came in a fancy tuxedo as The Banker, which was mandatory, as he is in real life an honest-to-goodness New York City Wall Street Banker. He and A sat in the middle of the board handing out money and deeds. They had a great time, as LGL informed A that "the banker always wins."

Uncle M (Buffalo) came as a News Paper Boy and shouted out how there was a new chairman of the board (he came equipped with $50 bills, which he used as counterfeit cash curing the game). Aunt K (Buffalo) came bedecked as Marvin Gardens. Cousin M (Cursed with House Snakes) dressed in a furry hat as Vermont Avenue. His brother, Cousin P and his (P's) boyfriend, M, came as "The Dice Boys," and threw the red inflatable dice.


Cousin M (of New Paltz) dressed as a $500 bill, and Cousin M (of New Paltz) dressed as a House.

Cousin C dressed as a Hobo, and his brother B dressed in a ski outfit as Vermont Ave. Sister, Cousin D came as the person from the card who "Won Second Place in a Beauty Contest."

Aunt M (formerly with Treasure Island) and Aunt M (B, C & D's mother) dressed as Waterworks and the Electric Company, respectively. Cousin M (cursed with house snakes) did an impromptu wire-job so that Aunt M's faucet had twirly paper-streamer water and Aunt M's light bulb hat really lit.

Great Uncle M came as a railroad conductor, and Great Aunt J put on her jewels as Luxury Tax.

Cousin V wore a black slinky dress and a hula-hoop with a tin-foil diamond on it, also as Luxury Tax. Her husband, J, came in his real-live honest-to-goodness Police Uniform (he left his gun and handcuffs at home, but brought a water squirter).


Cousin K (Works Hard) dressed up as Oriental Avenue. Cousin K (from Russia with Love) dressed up as the Statue of Liberty so she could be New York Avenue.


There were other games... and a Monopoly Board Ice Cream cake with six candles (the extra candle was for good luck). Everyone had a fun time and the party lasted until late into the night.

Birthday Workshop

After many nights' toil, filled with stenciling, cutting, painting, magic-markering, and coloring, we finally managed to finish off one aspect of the upcoming Monopoly Birthday Extravaganza.

















There's still the table and tarp, rulers and T-squares to be put away.







M gave all the properties a final spray of fixative. J wants everyone to know that he was having some interesting dreams and would wake up to the scent of magic marker while M, who had arisen Very Early, was putting finishing touches on things.







M laid out the finished squares and A dressed up (again!) as Mr. Moneybags so we could get an idea about how large this whole thing would be. Then we sent it off via the Postal Service to Grandma M's for birthday fun later.






A helped out.

















So far I haven't seen anyone's costume suggestions, but there's some rumors going around about "Community Chest."