Wheeeeeeee!

It was a very Nintendo Christmas this year. No, we didn't get a Wii (whatever made you think we might've?), but we did get a couple of Nintendo DS Lites — one for each of the young-uns.

Full Disclosure: The handheld gaming devices and accessories were gifts from the grandparents — both sets. In other words, my parents and 6/10ths parents went together to buy them.

The game players are definitely the top gifts of the year. They even discovered the wireless IM feature and used it when they were supposed to be sleeping last night.

That wireless capability is actually kind of cool. You can buy one copy of Mario Kart and when one starts the game he chooses multiplayer/simple and then the other kid can connect wirelessly to the game. It transmits the game through the "ether" and then they race each other.

At first, 1 of 2 won every time. But 2 of 2 started to get the hang of steering and also enjoyed doing goofy things, like driving off of bridges into the water. By being silly he discovered some "shortcuts" and started winning consistently. 1 of 2 was convinced that the computer was driving for him because "no one can steer that smooth!" I had them switch consoles and race. 2 of 2 still won, even though 1 of 2 now had the computer assisted car. That just made him madder. We told him that he needed to figure out why 2 was winning and copy his techniques. By the end of the evening, 1 was more competitive.

Another case of fratricide avoided.

Chicks Dig Scars

Chicks Dig Scars. That's what I'm telling 1 of 2 to console him over his injuries.

Sunday, in the middle of the first quarter of the Cowboys / Giants game, 1 of 2 decided to go bike riding in front of our house. His helmet wasn't fitting properly (he'd managed to release the clamps holding the straps). So I spent a few minutes getting it all adjusted again. Good thing, too, because he wasn't out there more than 5 minutes before he showed up inside again in extreme pain.

I'm not sure of all the details, but he was going relatively fast when he lost control and hurtled to the pavement. 6/10ths (my better half) saw him hit the ground and slide, face down. He bruised and scraped his left knee (and tore a hole in his new pants), scraped the knuckles of his left hand, and scraped his nose and upper lip (and cracked his bike helmet).

We put bandages on his knee and fingers but the scrape on his nose started right between the eyes and goes down to the tip. We figured that it was just too hard to bandage — the small bandages wouldn't cover the scrape and the big ones wouldn't fit between his eyes. So we just cleaned it and let it scab over.

He looks pretty bad and is getting a lot of grief at school. But I keep promising him that scars give a guy a certain, I don't know what exactly, but a certain je ne sais quoi that the girls seem to be attracted to.

Aside #1: I do know that "je ne sais quoi" means "I don't know what". But 1 of 2 doesn't so it works.

In the meantime he's taking a lot of oral analgesics.

Aside #2: I love the way that sounds — oral analgesics. And yes, I tell them that the termometer is a rectal one, just to see their reaction. Still works after all these years!

Another bonus is that we get to avoid posing for any more Christmas pictures this year!

Tree Houses

Long time no post. By the time I'm done with work these days I'm just too tired to post. The odd thing about that statement is that I don't have a job! Except to find a new job. And it's a lot of work.

Anyway, a week ago, right after Thanksgiving, my wife took her three boys to the Dallas Arboretum to see the Tree House exhibit. I think it was the last weekend, so I'm sorry if this post makes you want to go see it. (HA!)

Anyway, the first thing to keep in mind is that no trees were harmed by this exhibit. I can understand the requirement. But what I don't understand is why they let artists design the tree houses, and I can assure you that they were artistic. That's not a good thing.

For starters, one requirement for any "tree house" design ought to be that you could put it up in a tree. Only two of the thirteen "tree houses" had obvious tree potential. One other "tree house", while lacking any resemblance to something you could put in a tree, managed to include some structural elements (large PVC piping) that that could clearly have been used to support elevated tree houses so that no damage would have been done to the trees.

Instead, we were treated to very artistic designs on the ground that not only had no potential to exist in a tree, but looked like they would be absolutely no fun to play or spend time in!

I'm sorry, but a tree house is, first and foremost, a play structure. It is secondarily a clubhouse. If you build a structure that cannot be placed in a tree, cannot be used as a play structure, and cannot serve as a clubhouse — well, you darned well better not call it a tree house!