• I told Boo to clean his room, mainly by pointing out all the Legos and books that had found their way to his floor.  The Legos were a struggle to get done, but once he figured out that he could organize his books on the shelves no more wailing and gnashing of teeth was heard.  He was excited that he could put “learning books” on one shelf, “chapter books” on another, and Dr. Seuss on a third.  I have no idea where he got this.
• Braunschweiger – Bavarian word meaning “Hey, Fritz, what do we do with the rest of the pig?”.
  • In related news, Boo was able to sound out (mostly) the label on a package of braunschweiger at the store, and asked if we could try it.  I haven’t had the stuff since I was almost his age and sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen in North Dakota.
  • This will be a learning experience for both of us.
• I may have created a monster.  First, we let Boo listen to the Narnia series and the first Harry Potter book in audiobook format during the family trip this summer.  Actually, he listened to both a couple of times.  Then, I got him Treasure Island and The Reluctant Dragon and we listened to those.  This morning, I used my monthly Audible credit to buy The Hobbit for him.
  • C.S. Lewis was a genius.  Boo first listened to Narnia in July and started 1st grade Catholic school in August.  He’s already seeing the parallels.
  • It’s a 20 to 30 minute drive to his school every morning.  That’s usually enough time for a chapter.  With Irish Woman on the road off and on over the past few weeks, he’s been getting at least double that most days between trips to and from school and cross-country.
  • I may have to up my membership at Audible and make a donation to Loyal Books.
• Hell hath no wrath like a road-weary Irish Woman who stops to pick up lunch on her way home and realizes that the restaurant messed up her order.

• Jalapeno pickles make excellent football food.
• Things you never thought you’d have to say – “Son, please don’t dig holes in the lawn directly over the gas line.”
• Does it help my geek cred when I believe that it would be fitting for any coordinated European effort to deal with the ‘refugee’ crisis to be named “Operation Martellus“?
• Girlie Bear came back from her trip to visit her university and meet the ROTC staff with a sunburn as red as a wild rose.  We had a little conversation about personal responsibility and how to treat 2nd degree burns.
• Boo learned that coaches do not like it when you talk after being told to stop.  In related news, it is rather traumatic for a young boy to be told that if he can’t behave, he can’t warm up with his team. The coach did, however, come up and talk with him before they took off running, and Boo made sure to do as he was told the rest of practice.
• Signs that we have Boo in with a good crowd – The cross country team ran 5 kilometers last night, which is approximately 3 laps around the park.  Boo had never run more than 2 before, and after his second lap, decided he’d done enough.  So did most of the younger kids.  The older boys ran a fast 5k, then noticed that Boo had stopped.  They convinced him to finish the run, and ran along with him on an extra lap to encourage him and so that he wouldn’t be alone.
• Boo pulled out a loose tooth while doing homework tonight.  Going to have to send a note to teacher about why his English worksheet has blood spatter on it.
• It’s a good thing when you look around your living room and think “You know, we need more bookshelves.”

This is what I found on the screen of my laptop when I checked email this morning:

The night was alive with ~AQ

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I guess I shouldn’t have tried to stay up and watch the second half of the football game while cranking out another chapter last night.

• My day mostly amounted to me calling people and saying “You remember that thing you wanted me to do two months ago?  Do you still want me to do it?”
• On my drive home tonight, I heard and saw what I thought must be a bunch of police cars either escorting a hurt child or a fallen officer to the hospital, but instead it was a police escort for a University of Louisville sports team.
  • I do not now, nor will I ever, understand. I just have to accept that.
• Well, the final read-through of the hard copy of Via Serica is done and the edited file has been uploaded to the printer.  Hopefully it’ll be ready for sale by tomorrow.
• It is amazing how much more you find when you hold a dead-tree book in your hands.  I’m going to have to add the expense of getting a copy of any future books printed before releasing for sale.
• I’m going to be doing the Mister Mom thing again next week, but I will not be able to take the week off.  We shall see how this goes.
• There is an odd sense of satisfaction that comes from watching a literal ton of old equipment roll onto the back of the truck that is taking to that great recycler in the sky.
• Boo is learning that if he doesn’t want to get out of bed when I flip on the light and try to gently wake him, I have no problem in releasing the hounds and letting them kiss him awake.
• It is good to know that, should our alarm clocks ever cease to function, Derby will awaken us all at 6:15 every morning as she warns the kindergartener down the street and her father that they are forbidden to walk in her yard.  She gives these warnings at full throat, usually with her nose pressed tightly against the glass of my front windows.

• A large seedless watermelon will produce a little over a gallon of watermelon juice.
• Watermelon juice tastes exactly like it sounds and mixes well with either vodka or gin.
• Irish Woman is going on a business trip this week.  It’s been a long time since she’s been away from home, and she’s having… issues finding a way to be comfortable with this.
• It’s been an adventure trying to convince her that we will not die of plague, filth, or starvation while she’s gone.
• This morning, she decided that rather than get herself ready and relax prior to leaving after lunch, she would give the house a deep cleaning.
• When she finished that she, and may God strike me down if I lie, went outside and vacuumed Boo’s treehouse so that he could play in it while she is away.
• I’m taking the week off while she’s gone.  It’s just easier that way with the kids and everything they do.  Irish Woman is convinced I’ll spend my days relaxing, napping, or going to the range.  My list of things I want to get accomplished in the house is growing quite long.  I’ll show her I can work myself to death on my vacation days, darn it!
• The garden is winding down for the year.  All that’s left, aside from the raspberry bushes, are the tomatoes, and they’ll probably be ready for clean-up next weekend.
• Homemade chili base, after simmering overnight in the crockpot and being gone over thoroughly with a stick blender, makes a pretty good ranchero sauce.
• When cooking chili base in the crockpot and smoking a turkey outside, it is hard to not just stand at the door to the pantry and try to find something to kill the cravings all those wonderful smells are giving you.  You know, like raw macaroni and peanut butter.  This must be what stoners go through.
• Girlie Bear is about to have an existential crisis.  I told her that after she takes the ACT next weekend, coffee is going to become a treat for weekends only.  Not sure how she’s going to handle that.

• Girlie Bear got her first paycheck.  It was just shy of $40.  She paid about $5 in taxes and such.  She immediately understood the concept of “minimal government”.
• Boo ran a mile in 10:31 tonight.  Not bad for a 7 year old.  Now if I can just get him to get ready for school faster than the speed of smell.
• The only thing harder than sleeping in a bed with Derby sleeping on my feet is sleeping while she lays in the hallway outside the bedroom door and cries all night.
• Tomato season seems to be coming to an end.  I think I have enough on the vine to do another batch of stewed tomatoes or tomato sauce.  I think I’ll pass on making tomato jalapeno jelly this year.  I still have a case of it downstairs from last year.
  • By the way, two parts peanut butter and one part tomato jalapeño jelly melted in the microwave and mixed together make a really good dip or chicken sauce.
• Note to self – When the young man scooping ice cream cautions you that the large scoop is really large, take the hint.
• We took Girlie Bear out for Mexican food to celebrate her birthday.  I started to tell the waiter about the big event so that she could get the whole Spanish song and sombrero treatment, but I’m smart enough to notice the “I will kill you if you do” look I got from Irish Woman.

• According to Irish Woman, she had to go all Southern Woman on an older man this afternoon.  Apparently it was effective, as the subject she was speaking to him about will be brought up at the next business meeting for the local Baptist church.
• Boo has dress-down day tomorrow at school, if he either brings in one dollar or a hygiene item for the school’s charity box.  I suggested a box of condoms.
• Highlight of my week – A friend brings out a couple of old family antiques to show his sons and asks me to help him track down information of an old sword based on the arsenal stamps on the blade.
• While re-reading the book before dinner today, I came upon a passage where one of my characters does something quite stupid.  I thought to myself, “Now why would he do that when it’s obviously such a bad idea?”  I answered myself, “That passage is based on something you did when you were 19, idiot.”

• I guess I’m old-fashioned in that I believe that the Constitution means what its plain language says.  “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” means, to me, that if someone is born here and is liable to follow our laws or face the punishment, then they are a citizen.  It doesn’t matter to me that some use the 14th Amendment in a way that we don’t like, it means what it says.  If a child is born 10 feet over the border in San Diego and is subject to arrest and taxation just like the rest of us, then that child is a citizen.  If we don’t like that, then we need to amend the Constitution, but it’s not a policy or something that can be changed by simple Legislative action or Executive fiat.
• Bombing caves on the Mexican border or building a wall that’s not guarded 24 hours a day by men with guns and dogs that like the taste of human flesh, even if those things are possible, isn’t going to stop illegal immigration.  My idea for cutting the demand for illegal labor is this:  If your company or any sub-contractors/suppliers you use gets caught employing illegal aliens, then you are no longer allowed to compete for federal contracts and no federal money may be used to purchase goods and services from you.  Your food may not be used to feed schoolchildren or be purchased using government welfare.  You don’t get to compete to build, maintain, or clean government buildings or roads.  Federal insurance or disaster relief funds may not be used to purchase your goods and services.  That means that if you buy the chicken in your store from a company that has been busted using illegal labor in its poultry plants, you’re blackballed too.  If your university has students who have overstayed their visa’s, you are ineligible for Pell Grants, federal student loans, and federal research dollars.  A year or two of this, and the demand for almost slave labor will dry up.
• There seems to be a rash of pedophiles and child pornographers caught here in Louisville, allegedly including a priest from one of the local parishes.  I just don’t get it.  If I were to ever have those kinds of thoughts, I’d like to think that I’d have the decency to suck start my 1911.  “But, DaddyBear, suicide is a mortal sin!”  So is taking upskirt pictures of minors and destroying their innocence.  Personally, I’d rather have to answer for something I did to myself than for something I did to a child.
• Remember when you were in the military and you felt the urge to choke the life out of someone who puts their hand up when the CO asked “Does anyone have any questions?” on Friday at last formation?  Yeah, I was in a room with all of those people tonight.
• Boo will be starting Tiger Scouts tomorrow evening.  I fondly remember my time in the Scouts, and the fine group of vandals and pyromaniacs who were in my pack and troop.  What a great bunch of future demolition specialists and confidential informants they were.  Why, it seems like only yesterday when I heard the scoutmaster, Mr. Olafsen, saying, “Which one of you maniacs broke into the mess hall and drew smiley faces on all the eggs?” at summer camp.

• I am no longer allowed to use the term “250 pounds of pre-chewed bubble gum” to describe another human being.
• Boo’s cross-country coach said that when they run as a group, he will be calling cadences.  I tried to think of any running cadences I could call around children, and came up empty-handed.
  • Seriously, I spent 15 minutes thinking about this.  “Don’t let your dingle… Nope, not that one either.”
• There are days when I can’t believe they pay me to do my job.  There are also days when I shrug and think about the paycheck.
• As I’m writing this, I’m watching Boo dance with a polymer gladius to a battle song from a movie.  Life is good.
• I started the day with a cup of good coffee and a couple of pieces of baklava made by old Greek Orthodox women.  Life is good.
• I took Boo out for Greek food at lunch.  He wasn’t too sure about the whole idea, but tucked right in when I told him that it was warrior food and that the chicken was actually velociraptor.
• It isn’t a wedding in Kentucky until somebody breaks out the cornhole boards.
• Little boys are creatures that can be absolutely fascinated by the antics of tadpoles in a pond, then disappointed that the rocks they threw in did not crush a few of them.
• At this point in the electoral process, I’m thinking of voting for “Extinction Level Event” in 2016.

Competition is good.  For example, if you make something idiot proof, the world will breed a better idiot.

Discuss…..