Bad Words

Overheard from a line of 1st graders at LilKat1's Elementary School...

"Stupid can't be a bad word because the 'S' word is already taken."

The Pickles

Here's a picture of my legs after running though the prickle bushes while orienteering last week. The funny part is that if you were to ask LilKat2 what happened to my legs, he would say that it was because his dad was 'running through the pickles'.

He walks in the classroom cool and slow

Me and LilKat1 went to Costco the other day. Here's the conversation that we had after we got out of the car:

LilKat1: Why does he sound so sad?

Me: He thinks everyone's always picking on him.

LilKat1: Why does he think that?

Me: He gets caught doing things he shouldn't be doing.

LilKat1: Like what?

Me: Oh, writing on the walls, throwing spitballs, calling the English teacher Daddio.

LilKat1: Why does he do that?

Me: Because he's a clown.

LilKat1: Who's a clown?

Me: That Charlie Brown.


Guess what song we had just listened to in the car!

Gamer

LilKat2 is developing into a little boardgamer. Today, Mrs. BigKat took LilKat1 out on a date (donuts...mmm...), so I had some time by myself with LilKat2. All he wanted to do was play games. We started out with 2 games of Gulo Gulo. We followed this up with a game of Formula De Mini (one of my new games). And then we finished it off with a couple games of Monza. We started to play a game of Max, but PrincessKat woke up from her nap, so we had to put everything away. Too bad, because we also had Ave Caesar and Viva Topo on deck. If we were by ourselves, I think we probably would've played games all afternoon.
It's really fun being able to share one of the hobbies that I love so much with my son. Spending time together doing an activity that both of us enjoy so much is truly priceless. And he's only 3! I can't wait to see what kind of games we'll be playing together in the years to come.

Orienteering!

Our family went on an orienteering adventure today. The weather forecast said that we were going to have showers. Not ideal weather, but nothing we haven't done before. The last 2 times we've went to this particular park for orienteering, we've been rained on. We got all of our raingear on, piled into our cars, and took off.

I took a look at the maps when we got there. The last time we came here, we did the easiest course (the 'White' course). It was too easy. I think it was a total of less than a mile. We finished and the boys (especially LilKat2) were itching for more. But this year's maps were much longer. The White course was a little over 3km. I thought it would be a good challenge for us.

It worked out pretty well! We had some rain, but our raincoats protected us (PrincessKat was in the stroller with a raincover, so she stayed the driest of all of us). Towards the end, we even got a little sun! LilKat1 had a good time, but he got a bit tired towards the end. LilKat2 said he had a 'great' time! He just loves orienteering. He takes off sprinting whenever he sees the controls.

After we were done, I decided that I was going to stick around and try the expert (Green) course by myself. We had taken separate cars, so Mrs. BigKat took the kids home while I stayed for another round. I was the last one to start for the day, so I had to get going pretty quickly.

It started out pretty well. The first 2 controls were not too bad to find. The sun was still peeking out, so the weather was good.

It all went downhill from there...

It started with control 3. Control 3 was near the south end of a small river. The small river was surrounded by prickly plants. Very prickly plants! And those very prickly plants were surrounded by other very prickly plants. And of course, I wore shorts because...well, I always wear shorts. As a result, my legs got a bit bloodies as I tried to fight my way through all of the prickles. Actually, you know what? Calling them prickles really doesn't do them justice. They were more like spikey razor claws. I had to fight my way through a field of spikey razor claws. In fact, later in the course, I had to crawl through a barbed wire fence. The barbed wire fence was less prickly than the spikey razor claws. Well, it took a while, but I finally got to control 3.

Control 4 looked pretty easy. But I took a slight wrong turn and wasted about 10 minutes looking for it. Not too bad, but not great for my time.

From that point on, things went pretty smoothly until control 9. I could not find control 9! I looked all over the place. I triple checked the map to make sure I was in the right place. I spent probably a good 20 minutes there looking for it. I started wondering, since I was the last person to start, did someone not know that I was still running and started taking all of the controls down? Well, I backtracked a little bit and tried one last time. This time, I looked a bit to the left, even though it wasn't the spot that the map was pointing too. Sure enough, there it was, plain as day, right out in the open. I felt dumb.

Control 10 was easy. And control 11 wasn't too far from control 10. It was right in the middle of a small water channel. I punched my card and checked the map for control 12. Control 12 was on the other side of the water channel. The channel wasn't very wide, maybe 3 or 4 feet. I took a standing broad jump, cleared the channel and...CRAAAAAACKKKKKKKKK!

OW! That would be my ankle making that sound. I rolled it pretty good. I only had 2 controls left, though, so it wasn't too bad. I just took it a little slower. I tried running a little, but it wasn't going to happen. So I tried hobbling. Ahh...much better.

So here I was hobbling through an open field. When suddenly...Ow...Ow...OW...OW-OW!!! Someone's throwing rocks at me! Little white rocks about the size of peas! Wait...those aren't rocks...that's hail! Here I am in this open field with nowhere to hide and it's hailing on me. I looked around to see if it was hailing everywhere. Over to my left, it was really bad. It looked almost like a snowy tv set with bad reception. I mean it was really dumping. Well, it's a good thing that I wasn't over...

OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW!

Ok, now I was getting bombarded by sheets of white ice rocks. I put my head down to protect my face and just hoped that I was hobbling (in an open field at approximately 6 hours per mile) in something resembling the right direction since I couldn't see where I was going.

It took a while, but I finally made it to the trail. Only 2 controls to go. By now, everything was covered in white. Which made things a bit slippery, something that my ankle didn't really appreciate. I followed the map to control 12. It was pretty easy to find. But the problem was, it was halfway down a steep slope heading towards the river. This would normally not be a problem, but now, it was covered with slippery ice rocks, and my ankle wasn't working properly.

I somehow managed to make my way down to the control without killing myself. I started to punch my scorecard when...hmmm...where's my scorecard? Not in my pockets...Not in my hands...uh, oh...

I lost my scorecard. Without my scorecard, I won't get an official score. Even if I find all of the controls and finish, my score will be recorded as 'Did not finish' or something like that. My hands were really cold. I must've dropped it and not noticed it. Well, it can't be too hard to find a scorecard, right? A big white card stands out pretty well on the ground...unless the ground is covered in white ice rocks! Then it's impossible!

I searched for a few minutes and gave up. I just moved on to the last control, took a good look at it, and headed towards the finish line. When I got there, there wasn't even a finish line. Just one of the orienteering helpers packing away a bunch of stuff. Turns out that the officials had all already left. They thought that no one was left on the course. When I registered for the Green Course, the guy told me not to fill out another registration form. He told me that they would just use my first original number. I'm guessing that they assumed that since they had my scorecard from the White Course, I was all done. So even if I hadn't lost my scorecard, it wouldn't have mattered.

Fortunately, I had my stopwatch running, so I could check my time, even though I couldn't get an official score. My time was 2 hours 8 minutes. Hopefully good enough for 2nd to last place...but probably not. Maybe it was good that I didn't have an official score...

I headed back to my truck. My socks and shoes were soaked. My legs, back, and sides ached. My legs were covered with spikey razor claw wounds. But did I have a good time? YOU BETCHA! I love orienteering! I guess it just goes to show that if you're doing something you love, even if everything goes wrong, you can still have a great time!

Shoe Surprise

You know how sometimes you go to put your shoe on, and it just doesn't feel right? So then you take your shoe off, hold it upsidown, shake it, and a rock comes out? Well, you know what came out of my slipper just now?

Waffles! 2 small Eggo waffles!

This has never happened to me before, but I have my suspicions about who did this. Now, I'm not saying any names, but she's little, she's sneaky, she likes to steal slippers, and she had waffles for breakfast.

New Beginnings

Well, the Warriors are officially out of the playoffs. Which is a little sad because I've been looking forward to the Western Conference playoffs for a few months now. I was planning on watching all of the games. It was going to be like March Madness except much longer and way better...

Now with the Warriors out, I'm just not that interested. I'll probably watch a few games, but not that many.

But things are not that bad. As they say, when God closes a door, he opens...a boardgame!

That's right! Today, the FedEx guy will be delivering a 23 pound box to my door filled with all sorts of cardboard and plastic-y fun. Here's what I'm getting:

1) Formula De Mini - My boys have been enjoying playing the regular version of Formula De (with simplified rules). It's a car racing game and they loooooove race cars! Formula De Mini has some smaller tracks (which is good because sometimes it's hard for them to reach across the big boards) and streamlined rules.

2) 1960 - The Making of a President - I've been trying to get this game for a while. It sold out a few months ago and was just reprinted. It's a 2 player election game where one person is Kennedy and the other is Nixon. Sounds boring so far right? Well it did to me when I first heard about it. I'm not very into history and following elections and things like that. But I read some reviews on it, and it just sounds like a very fun, interesting card based game. I like playing high quality games no matter what the theme is (especially 2 player games, since it's usually just me and Mrs. BigKat), so I'm excited to try this one out.

3) Last Night on Earth -The Zombie Game - I've also been looking forward to this one. Again, it sold out before I could buy a copy and was just reprinted. This is a 2-6 player game where one player (sometimes 2) are the zombies and the rest are the people. The zombies try to get the people and turn them into zombies. The people try to get away from the zombies or find things to blow them up. Pretty simple, huh? It's basically a board game version of an old zombie movie. And they used actual actors to pose for the artwork which should add to the game experience.

4) Galaxy Trucker - Yet a third game that sold out before I could buy a copy and was recently reprinted! This game is kind of a puzzle game. All the players construct spaceships from a pool of various pieces. There are restrictions on what pieces can connect to what other pieces, so you have to think a little bit about how they're going to fit together. When everyone is done building, the ships are launched into outer space where they're blown apart by asteroids, space pirates, and other things. If you've built a good ship, hopefully you'll survive the trip and earn a few points. So basically a Star Wars/Tetris/Meat Grinder game. Fun!

So now, instead of my evenings being filled up with Baron, Captain Jack and Monta, they'll be filled with Zombies, Nixon, and little tiny plastic astronauts. And you know what? I'm OK with this!


Edit - You know, after I wrote this, I realized that I really need to thank God for my wonderful wife. She really is a great sport. She is always willing to try out any game I buy, no matter how goofy it is. Even if it doesn't sound remotely interesting to her, she always humors me and gives it a good honest try. Lately, I've been trying to get games that I think she would enjoy (because honestly, if she doesn't like it, it will probably not see very much play time). But I have a feeling that zombie games and games like Command and Colors: Ancients would not be her first choice of things to play. I love my wife. She's the best!

High Five

I saw this in a Bill Simmons article. Andrew Bogut creating imaginary teammates to high five after a free throw...

Sad

The Warriors lost...

World's Meanest Dad

The other day, Mrs. BigKat and I were about to have lunch. LilKat2 had already eaten, so he was off having fun coloring. We sat down together and started praying. During the middle of our prayer, LilKat2 runs over to me and starts yelling at me, 'Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!' I stopped praying and I told LilKat2 sternly that he needs to be more patient and to wait until we were done praying before he said whatever it was that he wanted to say.
He immediately started talking again, so I interrupted him and again (this time a little more sternly) told him that he needed to be patient and wait until we were done. He got a very sad look on his face, but waited patiently.
When we finished praying, I looked at LilKat2 and asked him what it was that he wanted. His lip was quivering and tears were starting to roll down his cheeks.
Then he said 'I want you to pray for my fish that died.'

Ok...I'm officially the World's Meanest Dad...LilKat2's fish had died not too long ago, and he asks me to pray about that pretty much every night at bedtime. I've used that time to talk to him about death in general as well as the life in Heaven that we look forward to as Christians. I try and make sure that he knows that we're praying that God will take care of him in his time of sadness and that we're not praying for the fish. It's been on his mind a lot and I probably should've remembered...

Anyhow, immediately after he was able to make his request, the full on cry started. I gave him a big hug and apologized about a million times and told him that I should have let him talk to us and it was all my fault. After a couple of minutes of hugging and crying, we were able to pray together about his fish. Then he went off to go color again, feeling a little bit better.
As Mrs. BigKat and I started to eat lunch, I looked down at my sweatshirt. The front was covered with tiny wet spots...teary reminders of the magnitude of my meanness.

But the good news is that he came in to visit me in my office just now. And in his hands was a brand new red fish!

Kevin Durant

I love Kevin Durant. Why? Because he may have just SAVED my WARRIORS!

Watch this...



The Warriors lost badly yesterday. I assumed that the Nuggets would beat the Sonics, putting my Warriors out of the playoffs effectively by 2 games (since they lose the tiebreaker to the Nuggets). But thanks to my new best friend, Kevin Durant, the Warriors are still in the playoff hunt. They just need to beat Denver on Thursday...

GO WARRIORS!

Sand Dance

Yesterday we went to the park again (no famous neighbors there this time though). We played in the sand mostly and had a good time. When I got home, I noticed that I had some sand in my shoes. I took them off, and banged them out in the garage. I probably should've banged them out somewhere else because now, every time I go out to the garage refrigerator to get a pop (that's what people in Oregon call soda, by the way), I feel like I'm doing the Ethiopian Shim Sham.

What's It To Ya Video #3

Mike Petty has a new What's It To Ya video to check out. It explains a bit more about how to play the game and why it's fun.

So in honor of the new video, I thought I would do another of my own What's It to Ya posts. I've just got out my What's It To Ya game and pulled out 5 cards. Go get a piece of paper and guess how I'd rank the following...

Email
Trees
Respect
Soap
Breakfast

When you're done, scroll down to see the answers...Go!





















Here are my answers:
1) Respect - One of the most important values that we're trying to teach our kids. And it's also rule number 3 on my soccer team and in Sunday School (in case you were wondering what the rest are, they are 1) Listen 2) Follow Directions 3) Be Respectful and 4) Be a part of the Group. Later on in soccer, we added 2 more rules: 5) No Pushing 6) No Complaining).

2) Breakfast - I eat the same breakfast every day. I blend up 2 bananas, some frozen fruit, milk, honey, and juice. It is known in my house as Dad's 'Breakfast Drink'. If I don't eat this, my body doesn't like it so much.

3) Soap - I was going to put Email here. But I think it's just because we take soap for granted. You know, I'm thinking that maybe I should've put it at number 2. Because not being clean...well...it stinks!

4) Email - It seems like it should be higher. But there are just too many other good cards above it. Kind of like the NBA Western Conference.

5) Trees - Trees are good. I like trees a lot. They just can't compete with Respect, Breakfast, Soap, and Email. If this group of cards is the Western Conference, Trees are definitely the Blazers.

My Neighbor

I got to meet my neighbor at the park yesterday. He was their with his little boy (who is very cute!). LilKat1 impressed him by leaping off of the big dinosaur bones structure in the sandpit.

I told My-Friend-Who-Lies, and now he is jealous.