I just randomly came across a note on my phone where I had saved this. I'm not sure what year this is from, though...
Ellen: do you think, when I grow up, I could be a director?
Me: you can be anything you want.
Ellen: when I grow up, then, can I be a dragon?
Katie: when I grow up, I want to be a caterpillar.
Let's see if dreams really can come true...
About 3 months ago, I moved into a cool new place with Linda and her kids. Kim and I are officially divorced. It happened. I moved away from my kids, but, happily, only 3 blocks.
But as life goes on, things return to "normal." Tonight I spend most of the evening with Chris on one couch, me and Katie snuggled up on the other watching The Avengers. You know, I love playing video games, and I love going out and having fun, but there's something special about snuggling my kids and just watching a movie. Katie's spending the night for the second time, and Ellen's spent a few nights here. It's...life. It's odd, it's all over the place, and it's a bit chaotic at times, but there was no disaster. No tidal wave when I moved out. I see my kids all the time now, during the week, on weekends, at random times, just like before, but now I have another full time kid, and one in college. I am with Linda every day, I see Kim often, my parents come to dinner or whatever often.
As they say, the more that things change, the more they stay the same. And I think I kinda like it.
Today, Katie performed at the Livingston Mall with her school chorus. She had a wonderful solo during the song "Stand By Me", by Ben E. King. Here's the video of her - hopefully the sound is good as we're in the middle of a mall!
(double click on video to play)
It's time again for da carving to commence. This year, we did all our carving on sunday after I was away at the Sea Witch Festival, in Rehoboth Beach, DE. For the first time in years, I dressed up for halloween. When I get some of the good pictures from others, I'll post a few.
However, this post is all about pumpkins! We sort of went into this year with vague ideas at best. Ellen and I planned a Portal pumpkin, which i envisioned as a 3D thing with cutout sides. She did almost all the actual work--I just designed it. I thought it came out pretty well, as you can see below (unlit and lit versions):
Katie did everything herself. She found a Yatsuba picture of the girl holding her hands over her head and yelling. Unfortunately, the hands are indistinct, so it's hard to see them as hands, but I still liked it. She did do the entire thing herself, though, so she gets lots of credit for that (lit only):
Finally, I wasn't actually sure I'd do a pumpkin this year, but discussing an idea with Katie made me want to try to do a completely carved out, bas-relief pumpkin. Essentially, letting the shape of the thing come out from the pumpkin. I'm not sure it really worked, but it came out reasonably well anyway (and didn't take the 8-hours the Matrix one did last year...)
So, my entry this year, Katie had named "Identity Crisis", which I loved (several angles of unlit, and one lit):
So, there's this years crop. Hope you enjoy!
I facebooked these, but I should have blogged them and then had them post to facebook, but regardless, these two were too funny to not post on the blog for future reference.
Both of these were tonight at dinner.
Katie Conversation:
Katie: "what movie are you talking about?"
Me: "silence of the lambs"
Katie: "what's it about?"
Me: "a serial killer."
Katie: "poor lambs"
Ellen Conversation:
We were discussing a meat dish that was very tender (a slow-cooked mexican pork dish). She pronounced that "meat was the only thing that got better with entropy", and ultimately therefore "slow cooking was chaos theory in action."
Wow.
This weekend (memorial day weekend) was one of several where the kids have joined me down at Linda's place, and it's felt a bit like the Brady Bunch. We're 2 kids short for that, but we do have 2 cats, so it's close. Regardless of numbers, though, it makes my heart glad to see how well the four kids interact, most of the time. Kids will be kids, of course, and there's a share of bickering and fighting, but in general, it's just wonderful how well they all get along. The four of them are downstairs watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows right now, and when I left to come to bed, and Lindsay climbed up onto the couch in my spot, Chris announced "Fine, I'll just stay down here and snuggle with Katie!" This, of course, elicited a whoop from Katie and the two of them settled down to watch together. Too cute for words.
Yesterday was a A-level minor league baseball game at a stadium really close by (the Potomic Nationals) and the 6 of us had great seats. We watched the whole game, laughing, high-fiving the players as they ran by (we had REALLY good seats...), and stayed for fireworks and Katie and Chris ran the bases. Ellen and Lindsay mostly played on their iPhones, but even that was fine. Watch the game, don't watch, just have fun, and we all did.
It's always a special time together, doing whatever, and I couldn't ask for much more between the kids I have and the kids I'm looking forward to being much more a part of. I'm very lucky in this, and I know it.
This year's installment of the annual Meyerson pumpkin extravaganza yielded some interesting results. We had planned on 2 pumpkins--I was going to just help the girls do theirs--but decided to add a third with me taking over the one Ellen was going to do. Good thing, too, as it took more than 5 hours...*rolls eyes*
To be honest, though, I think Katie's pumpkin came out best of the three, but you can be the judge.
Ellen's was the simplest, and only took a short time, but came out pretty cool. You have to know the video game Portal and the geeky comic it's based on from Penny Arcade, but anyone who does will instantly recognize it.
Katie also chose a video game theme, the Big Daddy from one of her favorite games ever, Bioshock. She did an amazing job on this one, and did everything herself. All I did was tape the pattern down and cut the top open.
I'm not sure people will recognize my entry, but I'll leave you with a clue...
Here's a slightly darker picture of mine. I couldn't decide which one I liked better.
We flew down to North Carolina (via Norfolk, VA) for a vacation with both "families" for the first time. So Ellen, Katie and I are in the airport, and the topic of a Simpson's episode came up. In this episode, Homer is waiting to buy a gun (long story) and everything he sees looks like targets, including some little ducklings walking across the street in a neat row. Ellen said "I'd shoot the ducklings first!" with such vehemence that I had to ask why she would shoot the little ducks. She replies "Because they grow up and become geese!"
Katie and I just started laughing, and then Ellen did too realizing what she said (although Katie didn't miss an opportunity to say "Uh, Ellen, they GOSLINGS grow up to become GEESE. Duh."
Several times over the past few weeks I've seen what looked like a huge hamster with a think brown tail. Guesses as to what the creature was were forthcoming, ranging from a groundhog (my original guess) to a pony (katie's guess) to a badger (ellen's guess). Fortunately for all of us, my guess was correct, and the fuzzy creature you see below has been eating our garden, plants, trees, grass, and anything else he can get his little teeth into:
Having seen it actually scamper across our driveway and under our deck, I was painfully aware that the problem was not going away. Also, I didn't want to end up like Bill Murray, and have to marry the painfully self-righteous Andie MacDowell. So, last night, a trap was purchased and simply set out next to the deck with some apples inside of it (groundhogs are supposed to like apples--don't ask me, I just take the orders). After it was set, we got into a lively debate around the table regarding the configuration of the trap with Ellen, who insisted that it should have the following, additional traits:
1, it have multiple compartments, for catching many bits 'o prey at once.
2, that it have a conveyor belt to escort that prey to its designated compartment after it stumbles into what would be the loudest trap ever.
3, that it have a solar power source to work the conveyor belt.
4, that it have a nuclear power source to send a signal to a receiver that the operator (me) would wear in his pocket.
5, that the receiver would also be nuclear in some way (she called it a "nuclear pulse" that would be sent to my pocket...I said I didn't think so for the painfully obvious reasons...)
So, after we spent a few minutes roundly making fun of her on this any many other scores the way we, as supportive parents, tend to do, we dispersed from dinner and headed to bed. Upon waking this morning, I was informed by Kim that several things had happened regarding the trap that I should be aware of:
1, the trap was full--of Raccoon.
2, the groundhog was sitting happily right outside the trap munching on a leaf, looking at the raccoon, and scampered off when Kim came near.
Thus, we owe Ellen an apology. Clearly her conveyor belt system had some merits. Had we had additional compartments, the Raccoon would not be lonely right now, but instead we would have two wild animals caged in our backyard, attacking each other for the 2 apples I left cut up in the trap.
Oh, and Happy Birthday Katiebug! Way to turn 8!
kim related this story, as told to her by one of the counsellors at MSU camp:
Gary, one of the counsellors, stopped Katie and said that he was heading over to where Ellen was, and did she have any message to pass on to her.
Katie: tell her "me wuv you"
So Gary dutifuly passes on the message and asks Ellen if she had any reply:
Ellen: yes, tell Katie to use proper grammar.
SO Ellen.
