November, 2003

Ack! Time for another update about our exciting lives. You’d think now that I’m obsessively posting in my blog this would be easy. But it’s not. It might even be harder. What a whiner I am. Okay, no more whining. On to the updating!

Let’s see...Cal is officially a year old (August 27). He’ll be 15 months old at the end of this month. He’s walking like a champ. He can say mommy, daddy, book, bubbles, nah, no, bamboo (ba-boo), and a very funny approximation of Teen Titans. He can also bark like a dog, recognize most commands (except for those he chooses to ignore), moo like a cow, and meow like a cat. Yes, he’s multi-talented.

Anyway, it’s pretty fun having a one year old around the house most days. Other days though I’m ready to hide in my room and let Mike handle him.

Duncan started second grade. He likes his teacher and likes school once he’s there but hates having to get up early. He seems to be doing okay. He’s excelling in reading (naturally) and needs to work on his “math facts”.

As I predicted in August, Duncan decided not to do dance for another year. So he and Mike researched martial arts studios and picked Lee’s Tae Kwan Do. Master Lee is nice but firm and he’s got a lot of kids in his school so that’s great for Duncan. He goes to Tae Kwan Do on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for an hour after school. He’s enjoying it a lot and should be ready to test for his yellow belt soon.

Duncan is also in Cub Scouts again this year. He and Mike are gearing up for their annual pine car derby. Other than that they do all those Cub Scouty things that I don’t pay much attention to because Scouts is Mike’s responsibility. Which probably explains why they tend to forget about meeting nights.

In August Mike and I went to the “Monumental Democratic Presidential Forum” (that’s what it was called, truly) in Stillwater, OK. It was a lot of fun in a political-geek way and quite nice being away from the kids all day.

And then in September Mike and I had another parents night out and traveled to Tulsa, OK to see Lucinda Williams in concert. The concert was in the evening so we elected to stay overnight and it was heavenly to sleep in the next morning. Great concert too, btw.

Also in September I took a four day trip to Denver, CO to attend a wedding. I went with a friend of mine and Mike and the kids stayed home. That was so nice but it would have been more relaxing if we hadn’t driven to Colorado and back. I was pooped by the time we got home and felt like I was behind on everything all week.

Mike, Duncan and I have been playing a lot of Soul Calibur 2 for the Gamecube. When Duncan and I saw this game as a demo at Target we were both hooked. And when we found out it was rated T, we were ecstatic. I’ve seen a few rated M games for the Gamecube that I wouldn’t mind having but I couldn’t in good conscience let Duncan play them yet so I resist buying them.

But Soul Calibur 2 lets me kick butt in a game, which I love and, this is the best part, they’re not fighting with guns. Words cannot express how satisfying it is to whip up on your seven year-old after a hard day of kid wrangling.

I also bought the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds game for the Gamecube but I haven’t gotten around to playing it yet. But after the first Buffy the Vampire Slayer platform game came out for Xbox only I was chomping at the bit for a Gamecube version. They never did release one, but the next BTVS game came out for all three platforms and there was no way I was missing out.

In October, Mike, Duncan and I attended a small Japanese Animation convention at the University of Oklahoma put on by the OU Animation Society (RoninCon). This was their fourth year to throw this con and it was quite a lot of fun. You shouldn’t go expecting a Project A-Kon experience because the entire con is run out of school space. But they had a lot of fansubs, a console gaming room, regular gaming room, panels, an art show, and a dealer’s/concessions room. Attendance wasn’t too shabby either.

The con ran for two days but we only went for one. I wanted Duncan to experience the costume contest (cosplay) so we ended up staying well into the evening. Maybe next year we’ll be able to convince him to dress up and enter. I think he’d have a blast doing that.

Halloween was a typical one for us. Duncan (a bleeding faced skeleton demon) and Cal (Superman!) went with the grandmas and Mike to Haunt the Zoo. I had a night of blissful peace and quiet at home. The night of Halloween Duncan went out but not Cal because the weather had turned chilly and it’s not like Cal needed candy.

On the movie front this quarter we saw Whale Rider (great!), American Wedding (funny!), Uptown Girls (achingly bad), Freaky Friday (cute), Dirty Pretty Things (good but sad), Underworld (violent and fun), American Splendor (curmudgeonly and great!) and Matrix Revolutions (satisfying and lots of fun).