Asymptomatic

I chatted with the kids a bit about the recent horrendous snowfall. They seem mostly concerned about snow getting into their boots.

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Since Berta started her new job this summer, I've been responsible for getting the kids to school. I wake both kids at the same time, if Abby doesn't get up on her own, and get them both ready in time for Abby's bus. As the seasons change and the weather gets confusingly colder, it's been difficult getting Riley ready for school in the mornings.

Riley is very picky about the clothes that he will wear. There is no pattern to his preferences as far as I can tell. He will seem to like the shirts with motocycles on them, and then the next day, hate all shirts with motorcycles. Also, I have to watch carefully to make sure that he doesn't re-wear the Spiderrman socks day-to-day, since he seems to love those. But the biggest challenge in the colder weather has been switching to long sleeves and pants.

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A month or two ago, Abby and Berta had tickets to some musical, so I decided to get monster truck tickets for Riley and I so that we could have a "guy's day out". That didn't work out so well. They warn you that the trucks are going to be loud, and we had earplugs, but they weren't working. Riley was rightfully scared of the noise, and so I bought him a set of the wheel-shaped earmuffs that they sell at the concession stands.

I put it on his head and he started yelling about how he didn't want to wear them. They hurt his head. Granted, they were tight - they'd have to be to stay on. But if you left them on for a little bit, you'd get comfortable with them and they'd block the noise well. He wasn't having it. There was no convincing him to keep them on, thus there was no convincing him to stay. More than $300 in tickets (I had to buy three for the two of us, and they were really good seats because that's all they had left by the time I found out the girls weren't going to be home and decided to do this) down the drain.

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As you might be aware, we have two kids. We also occasionally like to eat out at restaurants. Inevitably this ends up with an order of macaroni and cheese ordered from the kids menu. Abby is starting to order some more interesting things these days, but that's really not the point of what I'm writing here. What I'm interested in are the menus themselves.

Depending on the restaurant, you get a varying quality of children's menu. Some places simply have the menu as a box tucked into a corner of the adult menu, but the interesting ones are full-color activity booklets that come with a pack of crayons. I find these activity books interesting, and themselves widely varying.

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In case you weren't aware, we celebrate my birthday on Wednesday this year, June 4th. My birthday is not actually on June 4th, but that's the day I've chosen to celebrate it. I think I've finally gotten everyone on board with the idea.

This year's event is on the Saturday after, and is a bit bigger than previous affairs. It's the culmination of two years' worth of home building, having moved in two years ago August. It's the first time that Berta will be inviting work people over for anything. I've been inviting everyone I meet to come hang out. We're inviting our neighbors all over, too, which is long overdue - I think they secretly think we're weird for not having done so already. So it's not just for my birthday, although that's how the date was chosen, but also just a general summer party, probably the biggest one we'll throw for a while.

As a result of such the event, we've arranged for some special food and events. We ordered a pig from Brandywine Picnic Park. Just today I obtained a small moonbounce for the kids to play on/in. Berta got lamp oil for use in my flaming juggling equipment. I even ordered more than a few miracle fruit for our guests to try, although I've not heard anything yet about their delivery, so I hope they arrive in time or I'm going to have a lot of miracle fruit to eat by myself.

But one thing that's been occupying some significant mental time lately is the Pirate Quest.

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