Hi, friends!
How’s our day going? Thanks to that massive storm front that came through yesterday, today is way cooler than normal for late May. Delightfuly cool weather.
Anyways, I had to make good use of this day. A friend and I went to the Chinese Culture Days at the Missouri Botanical Gardens and it was awesome.
Anything good happen today? Anything you’re looking forward to this week?
Oof, not here in Massachusetts. It’s up to 94 and crazy humid. Way too hot to be out and about. Supposed to be thunderstorms later so hopefully that will cool things off.
This is probably bad parenting according to some people, but this weekend we figured out how to get all three of us playing minecraft together, and it’s been a lot of fun. Lil just started playing in survival mode instead of creative mode (survival = there are bad guys and you have to craft everything; creative = sandbox where you have an unlimited inventory at your disposal and can fly), so that’s added a challenge which is nice. He still gets a bit freaked out by the bad guys but the nice thing about playing together is that at least one of us can stick by him as a bodyguard. I had been hesitant to let him play anything violent, but minecraft violence is pretty tame.
It doesn’t sound like bad parenting to me.
I think that’s awesome that you found something fun for all three of you to do together!
How old was Lil when he started playing Minecraft? We’re a gaming couple and haven’t decided when or what game to introduce our kids to. I love video games and believe they have many benefits (stress relief, promotes creativity, problem solving, team work, entertainment, story telling, etc.) as long as they are played in moderation. I don’t think it’s bad parenting at all especially because you play with Lil and help support him with the parts that freak him out.
I think minecraft was one of the first if not the first video game we let him play (not counting pbs kids games on tablets and such), and I think that was probably around when he turned 4, though it could have been a little before that.
We started him in passive creative mode so there was no getting hurt and it was basically video game Legos. Some of the other good starter games that he still likes are Donut County, Human Fall Flat, and Totally Reliable Delivery Service.
I agree with you on the benefits of gaming and I’d add that I’ve seen it help Lil in dealing with frustration as well. It’s the moderation bit that I’m not sure we’re so good at.
I totally get that. The moderation thing is why I haven’t let my kids start playing yet. I know it would be one more thing we battle over and I don’t have the energy to deal with that.
We’ve had perfect weather this weekend, sunny & mid 60s. Just got back from neighbors daughter’s grad party. She got her nursing degree so they served red wine in blood bags & white in urine cups. Cute but hard to drink wine out of a straw! Not sure about week, lots of honey do list things to catch up on. If weather stays this nice I might have to stain the deck
Got the Sunday night blues, because half the weekend was spent doing shit I didn’t want to do. I had to get together with my family today, and I resented the hell out of it:
1. I had to organize everything and make arrangements. I have five siblings and three are retired. So yeah, one of the two who has a job had to handle everything.
2. A cousin came out of nowhere. Dude, I had a reservation. Now I gotta ask for another table.
3. My family are religious fundamentalists. That’s usually kept to a minimum, but my brother had to say grace for like 5 minutes while the wait staff stood around awkwardly.
4. My family are religious fundamentalists. No drinking.
5. We did separate checks, and I’m just hoping those cheap pricks treated the server right on the tips, because religious fundamentalists.
6. I hate taking a large party to a restaurant. I. just. fucking. hate. it. It’s chaos and stupidity and dumb questions and I. hate. it.
I’m making up for lost time on the drinking right now.
Everywhere I’ve lived if you have more than 8 they include a 20% tip automatically. Sounds like you definitely deserve a few drinks! Cheers!
I’m pretty used to seeing it as low as “parties of 6 or more” with the automatic gratuity.
Oh gross I hate it too. It’s so stressful in large groups! Also I’m sorry about the fundies.
I’ve been to large family parties where the coordination involves renting out a room and then it’s like “Caesar or house salad? Which of these 3 entrees do you want?” so basically more catering than restaurant service. At least in that case I feel like it’s easier for the staff to deal with the group. But that was like parties of 20+, too.
Just catching up on household chores. And playing Disco Elysium. Or trying to. Every time I start making progress my sister, daughter, or a friend texts me. I give up.
I got a pedicure and today I had book club, so that was fun. Then I came home and had schnitzel for dinner!
All in all, a good weekend. Sad I have to go back to work tomorrow and starting the day off with a covid booster at 8AM.
Got my second booster last Monday in anticipation of traveling to Las Vegas at the end of the month.
So, you had four shots altogether? I’ve had three and I’m going to Chicago in like three weeks. I wonder if I should go. Did you have adverse reactions to the 2nd booster?
Yes, all four. No adverse reaction whatsoever. My arm was a bit sore. I do believe my covid exposure is more than most people have, and it’s just not having much effect any more.
At this point it seems plausible (though not confirmed) that I’ve had covid twice, once very severely just before anyone knew what it was and then again a couple of months ago (I tested negative but I was with a group that all tested positive and they all developed symptoms, plus negative tests are unreliable). The second time I *may* have had the sniffles, I can’t be sure.
I’m just going to keep getting shots as available. I feel that they’re going to become automatic annual events, like flu shots (which I also get).
My main event for the day was moving some sheep from the East pasture down to the West. It was the border collies that did the work. I just basically walked along with them while the dogs urge the sheep to go in the right direction. Occasionally, I will say, “come on!” or “go there, sheep!” just to make it look like I’m doing something important. Except for working the latch on the pasture gates, I’m pretty sure I could have just told the dogs, Izzy and Chief, to “go move the sheep to the West pasture” and I could have kept watching the ballgame.
I love smart dogs. We have two smart ones…and then there are the boys.
So did you train them, or did somebody train them and then taught you how to work with them?
The young woman who is the farm manager here trains border collies. She’s usually got 8-10 of them going at any given time. They are highly sought-after in these parts. She’s magical with all the animals.
I’m looking forward to Queen Victoria Day tomorrow. In my blue collar circle, we used to call this mega overtime weekend, but thanks to some production issues and lower drug demand, this year we’ll call this the lost weekend. Instead of working, I actually have an unexpected weekend.
I don’t mind having the time off from a very stupid stressful week that included management putting up a job posting for a volunteer position to basically help the noob who they hired (instead of me). I made it clear I ain’t volunteering. Why the hell should I use my skills, intelligence and experience to mentor a junior engineer FOR FREE? I could rant and rave but won’t to spare anyone from suffering me being whiny shithead. It just reinforces my view is that they want me (the skills/knowledge/experience) but don’t want me (the expensive asshole suffer no fools personality who won’t kiss their asses and stroke their egos.)
Had a zoom call with university friends and drank some Strongbow yesterday. It was a good time.
Hot and humid as fuck so put my head down and powered through gardening and lawn mowing yesterday when it wasn’t quite as awful so I could focus on inside stuff today. Also, the rain fucking hates me and my garden this year just like every other fucking year.
Today would have been perfect weather here for yard work except that we had so much fucking rain the last few days that it’s a glorified swamp.
Oh yeah, I finally mowed my lawn yesterday morning, before it got too hot. Grass was getting really tall and I think it was attracting ticks. I thought ahead to wear my mask so I didn’t end up with a streaming nose by the end which was nice for a change. I know everyone hates masks but honestly I feel like I should have been using them more for years.
Yep, I mowed and weed-whacked yesterday and wore a mask. It does seem to help.
Something to brighten things up a bit;
I discovered quokkas, trying to find “Q” animals to do some animal alphabet books & file-folder matching-game alphabets for my kiddos…
They are ADORABLE, and have become one of my favorite animals to show people😉😁💖
(Fwiw, U, Z, and V are some of the *other* letters that are tricky to find good/different animals for, but with some really cool animals you can use!)
That quokka looks too darn cute to be real! Like an animated creature.
Oh, I got back on Saturday night. Then I spent the night at my parents’ house and came back home last night. Sorry that I neglected to post in between packing and getting myself settled and the nap that basically became a preliminary night’s sleep.