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xiphiasSo, Lis and I showed up real late for brunch at my parents this morning, because I didn't sleep well last night and couldn't get up. Therefore, we only saw Leila and And in passing, as they went out shopping, but did get to hang out with my niece Winter.
Did I mention that, yesterday, at one point when Winter was bored, she socked me in the jaw, and I saw stars? For a six-year-old, she's got a pretty good right cross. Today, she sort of accidentally kicked me in the jaw. See, we were playing this game, "Cranium Cadoo", in which I had a minute to find 1 object that could hang on a doorknob and 1 object that could be pushed across a floor with one's nose. When I demonstrated that I could push a toy truck across the floor with my nose, Winter kicked the truck, driving it directly into my teeth.
I had told her previously that, if she hurt me, I was stopping playing the game, so I got up and went into the other room. In a couple minutes she came out and apologized. She's actually a very sweet and well-mannered child; she just needs "POOR IMPULSE CONTROL" tatooed on her forehead. But she's six, so that's frankly to be expected.
Anyway, Winter decided that she wanted to go to the park, and Lis found out that the park DOES have swings large enough for grownups to use. So Lis came with us, too. We walked down to the park -- about half a mile or so; it took us fifteen minutes to walk it (Lis timed us.)
On the walk to the park, Winter spotted a place on the curb where there was a veritible swarm of ants. She said, "I hate ants," and started stomping on the swarm. She probably killed a good half the swarm before she got bored and stopped.
She then started telling us about her garden. She's got three heads of broccoli growing ("I used to have four, but I ate one."), some peas, squash, and one pumpkin.
And it's all apparently growing well. Apparently, she is actually doing a fair bit of the gardening herself -- and the pumpkin plant is actually HERS, and she does most of the care of that plant. And she's got a couple pumpkins growing, so she's clearly doing something right. She's a dilligent and persistent weeder, which helps.
We got to the playground, and there was a big Golden Retriever there. Neither Winter nor Lis particularly likes dogs, but the Golden's owner, seeing that Winter was nervous, put the dog on the outside of the fenced-in playground, so he didn't bother wither Winter OR Lis.
Winter played in the sandbox for a while, and another kid came over and stepped on something she was building. The kid's guardian (father, uncle, brother -- dunno), who, incidentlaly, was the guy whose dog it was, scolded the kid, but Winter asked, "How old is he?"
"He's two and a half."
"Well, I'm not mad, then, because, if he's two-and-a-half, he doesn't know any better."
She, of course, was speaking from her great weight of accumulated wisdom and experience, being, as she is, SIX, which is more than TWICE as old as two-and-a-half.'
Lis and Winter and I played tag for a while, and then Winter wanted to play on the swings.
While I was pushing Winter, she mentioned that she had a million dollars, and with that money, she'd bought a plane. She spent one dollar on her airplaine. She spent TWO dollars an the garage for her airplaine, and fuel for the airplaine cost THREE DOLLARS. But, she said, for those three dollars, she got ten thousand tanks of fuel.
I asked how far she could fly on one tank of gas, and she explained that she could fly to "another solar system" on one tank. She said it would take about two minutes to get to another solar system because the airplaine was that fast. I decided not to explain about time dilation effects.
It would take even less time to get BACK again from another solar system, back to Earth -- that would only take about 3 seconds. That's because Winter would push the "Wicked Fast" button.
I don't know about you, but I think that ALL vehicles should come with a "Wicked Fast" button.
Anyway, she was saying that she had this airplaine because she had a million dollars, so Lis started singing, "If I had a million dollars," and I followwd up with "If I had a million dollars". And Winter followed up with "I would buy you a green dress (but not a real green dress that's cruel.)" She then continued to sing the song ("We could build a tree-fort in the yard", "We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner. . . but we would", "Haven't you always wanted a monkey?"
Then she sang the fateful line -- "We wouldn't have to go to the store/We'd take a limosine 'cause it costs more."
And the girl on the next swing over started singing, "If I had a million dollars, I wouldn't have to go to the store". Over and over and over and over again. She made up some other verses ("I wouldn't have to do anything", "I could buy whatever I wanted to," and like that.
Her father started to get annoyed, since his daughter was just singing this over and over and over again, and not actually with the Barenaked Ladies tune. . . when we left a half an hour later, that little girl was still singing. . .
Anyway, later on, we made hamburgers and went to a Shakespeare play but I'm too tired to write right now. G'night.
Did I mention that, yesterday, at one point when Winter was bored, she socked me in the jaw, and I saw stars? For a six-year-old, she's got a pretty good right cross. Today, she sort of accidentally kicked me in the jaw. See, we were playing this game, "Cranium Cadoo", in which I had a minute to find 1 object that could hang on a doorknob and 1 object that could be pushed across a floor with one's nose. When I demonstrated that I could push a toy truck across the floor with my nose, Winter kicked the truck, driving it directly into my teeth.
I had told her previously that, if she hurt me, I was stopping playing the game, so I got up and went into the other room. In a couple minutes she came out and apologized. She's actually a very sweet and well-mannered child; she just needs "POOR IMPULSE CONTROL" tatooed on her forehead. But she's six, so that's frankly to be expected.
Anyway, Winter decided that she wanted to go to the park, and Lis found out that the park DOES have swings large enough for grownups to use. So Lis came with us, too. We walked down to the park -- about half a mile or so; it took us fifteen minutes to walk it (Lis timed us.)
On the walk to the park, Winter spotted a place on the curb where there was a veritible swarm of ants. She said, "I hate ants," and started stomping on the swarm. She probably killed a good half the swarm before she got bored and stopped.
She then started telling us about her garden. She's got three heads of broccoli growing ("I used to have four, but I ate one."), some peas, squash, and one pumpkin.
And it's all apparently growing well. Apparently, she is actually doing a fair bit of the gardening herself -- and the pumpkin plant is actually HERS, and she does most of the care of that plant. And she's got a couple pumpkins growing, so she's clearly doing something right. She's a dilligent and persistent weeder, which helps.
We got to the playground, and there was a big Golden Retriever there. Neither Winter nor Lis particularly likes dogs, but the Golden's owner, seeing that Winter was nervous, put the dog on the outside of the fenced-in playground, so he didn't bother wither Winter OR Lis.
Winter played in the sandbox for a while, and another kid came over and stepped on something she was building. The kid's guardian (father, uncle, brother -- dunno), who, incidentlaly, was the guy whose dog it was, scolded the kid, but Winter asked, "How old is he?"
"He's two and a half."
"Well, I'm not mad, then, because, if he's two-and-a-half, he doesn't know any better."
She, of course, was speaking from her great weight of accumulated wisdom and experience, being, as she is, SIX, which is more than TWICE as old as two-and-a-half.'
Lis and Winter and I played tag for a while, and then Winter wanted to play on the swings.
While I was pushing Winter, she mentioned that she had a million dollars, and with that money, she'd bought a plane. She spent one dollar on her airplaine. She spent TWO dollars an the garage for her airplaine, and fuel for the airplaine cost THREE DOLLARS. But, she said, for those three dollars, she got ten thousand tanks of fuel.
I asked how far she could fly on one tank of gas, and she explained that she could fly to "another solar system" on one tank. She said it would take about two minutes to get to another solar system because the airplaine was that fast. I decided not to explain about time dilation effects.
It would take even less time to get BACK again from another solar system, back to Earth -- that would only take about 3 seconds. That's because Winter would push the "Wicked Fast" button.
I don't know about you, but I think that ALL vehicles should come with a "Wicked Fast" button.
Anyway, she was saying that she had this airplaine because she had a million dollars, so Lis started singing, "If I had a million dollars," and I followwd up with "If I had a million dollars". And Winter followed up with "I would buy you a green dress (but not a real green dress that's cruel.)" She then continued to sing the song ("We could build a tree-fort in the yard", "We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner. . . but we would", "Haven't you always wanted a monkey?"
Then she sang the fateful line -- "We wouldn't have to go to the store/We'd take a limosine 'cause it costs more."
And the girl on the next swing over started singing, "If I had a million dollars, I wouldn't have to go to the store". Over and over and over and over again. She made up some other verses ("I wouldn't have to do anything", "I could buy whatever I wanted to," and like that.
Her father started to get annoyed, since his daughter was just singing this over and over and over again, and not actually with the Barenaked Ladies tune. . . when we left a half an hour later, that little girl was still singing. . .
Anyway, later on, we made hamburgers and went to a Shakespeare play but I'm too tired to write right now. G'night.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-25 08:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-25 09:17 pm (UTC)In lieu of one, I will often move my hand in a cranking motion to turn the notional "go faster crank" which is usually on the right hand side of the monitor (I suppose lefties can put theirs on the left hand side). It doesn't seem to help the speed any, but usually amuses the user who is complaining about slow performance, so it's worth doing.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-25 09:55 pm (UTC)