Willie and Teddy's Excellent Adventure: 2008

3/30/2008

Willie and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

Willie
and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

Ah, spring break, and our chance to enjoy the great indoors. As per usual, papa is trying to encourage us to go run around outside, but we've stuck to our principles and roundly refused. We have seen 4 episodes of Star Trek, programmed on Scratch, read email and cleaned toilets. We even managed to get meals into ourselves and got dressed before noon, but not on Saturday. Teddy has been practicing cracking and flipping his eggs. Willie's class had 5th grade plays on Thursday afternoon and evening. His class did 100 Dresses. Mommy wasn't feeling well so she couldn't make it to the plays, so Willie pretty much did all the dialog for her. Papa did some too--he saw the show twice.

So the funny part of this picture is that this is Will, but not Willie, at our final meeting of chess club for the year. Speaking of Willie, he's still around, just not in pictures this week--papa didn't do a good job of capturing us with the camera. Better luck next week.

This is chess coach Elston. He played EVERYBODY in chess club on the last day and some of the kids were hanging on at the end, but we didn't stay around long enough to see if they knocked him off.

Speedy view of the remodel

Updated 3/30/2008

Hey, click the pears picture above to check out our friend Leslie's Watercolors, and BUY THEM!!!

3/23/2008

Willie and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

Willie
and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

You may be surprised to hear that we did things other than Scratch this (three-day) weekend, but we really had variety. We played bionicles, chess (real chess, not on the computer), random active games...we decorated cookies, went outside, got new shoes, got our glassed adjusted, and got measured and weighed. I (Willie) am a quarter of an inch away from five feet, and I (Teddy) am a quarter of an inch away from four feet! One of us weighs 48 pounds (after a big dinner) and the other 86.5 pounds (not quite such a big dinner), you can guess which is which.

One of us even had to do some homework over the weekend, studying for some quizzes, which need I say is NO FAIR.

There was also a torrential downpour, the good thing about it was that when we were on our way back from a Hebrew School field trip there was a lot of traffic so by the time we got back it was time to go home! (The field trip was going to a nursing home to sing for the people there. We both don't really much like to sing, so we wanted to dance the kazatzka which we thought would be more fun and they would like it, but our teachers and the principal didn't know what it was, so they didn't let us. We say, foo!, didn't you people ever even see Fiddler on the Roof, for mercy's sake?

During one of our intergalactic games Baby Snuffles accidentally got into fluidic space (aka silly putty) and couldn't quite get it all off. We told Mommy he was going to need a special bath. She was skeptical that it would get the silly putty off. So we did an internet search and some people said, try to freeze it off, followed up by a spraying of WD-40. "I don't think so," says mommy, and looks for another solution (after the ridiculous "just hang the stuffed animal upside down and let the silly putty drip off of it" -- yeah, right!). Then we found the rubbing alcohol solution -- and it worked great! (One person online said he, or she, used it to remove silly putty that a brother had got on the carpet and that "the rubbing alcohol trick saved my butt from getting grounded." That was so hysterical!)

I (Willie) keep losing teeth. Mommy says she didn't realize how many were still going to come out. I think the tooth fairy is surprised too, because he -- or she -- seems to have stopped being so reliable and trustworthy about making the usual deals. Like the kids who aren't exactly sure if they should write to Santa or not, even if I did want to write a letter of complaint to the tooth fairy, I don't have an address. I wonder if she -- or he -- lives with the prophet Elijah, who also has one of those weird jobs like how can he get to all those houses in one night for mercy's sake?

Lee Andra came through again this week, on her way to Brazil! The night she got here was also singing night, and everyone stayed up late and was laughing and talking and making so much noise I couldn't sleep. I like Lee Andra a lot, but in general grownups can be so insensitive sometimes.

Cheez-it--it's the camera. We really did play a couple of games, and only messed up one game from frustration.

We like decorating cookies really a lot, but we don't eat them. Maybe if they were Jo Jo's we'd eat them.

I eat mine, but then I don't use betty crocker frosting on them. Food coloring, yes.

A tribute to Clubby. Later I added eyes and a little brown nose. I left the silly putty off.

SHAKIES! Oh my, cookie decorating is soooo much fun.

Willie's cookies are the left and center columns, and Teddy's are the right column. Mmmmm, don't they look delish?

Speedy view of the remodel

Updated 3/23/2008

Hey, click the pears picture above to check out our friend Leslie's Watercolors, and BUY THEM!!!

3/16/2008

Willie and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

Willie
and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

We saw some Star Trek episodes without papa this weekend (well, it's not our fault, he went away, we couldn't wait!). We liked these a lot. Teddy said he never really liked Star Wars all that very much, he says he never really had a favorite until he saw Star Trek. Now even in the car on the way home from Hebrew School we have to do stuff like pretend to be shuttles returning to the command ship at at least warp 5.

We are also starting to do some more of our own cooking. Today Willie fixed his own lunch and Teddy fixed a lot of his; he (successfully) broke and separated the egg and got it into the pan. He let Mommy flip it over (smart move Teddy, it's always good to have someone to blame). Mommy told him scrambled eggs are easier because you don't have to separate OR flip it. It's kind of pre-messed-up, so you don't have to!

There was a raging Monopoly game going on here but we're not going to talk about it because it may upset some people.

There was also a great box to play with this weekend -- you can see a few pictures, but no funny remarks about the fact that it's a toilet box, OK? And yes, Toto, we're not in Kansas any more.

After my (willie) playdate last weekend, my computer disappeared.

Being who I am, I think I acted apropriately.

Then yesterday it showed up again. Scratch, here we come!

But wait, what's this? A huge box? Papa's been holding out on us.

Now, just because we're playing in the toilet box does not make us pieces of anything.

Clubby says so too. Now, on to business. The Box Creature game.

Here's how the game works. I get in the box, and Teddy gives orders to the box which the box has to do without question or suffer the consequences.

Wait a sec--I'm not supposed to know the identity of the creature. Do it again, and this time anonymously please. That's better. Now, on with the show!

Speedy view of the remodel

Updated 3/16/2008

Hey, click the pears picture above to check out our friend Leslie's Watercolors, and BUY THEM!!!

3/9/2008

Willie and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

Willie
and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

I don't know what "March Madness" means but I think we have it anyway.

Seems like everyone has a lot of homework these days, and Papa and Mommy are extra busy, and then there's that crazy daylight savings thing, what's that all about? I can't believe we had to do that and STILL get up on time for Hebrew school, talk about no fair.

We went to Tamis and David's for dinner (Papa's new bread recipe is going well and was a big hit) and their son Evan has loads of Legos and also a bunk bed that was very cool to jump off until a) Teddy mis-jumped and landed in a bin of legos and 2) someone ratted on us and his mom said that, um, no, that is not an OK activity in their house -- again, talk about no fair! But it was more fun than we expected, and they have cool pets: a snake who is bright orange and yellow and stands up to hit his head against the top of his cage and once he got out and hid behind the cage, and a kind of frilly bearded dragon creature that I forgot what he is but he was cool too, like some kind of fancy iguana. David said they were both surprisingly active these days because it's spring. We can't think of any reason to be more active in spring than any other time of year, can you? That is just plain silly.

Tamis also made a dessert that I (Willie) was going to refuse to eat because she said it had hazelnuts, but papa said I wouldn't be able to taste the nuts so I should try the dessert and then I decided to have a whole piece -- chocolate ganache and a cream cheese and whipped cream top, with kiwi on the top, but I took off most of the crust. We won't even say what we had for dinner, but suffice it to say that it wasn't shabbos food, except the lacia potatoes which papa brought along for the ride.

GOOD news about one piece of homework -- this was the last weekend I had to do mad minutes -- long boring repeated arithmetic drills. But papa said they had really paid off even if they were so boring, because he said I've got all those basic facts down cold. I guess that's a good thing, though it's a weird expression. Why is it sort of a compliment when a girl is "hot" but a math fact is "cold"?

Sometimes, and we mean not very often, we absolutely have to read the same Tintin book at the same time, so I (teddy) says 'all aboard.'

When do you think Willie will notice that I'm reading over his shoulder so to speak.

Hey, what's this lump of so and so on me? Can't a guy read in peace?

Siamese boys, connected at the ear.

Hey kids, check out my purim mask I made at hebrew school. I came home with a green nose too, the result of a proximity alert not going off on the green pen I was smelling at the time.

Dang, this mask is trying to rip mine ear off--oy, mine ear, mine ear!

At least it isn't trying to rip your botto off--thank goodness for small favors.

Speedy view of the remodel

Updated 3/9/2008

Hey, click the pears picture above to check out our friend Leslie's Watercolors, and BUY THEM!!!

3/2/2008

Willie and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

Willie
and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

Do you want your fortune told? We tell fortunes now -- I (Willie) learned how to make fortune tellers and I've made a whole set of them, actually they tell lots of things besides fortunes, including math. Next time I see you I'll show them to you.

We have been continuing to read Tin Tin and remind ourselves of the Wisdom Of Calvin (but don't worry -- we have been told in no uncertain terms not to use him as a role model so WE DON'T, no sirree Bob, I mean no sirree papa).

And we have been eating doughnuts -- which makes this a successful weekend no matter what else may happen -- and continuing to work on our Scratch projects. And we have seen some lousy Star Trek episodes and one good one. One was so lousy at the end that even Mommy stayed awake long enough to give it a bad review!

In other news, Teddy tried -- and ate -- a scrambled egg. He has not asked for another one yet, but papa and mommy say this is a good time to practice optimism. OK by me (Willie), as long as they don't try to exercise it on ME!

Mmmmm, donuts. Papa went out for a little while and when he got back he had this box filled with donuts. I (willie) had a chocolate covered one and and a powdered sugar one and Teddy had TWO chocolate covered ones. It doesn't take much to please us, but donuts go a long way.

We've making making custom fortune tellers (some people call them cootie catchers) and you never know what misforture may befall you when you get yor fortune read. For instance, one of the fortune tellers we made says 'you will die' for every flap except one which says 'try again.'

'Try again.' Phew. Safe for another turn.

When we got home from hebrew school we discovered that Papa got busy! He'd been fermenting dough all day yesterday and today he cooked up these tasty loaves. Mmmm, fresh crusty peasant bread!

Aviv (pictured) and Noah came over for the evening so that Tzachi and Lara could have a hot date--well, not really a date, but it was thing at the Shul that kids weren't invited to. Outrageous, sez we.

Reading tonight happened in my room. I made myself a little nest on the rug and got comfy.

Somebody moved the mattress off the lower bunk so I had to sit on hard slats, and eat maggotty bread, and drink musty water, and walk uphill both directions and wore rags and more awful stuff like that. Leave me alone--I'm mad.

Speedy view of the remodel

Updated 3/2/2008

Hey, click the pears picture above to check out our friend Leslie's Watercolors, and BUY THEM!!!

2/24/2008

Willie and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

Willie
and Teddy's Excellent Adventure

We can't believe Mid-Winter break is over, how did it go so fast?? We think breaks should be longer and school weeks should be shorter.

We tried to stay in our pajamas the entire time and just play with our legos and Bionicles and occasional computer games, but lo and behold, sometimes other things just come up. Sometimes they are things we want to do -- like go to Science World, see the pictures! -- and sometimes they are things we have to do, like take a shower or eat a meal.

But also this week we have BOTH been working on Scratch (that we told you about last week). Teddy has worked on his first programs today, and Willie has been making improvements to some of his. We are learning this thing WAY faster than Mommy is, but every once in a while she comes up with a helpful hint or suggestion (thank you mommy) and Papa upgraded Teddy's computer so he could even run Scratch in the first place (thank you papa). We told Mommy and Papa we would try to be cooperative with each other about learning this program instead of competing with each other.

We actually went outdoors for a while yesterday and it was kind of fun, we have to admit. It's OK for a while anyway.

Mommy used a new-to-her cookie recipe for goodies for her singing group this week and papa said he thought they were store-bought. Apparently to some people this is an insult and to some people this is a compliment, but I'm not really sure which is which. When we got home from Science World late one night we had found she had started a really huge puzzle -- it says it is 1,000 pieces, we haven't counted for sure but Teddy and Mommy estimated around 950 by multiplying the number of pieces on one long edge by the number in one short edge, pretty tricky huh? But anyway the puzzle is still not quite finished, though it's getting close. We all help a little.

So after getting on the road at 7:00 am which meant that we had to wake up at 10 minutes to seven, and watching 3 hours of Looney Tunes and crossing an international border, we finally rolled up to SCIENCE WORLD for a full day of rock em sock em F-U-N!

No, we don't want to go it--we want to stand out here and just watch the Tower of Bauble forever.

Even More Contraptions are inside you say? Well then, what are we waiting for? Tally ho men and lead on. Blood and vinegar. Wot wot. Which is to say that this is the special attraction of Science world, although the bottomless pit of doom is certainly worth a look, and the other exhibits are always good for a laugh.

But at the end of the day, and the beginning and in between, this is where we choose to play and play and play.

And play some more. You should have seen how many blimps I made and then they all exploded and the then the guys were on springboards and the laser was firing. I guess you had to be there.

But now through the magic of youtube, you can be there--here it is in all of it's shaky and questionable glory.

Okay, there are other things to do at Science World as you all know, and we did do them, contrary to the misguided impression put forth by the webmaster.

We even ate, twice. One of the great things about Costco in Canada is that they have chicken strips and fries at the cafe. But they don't have plain cheese pizza--what's the deal with that?

Three other comments about Costco in the great white north--their prices are higher than the USA, even though Canadian money is worth more than ours. They offer the french fries with gravy or poutine--what the heck is poutine? They have the metric system in Canada yet the pizza is 18 inches and the pop is 20 ounces--what's a Canadian to do? UPDATE: According to wikipedia, poutine is a quintessential Canadian comfort food consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds and covered with gravy. We'll stick to plain, thank you.