1/30/2011

Papa was on a working trip for a week and when he got home all heck broke loose in the downstairs bedroom. It seems he that because he happened to be in Oregon he had to go to Costco and get a new TV. He kept muttering something about having had his last TV for 23 years, but seeing as how he says he's 23, we think that he's just fixated on that number. Anyway, he got home and next thing we knew, he had emptied out the downstairs bedroom closet and he and Big Willie insulated it and rehinged one of the doors to make room for the TV. But then papa really went nuts and started putting up his Raiders and A's stuff around the room. You'd think he's making a Man-Cave or something. We're not sure how mommy is going to take to this behavior, but so far she's steered clear of the room due to football and testosterone.

We had a long weekend because there was no school friday due to the day between semesters or something like that. We went to get Willie's glasses replaced (a few too many basketballs and little brothers to the face) and visit the guys at City Produce. Mark (one of the the guys who runs City Produce) was trying to get Teddy to steal the family car to drive to middle school with next year, but Teddy didn't seem to be biting. The Mark launched in about stealing the family car to go for a spin and Papa said that his father had done that too, but he didn't have to because Uncle Michael used to give him the keys when he was 14 so he could buy Uncle Michael cigarettes and candy. This does not sound like any father we know--what's going on here? Has the world turned into crazy town?

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 I (Teddy) actually beat Mommy at Scrabble. I'm still not sure how I did it, but I don't think she was taking it easy on my either.

 I didn't even have to use QUIJIBO.

 Lets see, that's a 7 letter word on a triple word score for 5000 points. It's not April yet? Okay, ignore the last sentence.

 No helping me Willie. I can handle this game myself.

 I can also handle these nacho cheese doritos myself. Me and papa decided to split a bag--not in one sitting. We asked Willie if he wanted to go in on it, but he declined. He was busy thinking about Jalapeno potato chips and spicy stuff like that.

 No I wasn't--I was thinking about iPods. Mmmm, iPods. What do you mean you can't eat them? I want my money back.

 Now, here's something I can get behind--mommy made these great chocolate chocolate chip cookies that I improved with a layer of marshmallow fluff. Then I sandwiched it and put it in the microwave til the fluff puffed.

Mmmmm, huge oreo.

 SCARF, CHOMP, MUNCH, FOLD, SPINDLE, MUTILATE!

 That was very satisfying, but messy. Don't be surprised but I'm thinking about cutting my hair. I have 12 inches of hair which I think is enough for a donation to locks for love. I'll ask Aviv this weekend that the deal is, but don't be surprised if I have less hair in the coming weeks.

So papa keeps feeling like he is getting smaller, but really it's just me getting taller. Papa measure me today and I'm up to 5' 7 and 3/4" and it doesn't look like I'm stopping yet. It's fun to look down on the little guy and rub his furry head.

1/16/2011

Here it is mid-January already and we've already had our two BIG snowstorms of the season. Of course, the second one happened basically in the middle of the night, and was almost completely rained away the next day. And oh yeah, it was kind of outshined (outshone?) by the fact that pretty much every other place in the country, except Florida, had snow, most of it tons more than we did. Oh well -- today we could have frolicked outdoors in our shirtsleeves, if that's the kind of guys we were.

Not much going on. Everyone (read: the editor) is kind of tired so we'll be a bit short on details. Suffice it to say we're going strong and everyone is making progress in their own various ways. This morning we both helped make the waffles and it made them taste oh so much better. Hmm, is that worth actually doing the work? We'll have to think about that.

We have just finished reading Animal Farm. A good book, though not all that many funny parts. Not sure we like to think that much over our nighttime reading. What next mom -- Fire in the Lake? A Thousand Days? The Spirit of 76? The Guns of August?

The land puffers are on a quest to reach the holy grail, which is on top of Willie's bed. What do you call it when it's a human-chain but made of this kind of creature?

First we climb up from the floor...

Carefully cross this really funky bridge...

Watch out for that hidden camera, what is this, the thought police??

And finally, we reach our goal!

And all the birds celebrated --

we're all brothers under the fin (and feather), right? Hey, what's that guy across the table eating? Did we know that guy he's eating?

Actually, that may LOOK like a celebration, but it's really a protest; the last bird on the left, is the remnants of our dinner. The rest of the birdies are hoping it's not someone they knew.

We're honing our Magic: The Gathering skills,
 including how not to be a sore loser OR a sore winner.

And here are our portraits for the week:

     

1/2/2011

Happy New year everybody. Sorry we missed a week--the Xmas weekend was super busy with non-stop Chinese food and movies and guests. We've been playing much Magic, and doing little else. Today Katherine and Cynthia came over to visit. Cynthia came in from New York and Katherine from Pennsylvania. The funniest thing was that I (Willie) am now taller than Cynthia (and she used to babysit me when I was little--I taught her the word 'oscillate'). Papa made sushi while C, K and their mom, Marion looked on. When he was done it was sample time. The weirdest thing was that our guests last week had brought some salmon roe (that's baby salmon eggs--ewwwwwwww) and he put it on some of the sushi and they were EATING IT! EWWWWWWWW! People are weird sometimes. I mean, think about it--they LIKE eating some poor fish's young. How would you like it if a salmon knocked on the door and started eating Teddy? Okay, bad example because I wouldn't mind that too much. But you get the idea.

It's been a pretty good vacation, but now we are ready to go back to school and do all of our homework on time and eat spinach and cauliflower and salad and other things that are good for us. HEY--Who's writing this crap? PROTEST! We are not eating things that are good for us. Take tonight for instance--just after my bowl full of stoned wheat thins, I needed a Jalapeno potato chip chaser. So there!
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 Papa put a new scrabble game on his iPod, and guess who got hooked? Well, actually we both got hooked, but just as Teddy was about to beat the infernal machine, the battery died. Coincidence? We think not.

Now, what's a 7 letter word I can make out of QUIJIBO?

 Naughty baby George has been running around the house making believe he's still in the jungle and the world is his bathroom. Well, we've got news for you monkey, it's diapers for you!

 Okay, who messed up the diapering of the monkey?

 Ewwwwww, what's that smell?

 It's not coming from George.

 It's not me--point that camera somewhere else please.

Whoa--not there--can't we get a censor? Where did George's diaper go? Mom! George is naked on the kitchen counter. We've got eat off off of that counter. Ewwwwww.

Copyright 1997-2011, The Berman Boys, Willie and Teddy. All rights reserved.