June 2008


School is out, but I have a few stories to share with you.  The first - from the land of research projects.

Offspring #2 was given an assignment to do a research project on an animal.  He was allowed to choose any animal he wanted.  Some kids chose eagles, the Komodo dragon, etc.  My kid…chooses cats.  OK…you can choose whatever you want…no big deal…”cats” it is.

So, he writes this paper on cats.  My wife reads through it.  She didn’t see him do any work on this at home, so he obviously did it at school.  Curious how the process went, she asked him about it.  Here’s how the conversation went:

Wife:  ”You wrote this paper on cats.  How did you do the research?  Did you use the computer at school?  Did you go to the school library?  What did you do?  How did you find out all this about cats?”

Offspring #2:  “I just knew it.”

Wife:  “OK.  It says here that cats like to eat fish and mice.  How did you know that?”

Offspring #2:  “I saw it on Tom & Jerry.”

And you thought cartoons weren’t very educational.  I’m not sure how he cited “Tom & Jerry” in his paper.  Here’s another amazing fact from his paper:  “Cats look like dogs because they have four legs and a tail.”  Clearly, I’m getting my money’s worth from this education!  I’m not sure on the final grade.  It must have been OK.  He graduated from kindergarten.  More stories later.

 J

Wow - baseball season is over.  It’s been so long since I’ve posted anything, the “baseball begins” and “baseball ends” posts are almost back-to-back in an ironic double-header.

At the next-to-last baseball game for offspring #2, he completed an almost unassisted triple play.  He was playing short, left, centerfield/deep shortstop, mid-second base (you know…one of those positions you only see in T-Ball leagues).  Some kid hit a pop fly that ends up in his glove followed by that look on his face of “how’d I do that?”  Since it’s T-Ball/coach pitch, all the kids had taken off running as soon as the ball left the bat.  We’re all yelling “touch second base, touch second base!”  He finally complies to get the second out.  The kid that was on first base had run almost all the way to second by now.  If he had just tagged him out, it would have been the coveted unassisted triple play.  Instead, he threw the ball to first base to complete the sweep!  Cool stuff.  It was all the talk for the next few days when discussions turned to baseball.

But alas, baseball is now over.  It was a long season, but it somehow seems to have ended as soon as it started.

J