Author: Ryan/Dada

He was sleeping soundly and I let him sleep until 9:30. After he stretched and woke up I finished Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger and we started Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom.

We went downstairs and played Minecraft. He played some piano, and I made french toast and he set up a position on the chessboard. I made a few moves, then Carly took over. He played with her, then they ripped up the grocery bags for compost. We ate French toast and watched the newest Mumbo Jumbo.

He and I went upstairs for wrestling, then after a good amount of that came down and he did alone time, listening to “Two of Everything”. We played in our creative world, trying to make a piglin farm, having been inspired by Mumbo Jumbo.

Carly made him a chicken sandwich, and I read Wayside School. He was getting kind of stressed out about going to the beach, but we talked him into giving it a try. We left right at 3. In the car Carly talked about how the cord for the phone was being finicky and he asked, “What’s finicky?” A word of the day. He had part of his lollipop on the way there. He asked me about soccer games and how they are won, and what happens in a tie. We all discussed the start of Formula 1 (this weekend!) and other sporting events. We then listened to an episode of Story Pirates.

We parked in the lot at the base of the Netanya beach elevator. August and I parked in there once before. Got a spot right along the beach. He was a little stressed getting out of the car, but then walked all the way down onto the beach and to the water—already a success compared to when he had gone with Carly. We set up, and Carly waded in the water. August almost got attacked by a wave, and he jumped away from it. That was the closest he got to getting wet, or to having his shoes off, except when I took them off for him when he was lounging on the towel later.

He had found a paper clip on the way down, and said, “It feels even luckier than my joker.” He’s been calling an Ace and Joker from the decks his lucky cards the last few days. Well, until the Joker went missing. And he said, “And I have my lucky day of the year: March 1st.” It’s lucky because when it is March 1st he knows his birthday is just a few days away.

I went and got the beach toys, then they made a castle in the sand. I went out in the water first for a while. I came back, and August asked for the picnic mat, which we didn’t have, but we had him use a towel. He lay there while Carly was playing in the sand. Roles reversed. She then went in the water, and I read Wayside School to him. She came back, and soon after he was ready to get going. Maybe an hour? But a successful trip, and not too much sun.

At home, worn out, I had some water, then we watched a few educational videos from the list: Ted-Ed’s “What do all languages have in common?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQW3zC5QaY4) and “One of the most difficult words to translate” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNV7CsKI5m8), and SciShow’s “Thank goodness for bacterial cannibalism” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PADFX47TK5I).

He then listened to “The Pied Piper”. We next had some dinner and I read more of the book. Confidential was another word of the day. He went outside with Carly, and brought in part of a mango leaf infected with the fungus that is attacking one of them. He called it his pet.

I went for a run and he played Minecraft with Vivian and Colin, in the nether. I came down from my shower and they were talking with Colin. August next had two mangoes and requested “Narcissus and Echo” and I put it on. He screamed at cockroach when it ran across the room, and Carly smashed it. Colin stayed on, and was later talking to Carly. Colin and Vivian wanted to see the smashed cockroach, so Carly got it out of the garbage. Yes, this happened. August then listened to “With Our Powers Combined” and then “Wanda Walgood – Wandering Witch”.

He spent five stars for Minecraft and we played in a lucky block world. We went upstairs, and after saying something to Carly sang, “I trust you with all my heart” as we went. Carly had washed the sheets, so we spent time making the beds. He took his “pet” up with him and kept it at the end of his bed. He was quoting lines from “Narcissus and Echo” today, like “If you listen very closely you might hear ‘help, help.’” And “I find him hideous.” He then listened to “What You Sow” and “Smaller than Ever”. We brushed our teeth, and he talked about how much he loved the combination of clothing that Carly had picked out for him: green shirt and grey shorts. He got so wet though brushing his teeth, etc. that when we went back in the freezing room he had to put on dry clothes. He told me, “Hi dad, I’m a linguist…I should grow up to be a linguist.” He had been saying some good synonyms earlier, after one of the stories he’d listened to was all about synonyms.

Before getting to sleep he was Myna hypnotizing the family. She got Dad to play Minecraft for two hours every time someone said “dirt” or something like that. We listened to the Trance Frendz album, and I had the phone up just before 12, as he was falling asleep though. He fell asleep I think a minute or two after, but was drifting off and never noticed the 0:00.

Silly mean teacher:

Retreating from the water:

Playing in the sand:

Song of the day:

He was up at 9:09 and called me up. I read one chapter from Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger before we headed down. He then played Magnus Kingdom for his morning time. A nice change from having to play Minecraft all the time, although Magnus Kingdom is really too easy for him now. For breakfast we both had oatmeal and watched the latest Grian episode, which may be the best Hermitcraft episode yet:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD-HFbZQc6w

We played chess on the wooden board, and he showed me some yoga. He is incredibly flexible, at least compared to us adults. I got him outside for a little bit. He watered his plant and we played ball. We then sat in the swing and I read two chapters of Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger.

We went back in and Carly was making a salad: “If I had to choose between eating tomato and eating lava, I’d choose tomato. I mean lava. I meant to say lava.” He spent five stars to play Minecraft, and we played in a biospheres survival world that he downloaded and that is pretty interesting. Carly asked if she should play with him and he said, “This is a too claustrophobic world for you.” So I played with him.

She read some Joey Pigza Swallowed thé Key but then he wanted to make a web out of rubber bands. They worked a bit on that but it didn’t go far, as we are low on rubber bands, then August wanted her to painted. She painted, and he was her assistant, filling up the water dish and giving her more of colors. He’s reluctant to paint on his own, unfortunately.

I got him an apple with peanut butter and honey. Then seconds on peanut butter and honey when he ate those without the apple. He ate a few slices of the apple and said it was delicious, but didn’t finish it. He’d barely eaten any oatmeal as well. He sang an annoying but funny song about using the color yellow, and when Carly lay on the floor and he’d been eating his apple he said, “I’m assuming to cuddle with you I need to wash my hands.” He washed and they cuddled, then he listened to a story for alone time, after which he and Carly went and played Minecraft outside.

We went upstairs and he played tanks with Gabi at four. I brought him 3 of his crackers. I know they spent some time discussing the emotions poster. When they were done August and I got his room nice and cold and read more of Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger. We stopped with just one chapter left.

I took him downstairs. At one point August wanted to use the SharetheMeals app and eventually we did it. He showed Carly how it worked and they donated 50 cents. August told Carly, “It’s like what you did, but more efficient.” He was talking about how she solicited donations and went out and bought stuff and then drove it down to south Tel Aviv.

I went up to work. We had our arts session. I was excited to find out that the woman, Tania Nasir, who was reading poetry by Mahmoud Darwish, knew and worked with the great author John Berger, who helped translate the poems she was reading. John Berger was one of the first ‘international’ writers I knew about, having picked up his Pig Earth in some U-District used book store when I was at the UW. I haven’t read any Berger in decades, so need to change that.

I came down at 5:30 to 7:30 and all of us worked together to bring in the groceries order, which had just arrived. I then got August dinner, of raw tofu and teriyaki dipping sauce, and the multigrain rice Carly had just made with broccoli and beans. He played more Magnus Kingdom, then I got him upstairs.

We called Mom, and when he saw her he said, “Hey cribbage master! Whatcha doing?” We finished out our first game of chess together, which took two hands. August introduced his random drawing a card to see who gets the crib technique to her and he got the crib both times. But it probably only saved us one hand on the game.

Carly gave him a bath, and I was working on the video editing. Carly brought him up crackers, but then in bed he managed to flip the plate. The crackers were fine, but he needed a full wardrobe change. He put on the shorts that need to be buttoned.

Back in bed he said he was going to listen to “My favorite story: Narcissus and Echo”. He had described the story in detail earlier. He then listened to “The Wonders of Snake Oil”. We brushed our teeth, and he was saying things like, “This person is hideous…” From one of the stories, and hideous is his new word. It is probably from the Narcissus and Echo story, as he was quoting lines from it, and sang a very funny “I have high cheek bones” song.

In bed we listened to Beethoven’s Second Symphony, at his request, then Nielsen’s First (my choice, as it is the latest Seattle Symphony release, and I want to work our way through their collection to discover new composers). The clock said 23:23 when we first got it up, and he was asleep by 11:45.

Flexible exercise:

Skype dance:

Playing cribbage:

Mirror song and dance:

I heard him get up and go to the bathroom. It was right at 9. He called me up when he was done and he commented on how he had woken up exactly at 9. I read three chapters (19 to 21) from Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger then we went downstairs. He went into some world in Minecraft. I asked, “Why are you dying so much?” He matter-of-factly said, “Because I’m spawning chickens, of course.” It turned out there was a reason because it was some world he had downloaded, but it was really funny how he said it.

He switched, and played with Carly. I had talked to August about Eve possibly coming over and he seemed fine with it. But when they showed up at 9:50 he ran upstairs. I went out and let them into the yard and they played out there. Carly talked to August on the stairs for a few minutes. We switched, and I was then able to coax him downstairs, where he first yelled “Bye!” out the door. I was able to carry him out for a bit, and Heather asked him for a fact, but he didn’t come up with something for her. He retreated back inside. He did go outside a bit, and sort of watched them as they played in the Zinnie house and on the slide, and he tried some of his sign language on them. I suggested he play piano for them, and he did that, but it didn’t draw anyone’s attention. As I was inside with him, and he was looking out the door and through the screen door, he also did some dancing to the music, but then he ended up doing some crying on the couch and cuddling with me.

He said good bye before they left, but didn’t get close. They left at 10:10. As we got back to playing Minecraft he said, “I can just see her in Minecraft.” Hopefully the will get around to setting that up, but it has been several weeks already.

Carly talked about the possibility of playing Minecraft with Thatcher. At first August thought it would be in addition to playing with Vivian: “I don’t know if I could handle doing Minecraft ALL day. I want to do other things.”

We finished with Minecraft and Carly made him an egg for breakfast. I read more Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger and quantity was a word of the day. He was still hungry, so he ate some salmon, then we watched a couple educational videos: a SciShow about oceans on other planets, and some more sleight of hand. We then did a reading activity where I typed a story and he read it. I started to write a story about Dr. Feigelmeister, a character from our Story Dice stories. He read three good paragraphs.

We then had chocolate milk and watched Iskall’s newest Hermitcraft video. August had a short story about Brother meeting a magician in the park, then we went upstairs for games. First was Brother saving lemmings, then there was the polar bear again, then Sister meeting a magician, then we did the one where she finds out they’re in a simulation again.

We went downstairs at 1. He drew ‘Prehistoric Roadshow’. We finished episode 1 and started episode 2 and he ate a good frozen mango. He next listened to “Phoenix Feathers” for alone time, then we played Minecraft in a lucky block world. He asked, “What’s sympathy?” He then went over and helped Carly, who was ripping up paper bags to use in the compost. He liked that, and found it satisfying. We talked about how the compost is full of maggots but they haven’t turned to flies yet, I used the word foreboding, so that became a word of the day.

She was then trying to convince him to go to the beach. He seemed to mainly be concerned about the chance of rain. I told Carly there was a parking lot by the beach in downtown Netanya that was right next to the beach. We looked at it on Google Maps, then he was doing street view, finding lots of lovely places around the world. He said “Brightly festooned”, then sang a whole “I am brightly festooned” song. It is from the “Phoenix Feathers” story. Carly made them chicken sandwich before they left: “That sandwich was delish. You’re an expert at chicken sandwiches.” He was also repeating, “I’m not a ringer, I’m not a singer, I’m not a hunter.” Not sure what that is from.

They headed to the beach at 4:20 and I went up to work, with the rehearsal at 5:30. There trip wasn’t the most successful ever: traffic really snarled at the interchange by Ikea. They got past that and he was okay, and Carly found a street parking spot at the beach between Poleg and downtown. Then some guy tried to steal the spot from her. She got it, but it was a parking adventure. They walked to the sand, but it was kind of cloudy. They tried for about fifteen minutes, but he wouldn’t walk on the sand, saying he was concerned about it raining. They headed back to the car, and he was apologizing, saying he could try again when it wasn’t cloudy.

They then drove back to Even Yehuda and were going to get pizza at VIPizza. Sadly, it is no longer there. We are hoping it has just moved. In its place is a convenience store. They were then going to go next door to the bakery, but the guy was closing and told them no. So they went to the convenience store and he got a Kinder Egg. His second treat, after having a lollipop on the way there.

My rehearsal was very short today, so I went down to see them. They were out looking at and smelling the tomato plants, which are growing nicely. They came in and I went back up to work for a little bit. I came back down, and they were doing Minecraft later today, at 7:30, so that Thatcher could join. I’d suggested to Carly that the accounts should be set up in advance, but had kind of forgotten the hardest part: getting the family and kid account set up and logged in. So they couldn’t get it figured out on their end, and Thatcher wasn’t able to play with them.

Carly made rice and beans and broccoli. I then went for a run, and missed out on the fun of the other kids not being able to all get in a world together. When I got back they had just managed to get in a world together. At least Vivian and August. Colin, whose account is still logged out or something, wasn’t in, I think. I took a shower, then sang happy birthday to Colin’s balloon, as he said it was its birthday. We said goodbye, then Carly took August up for his bath and I cleaned the kitchen.

They played a couple hands of cribbage, then we headed to bed. He listened to “The Greedy Dog” and “Wiggly in Walt Disney World”. Carly brought the phone in, as Vivian and Colin had called again, for them to say good night. We brushed our teeth, then back in the very cold room I said I was in awe of how he likes the cold. He asked what that meant.

He asked “How do you find complementary colors?” and said, “Also, it’s cool that two odd numbers make an even number.” He then brought up Eve: “To say that I like Eve, guess what I’m doing? Naming two of my worlds Eve.” He pulled the blanket over his head and started to cry a bit.

He changed subjects after a bit by asking about cells dying, like if blood flow is cut off, and asked, “What If a crumb was in your blood?” We discussed heart attacks and the importance of exercise, and he said he’s going to exercise more. I told him he didn’t have to worry about it. He talked about wanting to teach me yoga poses. He’s learned several from Carly, and was showing some off after his bath yesterday.

He asked why cats and dogs don’t like each other, then remembered when it rained at the pizza place and we got stuck going to the car: “I just think going to that pizza place was an omen. An ominous thing.” He brought up Eve again, saying, “I really need to make a model of the house… then I need to make a road and airplane to Albania. In Minecraft.” There was more crying, and he asked why they had to move there, although he readily accepted the explanation.

He quoted several lines of the letter in Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger. We listened to two Rival Consoles albums, and August got to see the clock turn to midnight for the first time in his life: “Zero zero zero!” He talked about seeing 0:10, but I told him it wasn’t really that exciting, after having seen 0:00. He saw 0:01 and then was silent. Asleep.

Saying hi:

Playing piano for them:

Ripping paper:

Singing during Google Maps 1:

“I’m brightly festooned” song:

Song and dance 1:

Song and dance 2:

I woke him up at 9:30. I read a couple Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger stories then we headed downstairs. He started playing Minecraft. Carly rather shyly asked if she could go work on things. August said, “Don’t be shy, mama. Dada’s a good person.” A couple minutes later he told me, “No being snarky in the classroom…I wrote your name under ‘discipline’.” We played in Conquered Flatland, which he agreed to when I pointed out he kept making new flat worlds, but I’d put the most work into the first one. We had cereal and nectarines for breakfast and watched GoodTimeswithScar, where he woke the mayoral race. Tedious was a word of the day.

We then went upstairs to wrestle. We did the shark game, then the polar bear game when I was cold. He asked about hypothermia, so I got the iPad so we could watch the video I’d found on it. A few more questions and we ended up reading https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/world/europe/woman-survives-cardiac-arrest.amp.html We then acted out a guy with hypothermia being saved by a bear and going to the hospital. He was then Myna, playing Minecraft, and made a Lucky Sapling add-on. He wanted Sister to sing “Cada Semilla” as she used it.

Eventually we went downstairs. He did alone time, listening to “The Princess’s Excellent Birthday”. He played Minecraft, starting with me, then switching to Carly. He was grumpy getting off, and in a bad mood. But then he ended up playing Candyland on his own. Red won. I read Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger. Cross me was a new phrase. We read through chapter 18.

He then played chess on the real board with Carly. She said, “I’ll let you set it up.” To which he replied, “Great, great. This is my miracle!” I had been typing and he came over to see what I was writing and was reading words. Carly joked that he shouldn’t read my private writing. So I started a new document, and wrote funny things for him. In total, I wrote:

This is not for August’s eyes. If he reads this we are all in trouble. The secret that August can never know is that there is a secret pet elephant located under the house. Mama and I go and play with it when August is asleep. It would be way too much fun for him. There is also a big freezer full of ice cream. Only the good flavors. We eat about a pint every night.

Also, Santa Claus is real. Since August doesn’t believe in him, Santa gives me all of his toys instead.

And he better not ask Carly about the fairies. The fairies will get very, very angry. I am afraid that they will destroy the piano with their magic.

Anyway, it is time for me to make stuff up and mess with August. I have him thinking that the Earth is a sphere. Everyone knows it is actually a cube.

That is all of the secrets that I will type today. There are thousands of others.

I told you I was all done.

Okay, now that he left, I can type more. I can admit that I hate pie. My favorite food is actually tomatoes. Tomato pie, actually. If I could drink just one drink for the rest of my life it would be tomato juice.

After each paragraph he would tell me to stop, because when I started to type again he had to read it. Very funny. He then went outside with Carly, and I sent him two emails with more “secrets”. He got a lollipop for some reason, and needed my help opening it. I needed scissors. He said, “It’s as hard to get open as make a COVID-19 vaccine. Nice analogy, right?” When she told him he could play chess with Cherie again he said: “Two days in a row? That’s special!”

At 4 we went and had our meeting with Gabi. August watched videos on the bed and ate crackers and peanut butter. When he was still hungry I ran down and got apple and peanut butter. When we were done he was watching Phineas Rage, and I watched the end of it with him.

Downstairs, he and Carly started making a big chess set out of paper. August then seemed to enter a new taping phase: He taped up Carly’s water bottle then started putting tape on me. August and Carly then went up for secret talk about something. I told him to not check his email. They came down for Minecraft time.

I went for a run. They played Minecraft, but Colin had connection problems, so Carly ended up talking and playing with him much of the time. August also read one of the secrets emails from me, and an email from Carly and one from Oma at some point.

After Minecraft was chess time with Cherie. August had his dinner of tofu and a bowl of shredded carrots with lemon, then some salmon, then I brought him an apple with peanut butter, before having his crackers with peanut butter and honey.

Carly gave him a bath, and they discussed matching clothes. She mentioned when she was opposed to matching clothing as a kid. August said, “Maybe I should be against matching myself.”

In bed we listened to “The Great Race of the Chinese Zodiac” on Stories Podcast. And he joked “Don’t open the goozack!” Which is from Wayside School. He also randomly asked, “What’s a hectare?” Not sure what story that as from.

We brushed our teeth and listened to a Toro y Moi instrumental album. That finished, then we listened to a Stars of the Lid album. He kept waking me, and at one point got up to turn the air conditioning back on. I wasn’t really awake enough to engage much when he told me that “When I see another person I’ll faint.” He was asleep by 11:55.

Candyland by himself:

Me typing for him:

A little piano 1:

A little piano 2:

Helping mama play chess:

He woke up a little before 9. Carly was upstairs and met him. She came down and got the Perseus book and went back up and read to him. They came down at 9:30. He checked the internet speed, and I asked how it was. He replied, “I check the internet speed actually every day.” We played Minecraft, first in his new flat world. I think he had also played in it with Vivian last night. He then downloaded some new sky block world and played with that. Carly came in and got him off the iPad as I made him oatmeal. She played War with him, and was having him practice math, adding up cards, when they played some form of cribbage.

He played chess on the iPad, then they did a little yoga with Carly. She was then resting on the floor, and he was starting to climb on her, etc. so I got him to back off a bit and showed him how to balance a couple chess pieces on her, then took a photo. He thought hat was pretty funny.

I then convinced him to come outside with me, saying I was going to see how many times I could bounce a ball off his head in a minute. I did a bit of that, which he thought was funny. He also watered his plant and we looked at the growing papayas. He then walked around discussing algorithms. He was Bar and had robot arms playing video game and doing science experiments. Then mining uranium and doing a maze: “If blocked, then turn right…” Then he was describing an algorithm for an automatic metal detector: “If sense metal, beep, if not, move. If blocked, turn…” This was all language straight out of Swift Playgrounds and coding, and eventually he said, “Now I want to do programming…”

We did programming upstairs, on the bed, as that’s his chosen place for it nowadays. We started by looking up the solution to the one we’d been doing last time. We had made a mistake for incrementing the gemCounter variable. I was able to explain to him what we’d done wrong, and we went on to finish two more puzzles, learning more about while loops and comparisons, and using variables and constants. We kept forgetting to include the gemCounter increase, so when I asked what we were missing, the first time, he figured it out and said, “GemCounter equals gemCounter plus one.” After every one we completed he had to go get Carly and bring her in to show her.

We then went downstairs and he watched a non-Hermitcraft video from BDubs where he rebuilds the first big build he ever did in Minecraft 9 years ago, a Home Depot, and improves it. I made lunch of pinto beans with teriyaki sauce, crackers with meat and cheese, and grapes. We watched a couple of videos of Penn and Teller on Jimmy Fallon to introduce him to sleight of hand, then I read a couple Sideways School stories. Carly was then painting and August helped mix a little paint.

We went upstairs for something, perhaps more wrestling, and he talked about wanting to trick her. I suggested switching beds sometime: right before he fell asleep sometime he could go in and fall asleep next to Carly, and I could sleep in his bed, and she’d be surprised to find him next to her in the morning.

Carly made popcorn, and they had that and he did his alone time and I went upstairs to work. As I went I heard him say something, then Carly asked, “What did you say?” He replied, “I didn’t say it.” He was messing with her. He listened to a story, then they played Minecraft, then he read Messy Bessey’s Family Reunion. I came down as they were finishing that, and he was learning things like ee is the E sound, e is eh, and ch.

He drew ‘typing and spelling’, and we worked on that. I would say words, and he would type them. We did a lot of words reinforcing the reading sounds he’d just learned. He was on the blanket, and developed an inching pattern, that he found really amusing, where he would type a letter, then scoot on the ground, towards Carly. I then had him typing sentences, and was feeding him the first couple sentences of a book called Fly Guy that Carly had brought home.

Vivian called, and Carly talked to her about her reading and some history and politics stuff. I brought the typing thing to a close, as the scooting thing was kind of annoying, but then he did more on the couch.

We then went out on a bike ride. On the bright side it is nice that he’s agreeing to them, but they aren’t getting better, and if anything have gotten worse. We rode down to where the glass was/is on the ground, then back on the old roadway. When his chain came off he got really panicked while I tried to fix it, then when I paused, after we started going again, to restart my ride tracking on the watch, he was yelling at me to keep going. There was no way he wanted to stop at a park or anything so we went straight home.

We did our reading on the swing though, more Sideways School Gets a Little Stranger and he had his chocolate bar again, followed by three Pez, as he had drawn ‘treat’ from the basket before we left. He saw a bee, so we moved inside and did more reading, then he and Vivian started Minecraft right at 6. He was talking to Cassie for for a few minutes, and when she had to go he asked, “What’s it mean to shovel some mulch?” A good phrase of the day.

I went for a run, seeing a big gathering of Women Wage Peace on the overpass. I didn’t have my mask with me though so I didn’t want to stop and talk to them. Carly went on a walk, and I made salmon using a new recipe, topping the salmon with mayonnaise, then bread crumps cooked with coconut oil.

He played chess with Cherie upstairs, and I brought up the salmon, corn, and green beans for his dinner. He then had crackers and peanut butter. When they were done playing they were talking about parenting tricks, or reading, and they ended up joking about reading parenting books. August loved this idea, and said, “I love reading” He went and got Hippos Go Beserk and read all of it, then went and I helped him find the one actual paper parenting book we have as a joke. He read another Boynton book. We said goodbye at 10:05, and I read Barnyard Dance to him. He read Skip to My Lou backwards, then the I Love You book.

Carly gave him a bath and I did dishes. I brought up two more crackers, as he’d already had a few. When he and Carly went in his bedroom he was annoyed that Carly didn’t know how to enter his room quickly. When I came in and quickly closed the door August said, “That’s how you do it.”

In bed he listened to “Magical Mischief” on the Stories Podcast. August was quoting, “Hey you mangy feline, it’s time for your peaceful paws to hang it up, we’ve got a big guy in charge now…” From “The Lion Queen” And saying, “based on a Greek myth…by me, your host Kelsey Lee.”

We brushed our teeth, then listened to a Benge album together. He was asleep around midnight. I fell asleep with him, and got up for my book group meeting at 1.

Bugging mama:

Doing some coding:

Chocolate time again:

Humming while playing:

Song of the day:

Chess with Oma:

Reading 1:

Reading 2:

I finally managed to wake him at 9:30, after starting 15 or 20 minutes earlier. We read some more of Tristan Strong, then headed downstairs when Lauren said that Gilad was ready to play. They played for about 50 minutes, both excited by the Nether update. Initially in some world that Gilad had, then one of August’s world. He had oatmeal for breakfast, then went outside and played War with Carly on the blanket. I put in a little work.

Carly then headed to school, primarily to check out a few more books, as Ilana said she’d be in the library, but also to argue about the bills (the school owes us as we found out we’ve been paying for downstair’s water and electricity and taxes) and to try to figure out if/who/when is actually picking up the mail. August and I wrestled: being sharks with animals falling in the water, a bear hibernating (because he had the AC so cold), and penguins.

We went downstairs and August told me, “I think I had a dream…Grian looked into Grumbot.” I made a tuna sandwich for lunch. We ate that and grapes and watched the newest StressMonster. We then watched a video about Snowball Earth from the PBS Eons show. Dropstone was a word of the day.

He drew ‘Khan Academy’ and was at first against doing math, but Carly convinced him to do math with her. He then did Desmos graphing, and I had went upstairs to work. He came up to show me how, apparently on his own, he had used math to graph an animated line and circle that looked like a piston. He could explain pretty well what each part did. I was impressed. He also came up to ask me about his morning time and I went down to tell Carly he hadn’t done it. So they played, and they also did yoga.

I came down at 3:15. He had just done alone time, listening to a story, and was ready to play Minecraft. I’d forgotten to tell Carly that he doesn’t do the alone time thing on Fridays, since he has the Gilad time. But he could have used 5 stars anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal. I played in the new (ugh) flat world he had made with Gilad. He and Gilad had started to build a huge structure up in the sky. They talked about it at first as being an asteroid hitting the Earth. He and Carly had made a cool structure though to keep animals in.

When we were done I started reading the Perseus the Hero book. Carly heard, and yelled that that was hers (she’d been specifically looking for books for her to read with him) and took over. It was a choose your own adventure sort of book, with August as Perseus. Woo was another word of the day. And he liked going back and taking the different options. He then drew ‘Read a book’ and he read about half of Messy Bessy’s Famiky Reunion.

August and I were then going to go for a bike ride. But first he set up a random position on the chess board, and we invented the idea of a dragon piece, that could attack in a sort of 5 by 5 square. We then started playing from the random position, then paused to go on our ride.

I started to steer us across the bridge, but he wanted to go back and around the Holly block. We did that, and all the way up Kibuts Galyut and a bit further, then came back. Tried to convince him to stop at a park, but he just wanted to go back to our swing. We got home and I started reading Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger and he slowly ate his chocolate bar by covering his hands in melted chocolate and licking it off. Unprompted he said, “I think I’m a weirdo.” We read a few chapters, then discussed hypnosis and he asked, “What’s handicapped mean?” We watched a couple of ASAPScience videos about hypnosis.

He went in to use the bathroom, then requested new shorts. I went up to get a pair, and also grabbed my running shorts. When he saw both he said, “Thank you for giving me a choice.” He was still okay with it when I said one pair was for me. He was okay with the beige shorts I’d gotten for him, but he explained, “There’s a better combination…they match better.” August told me they’d finished the vanilla ice cream that had been in the freezer for a long time. Some of it was frosty, but the rest was good. Funny timing, as earlier in the day I’d remembered there was a can of root beer in the cupboard. But Carly said we should eat more ice cream this summer, so we’ll have opportunities.

August went to the chess board and said, “Let’s resume our chess game.” I won, as it turned out black had a big advantage in the random position. He played piano, and Carly made turkey patties and green beans for his dinner. He and Carly spent time together outside, I was in doing some work, and finally about 6:20 she reminded him it was past 6. He played Minecraft with the cousins and I went for a run.

After my shower August was being grumpy with Carly. He said it wasn’t because Carly had told him we weren’t going on our Galilee trip, but it seemed like that was part of it. He was kicking a pillow up in the air, and I said it reminded me of whack-a-mole, and I remembered playing it once in Korea. He talked about wanting to play whack-a-mole sometime to get tickets and buy things with them. It turns out he knows about it from Pink Panther, and he really remembers that episode, where the Pink Panther keeps earning more tickets, and the bad guy keeps raising the prices on the prizes. I told August we could go to Icicle Junction in Washington and earn tickets, next time we’re in the States.

August and I keep seeing ads for the Share-a-meal app, and I finally got it set up. Pretty cool, as it will be a good way to learn about refugees and giving and whatnot. August donated 50 cents for Rohinga, and I’ll let him donate 50 cents each day.

We then called my mom, after they weren’t online on Skype, and got her to log on. It took her a while to figure out how to find the chat in Skype to get to the link for our cribbage game, but she found it, and the three of us played through 4 or 5 more hands of cribbage. Carly kept bringing him more food: a full apple and peanut butter, grapes and a couple crackers and peanut butter, and peanuts and seaweed. He ate almost all of it. Mom told us they were going to take the cats to the vet for a checkup, so we’ll have to find out how that goes.

When we were done he went in to choose a good match of clothes for his pajamas, then he had his bath. I was downstairs, but I heard him tell Carly something about having a falling dream. They talked about why he sometimes calls us into his room, which is happening less and less. Maybe once, ever other night or third night. I got him three more crackers and peanut butter. In bed he listened to “The Spirits Move You” and “The Little Acorn”. We bushed our teeth, and he asked, “What’s _timid_mean?” We listened to the Kiln album Duster and he told me of his memorable cold things: finishing the ice cream today, having frozen watermelon, and eating ice cream at Uncle DD’s house. I reminded him about getting ice cream after his doctors appointments, and a few others.

He took a while to fall asleep. It was sometime around 11:45 when he did so.

Humming and eating:

Explaining his mathematical piston:

How he eats chocolate:

Piano time:

He was up right at 9:00 and called me up. We sat on the couch and read Sideways Stories from Wayside School. A word of the day was pupil. We then went downstairs and played Minecraft in the challenges flat world, mainly exploding beds and TNT in the nether. We had oatmeal for breakfast, and he wanted take it upstairs to eat as he wanted to do a Brother and Sister game. We went upstairs, and he asked, “What’s in vein mean?” Another new phrase. On the bed he remembered the Brother games where he is fighting the tide, then for the shark game I taught him about lemmings, even though they don’t actually jump in the sea. Then there was a game where Bar found Brother annoying, so she turned him into a squirrel. And another where Brother met an archer in the park, and Bar turned him into a squirrel again.

Eventually we went downstairs and watched the new Pearl Jam video for “Dance of the Clairvoyants” and he was figuring out how to play dominoes on the games app. Carly headed out on an errand, swinging by the pharmacy and then Max to get more face masks. We had pita and hummus and watched GoodTimeswithScar. We then chose about 10 of the papers with things to do on them and put them in the basket, but first played chess together and made schnitzel for lunch.We ate outside and soaked two games of Snakes and Ladders after he drew the paper for board games. He was laughing a lot as I kept sliding back down the snakes. He won the first game, but I won the second.

We went back inside for more lunch and he drew ‘Prehistoric Roadtrip’. He listened to some Supersonic Piano, then we watched Prehistoric Roadtrip, basically finishing the first episode. He then drew ‘Sign Language’. He fooled Carly into thinking he had drawn ‘Read a book’ before showing it to her. We all watched ASL Rochelle, the second video, and learned “Please sign slowly” and “I’m learning ASL”.

He next drew ‘Khan Academy’. He worked on rounding with her, using the same 4th grade course. They then did yoga, at his request. After that he wanted alone time. He listened to “The Very Sick Goblins”, and played War against himself.

Before Minecraft though he agreed to a bike ride. Actually, he went back and forth a few times between that and a walk before we ended on bike ride. He first had me shuffling the cards, and was interested in sleight of hand when I called it “Magic”. Something for us to watch/learn about later. As we left he remembered the “Sidewalk Sealant” song.

As we rode he sang a version of “London Bridge”, making up lines like “build it up with sidewalk sealant…sidewalk sealant is for sidewalks, for sidewalks…” He had agreed to ride over to the horses and sang the whole way. I had stopped the bike for one second though by the horse field before he insisted we get going again. We rode back and stopped at our park, where he got on the exercise equipment and talked about his favorite ones. He held his chocolate bar to melt it, and looked up at the big trees along the streets. They are the ones that they really cut back this last year, and they now have green puffs on them. August said, “Those look like Dr. Seuss trees.” He was very much correct.

He wanted to walk back to the house and read in the swing. We did that, and he liked all the chocolate off the bar, and finished Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Filch was another word of the day. Back inside he counted how many devices we have, then asked, “What’s the word for someone that doesn’t use technology?” He meant luddite. “We’re not luddites.” He then remembered his thirty minutes of iPad time, so we played Minecraft.

He was with Carly for a while as I worked. They played some chess, and he drew ‘treat’, so had one of his Halloween treats. He drew ‘earn a star’ but then chose to just play with Desmos, although I think they moved on to something else. Carly got up and made turkey patties and fresh green beans, and he listened to “The Bunny’s Bug Leap” and maybe another.

It was then time for Minecraft with Vivian and Colin. I went for a run, and they were in the Nether when I got back and he showed me the sort of home that they’d made. I took a shower, and he started playing chess with Cherie, and discussed salt intake with her. Carly went for a walk. August had the air conditioner on cold, just as he likes it, and Carly brought him food a couple times. Apparently, August just had Cherie play the computer the entire time and he watched, laughing a lot. But I also heard him coaching her a lot, so it was good. I think they’re playing again on Saturday.

It was time for a bath, but August asked me about noble. We discussed the many meanings of it, even using a dictionary. He then said, “I was tricking you by asking about a word.” He had delated a bath. He was then trying to ask me what a salamander is. Carly gave him a bath, and then we were discussing books she could read to August while he started listening to “The Mighty Shadow”. We then went in his room and he finished his crackers and listened to “The Giant’s Daughter”. We brushed our teeth, and I read a little of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. New words were hold my own and ominous. He really liked it and wanted me to keep reading.

He tried to hide under the pillow, then told me he was hiding from brushing his teeth; he forgot we’d already done it. For a music request he asked for music about hiding. We listened to songs about hiding by Elvis Costello, the Boomtown Rats, and Okkervil River, then I put on Jherek Bischoff’s Cistern Improvisations. He was asleep right away at 11:20, resting his head on his hand.

Snakes and ladders:

Yoga time:

Piano time:

Seuss trees

At 8:15 I heard the toilet flush upstairs, then he came down on his own. I read three chapters of Sideways Stories from Wayside School, then August wanted to play Minecraft. He was excited when I showed him that the Nether update had happened. We spent the time exploring the Nether in his flat world he uses for challenges. He seemed pretty happy with it. I finished writing an email to Paul asking him if he could reset the Nether on our survival world, as he has a Windows machine.

August then went outside to tell Carly about it. August asked for cereal for breakfast, and we ate inside and I read another chapter of the book. He and Carly then played cards outside on the blanket, then she read the Class Clown book to him. riot was a word of the day, and a little later he was repeating “It was a riot.” He had come in at one point to get the other two decks of cards, to mix all four together for some reason. They played chess, then when Carly went in to make food I took over and he and I played bizarre positions that he set up. He set up the conditions basically backwards, and actually beat me in the end. He went in to show Carly the end position and she was able to find the mate in one. He was impressed: “She’s learning!”

We had the computer analyze the position from the beginning, then he listened to a story, “King of the Frogs”, for alone time. He and I played in the new Way of the Nether world that was available for free on the app store. After that, we went upstairs for wrestling and to play the game where he was an animal that kept falling in the water and I was the shark that would save him. We went downstairs when he wanted to play Chess Kids on Carly’s computer. He did that, and Carly made corn on the cob and then got him a sandwich while that was cooking.

He had corn and was bored. I suggested he look at a book and gave him the Visual Dictionary book and he looked for a few minutes, then listened to “Loki and the Golden Hair” and “The Seal-Skin Girl” on Stories Podcast. Carly made him a little pasta and broccoli with the rest of the cheesy sauce, and I made a pasta bolognese for dinner. He skipped the end of that story and went to “The Know-It-All”. A couple minutes of that and he skipped to “The Bee’s Sting”. Listened to all of that, then we were talking about going for a bike ride: “I just want to finish this story first.” It was “The Incredible Singing Tortoise”.

We then got ready to go. At one point he said he didn’t want to go, and I got him to change his mind by telling Carly we definitely weren’t going for a bike ride, but whispering to him we should go to confuse him. He kept up the charade as we got going. On the bike we rode around the local blocks, then down to the trail and partway to the glass before turning around. We had ridden up Vatikim to see the finished houses they’d been building, then on the way back down we rode by a woman and kid, who was about 3. He said hi to us, and as we went by I realized it was the woman who was always walking the other direction, pushing a kid in a stroller, when I was pushing August north on his bike to preschool. August didn’t notice them though, this time, as he was busy reading off license plates.

When we came back from the path we stopped at the monster blasting playground. He went on the merry-go-round. He told me, “Spin me until I faint.” I spun him a lot, and he spun himself. He asked how fast he was going and we figured he was getting to 20 rpm on his own, and when I spun him really fast he was around 36 rpm. It was the most that he’s wanted me to ever spin him.

There were two interesting things at the park: first was an ant nest in a hollow of the tree. He studied them quite a bit. A second was the crunchy round seed pod things all over the ground. August said it was like roller skating walking on them, and he fell down a couple times. He decided, “Maybe I should learn to roller skate before we go to this park again. Let’s change it from the ‘Monster Park’ to ‘Roller-skate Park’.” Oh, he was also really interested in the exposed roots of the tree, and particularly the really straight ones.

Finally, we walked over and sat in the shade, out the south end, and he had his chocolate bar and I read some of Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Actually, I offered him the bar, but he wanted it to be all melty, and I’d just had it in the backpack. So he asked me to put it in my pocket so it would be more melted by the time we got home.

We went home, and then watched Grian and he ate his bar. It was the first Hermitcraft video to take place in the new Nether. He then went outside with Carly. When it came time for Minecraft with Vivian and Colin he started playing out there. Vivian needed to upgrade to the newest version, and Cassie was having trouble with the app being slow, so they uninstalled and reinstalled.

I chatted with Peter, then went for a run, then showered. They were still playing, but August got off and was then doing Wizard School with Vivian. I told them about how Wizard School is shutting down sometime soon, so they should enjoy it now. Colin kept telling Carly something like, “I’ll miss you when you’re sleeping.” August then played Mastermind on the games app, and then I figured out a way that he could play cribbage with my parents online. We tried to call them, but they were offline, so we left a video message. Mom called back after a couple minutes. It turned out she didn’t know how to play cribbage, but eventually we all worked through it together, figuring out how to use playingcards.io together to play it, and playing through the first hand, me and August against Mom and Dad. Paul said he’d gotten my email and would see what he could do.

It was past 10 by the time I got him up for his bath. Carly supervised that and I did the few dishes that needed to be done. August was talking about using TNT to find ancient debris in the new Nether when we playing in survival, and I showed him another option, showing him a few minutes of Xisuma using exploding beds. August really liked that idea.

We said good night, and he listened to “The Leaky Bucket”, requested crackers, then listened to “The Magic Bowl”. He asked what “the humblest pie” meant, and humble was a word of the day.

We brushed our teeth and he asked what “Center of attention” meant. In bed it was taking a good amount of time for him to calm down. He wanted to know about hypothermia and wasn’t happy when I said we could learn tomorrow. He requested jazz, and I put on Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. When he finally lay down and was quiet he was asleep very quickly, finally asleep about midnight. I inspected his warts, filing off some of the dead skin (we tried it with him awake, but it was too ticklish for him). The ones on his feet are basically gone. I just put medicine on his hand.

Singing a mean song:

Spinning:

Hollow tree:

Cribbage:

He woke up just before 9:10. He went to the bathroom, then we sat on the couch and read a couple stories from Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Downstairs he went out and said good morning to Carly and asked her her opinion on mornings. In Minecraft he did a lot of exploding, in Survival Trival, then we started watching educational videos. Only watched one though, about robots being programmed to do science experiments, “Inside the Lab Where Robots Run Their Own Experiments”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1UgdoP2aeg

Assay was a word of the day, and he understood the Battleship analogy that a guy made as he recently learned to play Battleship. We would have watched more videos, but when that one was over he said, “I have an idea for a brother and sister game now!”

We went up and played, and we developed a long story arc, with Sister meeting a scientist in the park using robots for science, then going to college early to get away from her crazy family. Brother and Bar and the magic girls try to stop her.

We went downstairs and he did a little coding, working on the next puzzle on his own. I made us tuna sandwiches and chocolate milks and we watched Hermitcraft Recap #2 and ate on the couch. He played a little piano, then listened to “I’m Bored” for alone time. He pointed out where he learned about Crazy 8s in the story, and realized he knows 5 card games: Crazy 8s, War, Slapjack, Cribbage, and Go Fish.

We listened to “Daniel and the Lion” as we started to play. legal scholar was a word of the day from that. August declared that he was ready to play Minecraft in survival on hard from the beginning, and we started a new world, beginning in a bamboo jungle. We survived by making a treehouse in the top of the trees. We also listened to the story “Animal Jam”, one of his favorites.

Carly had taken all of the donations she’s gathered and bought to the gan in south Tel Aviv, and now got home. We played outside for a while, and then he went in and used five stars to play Minecraft. He started with Carly, in the hard world, but I took over and finished for him.

Sharna and her kids Maya and Ben came over at 2:30. August was shy at first, and in advance he had said that we all needed to stay outside. He warmed up after a couple minutes and we all went outside. Maya and I sat on the blanket and played a card game that she sort of remembered. August sat next to us and played War by himself. Maya watered plants, and Benjamin mainly sat on the swing next to his mom. Carly made a strawberry smoothie for everyone. The kids weren’t entirely happy just staying outside, and August agreed when Carly suggested they just go inside to look at toys to bring outside. But once they were inside he was fine with it. He played piano for them, and Maya asked “How does he play so good?”

They ended up playing on the floor inside. Carly built with Legos with Benjamin, and August and Maya actually played chess on the real board. A full game, which August won. It was really nice to see both of them focused for that long and both handling it well. Carly then played her. I got out some snacks, and before they left they were still hungry so Carly got them fruit. They left at 4:20.

August and I watched the newest GoodTimeswithScar. He has been sick, as has Jellie, his cat, so it was good to see him back. Carly placed a fruit and veggie order. I got dinner together for us: hotdogs, dolma, and nectarines. I then headed upstairs for work, which lasted from 5:30 to close to 8.

I know they played Minecraft. Well, sort of. August had Vivian go in his hard survival world. She died after a couple minutes and got upset and just left. But then apparently she came back later during the time and apologized and they played together in something else. When I came down he and Carly were playing chess. He was making mating problems. He’d eaten the rest of his dinner but was just now finishing his hotdog. He was hyper so I took him upstairs. He asked, “What’s a legal scholar?” So scholar was a word of the day. When I explained he said he wants to be a piano scholar. He wants to know everything about its history. I told him I actually have a book about the history of piano, so maybe we will start reading bits of it. He randomly quoted, “At first it was sort of fun: we had home arts and crafts and home just about everything.” From the story, “I’m bored”.

We wrestled, scoring points, then there was something about being fish. He asked if there is any animal that can’t hold its breath. We went to the internet for help, and read that basically every mammal can hold its breath, but actually some marine mammals just breath out when they dive: https://www.aquaticape.org/bhdr.html He was then a mammal that could hold its breath for a long time and kept jumping in the water, but couldn’t swim, but only sank. I was a shark that found they didn’t taste good and didn’t want them polluting my sea, so I kept pushing him to the surface, only for him to dive in again.

He then went and had his bath, then picked out clothes. In bed he listened to “Narcissus and Echo”, then went to the bathroom. He asked, “What’s special treatment?” We discussed examples of both good and bad special treatment. He was quoting another story, “Animal Jam”, saying, “I play the ba-boombas. Then she started to bellow…”

We brushed our teeth, and on the way back to bed he said wants to be a professional Minecrafter. He said I should change my job and do Minecraft videos. I asked what my approach would be, and we came up with HistoryCraft. We talked about resetting the Nether, and I talked about how I had realized we could ask Uncle Paul. Finally, he asked what “Not three days earlier” meant, from “Monkey Mayhem”, I think. I asked if he had any music requests today. He usually doesn’t, but today asked for Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. He was asleep by 11:20.

Playing for the guests:

Playing chess with a friend:

A little jazzy tune:

What the land looks like without our castle and everything

Donations Carly took to the gan

Cards photos by August

Discussing the solar system poster

He woke up kind of early, at 8:25. I read a few Sideways Stories from Wayside School, then we went and played Minecraft in survival. We had oatmeal for breakfast, then he drew ‘magazine alphabetizing’ from the basket. Carly had cleaned up though, and I couldn’t find the magazine and notebook, so we skipped that and he drew ‘Khan Academy’. We found the ‘Getting Ready for 4th Grade’ math course, which seems to be kind of a review of the 3rd grade standards. Worked quite well, as he didn’t have to answer so many questions per standard. He worked through the place value and number representation section pretty easily. His learning is mainly about how they ask questions.

He drew ‘Reversi’, and we played battleship, chess, and reversi. He next drew ‘Edu videos’ and we watched a video about aphids and their candy poop, then a Little Richard video Cherie had sent. When August thought that video wasn’t real (it didn’t help that the video and audio weren’t working right) I showed him a video of Little Richard playing when he was older. We played War for a while, then he drew ‘Treat’. He was choosing one as Carly got home. She went up to take a shower. He did alone time, first improving on “Ice Crystals”, then listening to the Circle Round story “The Ant and the Billy Goat”.

We played in his chaos world with the big phantoms. I liked the add-on, but he and Vivian had spawned so many mobs that it was unplayable to me. The groceries arrived, and I cleaned them and he started helping with bringing in groceries. But he stopped when he was talking about resetting the nether in our survival world and I let him know that it turned out to be harder than I thought. He was upset, but then sad on the couch with Carly. Eventually he calmed down, and watched me work on troubleshooting it, editing files on my phone to see if I could figure it out. Sort of worked, but also caused problems.

He then went upstairs to “take a nap” with Carly. I went up to check on him, and he was paying chess on her computer. I brought him lunch: last of the gnocchi, scramble, grapes and nectarine. He really liked having all of the choices for lunch. Rena, the yoga teacher, called to talk to Carly, then he watched me work on the Minecraft issue more. He then drew ‘coding’ and we worked on Swift Playgrounds. We worked on variables, and counting how many gems the robot picked up. Incremental was a word of the day.

He went outside with Carly, and she taught him cribbage. I went upstairs to work, from 5:30 to 7:45. Our rehearsal for the Zoom session took a long time. When I was done I came down and Josh Ritter was playing loudly. I asked why, and August said, “You know I don’t like the silence.” He told me, “Also, I have a secret I’m keeping from you…but it’s okay because you do it naturally…okay, I’ll tell you: we’re tricking you into being a servant.” The Josh Ritter song came on that Carly has as a ringtone “If this was a Cold War…” and August joked, “Is someone calling?” Carly was out talking to Cherie, who had called right after they had all finished up their Minecraft time, so Carly had given August a few extra minutes.

She came in and they played cribbage. He had already developed some new rules: the crib carried over from hand to hand, getting bigger each time, and he added an element of chance, as they drew for high card each time to see who gets it.

They had popcorn and I went for a run. They were doing Gravity Maze and did an intermediate puzzle, which August came up and told me about before I got in the shower. I took a shower, then came down and he was listening to “The Wylderwood: Part 2”. He switched to “Thunder, Lightning, and Rain”. After that we went up and he had a bath. He chose a “combination” of clothes, then demanded crackers. I got crackers, but sat out on the couch while he listened to “The Magpie with Salt on Her Tail”. When that was over though he came out and said “I love you” in ASL. That was really sweet. He spent a long time going to the bathroom, then we brushed our teeth. Back in bed he did an internet speed test, and had me look up jitter, in an electronics sense. He said, “Our internet speed is unpredictable.”

We discussed Shmorgadeboop after bringing up the missing tortoise in Minecraft, which we had named “Shmorgadeturle” but had vanished from the top of the post it was on. That led to a discussion of the real cat, then of allergies.

We listened to the _Trance Frendz _album again, and despite being up kind of earlier this morning he still didn’t get to sleep until 11:45 or so.

Explaining the code:

Program overrun:

Piano time: