Semanal08 : Week 21 - Quadzilla : The Sprite Rides Free

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It was way back in December, in Arizona. The kid got his first real wheels. He'd had a tricycle for a while and had gotten pretty deft at pedalling up and down the street. But this was different. This time he was motorised. He had the power.

Grandma, or Mama-G as she is known, had the crazy notion to buy the little fella his very own Yamaha Raptor Replica Quad. This thing is no toy either. It's as big as a full size 50cc Raptor and looks every bit the part. It runs off of a 12 volt battery, it has hi and lo speed, forwards and reverse. It also makes authentic 2-stroke ringningningning throttle sounds, which to anyone who's ever riden a 2-stroke knows is like a 100 peice symphony to motor-geeks ears. Of course it has none of the environmentally unpleasent side effects like the thick blue smoke of 2-stroke premix burning out the exhaust. I use the term unpleasent loosely, again, anyone who has ever riden a 2-stroke will know what i'm talking about here.

Well, it didn't take long before our 3 year old headcase was tearing up and down the street at full speed, locking up the rear wheels, skidding on opposite lock to get the thing turned around. He wanted no part of lo-speed, once he found out what that switch did it was full tilt. That is indeed my boy. It was near impossible to get him off the thing. And as equally near impossible to get the fantastic plastic into the back of the Chevy to bring it back to California.

Since he's had it, we ride regularly. Here, we take it out to the local park where he can ride up and down the path, terrorising the other lame, foot-propelled kids. See them turn and run when Quadzilla hacks down the tracks. Lately The Sprite and I have been taking rides around the block, he on the quad and myself on my mountain bike. Its a fun way to spend a few minutes these warm summer evenings. 

Pretty soon, he'll be moving up to the real thing and heading back out to Arizona and the sand dunes to rev up a real 2-stroke. Ringdindinningningdingning!!!

The Long Spring of Infection

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Fevers, flu, long cough, pink eye, scarlet fever, strep throat, tummy flu.

Semanal08 : Week 20 - Einstein's Revisited

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A couple of weeks ago, on A Saturday morning, The Sprite and I were trying to figure out what we would do for a couple of hours while ElectricMummy enjoyed her turn to sleep in. Our little Early Bird is up to get the Weekend Worm promptly at 6:30am every weekend like German clockwork.

So we take turns to get up with him and find ways to keep him occupied while the other gets a couple of bonus hours of sleep. This usually entails sitting him in front of Playhouse Disney on TV whilst the unfortunate 'parent' sneaks some shut-eye on the couch.

But on this particular weekend The Sprite had his mind made up that he wanted to step back in time and watch some of those Baby Einstein's. you know, those DVDs of toys and toddlers and primary colors. These were great when he was an infant, we'd set him up in his swing and he'd sit engrossed watching these mindless (to adult eyes) video's.

We thought these DVD's were ready for the yard sale by now. He had grown and his tastes were more mature. We own every Pixar movie under the sun and they get played in steady rotation. Little did we know there was life in the puppet dog yet. We'll see if this weekend here was an anomaly or if Baby Einstein's once again become a fixture in The Sprightly Playlist.

Book Time With The Sprite

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The Very Very Very Lazy Lazy Ladybug as read by His Spriteness.

One busy morning as I am rushing about the house deep in my morning ritual of putting on my cornflakes and pouring nice cold milk over a bowl of underwear, I heard a voice. It was talking, conversing, telling a story. I easily recognised the voice as that of my own child (now THAT'S parenting for ya) but it was different somehow.

It wasn't whining, pleading for some sticky sugary food item he is not allowed. It wasn't crying because the house next door was painted the wrong color. It wasn't screaming, shrieking at the top of his lungs, just to see if it's true  that Daddies eyeballs start to bleed from sound over 21,000hz frequency and 120db of amplitude. No, this sound was quite, peaceful, conversational.

I stopped to listen for a moment, half expecting to hear a secret conversation with a new found imaginary friend, or worse. For him to be speaking in Aramaic, uttering strange ancient curses. But once I poked my head around his door, instead of picking an outfit for to wear today at school, I saw him sitting on the floor, book in hands, reading to himself.

Of course this would make any parent proud. The fact he chose to pick a book, one we had been reading every night for a couple of weeks, and voluntarily entertain himself with words was a huge step in the right direction as far as I am concerned. Not to mention it was darn cute.

Obviously he wasn't actually reading the words off the page. He's a way off from doing that. As I mentioned, we had been reading the book every night, and The Sprite Brain had clearly absorbed the story and memorised the words. This is almost more impressive, a trait he has displayed many times since, memorising words and books with ease. Matching the story to the pictures, and understanding the context, he is able to recount his most popular books.

I told ElectricMommy he would make a great actor if he can memorise his lines that easily. She said if he can remember a birthday or wedding anniversary (something his Dad is incapable of) she'll be happy. 

Semanal08 : Week 18 - A Rant About Timekeeping

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Time.

Where does it go. The sands in the hourglass.

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day" as David Gilmour sang.

 Today, I rant about time and the management and keeping of it. it's been a recurring theme around these parts for some time now that we are always late. For everything. Since The Sprite was born it has only gotten worse. And now he is off to pre-school in the mornings, there are added complications and distractions to deal with.

Subsequently I have been getting to work later and later. The little fella just loves to help out. In fact he insists. Whether it is making my tea or taking the trash out, The Helping Hand of Sprite is there slowing me down. Trying to get everything done and get out the door in time without tripping over Little Monster has revealed an epic weakness in our system. We are all lolligaggers.

So it did not go unnoticed by the Power Behind The Door at work and I got a stiff talking to, well actually quite a limp talking to considering. ElectricMomy and I have tryed to work something out, some kind of system that works for everyone. With her off to full-time employment again it's tough getting a schedule where we can satisfy the needs of Corporate Amerika (which feeds and clothes us), yet allows us to deliver The Sprite to and from school safely and timely.

I'm sure it is nothing new and families the world over have to deal with exactly the same problems. It is also someting Corporate Amerika is fully aware of, it being nothing new to them either, so one would expect some level of understanding on their part. But also, I know that when The Sprite starts 'real' education we will have to be much more disiplined. School starts earlier and the stakes are higher than simply missing sandbox time.

I'm hoping these early years tune us to the fina art of getting up and out at a decent hour in the morning. 

And with that being said, I'll leave it to Mr. Gilmour to take us out.

"Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say."

Semanal08 : Week 17 - Chicken Pie Shop

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It's a Friday night. We are hungry.

 It's the end of a long week. Nobody wants to cook.

What to do.

We let someone else do the cooking. We get take out food and bring it home, sit in front of the TV with a glass of wine. 

One of our favourite take away eateries is the La Palma Chicken Pie Shop. It is on La Palma Blvd in Anaheim and it serves chicken pot pies. Nuff said. The food is all home made and is really tasty. They have the best mashed potatos and gravy. And cookies. Macaroons, snowballs, molases, peanut butter. So tasty.

So what we usually do is get a couple of the take away dinners, 4 uncooked pies for the freezer, a pint of gravy and a couple dozen cookies to last the weekend.

The place is a real old school mom 'n pop shop, and a little bit dingey to be honest. It doesn't look much but the food is worth it. There is nothing modern or  smart about it. The old boy that runs it is a character, he's a bit of a grouch. I imagine he's done this every day for the last 47 years. So no wonder he's grouchy.

On this night I was taking video of the place and captured a great conversation between the owner and a customer. At least I would have captured it had I not ran out of battery. From what I could tell, the owner was from Germany and the customer was stationed there at some point, maybe during WW2. I wish I had gotten that on camera. I'll have to go back another time to get some more details, however I don't think I'll be lucky enough to get an interview with the old boy. I'll be lucky to get my food while it's still hot.

Semanal08 : Week 16 - Lunchtime Playground

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A few weeks ago, ElectricMummy had to go do some business things, which is nothing unusual, except on this occasion our little Sprite had a bit of a cough that kept him out of school. That left me on playground duty for a couple of hours. Which was actually quite nice, it got me out of the office and away from work for an extended period of time with a perfectly valid excuse.

So, with time to kill, the boy and I hit the swings, slides and sand for a brief playtime. He had fun running around (of course) and I had fun chasing him (again, of course) stuffing my Flip into his face wherever he went.

But like all good things, our relaxing afternoon came to and end when mummy returned and he had to go home for a nap, and I back to work.