Day 107 - 06/07/2007

I picked up the ball that I dropped yesterday.

I sent D an e-mail outlining what could be done to salvage her plan and requested that I be allowed to pick up the ball. I was glad to be given the second chance and took the afternoon off from work to work on the project. (Work is slow lately, so it's not like I was missing anything.) On the bright side, we were able to include pictures from the end of the year party on the DVD, as well as pictures from another family as well.

In the end, the slideshow turned out great. We had 99 pictures and had Fat Boy Slim's "Praise You" as the background music. It lasted about five minutes and was a nice way to sum up the school year. I finished burning the DVDs and applying the labels around 1030p and tomorrow I'll get the jewel-cases for them so they don't break on the way home from school.

After burning a few copies (and determining that I could burn them in 1:30 vs. 8:30 using different software), I took the kids to the pool for a few hours in the water. M loves the pool, but always wants to play in the deep end with me. This would be fine if it were only her and I, but with N, I have to be close to him in the shallow end, which causes M to get upset. Fortunately, one of the boys from her class was there so they played together while I watched N.

(Yes, there are lifeguards at the pool, but c'mon, do you really think they're paying 100% attention to all the kids all of the time?)

During break I was able to get in 10 laps, alternating between freestyle and breast stroke. I'm hoping to work my way up to 20 laps by the end of the summer, but am not training for anything specific. I love swimming and see the lap lane as a great way to get in some extra exercise while the kids are enjoying themselves. Like bike riding, I hope them seeing me swim laps gets them to want to emulate me. So far M is open to swimming strokes, but N is more into being a crazy kid. To wit, I overheard the following exchange between N and another kid in the shallow end:

N: I'm cuckoo.

Other kid: Blank stare.

N: You can call me cuckoo.

Other kid: Blank stare.

N: My real name is N, but I'm really a cuckoo bird.

Other kid swims away.

Great, my son's going to get a reputation as the crazy kid. Not to worry, though, he has a few more years yet before he grows into the age of reason. I think I'll just sit back and enjoy his mannerisms before they're all gone.

We finished the last two chapters of Narnia tonight. It's been a long slog, but an enjoyable one. Tonight the Christian theme really came to a head with the realization that Narnia was heaven and that Aslan and Tash were God and the Devil. Looking back over the book, I'm sure I could find even more specifics (some obvious, others not so obvious). If I ever read this book again, I'll have to research the thematic elements a little closer to see if I can recognize the different story lines. Regardless, it's a great series of books and, even without the underlying Christian themes, the kids and I thoroughly enjoyed it.