Spring Break 2004, day 3

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Yes, we are all still alive. Strangely enough, today was a very peaceful day, even though we were all literally at home until we went out to dinner.

I started out the day with 3 ibuprofen and that helped a lot. I proposed going to story time at Border's, but then DS1 popped a new, fairly wretched movie into the DVD and the kids got sucked into that, so we just stayed home. They watched that movie (I believe it was direct-to-video, "The Legend of the Rings", and it really wasn't that bad, definitely OK for kids), then the Bionicle movie which I actually kinda like, for what it is.

Then, we turned off the TV and they just played. We made the "Oh, no! Volcano" erupt with yellow "lava" (it takes a remarkable amount of vinegar to make 1 teaspoon of baking soda foam up). Then we played LOTR monopoly, with the One Ring option, which made the game blessedly short. DS2 whipped our collective butts. He got the light blue set (in LOTR version, it's Bree, Buckleberry Ferry, and Weathertop [I think]), and had enough cash to put 2 houses (excuse me, strongholds) on them. I then proceeded to land on it twice in one move (doubles, then snake eyes to land on another property in the same set). That was a quick $400 lining the little tyke's pockets.

It requires an insane amount of patience to play monopoly with a 3 year old, a 5 year old, and a 7 year old. But they were all spectacular about taking their turns and waiting while money (I always had to count it, of course) changed hands.

The One Ring option is great because every time the Eye shows up (the "one" on one of the dice is the Eye), you advance the Ring (which starts out at Bag End, right next to Go) one property. So eventually you know the Ring will hit Mount Doom (Boardwalk), and that's when the game ends. Today, we all kept rolling it and would say ominously, "The Eye moves!" and make deep scary sounds as we moved the Ring to the next property. Unfortunately, no one landed on a space with the Ring on it this time. Oh well. But it did make the game nice and zippy.

After monopoly, we got out the pop-up tents, and the kids played both upstairs and down while I answered the latest question to hit my MakeItLowCarb Mailbag: Where to shop?. I also updated the Links page, and added my second column to the site as well. So I did quite a bit of work while the kids played and only threatened bodily harm to each other a few times.

We ended up going out to dinner to Elephant Bar, and I have no idea what was up tonight but it took forever for our food to come. Plus, we were in a regular booth and not one of the huge practically-a-private-room booths we usually get, and the noise really got to DS2. At one point he just looked at me with fingers in his ears and said, "It's too noisy in here." Poor dear. He snuggled in my lap for a while but the whole scene was a bit too much for him. He did really well, though. They all did, even though the meal was very long. The meal was so long, in fact, that they ended up whacking $20 off the bill. And since we had 2 $25 gift certificates, we decided to just use one of them and pay the difference. So, a nice dinner for about $15 including the tip. Hee!

I had a Guinness to celebrate the day. Yum. I'm still not clear as to whether or not I have any Irish in me or not, although I've been told that I look Irish (!?), and my maiden name certainly is Irish (O'Connell). I think I have the stories mixed up, but... I know my dad's mother (her name was Cornell) was Scottish, and it could be that my dad's father was a Scot, too, but I think that he was Irish. His name was Daniel, like the famous parlimentarian. Doesn't really matter. St. Patrick's Day is not a big deal in Phoenix, as you might well imagine.

DH has the new episode of South Park playing on the TiVO. Man, that show is twisted, but hilarious. The boys buy real Ninja weapons with, of course, disastrous consequences. I just hope Butters makes it. I like Butters.