just for fun

Ouch!

When we gave our 15-year-old a new chess set for Christmas, he told me that I'd have to learn to play. Tonight we had our first lesson. I felt much less apprehensive once I decided that I didn't have to actually master the game in one night, just get a feel for it.

By the end, I decided my goal for the evening was merely learning how each piece moves; I spent the whole time looking at the instruction booklet which diagrammed it. My son was very patient; it took me forever. I told him the story of Barb cooking up tons of Christmas goodies because her mom took 15-20 minutes per turn at Scrabble, so he pulled out our awesome new hardback complete works of Lewis Carroll (leatherbound at BJ's now for $14.99!) and started reading Alice in Wonderland during my turns.

My boys have played chess for years, so he's quite the pro while I'm quite the amateur. [Remember, I told you mothers of young ones that one day your children will arise up and whip your rear at Monopoly? Well that goes for chess, too.] At one point he he just shook his head and said, "It's really hard to develop a strategy against someone who has no strategy."

Ouch.

Pool Time!

The kids were determined to go to the pool today. I got Bunny an infant floaty thing with a sunshade last night, which obviously means I meant to go to the pool this morning, right? They conned, I mean talked, our retired neighbor, Miss Ann, into going with us so that I couldn't say I had too many kids to watch (these kids are way too clever).

Bunny was not thrilled with the cool water or the floaty thing, so she basically stayed poolside and looked cute. Miss Ann introduced her to her first taste of peanut butter cookie. She ate a little, but mostly just tantalized the other kids who were wanting more and thinking she should share. Baby loves her swim sweater and her independence, but not in that order.


I told Aunt Linda about the post about my mother, and that she was also in one of the pictures. Apparently I had printed a copy of that photo and put it on the wall in my grandmother's room at the nursing home and my mom hated that picture of herself and tore herself off the side of the picture! My mother always believed that if there was a really awful picture of you, you just throw it away (or hit "delete" in the digital age).