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This is precisely what you would NOT be seeing in our backyard right now.

Thomas announced earlier this week that he was the only student in his class to do math homework over holiday break and therefore was the only student to be promoted up to the next level in math. He was feeling very pleased with himself. Of course I took the moment to point out that, were he to work as hard as he did during break for the next several weeks, he could get promoted up to yet the next level before long. Strangely, that idea didn't appeal at all to him.

At school a while ago older boys were teasing each other about the presence or absence of body/facial hair and Thomas (obviously perplexed by this older boy business) asked me in the car on the way home from school to explain the point of the conversation. In a nutshell I explained that boys are often excited/anxious about growing beards/shaving/getting pubescent and the conversation is a way to ease anxiety. That explanation seemed to satisfy Thomas who views his classmates just as the 19th century European anthropologists viewed newly discovered Pacific Islanders. I asked him then how he felt about getting facial hair. "Are you excited about shaving?" He was quiet a moment and then said, "I don't want a beard. But I AM quite interested in mustaches." I immediately thought of him with a George Harrison-styled mustache (ala Let It Be era). Not bad, actually.

Fish and Various Other Tales

The dark spot up front of the pond is the only opening in the ice for the fish. I think only three remain in there, slipping away from the net every time I get close. Just now, when I took out the compost, I saw two glubbing for air and the minute I looked at them they slipped into the dark waters. Creepy little things. Eventually, I suppose, all but a few inches surrounding the heater will freeze solid and we will be able to catch them then, but until then, they insist on battling the elements.

Last night around 9:00, after Thomas finished playing the piano, he jumped onto my exercise bike and began peddling away like a madman. Thomas has a well-earned reputation of being rather lazy so Simon and I were surprised. I asked him why he was exerting himself at such an hour and he said, "If I am to be a babe magnet, I need to get buff." So true.

The Holidays are Over

Every house should have a knitting granny in it--and we no longer have one. How are we going to survive the rest of winter?
After a 7 day visit, cousin Jimmy returned to Wisconsin this morning. And Thomas is left to face the 76 pages of math homework that he did not get done during the semester. Amazingly, he did finish the work (as of 15 minutes ago) and is now all set for the first day of school tomorrow.

And with expressions not dissimilar to Thomas's above, Simon and I face the prospect of teaching tomorrow. (And a fact that I cannot think about too much, is that I am signed up to teach spring semester, summer semester, fall semester and then the winter semester of 2010. The next time I get a break from teaching will be in 17 months--sniff, I am starting to cry.)

Not As Ready For Winter As We Thought...

Remember how proud I was in October to stock up on wood for the Winter? Well, horrors! Wood doesn't just last as well as you'd think:
But fortunately, Walt the Wood Fairy is just a phone call away. Phew!

Winter Antics

After hovering at 10 degrees F for several days, the temperature shot up! Here it says 52 but it made it to 60 degrees by the end of the day yesterday. As neighbors emerged from their homes to jog and walk dogs in shorts and windbreakers, "Whooppees!" were heard ringing through the land.

Simon took advantage of the mild weather to climb onto the house. He claims the chimney was blocked but I think he just likes to get up on the roof when this old world starts to get him down.

And here is the yard, mid thaw. The snow is almost gone (and as I write this it is completely gone) and the yard is full of slushy puddles just right for Frederick to jump in. (Note fish catching apparati still in place. Of the 12 fish (I thought we only had 11 but accidentally caught a black one I didn't know was still alive) we had at the start of winter, I now have transferred 6 into the basement. It's amazing how hard it is to catch fish with a 5 year old chanting, "Fish! Fish!" right next to you as you trawl the pond with a crappy (but expensive) pond net. I can see them surface from our dining room window but by the time I get outside they have settled themselves onto the bottom in the ooze. I'm really tired of the annual "struggle to catch fish for weeks and weeks" ritual. The only reward is seeing "Goldeen," a fish we have had for 4 winters now, get frightening large. We've gotten good money out of that 10 cent feeder fish.)
Of course, what you don't think about when you are celebrating the melting of 3 feet of snow is, "Where is all that water going?" Because we all know, with the ground frozen 3 or more feet down, it can't be absorbed into the soil. "Oh well, one of those mysteries," you tell yourself. Until, just before bed, barefoot and sleepy, you go to the basement to clean the catbox and discover all the dirty laundry that was sorted into color piles on the floor in front of the washing machine floating in 3 inches of icy cold water. Shit. Shit. Shit. So rather than curl up with a good book you got for Christmas you get to haul out the wet/dry vac (you know all the zing has gone out of life when you have one of those to hand) and set to work. Since last night Simon and I have vacuumed up 12 tankfuls (50 gallons each) and the steady seepage shows no sign of stopping. But a deep freeze is predicted to hit us tonight and so the water should refreeze and the seepage should stop. And as the water freezes shouts of "Whoopee!" will ring through the land.

More On Christmas...

After fussing about this game for the last several months, Thomas finally got the DS game of his dreams. He's been playing it continuously since, barely remembering to eat. (We DO insist that he brush his teeth occasionally so he had to learn to do that while playing the game.)
Here Frederick opens a stuffie of The Count. He hasn't watched a Sesame Street in a VERY LONG TIME but, this was always his favorite character and, for the first time ever, it's now available in stuffed form so we just had to get it for him. And he is very pleased with it. (Why does this picture make his sweatshirt look so grubby? I am sure it didn't look that bad that morning.)

I think Simon likes his gifts.

Here is the livingroom a few minutes after the present opening frenzy subsided. And now we are enjoying that pleasant post-Christmas, dozy period when all the presents are still littered about, being looked at and enjoyed by all. We won't get around to putting them away for several days so for now it still feels like Christmas.

Christmas

The days right before Christmas were bitterly cold. This is the day time high temp on December 23rd. That evening we were treated to howling, groaning winds--not the sort of weather that inspires anyone to go for brisk walks or to go cross country skiing, as Simon swore he would do before the holidays were over.

Here is the 1 up sweater finished. It was NOT fun to do and, as you can see, I made it extra long so that it will last Thomas a few years. I don't know how many people in the world will have any idea what this is about, but Thomas is pleased with it and that is all that matters.
Here is Granny enjoying her birthday on December 24th. She seems to have gotten a lot of knitting stuff. I can't imagine why.

And here is the Christmas tree just before the present opening frenzy began. Frederick woke up around 6 but wasn't too interested in getting out of bed, so we stalled him for a while. Thomas woke up around 7 and we threatened to cancel Christmas if he got up before 8--and it worked!

Snow Day

We were warned yesterday that a snow storm ("winter advisory") was on its way and the warnings were quite exciting, if unbelievable. We were promised a "100% chance" of snowfall starting at midnight and ending the next day (today) around noon. So we trotted off to the grocery store, along with everyone else in town, to stock up on essentials (a big bottle of wine being one of the most important) and came home and waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing had started by the time we went to bed and we began to think that once again, the weather reports had been needlessly alarmist. BUT this morning we awoke to an amazingly thick and steady snowfall which, according to a neighbor's reports, began around 5 am. It didn't slow until around 3 this afternoon and it hasn't completely stopped yet. Simon shoveled the drive clear around 11 this morning and then had to clear it again around 2. So far, no sign of snow ploughs in the streets. Here is Frederick on a walk with Simon, enjoying the wintery landscape.

Simon said it took about 3 minutes for all traces of footprints in the snow to be erased by the new falling snow.

Here he is at Mott Community College, fighting the wind.

Frederick is glad to be in the backyard where the weather isn't quite so intense--but the yard toys are impossible to find.

And meanwhile Thomas, who wouldn't dream of going outside in weather like this, spends his extra holiday break day creating a Pokemon zoo with Bryce. Unbeknownst to them, I could hear them setting it up while I was inside our closet putting clothes away. (Our closet wall is on the otherside of Thomas's bedroom wall and, anyway, Thomas isn't known for being soft spoken.) Here is what I heard:

Thomas: You are in charge of the pokemon day care.

Bryce: I don't want to. The babies are naughty.

Thomas: Well, it doesn't matter because it will shut down soon because not enough parent are making their payments.

Grim times, indeed.