It’s on in full force now. That period in her life that I’ve been fearing ever since… well, since well before I had a child, is here now. And I’m terrified.
Kasia is in the stage where everything becomes “Why?” “That’s a monkey,” I say. “Why?” she asks. Everything is why, why, why?! I’m going to eat lunch. Why? We have to put our shoes on. Why? Is there anything I can say that won’t get the response “why?” Of course there is.
“Because I said so.”
Kara had to go out of town for the whole week on a business trip up to New York. While she was away, Kasia and I (well, mainly me) decided that it would be fun to go on down to Salvo and spend the night. So after talking to Karlie, we decided to do just that.
We don’t get together with the Philips family as often as we should, but when the girls all get together they always seem to have a great time. Oh sure, there’s the occasional fight and every once in awhile someone gets punched in the face, but why should a little physical violence come between friends?
I’m always a little worried when we stay someplace new, because Kasia usually has a hard time sleeping. Fortunately, she went down pretty well after a long day of playing, no nap, and three or four stories. She probably would have slept in too had it not been for the fact that she spent all night dreaming about all the toys just waiting to be played with downstairs.
We had some rain in the morning that threatened our day at the beach, but fortunately the sun broke through and we had a lovely time playing in the sand. Kasia actually surprised me by going down and playing in the water. Not even Kylie would spend time in the water. Then when the wind picked up and started shooting sand at us, Kasia took refuge under her towel (as seen in the picture above). I wasn’t as smart and just sat there getting hit by bits of sand.
The faucet on the outside of our house (the sillcock for those of you in the know) has been leaking all summer long every time we try to turn it on. When it’s off, it’s fine. Turn it on, and our garage starts to flood. So I thought I would give my handyman skills a workout and see if I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it.
I grabbed my pipe wrench and went to work. I had the whole thing taken apart with the exception of this one last piece. I have a twist, and it turned right off. Unfortunately the reason it twisted right off is because, not knowing my own strength, I actually twisted the pipe and broke it off. Crap. The bad news was that there was no direct water cut off for this faucet, so in order to turn the water off, I had to shut off water to the entire house. So now I had to fix the thing as fast as possible, or go without having running water. I had no idea where to start, but thankfully my father-in-law was at home “cleaning out the garage” (that’s what he calls it when he’s putzing around but wants to make it sound like he’s working)
Jeff came down and gave me some guidance and helped my replace the piping in the house, after cutting out a chunk of the wall. Unfortunately the next morning, discovered that it was still leaking a little. So I went up to our local Taylor’s Do-It Center where you get the absolute best service I have ever seen in any store. There’s always some old guy who knows how to do everything, and he’s just waiting to answer your question. I describe to the guy want happened, and what we did to fix it. He pointed out to me that we skipped a step along the way and that I’d have to do it all again without skipping that step. When I got home, I tried it and it worked. Everything is up and working just fine now.
So I broke the house, but fortunately with the help of a couple of wizened men, I was able to fix it again. Now if only I could fix the giant hole I cut in my wall, I’d be doing just fine.
On a related note, I’m actually writing a new book called “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Home Repair” which is written by me, The Complete Idiot.”For Idiots, by Idiots” is my motto.
I remember as a kid that each time we left my grandparents’ house, we’d always have to pose for a few pictures before we left. So we always had pictures of all of us together.
It seems like since digital cameras have taken over, and you can taken hundreds of pictures for nothing, those posed pictures just don’t happen as much. At least they don’t happen as much in my family. So this last time we were up in Wisconsin, I made it a point to get everyone together and pose for pictures. But I went all out. I did it like the Japanese at Disney World, which means you get every possible combination of people in the photo as possible (Dad with Goofy, then Mom with Goofy, then each kid separate, then all the kids, then just the girls, then Dad and the girls… I swear, it was like a whole roll of film from just one family).
In the end, I now have a bunch of pictures that I had been wanting for a long time. I even got a picture of my dad with his brother. I think the last picture I have of the two of them together, Dad still had hair. It was that long ago.
Dad and I spent a lot of time bonding while we were in Chicago. We sat on the deck and did some reading together. We talked about serious life issues over an adult beverage. We even got the baseball gloves out and played a little catch. “Go long Dad! Great catch.” But most importantly, we played a little Super Jock Super Toe together.
Super Toe is the game that my parents got my brother for Christmas sometime in the early 80’s. While putting it together, my dad decided to test it out. He then proceeded to test it out for the next several hours, and kept testing it until it broke. So to help him relive the good ole’ days, I got him his very own Super Toe for Christmas this year with the understanding that if he practices, we’d play. And practice he did.
Dad’s skills have really improved over the years, and he was able to beat me in the tournament. Though, I think he and Kasia were conspiring against me because every time it was my turn to kick, Kasia would rush over and try to swipe the ball away as I was about to kick it. This made me rush nearly all of my shots. Then when it was Dad’s turn, she mysteriously became really well behaved. Funny.
I was able to come back in the end and at least win the “longest kick” competition.
One of the things we did while in Chicago was go to a Wild West park. Here we could do things like pan for gold. Lasso a cow. Throw a tomahawk. And ride in a covered wagon. Look at this picture of us heading west, just like in Little House on the Prairie. Kasia is confidently guiding the horses while I’m pointing the way. Kara meanwhile seems confused as to what the future holds for us.
Actually she’s confused because she doesn’t know what I’m point at. I guess she failed to realize that I was posing for a picture, and the whole time she’s going “What? What are you looking at?” I thought it made for a great photo though.
By the way, I also found out that my mother is pretty good with a sling shot and a bow and arrow. I never would have guessed it from looking at her, but she showed us all up. Now if only she could cook or sew like Caroline Ingalls.
While at Pat’s house, we decided to head down in to the basement and play for awhile on his old pinball machine. Much of my high school career was spent in this basement on that pinball machine. Watching the thing light up and tell me I had “multi-ball” was one of the best feelings ever.
So we played a couple of times. I beat Pat one game. He beat me in another. And then Kasia had her turn. I kid you not when I say that she schooled us both. I think the highest score I had was 14 million. Pat’s high score was 16 million. Kasia managed to score over 21 million in one game.
I mean, just look at her face while she’s playing. Look at the focus. Look at the determination. Look at the way she’s just randomly pushing buttons while things light up. She’s a natural. If she could play pool as well as she plays pinball, we’d have one hell of a hustler on our hands.
