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over the dam
Aug. 4th, 2009 05:30 pm.
It's been a good summer so far, especially for Sarah. She went to soccer two nights a week, and her team, the Blue Lightning, came out on top of their rivals, the Orange Tigers, the majority of the time, losing one and tying one and winning the rest. The two teams were originally one team, but they had so many kids signed up, they were able to split in two.
The last week of soccer was also the week of basketball camp in the mornings, so I'd drop Sarah off and get her again two hours later. It wasn't enough time to read a novel, but it was all mine. She enjoyed the camp, and now I think basketball is her second-favorite sport.
This last weekend was Culture Camp, the weekend of a hundred or so girls, all (or most) adopted from China, running around. There were also about nine boys, also Chinese. We talked to a local Chinese teacher who might prove congenial to Sarah for another try at picking up some of the language. She uses singing, and the fact that she brought Sarah fully up to speed in a Chinese song at the camp in about ten minutes was a fairly impressive mark in her favor. This year the bonfire didn't get rained out, so I stood watch at the fire pit as my volunteer duty for the weekend, trying vainly to tell people not to thrust their marshmallows directly into the flames as I toasted marshmallow after marshmallow for myself, the slow and successful way. They were so tasty, it's about all I can do to keep from going up and toasting some over the stove on a fork, like we did when we were kids. Swimming in the lake did get rained out, so we went to the indoor pool of the campus we were at, and that was fine by me. Lastly, we stuck around for the drawing, and actually won stuff. Not once, but twice. So it does happen.
Cathy's off to Oswego now for a two-day conference, so Sarah and I are roughing it. All in all, she only has to be off her usual routine from about now through tomorrow morning, then her mommy comes home for supper tomorrow, and there will be hugs all around. Sarah and I went out today to take stuff back to the library, have lunch at Wendy's, and go hit the Goodwill for a couple more short-sleeve shirts for me. (I'm reinventing myself here as a guy who wears short sleeves. It's a shocking departure to anybody who's known me for a while. Call me a crazy rebel. Please.) The store has expanded into a larger store next door to the old one (they're in a semi-moribund strip mall, which I swear had another thrift shop a few storefronts away the last couple of times I was out, but I can't find it this time). The new place is extremely neat, clean, and spacious, and I'll be heading out there to dig through the LPs when I can do it without the impatient one. Lots of appealing titles there this time. I limited myself to a couple of Three Suns ten-inch LPs and hoped nobody else will want the stuff I had to leave behind. They also have roll-up keyboards, new in the box, and if they'll let me take one out and try it, I might purchase one. Cathy is hereby warned.
.
It's been a good summer so far, especially for Sarah. She went to soccer two nights a week, and her team, the Blue Lightning, came out on top of their rivals, the Orange Tigers, the majority of the time, losing one and tying one and winning the rest. The two teams were originally one team, but they had so many kids signed up, they were able to split in two.
The last week of soccer was also the week of basketball camp in the mornings, so I'd drop Sarah off and get her again two hours later. It wasn't enough time to read a novel, but it was all mine. She enjoyed the camp, and now I think basketball is her second-favorite sport.
This last weekend was Culture Camp, the weekend of a hundred or so girls, all (or most) adopted from China, running around. There were also about nine boys, also Chinese. We talked to a local Chinese teacher who might prove congenial to Sarah for another try at picking up some of the language. She uses singing, and the fact that she brought Sarah fully up to speed in a Chinese song at the camp in about ten minutes was a fairly impressive mark in her favor. This year the bonfire didn't get rained out, so I stood watch at the fire pit as my volunteer duty for the weekend, trying vainly to tell people not to thrust their marshmallows directly into the flames as I toasted marshmallow after marshmallow for myself, the slow and successful way. They were so tasty, it's about all I can do to keep from going up and toasting some over the stove on a fork, like we did when we were kids. Swimming in the lake did get rained out, so we went to the indoor pool of the campus we were at, and that was fine by me. Lastly, we stuck around for the drawing, and actually won stuff. Not once, but twice. So it does happen.
Cathy's off to Oswego now for a two-day conference, so Sarah and I are roughing it. All in all, she only has to be off her usual routine from about now through tomorrow morning, then her mommy comes home for supper tomorrow, and there will be hugs all around. Sarah and I went out today to take stuff back to the library, have lunch at Wendy's, and go hit the Goodwill for a couple more short-sleeve shirts for me. (I'm reinventing myself here as a guy who wears short sleeves. It's a shocking departure to anybody who's known me for a while. Call me a crazy rebel. Please.) The store has expanded into a larger store next door to the old one (they're in a semi-moribund strip mall, which I swear had another thrift shop a few storefronts away the last couple of times I was out, but I can't find it this time). The new place is extremely neat, clean, and spacious, and I'll be heading out there to dig through the LPs when I can do it without the impatient one. Lots of appealing titles there this time. I limited myself to a couple of Three Suns ten-inch LPs and hoped nobody else will want the stuff I had to leave behind. They also have roll-up keyboards, new in the box, and if they'll let me take one out and try it, I might purchase one. Cathy is hereby warned.
.
