Jason Kendall

Today, I'm going to work with Daddy. And then to the Oakland A's game. I thought I would share with you a neat picture of Jason Kendall so everyone can see.

Robot X - Revenge of the Humanoids

Here's are some new Robot X videos where the dreaded Mommyoid launches an unexpected ball attack. You will notice that I am now sporting a nifty new Robot X hat made entirely of aluminum foil. This allows for even more powerful death rays. Amazingly enough, the videos were taken using Daddy's phone.

Part 1:


Part 2:

Cougar Alert

This weekend was really fun. We did all sorts of things. On Saturday, we enjoyed going to Downtown! We get a sugary pretzel (scrumptious), visited the Apple Store (exciting), and visited the fountain (lucky wishes). I've posted a couple of pictures Daddy took using the camera in the his phone of me riding the cougar sculpture, which is near the pretzel place.

In case you like any of these pictures, they are available on Shutterfly by clicking here.

Happy Mother's Day

Here are some photos from Mother's Day. We went to our usual place, a restaurant called the Blackhawk Grille. There is a pond, fountains, and other stuff in the complex where the restaurant is located. You can view the photos here.

Kindergarten Open House

Yesterday evening, I got to take a sneak peak at my Kindergarten classroom in the "Bell School" (as I refer to the Alamo School owing to the large bell on its sign). It was a pretty neat classroom with lots of interesting things to see and do. There was a large board with numbers from 1 to 100, a calendar with patterns of tulips and stars labeled with the days of the month, lots and lots of dinosaurs, and so many other things. I also got to meet the teachers as well. I was very happy to be visiting and quickly settled into making patterns with wooden blocks in geometric shapes (including my favorite shape---the hexagon).

I also discovered that Grady, a person who is in Garden School, will also be going to the Bell School for Kindergarten. I hope he's in my class! I think it will be fun to go to the Bell School.

Aidan the Athlete

It's the summer of sports for me. In a typical week, I visit my soccer class, tee ball, play golf with Daddy, as well as play the occasional game of balloon baseball. In soccer, I still love to be the goalkeeper. I'm getting quite good at this. Last class, I only let in one goal the entire time--a new record for me. In tee ball, I really whack the ball off the tee. There are two bats in tee ball, a small one and a large one. Most of the kids go for the small one. On the other hand, I try to think of what Frank Thomas would do in this situation. The answer is clear---go for a large bat. I always take the large one and swing as hard as I can. I can hit the ball really hard that way. My golf strategy is a bit more controlled. If I swing as hard as I can, I rarely hit the golf ball, so I swing a little easier there. My putting continues to improve as well. I love sports.

The Game of Business

We've added a bit more texture to the car selling game. Here's how it now works. As the owner of "Aidan's car lot" I have to acquire some "inventory" to sell. This can happen two ways. Sometimes, I negotiate with another car seller for some cars that are already built. Other times, I hire a worker to build the cars for me. In either case, it costs me some money to get the inventory on the lot. Since I have an allowance now, I've got a wallet full of ones, so we use real money in these pretend transactions. Part of the trick is figuring out whether it's cheaper to make the vehicles using the worker or buy them from the other seller.

Next, I try to sell my inventory. I've quickly figured out that it's a good idea to sell my inventory for more than I paid, so that I end up with more ones than when I started. I try to choose cars that I think will especially appeal to my customers so that I can make a good profit on the transaction. My best deal so far was to get my worker to build a "heliplane"---a vehicle that's half helicopter and half airplane. It only cost me a dollar to get one of these built and I was able to sell it to a stegosaurus for six dollars---a tidy profit.

We've also abandoned the not so nice business practice of selling the same car to multiple buyers. Instead, I've become a more honest car seller and make up for the lost profits by doing a greater volume of business by buying lots of cars for the lot.

Baby you can buy my car

It's very interesting to learn about the world of negotiation. One of the ways I get to learn about this is in a little car building game I play with Daddy. In this game, we take my Tomy car building set and build a vehicle. The vehicle is always outrageous with wings, smokestacks, and the like. Sometimes the vehicle is multi-use: it's a car, and a plane, and a helicopter. When it's finished, I put it out at Aidan's car lot and wait for customers to arrive.

The customers, who are often stuffed animals, come to check the car out. They test drive it and decide whether they like it. If they decide they want to buy, we then negotiate. Usually, I make the initial offer, which often consists of more than googol dollars. None of the animals can afford this, so they will typically make a counteroffer, like one dollar. We then negotiate back and forth until we arrive at an acceptable price.

So far so good. But here's where the real profit opportunity comes in. I've found that if the stuffed animal does not immediately drive the car off the lot, there's an opportunity to sell the same car AGAIN to the next stuffed animal to come along. This really boost profits since I've managed to sell the same car twice. What I've discovered, though, is that the animals are none to happy to learn that they've both bought the SAME car and that there's only one car. Often, they ask for a refund.

I learned another thing too. My cars are not always very sturdy. Recently, a box of crayons bought a car (after the usual haggling) and proceeded to drive it off the lot. Shortly thereafter, the car broke into two pieces. The crayons demanded their money back citing a California lemon law. I countered that the crayons had bought a car and not a fruit so the lemon law did not apply. I later learned that when a car goes bad shortly after purchase, it's called a "lemon" and that's what the law referred to. This car business is pretty tough.

This Week in Baseball

Baseball season is in full swing. Last week, I had my first session for the Danville Cubbies, a tee-ball league that I'm now in. I whacked the ball off the tee several times and motored around the bases. I've now figured out that power and speed are crucial to be a successful hitter in tee ball. Daddy and I also played a version of tee ball in the backyard called "home run derby." In this version of the game, every hit is either an out or a home run depending on whether the ball manages to make it sufficiently far down the yard. It was a great contest. I made lots of home runs and the A's (my team) managed to come back to defeat the Sox (Daddy's team) with 3 home runs in the last of the ninth inning.

We're also playing baseball with a pitcher as well. Daddy tosses the ball underhand to me and I hit it and run the bases. I'm getting quite good at making consistent contact with this version of the game. I also like to pitch to Daddy. I toss the ball overhand for him to hit. We recently played this game in the park across from our house. The A's managed another victory, but Daddy, playing the role of Big Papi, hit a mammoth shot into a tree. I told him not to hit the ball so far.

I'm also learning how to catch the ball, but this is a bit of a struggle. I can catch maybe 1 out of every five balls thrown to me. The key, I learned is to cover the ball once it hits the mitt with my throwing hand so the ball doesn't pop out. This seems to help a lot.

I love baseball. It's my favorite sport. (Yes, I love it more than golf too.)