Glittery Show

I love glittery shows. Last night we had a really cool one. Daddy got out his tripod and set his shutter speed to something really slow so we could take some pictures of the show. Here they are.

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

This weekend was a great weekend for golf. The PGA Championship occurred this weekend, and I was very interested in the fate of my favorite golfer, Tiger Woods. I was also interested in the giant trophy awarded to the winner of this tournament (pictured above). As you know, I love big trophies.

To celebrate the joys of golf, we got out the clubs and practiced hitting and putting and generally playing with golf balls. Daddy also invented a Thomas golf game, which I then modified. In this game, each player has a Thomas engine (Daddy had Mavis and I had Percy) and they have to "drive" up the putting green and into the hole. The person whose train makes it into the hole in the fewest "strokes" (pushes) wins the hole. This is a pretty fun game.

Santa Cruz and a Day Out with Thomas

Here are some pictures form when Nainnie visited us. We went to Santa Cruz to hang out on the beach and then we went to "Day Out with Thomas" in nearby Felton. It was a great trip.

See the pictures here.

Let's Go Oakland

Lately, I've been obsessed with the Oakland A's. I like to see them in the newspaper. I like to watch them on TV. I like to look at my baseball cards. But, most of all, I like to go to the stadium to see them play. On Saturday, Daddy and I were watching an A's game, and I asked when we could go again. Daddy came up with a good idea---tomorrow. So off we went to see the A's play the Devil Rays. It was Eric Chavez backpack day, so I got a cool backpack in yellow and green with Eric Chavez's picture on it. I really like it.

The game was great. I had cotton candy and lemonade. I also led a lot of the cheers. I would start yelling "Let's go Oakland" and then clapping and soon our whole row was joining in the chant. The game was exciting too. After falling behind 1-0, Frank Thomas (aka "stick guy" since he uses a steel rebar to warm up in the on-beck circle) got a single. Then Eric Chavez hit a soaring home run to right. The A's added a run in the 8th and Huston Street closed out the 9th for a 3-1 win.

When we got home, we replayed the game with "balloon baseball". In this sport, the balloon is the ball and a piece of cardboard from a wrapping paper tube is the bat. It's a really fun game. I like to pretend to be sitck guy when batting and Danny Haren when pitching. My fascination with Danny Haren comes from a bobble-head I have of him. Apparently, the Oakland A's general manager, Billy Beane, was kind enough to send it to me.

Here are some photos of me in my A's gear as well as some wine country photos from Grammy's current visit. Click here to see.

Cards and the Art of Trash Talking

Well, not exactly trash talking, but there is a certain set of fun expressions that go with card playing. Sure, there are the usual expressions like deuce for 2 and lady for queen, but then there are some other expressions I like to use. Here are some:

"I've got a hand like a foot" when my hand is not especially good.

"I've got a dilemma" when I'm faced with a tough choice about which card to discard.

"It's time for the dreaded...x" when throwing down a card that's not especially high in rank.

Surprise Going Away Present

This morning I made a going away present for Nainnie. I like all my presents to be surprises, so I went through some measures to keep everything secret. First, I made her a colorful envelope out of construction paper, which I then decorated with stickers. Next, I made a card to go in the envelope. Rather than drawing pictures on the card, I wanted to express myself in words. I asked Daddy to come and help me by being my secretary while I dicated what I wanted to say. I wrote that I wanted Nainnie to have a very nice time and to get off her plane safely. Then I told her I loved her "really much". Finally, in a bt of deception, I wrote that the message was written by Thomas the Tank Engine. But, just in case she was really fooled, I signed it, "Love, Aidan."

Some Photos

Here are some photos of me in wine country.

Napa July 2006

Here are some photos Daddy took when he was in Berlin recently.

Berlin

A Game I Invented

As you know, I love card games. Recently, Mommy got me a Thomas the Tank Engine Sodor Celebration card game, which I've now played about a gazillion times. In this game, there are five different colors of cards. Each player is dealt four cards face up and is tasked with acquiring one engine card, one letter card, one ticker card, and one present card all of the same color. The first to do this wins the game. Acquiring cards uses the same rules as rummy.

Anyway, after many plays of the traditional game, I invented a rather interesting version of the game myself. In my version, each player receives three cards, face down. Then one card is turned up as the trump suit. The eldest hand leads a card and others have to match the color of the card led or play trump. The hand is won by the highest card of the correct color played where the ranks of cards are determined by the size of the objects depicted on them. So an engine beats a present, which beats an envelope, which beats a ticket. After a hand is played, each player takes a new card from the deck so as to hold three cards at all times. The winner is the player taking the most tricks. There are some wild cards too.

Daddy was very impressed with the complexity of this game construction and enjoyed playing a couple of times.

Oakland A's Game

Yesterday was guys day. I went to work with Daddy in the morning. While Daddy took a bunch of phone calls, my work consisted of playing on the computer with the Wonder Pets and Go Diego Go. After this, we got to visit the Dean's office to get some chocolate and then went off to the baseball game. I was all dressed up in my Oakland A's outfit, which is really great since it has my two favorite colors--yellow and green. We had special seats which required us to walk through the clubhouse where the players are to get to the seats. There was a red line on the floor. We were supposed to stay to the left side of the red line so the players would have room to walk in the opposite direction.

I loved the game. We had popcorn and ice cream and lots of other goodies. I also managed to get on the big TV screen in the ballpark by holding up a couple of BART tickets and jumping up and down. Daddy pointed me to the camera man and he shot some pictures. A bunch of people recognized me on the way out of the stadium from my TV appearance.

I also initiated a chant in the section I was in. I started saying, "Let's go Oakland" and then clapping rhythmically. Soon other people in the section picked up the chant.

The game was a good one. The A's won 5-1 on the strength of "stick guy"--Frank Thomas. We called him that becuase, unlike the other players, Thomas warms up by swinging a big, heavy lead stick in the on-deck circle before grabbing a bat. The stick swining apparently works since Thomas hit two home runs yeaterday--effectively beating the Boston Red Sox all by himself.

Golden Unicorn Award

I managed a much faster completion of putting on my clothes--only 63 seconds. For this, Daddy gave me the golden unicorn award, which I wore proudly. Our housekeeper, Violeta, and her daughter, Melanie, were in the house today, so I thought I'd show them my award. They were impressed. I decided to make them some awards too. I made Violeta a golden lion award and Melanie a golden tiger. They were very surprised and happy with their awards.

Chicken to Ride

I like to sing and make up all sorts of songs. Indeed, my life somewhat resembles that of a Broadway musical in that I can break out in song at any instant. When it's not a Broadway musical, my speech is taking on more patterns of Cockney slang---I love to answer in nonsense rhymes to things. Anyway, I was singing a song the other day and remembered that Daddy had the song on his iPod. The song was "Chicken to Ride". Mommy didn't know this song until I sang her a little bit of it:

She's got a chicken to ride
She's got a chicken to ri-i-ide
She's got a chicken to ride, and she don't care.

Golden Snail Award

As you know, I'm not that fast when it comes to getting dressed. Yesterday, I competed in a getting dressed race. From the start time of removing my pajamas to the ending time of getting my last sock on, it took me 154 seconds. This was good enough for Daddy to give me the "Golden Snail Award". The award consists of a yellow piece of paper with a snail on it. It is also customized with the "winning" time of 154 seconds. I wore it proudly. Next up, the golden turtle award if I can get down below 120 seconds.

The Attack of Robot X

Daddy came home from New York yesterday. Today, we spent a lot of time together playing with Legos. In the course of this, we played "The Attack of Robot X -- The Scourge of Alpha Centauri." In these stories, Robot X (pictured above next to me) attacks a poor unsuspecting Lego city like Sunnyvale and destroys it. Sometimes Robot X faces severe opposition. For instance, when Robot X attacked Lego-Orlando, a robot Mickey Mouse and a robot Goofy fought him (unsuccessfully) in the defense of Orlando. In the course of the adventures, Daddy taught me about "plot twists", which are part of what make the stories exciting. For instance, Robot X has occasionally faced a really powerful robot who could defeat him. Instead, Robot X turns the rival robot to the side of the machines and away from the "humanoids" and thereby seals the fate of the city. We also did some the other way around where Robot X is reprogrammed by the people who live in the city to protect the city rather than destroy it.

This is the most fun with Legos ever!

In other news, Daddy put up a couple of photos from the 4th of July parade in Danville. This year's parade featured the Budweiser Clydesdales and the beer guys delivering beer. Unfortunately, they were not handing out free samples to the people watching the parade. See the pictures here.

Fireworks

It was an exciting fourth of July for us. In the morning, we went to the 4th of July parade in Danville. It had all the usual goodies--free ice cream, frisbees, and so on. It also featured Mr. Funnelhead, a person dressed up as a giant funnel promoting clean water. I am now the proud owner of Mr. Funnelhead stickers. There were, however, some things I didn't like. The loud sirens of an old-fashioned ambulance were not appreciated nor was the parade of shotgun carrying guys that always come at the end of the parade.

After that, we went home and watched a bit of the World Cup. Naturally, I was rooting for the Italians since they were wearing red as opposed to the Germans who were in the home whites. Italy prevailed 2-0. Even better was popping a whole bunch of what I call "streamers", but which go by the official name of party poppers. They don't make a really loud bang and the streamers that come out are really exciting. I collected a massive streamer pile from these.

We had a cookout that evening (featuring tofu dogs for me) and then went off to see fireworks. I loved seeing these. There were ones shaped like smiley faces, some that looked like the quills of an upside-down porcupine, shimmery ones, and lots of others. I brought earplugs to muffle the loud booms, but fortunately we were far enough away that the booms weren't that loud.

Throughout the day, I kept asking why there were all these American flags waving. Mommy and Daddy explained to me that we were celebrating our becoming a nation. Daddy helpfully added that we were previously part of England. Still not sure why we split up with the land of Kipper and Thomas, but we do have a very nice flag.

Aidanninho!

This weekend was a great weekend for soccer. For one thing, we saw two world cup matched in TV. In the first, Portugal defeated England on penalty kicks while in the second Brazil lost to France 1-0. Back to the first match---my loyalties were very torn in this match. England, being the home of Thomas the Tank Engine and Kipper the Dog, holds a special place in my heart, but their boring white uniforms held no aesthetic appeal. Portugal, smartly dressed in crimson, offered sartorial splendor, but nothing else in terms of literary achievements. I rooted for both teams, but by then end sartorial splendor won out. I was rooting for Portugal on the penalties as Daddy writhed on the floor with the never-ending futility of rooting for England. Meanwhile, in the second match, Daddy and I both rooted for Brazil. He because of some dislike of France, me because Brazil wears yellow uniforms with green letters and numbers---what could be better. Sadly, Brazil was not up to the challenge and lost.

After that, we played a bunch of soccer games outside over the weekend. I invented a game called soccer tag. The "it" person has to kick the ball to strike the non-"it" person. Of course, no hands are allowed in soccer tag. We also replayed the Brazil-France match a zillion times. I was Brazil's yougest star striker---Aidanninho---while Daddy played for France. Usually, he was Zidane, but at times he was Henry and Ribery. Unlike in the real World Cup, Brazil won decisively in our pretend games. Aindanninho set many world records in terms of goals scored.

Gooooooaalllllll!!!!!

Swimming

I'm in a swimming class this summer. As you know, I've been pretty reluctant when it comes to swimming (or even getting my head and hair wet in the bathtub). Previously, my view was that I'd learn to swim "when I was a teenager," but I've been trying the Starfish class since Mommy signed me up. I just finished the first of two weeks. I started off slowly. The first day, I didn't get into the pool at all except for dangling my feet in while sitting on the side. I'm a big believer in learning by watching rather than doing. The second day I stayed out until the bell to end class rang-- then I let a teacher carry me into the pool to fetch a toy. The third class, I got into the pool and held onto the wall for a couple minutes and kicked a little while the teacher carried me. The fourth day, various promises of rewards (a treat after swim, a visit to the wading pool) convinced me to get in a bit more and I finally got in and held onto the wall for much of the class. I also kicked a bit, though still wanted by head way out of the water. At home, however, Mommy and I played "blowing out the candle" in the tub (something my instructors did in the pool-- a finger is a candle and I blow it out a bunch of times, the final time with my mouth under water). Mommy hopes this transfers to blowing bubbles at Monday's swim class! I'm still a bit nervous about the whole thing, but I'm making progress.

Carey's Patch Moves

Yesterday, I played Chess with Daddy. After a slow start, we decided to (sort of) play by the acutal rules. The main exception is that no knights are allowed on the board since I don't like to see any of the horsies get hurt. Anyway, Daddy taught me what he called a "Carey's Patch Move"---the X-ray. Daddy said that my great-grandfather taught him lots of these moves and that they're all very tricky (I like it when I can do tricky things), so naturally I was eager to learn about the X-ray.

While we were playing, Daddy put my queen in the dreaded X-ray. She was stationed in front of my King to protect him when a nasty Rook came down to the same rank as my Queen and King. Daddy happily announced that the Queen was the victim of the dreaded X-ray. The rook "X-rays" the queen and sees through to threaten the King. The poor, helpless quenn can do little else than capture the rook. Unfortunately, Daddy has another rook guarding the first one, so he then took the queen.

After this, Daddy cleared the board of pieces and gave me two rooks while he had a king and queen, so I could do some x-raying as well. I did pretty well in finding the X-ray move. Sometimes I would lose my rook to the queen, but often I would figure out a way to trade my rook for Daddy's queen. After my elation at the X-ray, Daddy promised a new trick for next time---the dreaded "fork." While I know what a regular fork is, it will be interesting to see what the Chess version of a fork turns out to be.

[Daddy Addendum: In looking up X-ray in wikipedia , it turns out that what I was taught as the "X-ray" is actually known as the skewer. The actual X-ray is a bit more complex than the skewer.

Aidan the Card Shark

As you know, poker is one of my favorite games (and favorite sports to watch on TV). During our painting job, we moved a bunch of stuff around the house and I discovered a book containing 25 kids card games as well as a nice big deck of cards. I persuaded Mommy to pull this out from the other stuff and helpfully dropped it off on Daddy's desk in hopes that he would learn some of the new games. Fortunately, he did. Over the weekend weplayed two new games---both of which I managed to win more often than not. Here they are:

Go Boom

Each player starts with 7 cards. The object is to get rid of all your cards. The eldest hand leads a card and then the other player must match either the rank or the suit. If the other player can't he must draw from the stock until a match is made. High card of the led suit takes the trick and gets to lead the next card. Winner is the player to get rid of all his card with last trick winning in the event of a tie. When a player gets rid of all his cards, he call out "Boom!" as loud as he can.


What's interesting about this game is that it's the first trick-taking card game I've played. I had no trouble figuring out the rules for matching rank and suit, but I don't like it when I have to take a lot of cards from the stock. For one thing, it's pretty hard for me to hold all the cards.

Take Them All

In this game, each player gets 10 cards. The idea is to be the last player holding cards. In addition to the cards in each player's hand, a card from the stock is turned up. The suit of that card is trump---a super-powerful card suit. The eldest hand leads a card. The other player must follow suit if he can, otherwise play trump, otherwise play anything else. High card of the led suit takes the trick unless it is trumped. The winner of a trick gets to lead the next trick AND take a card from the stock. The game ends when one player has no more cards. In the event of a tie, last trick wins.

I crave variety, so I've already thought of a variation on these games. I like to add jokers to the deck. Jokers are super-duper powerful cards---they take any trick in which they are played.

Card playing is great for counting skills although I have, on occasion, referred to a number "2" that I've seen outside the card-playing context as a deuce, which I suppose is a little confusing. I also like to save my queens until the end of the game since queens are really nice---like Mommy.

Diesels

While I love Thomas and all the steam engines, I have a more uneasy relationship when it comes to the diesel trains. For one thing, in many of the Thomas stories, the diesels cause no end of trouble. Indeed, in the Thomas movie, the main plot centers on Diesel 10's attempts to destroy the steam engine Lady and thereby wreck the magic of the island of Sodor.

Because of this, I'm always a bit cautious in assembling my jigsaw puzzle with the three steam engines (Thomas, James and Lady) and the three diesels. What was nice today was that, after we built Diesel 10, Daddy gave him a voice, and he decided that he would be very nice to all the engines. He wanted to be a really useful engine too. I like this new side to Diesel 10.

My First Real Movie

This past weekend, I went to see my first movie. (Actually, this isn't quite right. I went to see the movie "The Good Girl" starring Jennifer Aniston when I was an infant. I don't remember this however.)

My first real movie was Cars. I had fallen in love with many of the characters in Cars from having seen them in Target and McDonald's. In fact, I own die cast versions of Lightning McQueen, the main character in the movie, and Fillmore, a green tie-dyed Volkswagen Microbus (who is also my favorite character). I've got plastic versions of the tow truck, Mater, and the Porsche, Sally.

Anyway, we went to the theater, got popcorn and lemonade, and proceeded to watch the movie. I was a bit scared by some of the previews but once the movier got started, I really liked it. One rule of movies that is really hard for me to follow is that you're not supposed to talk while the film is going on. This is really tough since I like to comment about everything that I'm seeing---not just what's going on on screen, but also the lighting, the seats, and so on. After about five minutes into the movie, I asked, "Is the movie almost over?" The answer, happily, was that it was not. Anyway, I enjoyed watching the movie a lot.

When it was over, I asked, "When can we go see that movie again?" Hearing that we wouldn't be seeing it again soon, I offered a compromise, "Are there any other movies that are not scary playing in the theater?" Sadly, there aren't too many movies that are not at all scary.