The Diary of A Simple Man
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Peter Maranci" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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11:21 pm
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Christmas campout
We put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving (it's artificial, so what the hell; Sebastian really wanted to). On Friday night Sebastian and I camped out in the living room, sleeping on the sofas. We left the lights on the tree on all night, of course. It wasn't the most comfortable night for me (he woke up several times, and woke me up), but he really enjoyed it.
Current Mood:  content
Tags: sebastian
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09:29 pm
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Sebastian
Sebastian's been sick for the past few days. He's had a sore throat, an intermittant temperature just under 101, and complains of nausea sometimes. His doctor doesn't think it's swine flu (although nearly half of his school has swine flu now), more likely a cold; but he's had to stay home the past couple of days.
Tonight he asked me to go upstairs early. He'd found Pitter-Pat, the stuffed toy ant that I'd bought for him a while ago; he'd been lost under the bed. He set up Pitter-Pat's bed in a little box, with an old Spider-man mask for a blanket.
Once we got upstairs, he wanted to lie down and rest in his bed. This was EXTREMELY unusual, because it was nearly three hours before his bedtime! We lay down, and after a few minutes I found myself thinking that some music would be nice. I didn't say a word, but he got up. I asked what he was doing, and he said he was going to go turn on the TV in our bedroom and turn it to the New Age channel. I was amazed, because that was just what I'd been thinking of doing!
So we went to the bedroom and turned on the music. We chatted a little; he said how nice it was to relax. And then we both fell asleep.
Fortunately it wasn't hard at all to wake up up just enough to get him back into his own bed a few hours later, when Teri came upstairs. And he fell asleep again almost instantly. What a good boy!
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: happy
Tags: sebastian, sebastian's health
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11:12 pm
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Oklahoma Smith!
Sebastian was the first to sign my cast, of course. It says "DADDY I LOVE YOU" signed "sebastian".
He was asking for scary stories recently, so this weekend I dug out Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery - ghost stories for young teens. Read him the introduction (which bored him), and then read Dunsany's "In a Dim Room", which I'd told him a few times before but never actually read to him. He loved it.
He wanted another story, so I read "Obstinate Uncle Otis" by Robert Arthur. In it, a character gets a bump on the head and gets amnesia; he believes that he's a furniture salesman from Cleveland. Sebastian went berserk. He decided that he had amnesia, and started saying in a silly voice "I'm Oklahoma Smith!". It's become a regular catchphrase of his in the last few days. 
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: amused
Tags: books, humor, sebastian
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09:37 am
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Halloween
...went well. Sebastian dressed up as Darth Vader. Once again he didn't go to that many houses; maybe nine or ten, which is a new (high) record for him. He's just not that crazy about getting candy. Maybe if he had other kids to go with he'd be into it more.
He did a great job at saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you". But he kept yanking his mask off as soon as he turned away from the doors. Apparently it was really hard to see through the eye-holes.
The weather was beautiful - just the right temperature, windy, with clouds scudding across the night sky more swiftly than I've ever seen before. There were a few tiny drops of rain now and again, but nothing to worry about. Sebastian got to give out candy to trick-or-treating kids, too; he really liked doing that, although one small child was scared of him even though he wasn't wearing his mask.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: calm
Tags: holidays, sebastian
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11:45 am
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Fire and the moon
I grilled burgers for dinner last night. That's not easy to do with only one hand, believe me! So Teri and Sebastian helped a lot.
Sebastian spent quite a bit of time out in the back yard with me. It was dark; it's been getting dark early, of course. The moon was just over half-full, hanging over our house near the chimney. I looked at it, and thought of Sebastian's telescope. My father gave it to him a year or two ago, but we hadn't been able to look at anything much with it so far. I wear glasses, you see, which makes it really hard for me to focus the damn thing. It's also really hard to aim it right.
But Sebastian took a look at the moon, and suddenly ran in the house and came out with his telescope. It took some work, but I was able to get it focused on the moon. The view was breathtaking. Sebastian loved it.
The burgers came out great, too. 
Current Mood: happy
Tags: cooking, sebastian
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10:29 am
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Pumpkins!
Almost forgot: on Saturday after his birthday party Sebastian was being pretty terrible. There was a lot of screaming going on. We sent him to his room, with some difficulty.
After he got out, Teri really wanted to go see the Pumpkin Trail at Roger Williams Zoo. It's an annual event; they have lots of jack-o-lanterns. We'd tried to see it about five years ago, but the wait was about three hours in line, and we weren't allowed to bring strollers in. So we left.
I was dubious about letting Sebastian have a treat when he'd been so bad (and I was tired as hell), but I finally gave in (to Teri, not Sebastian). The night was warmer than that night five years ago, and the line was much shorter.
The Pumpkin Trail was...pretty damn strange. I'll have video or pictures up soon.
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: Red Dwarf closing theme
Tags: holidays, sebastian
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12:28 pm
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The Lord of the Rings: The Old Forest
We're going along nicely with The Lord of the Rings. Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry are in the Old Forest, slowly being drawn into the clutches of Old Man Willow. Sebastian is mesmerized, and also quite curious as to what the Black Riders are. At first when there was only one he suspected that it was Gollum in disguise. His latest guess is that they're some sort of pig-dog creatures. I have no idea where he got that idea! 
Current Mood: happy
Tags: books, sebastian
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12:24 pm
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Birthday
On Saturday we had Sebastian's birthday party for his friends (as opposed to his family, which was two weeks ago). At his request we held it at his karate school, the Family Karate Center.
It went really well. I was surprised at how much fun the kids had, and they learned some stuff too! I had to run over to pick up the cake, and so missed the first ten minutes, but Teri told me something that made me very proud.
All of the kids there except one were from Sebastian's school. The lone exception was a friend from his day care; they still have a play date once in a while. Teri told me that Sebastian lined up all his friends from school and introduced each of them by name to his friend from day care. Apparently it was all his idea.
Current Mood: proud
Current Music: The Ocarina of Time - Windmill Hut
Tags: sebastian
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12:12 pm
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Catching up: roof
Plants were growing out of the gutters on the side of the roof that faces the back yard. So recently, shortly after Sebastian got his cast removed, I got out the ladder and climbed up onto the roof to clean them out.
Sebastian really wanted to come up with me. Teri didn't want him to. But he's getting big, and it's time for him to be able to be a little more adventurous; so I prevailed on her to let him do it.
He loved it up on the roof. He helped a bit, carrying things around. The gutters are, unfortunately, still not hung right; water pools in the middle, and they were filled with decayed-leaf glop and sprouting tree shoots. One of them was close to three feet high! I scooped out all the stuff and dumped it onto the side yard where the grass hasn't been growing well. That part of the yard needs fertilizer badly.
When it came time for Sebastian to climb down the roof, he got pretty nervous. In fact he got scared. But he made it down safely...and so did I.
I wish I'd thought to have Teri video or photograph us up there!
Current Mood:  thoughtful
Current Music: The Ocarina of Time - Windmill Hut
Tags: house, sebastian
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09:09 am
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WoW update: Zeldava
Sebastian designed a new WoW character on Maelstrom last night: a blonde human female warlock we named "Zeldava". He wanted to call her "Zelda", but of course that was taken. So were "Zeldah" and "Zellda".
He was very specific about her looks, particularly her hair, and it turned out that he was making her look like a girl he knows called Ava (he claims he knows two of them, and the Ava he was thinking of isn't the one who sometimes chases him around at school). So we ended up calling her Zeldava. I'll see if I can throw up a picture of her soon.
I played her for a while. The quest to get her first imp was pretty tough; she kept having to fight three enemies simultaneously. Even though my other characters had sent her money and equipment and potions, she kept dying. Finally I took her in when she was close to levelling, and that worked like a charm. She leveled while quite low on hit points and mana, which of course immediately replenished them; that did the trick.
Now she's level five, and doing fairly well.
Oh, I got the penguin pet for converting my account to Battle.net. Each of my characters is getting one. He's kind of a grungy-looking penguin, I must say! Sebastian hasn't seem him yet.
I am, of course, dead tired. Up much too late playing WoW, and when I was just going to bed Sebastian woke up crying, looking for Frisco (his favorite stuffed cat). I helped him find Frisco, but he wouldn't sleep after that. I lay beside him for hours, getting kicked and shoved, and got less than two hours of sleep all night.
Oh, I turned up the heat for the first time of the season; it was 56 degrees upstairs last night, so I cleaned off the radiators and cranked the thermostat up to 64. Much better!
Current Mood: tired
Tags: crpg, sebastian, wow
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10:42 am
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WoW update
Not much to report. Another solo evening. Someone spoke to me nicely, but it turned out that they were just selling gold.
My auction went off well enough, and I got just under 3 gold.
No leveling, unfortunately. Domac (pal-13) got to 50 in enchanting, but she needs maple seeds to make cloaks. Apparently they're available from merchants, but I haven't found one yet. I took her adventuring; she's doing well, and is making good progress to level 14.
I also got Omacblade, my skinner/leatherworker, to level 10. But he bores me; I've done the human/fighter thing too many times before.
Got Omacmage out of Darkshire (too scary to be in alone) and completed a minor quest or two.
I managed to quit a little earlier than usual. But I still didn't get enough sleep; I'd just fallen asleep when Sebastian called me to come and sleep with him. I did, but he pulled all the blankets off me (he'd had me pile six blankets on him at bedtime) and I froze. We really need to take out the bedroom air conditioners!
Current Mood: tired
Tags: crpg, sebastian, wow
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02:16 pm
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Goodbye Cast
Yesterday they took off Sebastian's cast. Teri thinks he was a little nervous when they were sawing (I'd stupidly mentioned that they'd touched my arm with the saw when they cut mine off, giving me a friction burn), but he seemed fine to me. His arm is fine, and he had a bit of the enhanced sensation I remember after the cast came off. He'll go back in two weeks for a final check, but all seems to be fine!
Current Music: Monty Python - The Meaning of Life
Tags: sebastian, sebastian's health
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01:50 pm
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WoW: Account transfer, moves
Blizzard is requiring everyone to convert their WoW account into a Battle.net account. I thought I already had a Battle.net account (via Diablo and Diablo II), but I had to create a new one anyway.
I'm supposedly going to receive a penguin as an in-game pet (Sebastian was very excited at the news), but I don't know how to get it.
I've been thinking, and I've decided to clean out my characters on the Maelstrom server. I have three Horde characters and seven Alliance characters there, and that doesn't make sense. I should make Maelstrom all Alliance, so I can send myself useful stuff and have my characters support each other.
My highest-level Horde character is 15th level. I noticed that I may be able to transfer him for free to a lower-population server. If so, I'll do it; I'd hate to waste the time I spent playing him. I guess I'll look for a low-population RPG sever.
Sebastian has decided that I should make a human male warlock. I don't know why.
Current Mood:  okay
Current Music: Monty Python - The Meaning of Life
Tags: crpg, sebastian, wow
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12:13 pm
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The Lord of the Rings
He's really loving The Lord of the Rings so far; I've been reading it to him every night, and often during the day, too!
In fact, he was riveted by the scene in which Gandalf helped Bilbo pass on the Ring to Frodo. I don't know if he'll have the patience to stick through the later parts of the book, but so far we're up to the point where Frodo and his friends have left Bag End. He made me bring the book in the car so I could read it to him this morning, which is a sure sign that he's entranced. And during the "then you shall see Gandalf the Grey uncloaked" exchange, he told me that he really liked the book. I think what tickled him was that I gave Bilbo's voice a strong tinge of Gollum when Bilbo called the Ring his "Precious".
The voices have been interesting to do. Gandalf's voice is coming out deeper than I want it to. Although I loathe loathe loathe the movies and believe that Peter Jackson should be staked out on an anthill for Crimes Against Literature, Ian McKellen's voice was an excellent model for Gandalf. I'm falling short in that regard, but not to the point that I'm ruining things.
Frodo's voice is much like Bilbo's, but more earnest; not as comic and hapless (or not at all, actually). Merry is a little...there's a bit of upper-class Brit in him (he is the more mature and thoughtful of the hobbits, overall). Pippin is rather silly and impetuous. Sam is lower-class and earnest.
All in all, I'm having a lot of fun. I'm still not at all sure how far we'll get before it becomes too hard for him; who knows, maybe we'll finish all three books!
Current Mood: happy
Tags: books, sebastian
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11:13 am
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Columbus Day (long) weekend
It was an eventful three days.
Saturday
On Saturday, we'd been asked to be designated drivers to King Richard's Faire for Teri's brother and his wife and friends. We did that last year, too.
( Read more... )
Current Mood: thoughtful
Tags: carnival, holidays, scouts, sebastian, sebastian's health
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11:36 pm
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Sebastian turns 8
Today was Sebastian's birthday. We gave him our last present today, a Ben 10 digital camera. He likes it.
We finished The Hobbit tonight. He made me start The Lord of the Rings right away. I tried to bore him to sleep by reading the Notes first. It didn't really work; he slept a little, and woke up feeling sick. Now it's nearly midnight and he's in our bed, calm but not yet asleep.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: tired
Tags: books, sebastian
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10:13 pm
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Sebastian's cast
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Sebastian's cast
Here it is. He picked the color, of course. It's signed now - he asked me to be the first. |
Current Mood:  sad
Tags: photo, sebastian, sebastian's health
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10:25 am
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Chocolate chocolate-chip cookie bars
Stayed up late last night. On Sunday I made a pan of chocolate-chip cookie bars for Sebastian's Cub Scout open house on Tuesday (tonight), but on reflection it seemed likely that it wouldn't be enough. So I made another pan tonight. He asked me to make them chocolate with white chocolate chips.
The white chocolate chips were pretty old, though, and to tell you the truth they're not very good-tasting. So I used the new bag of chocolate chips instead. It wasn't hard to make the cookie dough chocolate; I just added 2/3 of a cup of powdered baking cocoa. They smell delicious. It should be a pretty intense chocolate experience!
Too damned tired.
Current Mood: tired
Tags: cooking, food, scouts, sebastian
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02:40 pm
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WoW update: Grinding
I've been on my own for the last few days on WoW, so I've been grinding. It's a tedious, boring process; I've only managed to get my mage and primary fighter half-way to their next level.
I got killed by a Horde PC again, for about the fifth time. I was at Lakeshire, just standing there, when BOOM! someone came rushing by me too fast to see, and I was dead. Obnoxious, but what can I do? At least he didn't get any honor out of it, I'm sure. Lakeshire seems to be by far the most common place for this stuff to happen.
Sebastian had me create another new character for him: a Blood Elf. It's an interesting setting, a race that has essentially turned evil due to addiction to magic; a sort of lawful evil culture, I suspect. Visually the starting area is extremely pretty.
Eventually I'll try an undead. But I have to delete a character first. And I have to get Sebastian to stop having me make characters and then abandon them - particularly because I'm sure he won't let me delete them. As it is, I'm probably going to delete my first character (a human fighter, level 6) in order to free up a little space. I'll log on as him and have him mail everything he owns to one of my other characters, or course. Or maybe he'll just sell it all and send the money.
Oh, I started an Orc warlock and got him up to level 5. But I'm starting to see that WoW isn't much fun without other people to play with.
Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Kate Bush - Wow
Tags: sebastian, wow
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11:44 am
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Will
This morning, out of the blue, Sebastian asked me "When you die, can I have your stuff?"
It took a bit of probing for me to figure out what he was after. I thought it might be my books, and reassured him that they'd be his if/when I died. But I think he was actually after my computer and my World of Warcraft account.
He also asked how old he'd have to be before he could play, and if he'd need a separate account and computer to play with me.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Suzanne Vega - Gypsy
Tags: humor, sebastian, wow
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