The Brick House

Dan was up at 7am, complaining about staying up til midnight watching a show. We talked about my successful electronics curfew and how it’s dramatically improving my sleep in both quantity and quality, but they aren’t interested in doing something similar (yet – sometimes it takes a while but these conversations often do percolate through and are acted on eventually).

Hugh came and talked to me when I was making brunch, and we discussed options for him cooking more often. I talked about how useful it is when he has meals he can make from scratch from store-cupboard ingredients, because then if I’m sick/tired/CBFed cooking he can step in and cook a thing, but we also discussed menu planning and how that might have implications for ingredients bought for specific meals that then don’t get used and go off. I said that he could make samosas for lunch more often, and he requested to make them for lunch on Saturday so Daddy can eat them. I also suggested that for his lunches he could start experimenting with the chicken rice bake recipe, which is extremely flexible and customisable, and he was keen. I’m trying to think of ideas where he learns a basic principle to apply and can experiment within that framework so he’s learning about combining flavours, etc.

Hugh came outside with me when I went to do the chickens, and changed the geese’s water again. He noticed there were ants climbing on the raised bed and we talked about the weather changing towards rain this afternoon and ants being able to sense it and going for higher ground. We talked about industrial agriculture monocultures and how big industrial cornfields are almost sterile, contrasted with organic polycultures where you work on creating healthy soil to build healthy plants which are more resistant to attack, and encouraging predator species to keep pests in check. We looked at the worms flourishing in the second raised bed, pulled out some volunteer potatoes and talked about nitrogen in producing healthy foliage but not tubers. I talked about how I would top off the raised bed and grow greens in pockets of potting mix, because they will flourish in the high-nitrogen environment. Also talked about how chickweed growing happily in the first raised bed shows that the nitrogen levels in there is still high as well. We made a green smoothie using mint from the courtyard today, because we’d used chickweed the last two days and didn’t want to over-harvest it (Hugh didn’t like it, unfortunately, and neither did Dan). Hugh mentioned that he has been working on the challenge list of “Build 100 Things In Minecraft” and today he’s doing #98, a community garden, which seems pretty apt! He has been sending me screenshots, and even a walk-through tour.

Dan made ricepaper rolls for lunch, while Hugh got sick of waiting for me to dismember the roast chicken for him and did it himself. Rather competently! I’m currently negotiating sprog wrangling for next week with Beth. She and Micky can give Dan a lift home after Outspace on Tuesday, and stay for dinner. And she can take Hugh on Friday so I can go to the Show demo. Useful big sister! I’ve also found a few more robotics/coding/Makerspace workshops this term and booked Hugh in.

Dan was successfully jabbed, and had a Drumstick in compensation. We even managed to remember to return the overdue book, luckily there are no fines. Hugh has been telling me about all the ways that printer companies rip people off with ink cartridges (using the “give away the gerbil, sell the duct tape” principle). You should talk to him about it some time. He’s also whingeing about how much his feet hurt from all that pogo-ing. Poor sodbiscuit. I have successfully made him bring out his laundry and his washing up but haven’t convinced him to clear out the rotten fruit. Revolting sodbiscuit!

After dinner he wanted to do something with me but I’m feeling too ill to do anything. So I suggested he read to me, and he picked Frogs Sing Songs from the seasonal shelves, then Swallows. We were intrigued by the bit about arctic frogs so looked it up, and discovered the book was talking about wood frogs, which live in Canada and Alaska and can survive freezing when dormant over winter.

Dan had a dentist appointment at an unGodly hour of the morning, including an X-ray. Their teeth are excellent, there’s no sign of decay, but there is a wisdom tooth coming through. The dentist gave some suggestions about the toothache issue (mostly about using toothpaste for sensitive teeth), and applied a coat of fluoride, but unless we want to get some fissure coatings applied for preventive maintenance, they don’t need to come back for a year (I checked re Hugh and he’s due in April).

In the car on the way home Dan told me they had found a Tumblr blog devoted to American Revolution memes, which is bringing them great joy. I suggested that if they were looking into the American and French Revolutions, it might be interesting to look at what implications they had on the course of Australian history. When we got home I sent them a link. I really need to do a Trello online portfolio card for all the various things they’re sending me on this topic.

The library just rang to let me know that Hugh’s Code Club won’t be starting this week due to the facilitator being ill. Which reminded me that we should go down to the library tomorrow and return an overdue book.

Hugh has been working on challenges in the LotR Minecraft universe all morning. He’s also been telling me about the planned reset of the server, which will remove all the stuff people have built and littered all over the place, reset all the resources, and remove some broken mods. He put away the drying up for me and is planning on making samosas for lunch (it turned out to be more like afternoon tea, but he did make them eventually). He sent me a couple of links to videos he watched: Why Yakuza Don’t Need to Hide and History Summarized: The Ottoman Empire.

Dan took the cat outside for some exploring and sunbathing in the courtyard. They had a great time at their lesson with Eleanor; Eleanor thinks they are sounding magnificent for the recital on Sunday. Dan wants to dress up a little bit to suit the character (Christine from Phantom of the Opera) but they think they can find something in their wardrobe rather than expecting me to find a costume (thankfully).

Dan: talking about representation in various anime series they watch, enthusing over the responsiveness of the writers of The Dragon Prince to their fans in having more canonically gay characters and on-screen relationships as well as more representation of PoC and fat people and PWD, in contrast to those of Voltron. Helped me put away the washing up. Spent time hanging out with Hugh in the courtyard, weeding the raised bed and keeping count while he bounced on his pogo stick. They’ve done a rather excellent sketch of a character from Hamilton, are wading through the C18th biography, and are trying to find a video with more information about the battles of the Revolutionary War so they can fit the songs into context. They also want me to buy the sheet music for one of the songs so they can start learning it with Eleanor. And they are now so intrigued by the Marquise de Lafeyette that they are learning more about the French Revolution as well.

Hugh: spent a long time working on his pogo stick technique: PB went from 13 (yesterday) to 33 to 58. Helped unpack F&V shopping and wrote notes for me on my computer when I did the BotVC stockpile (need to show him how to write fractions as numbers instead of words, but the only words he misspelled were brocolli and coliflower). Told me about the Piccard family of explorers (YouTube channel That’s Amazing!). Helped me pick chickweed from the garden and make green smoothies with it; emptied the compost bin; put away the drying up; used the stick blender to puree the pumpkin soup for dinner. Watched a video with me (The School of Life’s “The Importance of an Unhappy Adolescence“: he was not impressed and thought the narrator was “a bit of a knobhead”). Told me about the inventor of “sea monkeys” and how they’re a bit of a rip-off, and that the inventor was a Jewish white supremacist.

The two of them have been spending quite a lot of time in the garden today. Yay for an inviting little courtyard! They also voyaged around looking for the two missing geese (Rosemary is back on the nest behind the fridge beds) and Hugh looked for eggs. Then later I took them down to Geeveston where they hung out at the bike track together and Hugh bounced (Dan did not want to change the wheels on their skates), then they played on the flying fox.

They have both been very helpful round the house and done stuff without arguing (much) when I’ve asked. They’ve both put away drying up and Dan has brought in laundry. Hugh has signed up to make lunch tomorrow.

I was just reminded that Hugh’s new Code Club on Wednesday mornings in Huonville starts this week, and if I have to take him with me when I pick Dan up from roller derby anyway, we might as well start going to Chess Club on Thursday as well. Still trying to arrange something for Thursday and Friday next week so I can try to make it to the show though.

Hugh: picked him up from Tina (at the tip shop); bought him a pogo stick. Voyaged with us to Cygnet to pick up a cast iron bath from Freecycle. I sent him a link re our ongoing conversation about white supremacist memes:

Spent extensive time learning to jump on his pogo stick, including quite a bit of time interacting with Dan. Helped me cook dinner. Watched Angel with Daddy.

Dan: doing more research into the supporting cast of Hamilton; discussed whether someone’s sexuality was being erased after a letter they’d read with homoerotic overtones was introduced as “We don’t know about his sexuality”. I discussed that the historical importance of the homoerotic friendship, and the fact that the homosexual identity was not invented until the late C19th/early C20th, means the letter can’t be read by itself as evidence of a sexual relationship. Also cautioned against trying to understand people in the past through the lens of modern understandings of sexual identity; and discussed the basics of the theories behind “histories of the self”: that “the self” is not a static, unchanging, universal thing but a socially-mediated construct which changes in time and across cultures. Saw a snake next to the courtyard fence while letting Q have some outside time. Helped me weed the raised bed.

Hugh: slept in til late, computer in the morning, then went to a sleepover at Philip’s after lunch.

Dan: sent me a bunch of links they have been reading/watching about the American Revolutionary War. Inspired by the musical Hamilton, they’ve been learning more about the life of Alexander Hamilton and the period, largely so they can nitpick the musical (which they were doing at length today) but also so they can follow up on the stories of the supporting characters. They apparently found a link to a website which had Hamilton’s contemporary biography available as a PDF. They might find that a bit heavy going, perhaps, but I’m not going to say as much and put them off the idea.

Dan: went up to town on the bus to spend the afternoon with Eli and go to the poetry slam

Hugh: helped me with weeding in the garden; watched Mark Rober’s science and invention YouTube channel; Minecraft LotR (playing with friends) and Terraria. Organised play date for Friday with Philip.

[ETA: I didn’t realise for a couple of days, but this blog picks up again five years to the day after my last entry. How cool a coincidence is that?]

[10:30] Dan is working on a new cosplay (Callum from the Dragon Prince), for which they need a blue coat and a wine-red tunic. We found the basis for the blue jacket yesterday, then this morning were discussing how to make them a T-tunic when I bethought myself of the wine-red linen-look T-tunic which has been languishing in my UFO pile for nearly two years. I finally found it (Dan pulled it from the top of a heap on the floor after I had emptied every tub of fabric in my bedroom onto the bed *sigh*) and we discussed various ways of customising it, including finding a reasonably close approximation of the trim in some fawn-coloured bias binding. It may involve me unearthing my Craft Brain from the remaining fog left over after GSG, and cutting it, machine-sewing the seams, and showing them how to use the bias binding to hem it.

Hugh: on his computer; played Uno with Eric

Notes from the last couple of days:

Tuesday: Dan went to Outspace to watch Love, Simon; their friends Izzy and Asher were there. I’m glad they’re building a bit more of a queer tribe in addition to the roller derby/poetry crew. Next Outspace (in a fortnight) is about making zines, so that makes up for the fact that I didn’t have the money to enrol them in the school holiday zine-making workshop I found a while ago, which was also on yesterday, lol.

Saturday: Hugh went to the Lightwood feast and enjoyed the singing.

Hugh has recently been doing German on Duolingo. I’m hoping that he might continue with it, so am occasionally bringing it up, but if I do anything too overt about encouraging him, he will resist. He has the advantage that his best friend is a German speaker so that’s potentially a natural incentive to be interested in continuing.

Katy reading Red Dirt Diary for (she says) the 7th time.
Hugh playing with Meccano (need photos)
Katy horseriding lesson
Hugh Duplo

http://www.ehow.com/about_5421163_life-cycle-stink-bug.html

Hugh asked how many babies a stinkbug could have in a year, so we looked it up.

Listened to Katy instructing Hugh in how to do mental addition by adding the tens separately then the ones then adding the totals together.