Happy 13th birthday, Karla!
I wouldn’t have tried to worry her, but Tim and some of the
other guys had no problem teasing Karla about having her thirteenth birthday on
Friday the Thirteenth, in 2013 – in a place like Witch Falls.
What could possibly be ominous about that? ;^)
It’s a good thing that the joint gift we’d picked up for
Karla was really nice, or she might have gotten annoyed with Tim after a
while. Tim wasn’t the only teen or kid
having fun with the Friday the Thirteenth in Witch Falls theme today, but
nothing particularly scary happened today – except to the Meadowvale team at
the game tonight. Kyle Landry happened
to them; but I’ll get to that in a bit.
First up was Tai Chi by the river, and I’m working on teaching
my trio of martial arts students a competition form that builds on the short
forms they’ve been learning so far.
Nothing has really changed since Monday with our morning exercise, but
we all find it amusing that we’re all in on the normal toddler act that Ethan
and Ehlana need to maintain – and that Michael has been putting on his own act
to a certain extent so that it doesn’t look like he’s learning faster than he
should. We’ll talk about it with Mom and
Dad, but once we need to move our workouts indoors for the winter, we won’t
need to do that; and Michael, Ethan, and Ehlana may be able to do a lot more in
public by spring just because the twins will be going on three and have nearly
a year of lessons behind them by then.
Michael went home for breakfast today, and while I like
spending the time with him, the excuse for an extra good morning kiss when we
meet up again to walk to school with Rowen and Rebecca is a nice
trade-off. I have most of the joint
gifts we bought for our friends at my house, so I had it with me; but gave it
to Michael and Tim and let them decide how to surprise Karla with it. They gave it to her this afternoon during
computer class – at exactly 13:13 – though it took some of our classmates a few
moments to catch on to the reason for that timing.
That was one of the most entertaining few minutes of the
school day, but the fun really got started once we were set free for the day
after last class. Tim was thinking about
playing football again at the park, but Michael, Rowen, and I managed to talk
him into biking the trails again instead since we’d be having a full-immersion
football night anyway. Dinner was at my
house tonight, so after spending an hour or so on the trails we went for a swim
with Ethan and Ehlana before sitting out on the back porch for a hamburgers,
fries, and cold salads meal. I was
surprised to find out that dinner and a movie night wasn’t on, but it was
really only cancelled because I wasn’t the only person in the family with other
plans tonight; and Aunt Leanne and Aunt Deborah both let Mom know earlier that
they wanted to skip it because they were out of steam after a busy week. Aunt Leanne is seriously ready to have her
baby anytime now even though she still has about a month to go. By the time you reads these journals, Aunt
Leanne, I’ll guess that you’ll believe the wait was worth it.
We split up after helping with the clean-up long enough to
grab showers and get ready for the game; and I had Mom, Dad, and the twins with
me when Michael met up with us outside and we took a side trip to Rowen’s to
collect her on our way to the school. That
really was a game-time decision that Mom had left up to Dad; since he has work
to get done this weekend before heading to Crystal Springs
on Monday. He decided to get Ethan to a
game on what might end up being the best weather we’ll have for a home game
this season – not too hot, and not too cold or rainy. Having my family with us made a big
difference from the first home game; and this definitely did not feel like a date
night. We all had a lot of fun, and
Ethan and Ehlana helped to entertain everyone around them as we watched the
game.
I wouldn’t rank the game very high on any list for best
games ever, though our team played great.
The problem was that Meadowvale couldn’t do anything to stop Kyle Landry
tonight; and he didn’t allow them to really even get close enough for a
reasonable shot at a field goal let alone pose a touchdown threat. Coach Robinson slowed our team down after our
third touchdown to keep from totally embarrassing the Meadowvale players; and
we started kicking field goals instead.
Even with defensive turnovers, our guys would run out of bounds or down
the ball instead of trying to get to the end-zone. Okay, that would mostly all be on Kyle too,
and it’s not as if the Meadowvale players never made good plays; but if we
hadn’t held back, the score would have been way more lopsided that forty-nine
to zero.
That change in game plan sure made our kicker happy – he
earned twenty-five points on seven field goals and four extra points; and was
the first player to outscore Kyle in a game for our team in quite a while. Holding back on the offense while keeping an
air-tight defense isn’t as easy as it may sound, but our guys pulled it off;
and managed to do it without being so obvious that the Meadowvale players and
fans would have a reason to be mad at us.
Division rivalries are tough enough without adding grudges to the mix.
The post-game celebration kept us busy for a while, but we
didn’t hang around for all of it; and Michael, Tim, and Rowen came home with me
so that we could wrap up our night watching a movie in the lounge. We needed to do the bedtime snack and story
time with Ethan and Ehlana first, but once they were tucked in for the night,
we came up to the lounge while Mom and Dad decided to do some work in the
office.
By then I was glad that Michael and Tim didn’t mind watching
a movie instead of playing video games.
It’s a lot easier to cuddle with Michael when you don’t have all of the
body motion that goes along with playing video games. Rowen and I didn’t try to push our luck by
suggesting a chick flick, but I don’t really mind watching martial arts action
movies – especially when it’s the cuddling part of the ritual that I’m really
interested in.
Lights out, movie on, and sectional sofas are helping Rowen
and Tim get more comfortable too – at least when it’s just Michael and me with
them. The boys were at opposite corners
of the sofa, and I tried to do my little part by tossing a pillow at Rowen for
a hint while I was stretching out across Michael and our half of the sofa with
my head resting on the arm of the sofa while Michael wrapped his arms around my
shoulders and waist. Dropping the pillow
in Tim’s lap and then stretching out too was another big-little step for Rowen,
but none of us made a big deal of it; and they seemed to get comfortable soon
enough. Tim didn’t wrap his arms around
Rowen at first, but as we all got into the movie; I noticed three times where
he rested his hand on her waist or hip for a while without seeming to notice
for a while. He stroked her hair
sometimes too, and definitely had his arm around her waist for nearly ten
minutes during a particularly action-packed scene near the end of the movie.
They didn’t share any kisses while we were together, but
Michael and I put the same clean-up plan in action this week that we used last
time; and while Rowen and I didn’t get to have any girl-chat time tonight, I
know they spent more time kissing than cleaning while Michael and I were in the
kitchen washing glasses and snack bowls.
I can’t say that Michael and I didn’t take advantage of the alone time
too – especially since Dad came into the kitchen for drink refills and caught us
sharing a kiss. He teased us about that,
but he’ll eventually figure out that I heard and sensed him coming toward us,
and the reason I didn’t break off that kiss is because he and Michael both need
to get used to that sort of thing happening – just as I had to get used to Mom
and Dad when they first started dating.
We were finished washing up in the kitchen before Rowen and
Tim reappeared, so Michael and I went into the office to talk with Mom and Dad
while we waited. They may have lost
track of time for a few minutes, but Rowen and Tim joined us with enough time
left that they could still get home before midnight. I went out to the front porch with them to
say goodnight, and stayed out there long enough to watch Michael and Rowen get
to their homes before going inside again.
I don’t think that Tim was even consciously paying attention to the fact
that he automatically walked Rowen home before continuing on to his place; but
they didn’t even hold hands while in public, and there wasn’t a goodnight kiss
either. They are making progress, though,
so that’s probably just a matter of time before they’re ready for front porch
goodnight kisses.
It’s not as if Michael and I were setting off any fireworks
on my front porch tonight while we had friends with us – and probably at least
a couple of other witnesses in neighboring homes. We’ll try to do better tomorrow night!
For now, I’m ready to get some sleep; so it’s time to switch
to condensed mode. I stopped in for
another little visit with Mom and Dad, but they were just about ready to go to
bed too; so we were soon all on our way up to our rooms. I got changed; climbed into bed with Mandy;
and started working on my computer. The
nightly checks didn’t take long, but I did some work in the archives for more
than an hour before getting started on this update. That included a bit of studying along with
some new work on the Magi Project archive; but all of that work was really just
something to do while I wound down from a busy day. Instead of repeating any of that work here,
if you’re interested in our Magi Project; just cross-reference the date and
read all about my latest research and hypotheses there.
I’m fully wound down now, and that’s all the news for today;
so it’s time for Mandy, my computer, and me to go to sleep. One of us has another big clean-up day to
rest up for; along with whatever Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I end up doing for
fun tomorrow too.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
