Rolling Rocks

Two Christmases ago we bought Michael a rock tumbler for Christmas. The boys like rocks. They collect them. We have boxes of rocks in the house. They find cool rocks at the river (though I have discovered that "cool" is most certainly in the eye of the beholder), camping, even from in front of our house. Despite the number of rocks in the house, the rock tumbler sat in its box, unused. At the end of the summer we took a cabin trip. We found more agates than ever before on this trip. We decided to polish agates from our trip. The boys were excited. Heck, I was excited. We quickly learned that there are three stages to the tumbling process. The first takes 2-4 days. The second stage takes 12-14 days and the final stage takes 7 days. Considering that we thought it was going to take 1-2 days, 3 days tops, we stayed pretty enthusiastic. We chose the agates we wanted to tumble. We set the rock tumbler up in the basement, found an extension cord, and started it spinning. We shut the door to the laundry room and went upstairs to mark the calendar. It felt good to have the process under way, no more nagging voice in the back of my head saying that I really ought to figure out how to work that rock tumbler.
Later that day we realized the rock tumbler is quite loud. We can hear it pretty clearly on the first floor. We can also hear it on the second floor when all is quiet, like when we are going to sleep. We decided that next time we would put it in the garage.
The rocks looked better than expected after the first stage. I was surprised by what a difference the coarse grit had made. Spencer decided they were good enough, but I convinced him to continue the process.
Stage two was so long. The noise was getting to me. It was constant. Michael pointed out that the sound was coming up through the vents. Eventually, finally, stage two was over and we went to get the rocks and tumbler ready for stage three. However, there was a problem. The machine was on, the rotor was spinning, but it was not turning the barrel which contained the rocks. Michael showed me that the little rubber ring had broken. I thought I would easily be able to order a replacement part and so we prepared the rocks for stage three.
And there they sat. I discovered that this particular brand of rock tumbler does not sell replacement parts. Nice. The rocks continued to sit. I brought the broken ring into the hardware store. They did not have a replacement, but suggested that if I brought the whole tumbler in they could find something that might work. Well, I thought, perhaps I could rig something up that would work my own self. I tried masking tape first. That worked for about 45 seconds. I tried string. That worked for about 1.5 minutes. I tried a rubber band. That worked for six hours before the rubber band broke. I replaced it. Rubber band number 2 worked for about 5 days. I decided that was good enough. We opened the tumbler, rinsed the rocks. They look good. I would like to get a new (better, quieter) rock tumbler and try again.

Miscellaneous

Occasionally I wake to one of the boys standing next to my bed, about three inches from my face. It is dark. They are not speaking. They are just standing there looking at me. It freaks me out.

Spencer was invited to a birthday party. He was apprehensive about going. When we arrived at the party, he was still a bit uncomfortable. The father of the birthday girl was making balloon animals. He told Spencer that he could make a dog, a giraffe, or a cool hat and then asked Spencer which one he would like. "I'm good," Spencer said. Apparently he was all set that day with the balloon animals.

Michael recently realized that he could record his voice on his MP3 player. He is in the process of reading one of his books into the player so that he can listen to it later. So clever. I really need to look into MP3 downloads for him.

Spencer said that I am more beautiful than Brett Favre's wife.

I Love Rock 'n Roll

A month ago or so, Michael brought home an order form for Scholastic Books. Inside the catalog was an ad for an MP3 player which cost something ridiculous like $20. He wanted it. He planned to download audio books and listen to them when he was "too tired to actually read." It is good to see him branching out so much this year. I liked the price, but I was concerned about the quality. We looked on the internet, found (with some help) and ordered a different, but reasonably priced MP3 player.

The package was due to be delivered Monday, three days later. Each day Michael would say (more than once) he was excited about Monday. "Do you know why?" he would query me. "Because that is the day my MP3 player is coming," he would continue excitedly. I liked seeing him so enthusiastic about this new way to "read" books. However, it was a long three days for Michael. Monday arrived, and with it, the MP3 player. We charged the MP3 player. Then the process stalled for a few days while I looked for inexpensive MP3 files of books. Unfortunately, I determined that they are expensive. We have not yet bought one. I did download some music onto his MP3 player. He loves it. He listens to it frequently. Currently, he particularly likes "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles. He also commented that he likes the beginning of "All You Need is Love" because it sounds like music that would be played for a king. I am reminded of when Michael was three and he asked for three cd's for his fourth birthday. He wanted Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Marley, and the Big Chill soundtrack. I am currently downloading more music for him.

Halloween Costumes

Halloween is coming. Michael plans to be a barrel of toxic waste. Or, more specifically, Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) dressed as a barrel of toxic waste. I am currently in the process of collecting the materials for the costume. I hope I have my camera working by Halloween. I would like to document this costume. Though perhaps I am being optimistic about my skills.


Spencer had a more difficult time settling on a costume. He originally wanted to be an archer. He is interested in bows and arrows. We went to the costume store and purchased a bow and arrow. It is a toy. It does not really work. In retrospect, I should have explained this to Spencer prior to purchase. Although he was dissatisfied with the bow and arrow, he was not discouraged. He decided to go with Plan B. I would make him a bow and arrow that really shoots, with notched arrows, hard points, not plastic. Although I am pleased that he has so much confidence in my craftiness, my response to "Can you make that?" is (unfortunately) ummm, no. I explained to Spencer that costumes do not need to be perfect. It is acceptable, even expected, for part or all of a costume to be non-functioning props. He was not convinced, but he agreed to keep the toy bow and arrow. I agreed to make the rest of his costume. We discussed how it should look. We agreed. Perfect. We were set. At least we were until Spencer watched The Lord of the Rings movie (commonly abbreviated LOTR, as I would come to find out later, on websites devoted to incredibly detailed descriptions of the characters' costumes). Now Spencer wanted to be Legolas the elf. But first, quick question from Spencer, "who are better archers, elves or native americans?" Hmmm. Not sure how to answer that one. But no matter. Spencer is excited about Legolas. He proceeded to tell me exactly what he needed for the costume. It seemed like more than I could handle. I tried to talk him down. It was a losing battle for me. He had seen Legolas in the movie. He knew what he wore. And he wanted to wear the same thing. Or a very close approximation. I gave up and went to the internet to search for a Legolas costume for kids. I found one and showed it to Spencer. No good. He pointed out (rightly) that Legolas never wore anything remotely resembling the costume in the movie. At that point, I suggested that Spencer look at other costumes on the internet to see if there was something (anything) that he might like. He agreed (thankfully). He wanted to be Frodo until I mentioned that he could not trick or treat in bare feet. He is a purist. It is bare feet or no Frodo costume. So he kept looking. He settled (finally) on Harry Potter. As a side note, Spencer told me that when he liked Star Wars it was just a phase he was going through. Now he likes Harry Potter. And the clear implication was that this was not a phase. Not a phase at all.

Vocabulary Lesson

Michael and I were having a conversation over the weekend. I do not recall now the subject matter of our conversation, but in the midst of it Michael used the word "ersatz" in a sentence. Correctly. He is nine. "Ersatz" is not a word that has appeared on one of his spelling or vocabulary lists for school. These two facts caused me to wonder (reasonably I think) where he learned the word and how he had managed to work out its proper usage. As it turns out, he read it in one of the Lemony Snicket books. He explained to me the context in which it was used in the story. He is both cute and smart.

Spencer was rightly feeling proud of himself when he got home from school yesterday. "I got a compliment," he told me. His teacher said that Spencer has a very impressive vocabulary. "She said it in front of the whole class." He is also both cute and smart.

Tooth Fairy

Michael and Spencer do not believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. Shortly after Michael uncovered the truth about Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy also fell. Spencer too easily made the leap from Santa to the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. When Michael first let on that he knew that there was no Easter Bunny, I asked him how he had arrived at that conclusion. He responded with such incredulity regarding the idea that a rabbit, that is, a bunny, could carry baskets to everyone in the world in one night. The proposition was completely preposterous to him. He did not ask what I thought, but I have always believed the idea of the Tooth Fairy to be the most incredible and the most creepy (what with all of the teeth and everything). Michael commented that although he knew there was no Tooth Fairy, "it would be so easy to figure out if the Tooth Fairy is real." All he would have to do is lose a tooth, keep it a secret, put it under his pillow and see if it was still there in the morning (he is so scientific with his proving of things). A few days ago Spencer asked me, apropos of nothing, whether the Tooth Fairy could leave him a cool rock instead of money. This request struck me as noteworthy on two counts. First, Spencer has not lost any teeth yet and he already knows that the Tooth Fairy is not real. Sad. Second, there is too much of a sense of entitlement in this request. The Tooth Fairy leaves money. Not rocks. Not even cool rocks. The bargain has always been, leave the tooth, get some unspecified amount of money. Not, as Spencer would clearly prefer, get whatever you have had the forethought to ask your parents for. But Spencer is ready for a change. And I am not opposed. My guess is that it will come down to whether I have any cool rocks on hand when Spencer loses his first tooth.