A very Happy Thanksgiving to friends and family. The girls have had a five day weekend. Keeping them from saying "I'm bored. What can I do?" has kept us on our toes. The girls are especially prone to forgetting the near past and focusing on "now what?".
Thanksgiving - Michelle took the girls to morning Mass. Shortly after they got home, I took Claire and the boys to see "The Incredibles". Abby stayed home because she did not behave well at church. It was the boys first time at a movie. They were very excited and behaved pretty well. Their little bodies don't do well with those spring loaded seats that they put in theaters. About two-thirds through the movie I could tell that the novelty was beginning to wear off. I had to remind them a couple of times to sit down. Overall I was happy that they listened well, weren't too noisy, and didn't have any accidents (like dropping a matchbox car in the theater). When we got home it was nice outside - sunny and 64° so I stayed outside with the kids while Michelle finished getting the big meal prepared. We enjoyed a traditional style Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, veggies, stuffing, rolls, sparkling cider with pumpkin pie and chocolate cake for dessert. I practiced more piano with Claire and recorded another duet for her. Once it got dark out we played a bit of MarioKart. The girls finished off the evening seeing the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving show.
Black Friday - Sounds ominous, doesn't it? Or perhaps a bit racist? It was only yesterday that I found out it's called that because it's when most retailers get their finances out of the red. Michelle was a crazy woman and took the boys to Target to return an item and pick up Mario Tennis (we haven't decided when to tell the girls) while I took the girls swimming at the YMCA. When we got home we had a quick lunch and I rested with the boys while we watched a VeggieTales DVD. Claire wrote a Christmas story while Michelle and Abby went to pick up a wood youth chair at Winchendon Furniture for Timothy to eat at the table. A youth chair is about all we can afford at Winchendon! Shortly after Michelle returned, three of Claire and Abby's girlfriends came over for the rest of the afternoon. I recorded another duet for Claire to practice with. I picked up dinner for the ten of us and the 5 girls wrapped up the day with some MarioParty. After all of that Abby complained, "now what can I do?". Michelle was justifiably ready to strangle her. We wrapped up the evening watching the Jim Carrey version of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas".
Overused Cliches - One of the things I used to laugh about growing up was when dad would come home from work at the Air National Guard, sigh, and say, “another rough day fightin' Communism”. This was the late 70's, after all. Later when I was an Air Force officer working in the research labs, I'd smirk “it's not just a job, it's an adventure!”. Nowadays I like to parody one of the most overused expressions of late 2001. When the stove runs out of wood and the furnace kicks on, I tell Michelle, “Every time the furnace runs, the terrorists win!”. It's true that the fuel for the stove comes from a local company in Jaffrey, NH. It is a renewable (some might say solar) source of fuel from the local area instead of propane derived from overseas oil. I just enjoy parroting the cliche.
Piano - Most of the songs Claire has for practice have an optional duet portion where the teacher can fill out the song with some bass accompaniment. I've been using those duets as practice on interpreting bass clef (which I'm weaker on) and a chance to practice doing multitrack recording on the piano. Multitrack recording lets you simulate multiple instruments (or multiple people playing the same instrument) by playing each one individually and overlaying them together. Once they're saved away I can tell the piano that Claire has to play one of the channels of sound and it can play the backup. Since the piano "knows" what she is supposed to play, it plays in sync with her pace. If she pauses, it pauses. If she makes a mistake, it waits and highlights the note she was supposed to press so that she knows where her mistake was. It's quite motivating for her and really makes her practice sound much better.
Cabinet - After searching four stores -- two hardware stores and two kitchen renovation stores -- for the weird hinge needed to repair our cabinet, I found nothing but puzzled faces of sales clerks. While at work on Tuesday I encouraged Michelle to do some detective phone work and find out who the builder was and who they had do the kitchens in this development. It turns out that all the kitchens were done via local contracting of Milford Lumber. I went in on Wednesday, told them where I lived, and showed them the broken hinge. It was nice to see a face that wasn't contorted with a look of uncertainty. They knew who made the cabinets and ordered us a pair of replacement European style hidden hinges. In the meantime we just took that door off so that Timothy wouldn't ruin the one good hinge it was feebly hanging on with. It looks a bit weird to see that missing panel on the row of cabinets.
Saturday - I'm not sure what we're going to do today. I know that we're all going to the YMCA so that Michelle and I can take a morning step class (and work off a few Thanksgiving calories). A little later Michelle will do a little bit of Christmas shopping. Other than that I expect that the girls will find some neighborhood friends to play with. Luckily there are plenty to choose from here. I think we would have gone crazy in our Nashua neighborhood due to the lack of similarly aged girlfriends for Claire and Abby.