'Tis been awhile. My friend Jerry warned me of this: maintaining a blog (unless one is hopelessly narcissistic, perhaps) is a feat of uneven and unpredictable attention, and any comments from viewers are rarities at that. Glad to know I'm adhering to the Standard Model, then.
Spent this evening taking my step-daughter to the movies: Step Brothers, with Will Ferrell. Think, Dumb and Dumber, but with considerably more crudity. Still, there are moments of hilarity to be had. The best part was spending some time with HMB; she and I have developed a very cool relationship over the years. At twelve years old she's already a quite sophisticated kid. I am lucky to be able to experience this time in life, and I am grateful and intensely aware of the trust bestowed upon me by both her mother and her father.
HMB had asked me earlier if I'd be willing to help her with her summer homework (egad! I am glad I went to school centuries ago and avoided such an Unspeakably Horrid concept as off-year homework!). Tonight's topic: multiplying fractions. It is interesting that often times the role of step-parents can be vilified . . . yet in my life experiences it seems that the natural state of being somewhat less emotionally involved as a step-parent yields less frustration and impatience when it comes to often contentious activities such as school work. Thus it was a pretty easy task to guide HMB through her exercises tonight, and I enjoyed not only encouraging her but also witnessing that she was understanding what she was doing . . . for the most part my role was to provide a bit of confidence (and on-the-stop answer validation).
All went well until I got a bit too smart for my own good, and provided her a "short-cut" method . . . which turned out to be wrong! She got too tired (we were on the last problem anyway) and so went to bed, slightly frustrated . . . and I used the Google God to review some appallingly basic information. (Humbling for this pseudo-computer scientist.) So while step-daughter hit the sack yours truly spent another 20 minutes solving a rather basic pre-algebra equation.
Last night was the August, 2008 edition of the Men's Potluck and GV gathering at Eric K.'s house. Along with Nino, Fr. Jerry (deceased), Fr. Ron (also deceased), Paul S., John S., and D.J. I founded this gathering back in the fall/winter of 1997, at 1775 Nelson Way. It was not quite so formally structured then as it is now. Yesterday's event saw twenty-two men attend -- so far I can recall, a record turnout. Jerry B. (living!) arranged to temporarily escape his Korean stint, deliberately timed in order to be able to make it last night, and it was a delight not only to have him present but also his superb brisket as well! The sharing was powerful as usual, and as is nearly always the case we had one very new man, David S. It has been the trend that those men who make the effort to attend such fellowship events such as ours remain on the path. We all hope this will be David's experience as well. Bill S. made a return visit last night too; once a stalwart regular, his attendance has been rare over the last year or so, and it was very good to have him and his wisdom in the room. All thanks to Eric K. for once again opening his home to us, and for being such a gracious host extremely late into the night -- due to both the size and the excellent dessert spread (cheese cake, cherry and apple pies, and ice cream!) some of us lingered until midnight ; Carlos and I chatted outside (delightful summer evening) until 1.00am on the sidewalk in front of Eric's house. The best night of the month so far!
Sweet dreams.
