Week 313: Birthday and Cat Claws

Of course, the big news is that Sam turned 6 recently. Six! Geralyn was in charge of the birthday party, and she opted for a more girl-friendly activity like crafts. The party was on a Sunday, though, so I somehow found myself standing at a table full of five and six year old girls trying to coach them on how to properly string little plastic beads on lengths of fishing wire. “Just do it right!” is, apparently, not helpful advice.

There were also gifts, and the big winner was actually a remote controlled car from Ger’s godmother. Mandy even proved deft at piloting the little gray blur across the carpet, though judging by the number of wrecks the thing has and how they wanted to take it into the bathtub, the driver is apparently a tiny Ted Kennedy. …What? Too soon?

The other day we switched cable providers to someone who gave us a DVR bundled with the service. This meant that we said goodbye to TiVo after more than eight years. It also meant a transition period where there was not a bank of kids’ shows to be dialed up. The result was that Sam and Mandy watched live TV for a few days, which while being downright barbaric, did teach Sam some things. Namely:

1. Cats can trim their own nails with the new Emery Cat Board
2. You must be over 18 to order
3. Call now and you’ll get a bonus, second board for free

Seriously, it’s like all she talked about at dinner one night.