Happy Halloween!

I remember when HWMBO and I first arrived in Switzerland in 1994.  We could find no one who celebrated Halloween.  At my workplace, when I proposed organizing a Halloween party, no one even knew what I meant.  Nonetheless, our Halloween parties became popular events.  People seemed to enjoy dressing up in costumes just to enjoy themselves and some of the costumes were very creative.

Towards the late 90s, we noticed that little by little, the idea of Halloween was beginning to catch on over here, first in France, of course, and gradually in Geneva.  Costumes began appearing in the stores.  Still, almost no one ever came to our house for treat-or-treat candy.  Even my first year in this new apartment, when I had a few candies that I had brought with me from the US, only two children, my neighbors from the apartment downstairs, stopped by - and they came a day early, so that I had to rush around to find where I had stashed the goodies.  The second year, no one came at all and 2009 was the same.  Last year, however, I had a group of little ones accompanied by their mothers - also a day early.

But this year, I forgot to be ready yesterday.  Fortunately, no one came.  This afternoon, I got out my candy stash, brought a couple decorations up from the downstairs storage area and then went about my business.  Lo and behold, around 4:30 pm (16:30 hereabouts), the doorbell rang and there were some trick-or-treaters, a bit older than last year's group, but well-costumed.

And then they just kept coming ...

and coming ...

in waves.  Moms were present to ensure that no little one got too carried away with digging into the candy.

But it is too bad that the moms were so vigilant.  No one has come since and I still have candy left!

My students will get the remainder of the candy later this week, to help sweeten the results of their mid-term exams, I hope!  In the meantime, Happy Halloween!

Ride 'im, Cowboy!

Now that we are in full-fledged Fall, and just about ready to change from Daylight Saving Time back to Standard Time, which will shorten what remains of the evening light, it's time to look back at some highlights of Prince Tyger's eventful summer.

One day, he climbed into the family car and got buckled up for a family trip that would bring him lots of new experiences.

The Prince had no idea what was in store for him!

Lo and behold, it was his first pony ride!

The Prince took it all in stride, showing a distinct liking for tall blondes, especially the one who was accompanying him around the paddock,

even if she didn't appear too impressed by the little one who was dying to catch her attention.

Proud Grandmom will have to tell him someday that a self-respecting Montana cowboy would never "pull leather."

But she is proud of her little Prince Tyger no matter what!   He was, after all, only two at the time and he had to hold on to something!

Little Boys at Play

Prince Tyger was an only child for 2+ years.

Although he has many little playmates, he has also learned to entertain himself, even when the purpose of some of his "games" may be lost on random observers.

But now Prince Lightning is growing up and beginning to assert a personality.  He is no longer a mere household fixture. 

Prince Lightning is actually getting to the point of being interesting to Prince Tyger as a playmate.  Of course, it helps that Prince Lightning absolutely adores Big Bro.

Occasionally when they tussle about like puppies, little Prince Lightning may even get the better of Big Bro Prince Tyger.

However short-lived the situation may be, Prince Lightning is never too dissatisfied with the outcome!

Best of all, both seem to enjoy the horseplay.

Entertaining the "Grown-Ups"

Being a baby in the age of digital cameras is absolutely exhausting.  The minute that you sit down to examine a favorite toy, there is an adult nearby with a camera, asking you to smile and pose.

You're never quite sure what they want you to do.

You try for a smile, but they don't think it's just right and so they don't go away.

Then you try offering them the toy.  Hey, you'll play their silly game.  After all, they are pretty strange.

Well, they still won't go away - gotta think of something else ... .

Hmmm!

Omigosh, they're still there!  What on earth do they want?

Let's see ... maybe if I pull on this ribbon, something will happen to make them go away.

I'm trying as hard as I can and they're still there!

It's enough to drive a guy to drink!

And it's STILL not enough.  This is totally exhausting!

The Prince of Sand(boxe)s

It was in the summer of 2010 that Prince Tyger learned about sandboxes when he came to visit Proud Grandparents ....  He got "down and dirty" in the sandbox, surrounded by dump trucks, shovels and other equipment and toys.  We had a hard time convincing him to return to the house.

In retrospect, we may not have been thinking things out too well.  Turning Prince Tyger on to sandboxes has its downside.  Fast forward to this summer, for instance!  Now, the Tyger cannot spot a sandbox without wanting to visit it.  Such was the case when Proud Grandmom accompanied Prince Tyger, his parents and baby brother, Prince Lightning, for a visit to a local park.  We didn't have a set program of activities in mind.  That was fortunate, because once Prince Tyger spied a sandbox, he refused to go any further.  Into the sand he went!

Shovels and pails were there a-plenty.  There was even a little playmate - something Prince Tyger would have died for last summer before he was two.

But now that he was almost three, and a Big Bro, he couldn't be less interested in a playmate - and she was a cute one - only in what he could find to learn from this new sandbox experience.

Now what's this?

A butterfly net perhaps?

Prince Tyger is very interested in butterflies.  In fact, he and Proud Papa had a special cocoon-to-butterfly project this summer.  He could even say the word "metamorphosis."  So the net was fascinating.  And one could just about see the little wheels a-turning.  "Hmm ... how many butterflies can I catch with this?"

Meanwhile, Prince Lightning was perfectly content to watch from the sidelines while Sweet Momma H fed him his lunch!

First things first!  For Prince Lightning, the glories of sandboxes will have to wait.

Prince Lightning

It has been almost a year since Baby Prince Attani entered our lives - and what a little wonder he has proven to be!  With Big Bro Prince Tyger as a role model, our "baby" has grown by leaps and bounds and loves to try to imitate everything that Big Bro does.  While I was visiting in the US, he took his first couple steps at 91/2 months.  He also loved to spend a lot of time on his little haunches,

especially if the activity involved playing ball.

While I was there, he never moved beyond those first tottery couple steps - after which he would simply plop himself down on his well-padded little bottom and then continue crawling.  And oh, could he move!  He was a first-class crawler

and would be across the room in the blink of an eye, especially if it involved getting to one of Big Bro's treasured toys. 

If we put him into his little walker - which he would only tolerate for 5-10 minute periods of time, finding it generally too restrictive of his movements - he would literally streak from one end of the room to another.  Trying to catch a photograph of him resulted in several photos that were merely blurs.  But, oh, what fun he was having!

I believe that it's time to have a proper re-christening.  After all, our special baby is more than a "second" prince ("Prince Attani").  He is now a prince with his own identity.  In consideration of his growth and moving abilities over the past year, he has now become "Prince Lightning."

As such, he will surely be able to hold his own with Prince Tyger.

Princes Tyger and Lightning - they are both streaks of light in my universe!  

Bobbies and Beefeaters - from the Perspective of a Small One

During my flight back to Maryland in August, I had a layover at London Heathrow's Terminal 3, which has some of the best duty-free shopping and services in Europe.  Now that the glitches from Terminal 3's inauguration are thankfully things of the past, it is actually a pleasure to have a layover there.  Even with the sagging USD, there are some decent buys one can find there.

With three young grandbabies, I like to see what I might find there that is not too expensive, is typical of the UK and that might be something that they can actually use.  So, this time I was delighted to find cookie tins (or, in UK English, "biscuit" tins) designed to resemble some of the colorful guards and policeman that one can find in the UK.  Not only that, but they were selling at a discounted price.  I thought that once the contents had been enjoyed, my grandsons, Princes Tyger and Attani, would be able to store some of their small toys (Legos and Matchbox cars came to mind) inside.

One tin was designed to resemble a "Beefeater."  Beefeaters are known officially as "Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London," or more simply as "Yeomen Warders," and are the ceremonial guards of the Tower of London.  Although the origin of the name "Beefeater" is not definitely known, it likely originated from the custom of paying them for their service in meats, including beef, mutton and veal.  Evidently, beef was the preferred ration.  My little Beefeater tin looked like this:

The other tin that I chose resembled a "Bobby," a British police officer, named after Sir Robert Peel, who created London's first security force.   My little Bobby tin looked like this:

As can be seen, each tin has a smiling face with a distinctive tall hat.  In each case, it was the tall hat that came off so that one could get to the shortbread biscuits inside.   One can also find these and similar tins on sale at Amazon in the UK.  But I got a better deal at Heathrow!

I asked Prince Tyger, still two at the time, which tin he wanted.  Unsurprisingly, the Tyger unhesitatingly went for the Beefeater.  Red seems to be a preferred color for him, as it is with many small children.

This meant that the Bobby would go to Prince Attani, who would, of course, not be able to enjoy any of the biscuits. He didn't have any teeth at the time and shortbread biscuits were not yet part of his menu.  Poor little Prince!

Prince Tyger was quite interested in his Beefeater.  So Grama sat down with her laptop to show him pictures of the real guards, as well as pictures of the Tower of London.  Prince Tyger was less impressed with the Tower, but remained fascinated by the guards.  Grama decided to push her luck and continued with showing Prince Tyger pictures of the real Bobbies.  Prince Tyger remained amazingly interested. 

Grama was quite gratified that her UK history and culture lessons were being properly absorbed until Prince Tyger asked, "Do they have cookies in their heads too?"

Down to earth in a second!  Grama has to remember who her audience is.

Where have all the resolutions gone?

Long time passing ...

October, which began so promisingly for keeping SD on schedule, has certainly disappointed.  More disappointingly, there is no one to blame - if blame should be assigned - but myself.  It has been slightly busier on the non-home workfront because I have been teaching a second course on a regular basis.  I also served as a replacement for an absent professor in another class and was asked to prepare a "Waiver Exam" for the course that I was hired to teach.

It was my first experience with preparing a Waiver Exam and the idea had to be explained to me, although it makes sense.  Evidently, the small university where I teach has a policy of allowing transfer students who have taken courses similar to those offered the option of taking a "Waiver Exam" designed to cover the entire course syllabus.  The exam is graded on a Pass-Fail basis and, if the student passes, he/she is granted full credit for the course.  I still haven't quite understood whether or how the P-F is included in the student's overall grade point average (GPA), but that is someone else's problem.

So drafting a final exam for someone who had not been and would not be participating in the class proved to be interesting.  The challenge was to design it so that it was reasonably fair yet as comprehensive with the concepts as a final exam that I would design for the class.  So it took quite a lot of time and effort to prepare.  I was, fortunately, compensated for it by an additional lump sum.  But, as with the preparation time involved for the regular class, when I actually divide that lump sum by the time spent already - and still to be spent, because I must also grade that exam - the lump sum shrinks almost to insignificance. 

We just finished half-term last week, which meant that my regular classes had to take mid-term exams as well.  That also took thought and preparation in addition to regular class preparation.  Fortunately, I have now completed grading the exams and was somewhat surprised to discover that, for once in my teaching career, the results actually form an almost perfect bell curve.  There are some As and Bs - about in the numbers that I had expected - with a multitude of Cs sliding into Ds.  Unfortunately, there were also some Fs.  One of the Fs is an aberration, I am sure.  One individual, whose class participation until the week before the exam had been excellent, fell ill and thus missed the in-class review.  I don't believe that the student had fully recovered by exam time; certainly the grade would not have been an F otherwise.  Another student with a F had not even attempted to respond to a 30-point question and I don't really understand why.  The student had responded to a similar 30-point question and done credibly well.  Had that student even begun to answer the second, the grade would likely not have been F.

So, it is reassuring to realize that the exam was likely a fair one.  Some students' study skills seem to be lacking, especially since there were no surprises or tricks on the exam.  They all must realize that they need to do the work.  Even the two 30-point questions provided all the factual information that the students needed.  What they needed to demonstrate for those was that they understood that information and how it related to the course so far.  Most did quite well with them; a couple did superbly well.  So that is also heartening.

Whatever the results, there is still time enough to turn things around in a positive sense grade-wise before the end of term.  I hope that the students are enjoying their half-term break.  I know that I am enjoying mine so far - even more so once I will have completed grading the Waiver Exam!

Perhaps SD will also come to life again - at least for a time - and October won't be yet another month of "lost" resolutions.   

Take Me Out to the Ball Game ...

About a month ago, when I was still in Maryland, HWMBO and I had the opportunity to visit Nationals Park in Washington, DC, home stadium of the DC Nationals baseball team.  The park is very new, having opened in 2008.  In fact, the DC Nationals are a very new baseball team.  So this was to be our first visit.  Enjoying the evening with us were Son J and Daughter K, here posing with HWMBO and one of the program vendors.

It had been years since I had attended a baseball game.  Usually my baseball visits have been confined to those of the Baltimore Orioles, whose stadium, Oriole Park, is also very beautiful and was opened in 1992, just two years before HWMBO and I moved abroad.   The Orioles are a legendary home team and, before moving to Oriole Park, played at the old Memorial Stadium, the site of many of legendary plays, both by baseball greats and the football greats who played for the former Baltimore Colts, rehoused in Indianapolis after being moved away from Balto in the dead of night by a person who is still anathema to the entire Baltimore community.  Unfortunately, I believe that I may have jinxed the Orioles (known more commonly as the "Os") one year when they were still playing at Memorial Park.  I attended the opening game of the season with HWMBO.  The Orioles lost.  That was clearly a harbinger of the rest of the season.  They lost so many games that year that it got to the point where fans didn't even root for the team to win anymore - they had one of the longest losing streaks ever and that was a record in itself!

So, it was fun to see the various activities going on pre-game, with a few famous historical characters moving through the crowd,

and the Nationals' mascot prowling along the stands.

The park itself was gorgeous,

with scoreboards keeping track of all Major League action that night.

We discovered that the young starting pitcher was making his first Major League appearance that evening, having just been called to Washington from a Minor League team in New York state.

Until he got into some trouble around the fifth inning, he had struck out most of the other team's hitters.  He himself had also hit a home run with a couple Nats on base, so he was responsible for three of the Nationals' scores that night.  As it turned out, even though he did get into trouble and had to be relieved, his performance was good enough to give him the win, as win the Nationals ultimately did.  They did so in style, coming from behind in the bottom of the ninth and scoring the winning run.    All in all, it was a very good game, and we all enjoyed it from excellent seats, just behind the Nationals' dugout.

It was a fun experience and I am glad that I was there to share it!