...ear infections and a day with pseudo-wood.

I know it's been a month and a half since I posted anything, but that's because I was getting to a point to where every post was a lamentation that I needed to clean (which I still do, of course) then  followed by a masturbatory reference (since I generally have to wait until the kids are asleep or away before wanking).

Not that the political blog hasn't suffered (December sucked ass), but I completely dropped the ball, partially because I was barely posting there, and working on the 3x2cast, and dealing with the usual Christmas shit (which has stories of cookies and presents and all that shit).  And I may, as the cold months continue, share the pics and stories that I remember.

But I want to get this blog steaming again.  So let's reboot the whole damned thing. 

Today's installment deals with ear infections.  My daughter started the whine last night (as she has many times), and the not wanting to sleep, which led to a late-night run to the emergency room to get the prescription to clear it up.  So I crawled out this morning tired to get my son out the door for school.  And it looks like he spend a good portion of the night on the couch because HE has an earache.  In the same damned ear.  And he wasn't wanting to move at all today.  So I called him off school and called the doctor's office (because at least he lets me sleep), and got an appointment which we could have made had he gone to school.

So I was tired already.  And we had something under the tree from the orgy of presents still unopened.  It was his Real Construction building set.

First of all, when I saw this, I thought it was a cool-assed choice for a child who's damned near impossible to buy for.  Essentially, it has a safe "wood" which you can cut, nail, screw, and build things out of.  And because it doesn't create a significant mess and requires little supervision for safety, it would be cool once I showed him some basics.  And he might actually learn something despite the lack of schoolage.

So we whipped that sucker out, printed some instructions from the site, and set to build something.

*commencing the bitching*

First of all, all measurements from the instructions on the site are in millimeters or in decimal inches (as in 2.55" or 65mm).  And the square they include lacks any precision near this.  So does my tape measure, but that's beyond the point.  Not a user-friendly thing for a new user.  Or someone who knows, more or less what he is doing.

Second, the "wood" itself, well, sucks.  It's not bad out of the box, except if you're trying to nail into it, then it's like trying to drive nails into a rolling pile of foam.  I'm sure the screws are easier, but it was a challenge to build the simplest item (a little tool box).  And of course, my daughter is now sawing all the wood while my son rolls on my bed totally uninterested now.

On the plus, in my frustration, I tightened all the bolts and screws on their bunk bed (which stopped the wobbling) and fixed my foldup table that holds the laptop I'm typing on now (as it was also wobbling like a drunk in an earthquake).  So not all was lost.

I think the next project with building that I'll let the kids tackle will wait until it's warm.  Then I'll give them some nails, screws, a hammer and a drill, and let them go ape shit with real wood.  Then I'll teach them how to dress the resulting wounds.  Bonus.

And before you scream about the bloodletting, be glad I'm not letting a 5 and 6-year-old operate a power saw....