Hello and welcome to a sunny Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is September 14th, aka the day after a Friday the 13th and two days before hubby's and my 19th wedding anniversary.
The Toddler started preschool this week, while the older three kids braved a steady downpour at the cross-country meet in Warroad. With the wet weather, comes the first fires in the woodstove and the first pots of mint tea on the kitchen table. The Second Oldest finally caved and started wearing my incredibly warm and beautiful handmade Peruvian poncho from my college days, despite the unfortunate slang term given this particular garment of "drug rug."
The Toddler has half-day preschool which means he's home in the afternoon. Other than the requisite lunchtime, storytime, naptime, there is still plenty of time to play and have adventures. Earlier in the week, we ventured down the neighbors' driveway for a look at the river. Along the way we found 5 or 6 different species of mushroom, one fat, unblemished, freshly-deceased mouse, and a sink hole the size of a manhole. We stretched out flat, parallel to the rough planks of the wooden bridge, angling our heads to survey the river's current and the bridge's underbelly. Farther up the river, we paused on the black metal footbridge and dropped leaves into the river. We poked a stick at the various scat along the trail. One of our cats, Mr. Fuzzy, followed along for the entire journey.
I love to play. It's possibly the one shiny quality I have among my many dulled and tarnished personality traits. My one saving grace is I am always up for play.
Thursday afternoon, after his nap, the Toddler pulled out the Candyland board and one die. I fetched the remaining matching Candyland figures from our Ziploc bag o' game pieces and when I offered to grab the game cards as well, he said no. Considering we were missing one or two of the candy cards, the peanut brittle card for sure, I - pardon the pun - rolled with his request. The kid beat me on the first game.
How could I make this game more interesting, I wondered, as the kid was well on his way to beating me in the second game.
I came up with 4 new rules:
1.) If the square you land on, matches the color of your Candyland figure, you get to jump to the next square of the same color. So, if you're Blue Candyland Man and you land on a blue square, you get to jump to the next blue square.
2.) If you land on a candy square, i.e. the candy cane, the lollipop, etc, you have to go back to the last candy square on the board. For example, if you land on the lollipop, you have to go back to the peanut brittle. If you land on the candied plum, you go back to start.
3.) If you land on a black circle, i.e. "the hole" or "the pit", you lose one turn.
4.) To successfully enter the candy-studded gates of Candy Castle, you have to roll the exact number of steps you need. The only exception is if you land on the very last of your own colored squares on that last stretch of candy path, you quantum leap right into the feast in the highest of the ice cream looking towers.
Welcome to Candyland 2.0.
These few modifications - a single die and some new rules - took the game to a whole new level. Both the Toddler and I landed on the candy cane at least three times each in that first modified game. There was a certain thrill that came with jumping from a green square to the next green square - six spaces up. And I don't recall ever falling into the "hole" as many times as I did in this game!
It wasn't until the Second Grader joined after she got home from school, that I noticed the black circles were on a blue square, a yellow square, and a red square. I added one more rule.
5.) If you land on a a black circle in a square that is the same color as your Candyland figure, instead of losing a turn, this hole becomes a secret passageway that tunnels under the board and takes you directly to Candy Castle. Automatic win!
And wouldn't you know it? The first time we tried out this rule, the Toddler won again!
For the last game of the afternoon, we were 4-1-0, the Toddler in the lead with four wins, his mama with one, and his sister none.
There was lots of jockeying for first as we made our respective ways down the candy path. I couldn't get past the candied plum tree, only to make it up the Rainbow Path on my third stint back at Start. The Toddler was cruising ahead until he landed on the peanut brittle, ("Don't eat the candy!" his sister and I shrieked) and had to go back to the gumdrop, only to lose a turn when he fell into the yellow "hole" (He was blue.) The Second Grader was trailing for so long only to hail triumphant, in the lead, as we all rounded the final corner - the castle in the distance. Interestingly, it all reminded me of the Wizard of Oz.
Thanks to Rule Number 4, all three of us just sat on the very last squares of the candy path, rolling 5s and 6s - useless to us now.
It was getting late. We had errands to run and I hadn't even come up with a dinner plan yet. How could I end this game?
Then the Second Grader rolled a 3.
"Two plus one equals three!" I exclaimed. "That's enough for all of us to get into the castle together! We ALL WIN!"
I swept the board away before anyone could question my math.
The shared victory buoyed our spirits and got us through a stop at the library, grocery shopping, picking up the older kids after cross-country practice, and a simple meal of leftover garlic soup with "gooey sandwich" - a family recipe of cheese melted on triangles of bread.
We celebrated with homemade caramel corn for all!
2000 - Microsoft Launches Windows ME
The Millennium Edition was the last of the operating systems of the Windows 9x series.
1985 - The Golden Girls Make Their Television Debut
The popular American sitcom about 4 single and older women living together in a Miami, Florida house ran for 6 seasons on NBC. The main characters in the show were played by Beatrice Arthur, Estelle Getty, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White, each of whom won the Emmys for their acting in the show. The series also won 2 Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and 3 Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series.
1979 - The Afghan President is assassinated
Nur Muhammad Taraki had taken office less than a year ago when he was killed by gunfire at the behest of Hafizullah Amin. Amin took the seat of the president after the assassination and ruled for only 3 months before he was killed by the Soviets during Operation Storm-333.
1959 - First Man-Made Object Successfully Lands on the Moon
Soviet space probe Luna 2 was also the first man-made spacecraft to land on any celestial object. It was launched on September 12, 1959, and lost communications with Earth as it impacted the Moon’s surface east of Mare Serenitatis near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters.
1956 - IBM 305 RAMAC is Released
The 350 RAMAC was the first computer with a disk drive and was primarily targeted towards business that did real-time transactions. RAMAC stood for Random Access Method of Accounting and Control. The RAMAC 350, which was one of the last vacuum tube computers manufactured by IBM, was replaced by the IBM 1401 in the early 1960s.
1985 - Aya Ueto, Japanese actress, singer
1983 - Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter
1965 - Dmitry Medvedev, Russian politician, 3rd President of Russia
1879 - Margaret Sanger, American activist
1769 - Alexander von Humboldt, German geographer, explorer
The Toddler started preschool this week, while the older three kids braved a steady downpour at the cross-country meet in Warroad. With the wet weather, comes the first fires in the woodstove and the first pots of mint tea on the kitchen table. The Second Oldest finally caved and started wearing my incredibly warm and beautiful handmade Peruvian poncho from my college days, despite the unfortunate slang term given this particular garment of "drug rug."
The Toddler has half-day preschool which means he's home in the afternoon. Other than the requisite lunchtime, storytime, naptime, there is still plenty of time to play and have adventures. Earlier in the week, we ventured down the neighbors' driveway for a look at the river. Along the way we found 5 or 6 different species of mushroom, one fat, unblemished, freshly-deceased mouse, and a sink hole the size of a manhole. We stretched out flat, parallel to the rough planks of the wooden bridge, angling our heads to survey the river's current and the bridge's underbelly. Farther up the river, we paused on the black metal footbridge and dropped leaves into the river. We poked a stick at the various scat along the trail. One of our cats, Mr. Fuzzy, followed along for the entire journey.
I love to play. It's possibly the one shiny quality I have among my many dulled and tarnished personality traits. My one saving grace is I am always up for play.
Thursday afternoon, after his nap, the Toddler pulled out the Candyland board and one die. I fetched the remaining matching Candyland figures from our Ziploc bag o' game pieces and when I offered to grab the game cards as well, he said no. Considering we were missing one or two of the candy cards, the peanut brittle card for sure, I - pardon the pun - rolled with his request. The kid beat me on the first game.
How could I make this game more interesting, I wondered, as the kid was well on his way to beating me in the second game.
I came up with 4 new rules:
1.) If the square you land on, matches the color of your Candyland figure, you get to jump to the next square of the same color. So, if you're Blue Candyland Man and you land on a blue square, you get to jump to the next blue square.
2.) If you land on a candy square, i.e. the candy cane, the lollipop, etc, you have to go back to the last candy square on the board. For example, if you land on the lollipop, you have to go back to the peanut brittle. If you land on the candied plum, you go back to start.
3.) If you land on a black circle, i.e. "the hole" or "the pit", you lose one turn.
4.) To successfully enter the candy-studded gates of Candy Castle, you have to roll the exact number of steps you need. The only exception is if you land on the very last of your own colored squares on that last stretch of candy path, you quantum leap right into the feast in the highest of the ice cream looking towers.
Welcome to Candyland 2.0.
These few modifications - a single die and some new rules - took the game to a whole new level. Both the Toddler and I landed on the candy cane at least three times each in that first modified game. There was a certain thrill that came with jumping from a green square to the next green square - six spaces up. And I don't recall ever falling into the "hole" as many times as I did in this game!
It wasn't until the Second Grader joined after she got home from school, that I noticed the black circles were on a blue square, a yellow square, and a red square. I added one more rule.
5.) If you land on a a black circle in a square that is the same color as your Candyland figure, instead of losing a turn, this hole becomes a secret passageway that tunnels under the board and takes you directly to Candy Castle. Automatic win!
And wouldn't you know it? The first time we tried out this rule, the Toddler won again!
For the last game of the afternoon, we were 4-1-0, the Toddler in the lead with four wins, his mama with one, and his sister none.
There was lots of jockeying for first as we made our respective ways down the candy path. I couldn't get past the candied plum tree, only to make it up the Rainbow Path on my third stint back at Start. The Toddler was cruising ahead until he landed on the peanut brittle, ("Don't eat the candy!" his sister and I shrieked) and had to go back to the gumdrop, only to lose a turn when he fell into the yellow "hole" (He was blue.) The Second Grader was trailing for so long only to hail triumphant, in the lead, as we all rounded the final corner - the castle in the distance. Interestingly, it all reminded me of the Wizard of Oz.
Thanks to Rule Number 4, all three of us just sat on the very last squares of the candy path, rolling 5s and 6s - useless to us now.
It was getting late. We had errands to run and I hadn't even come up with a dinner plan yet. How could I end this game?
Then the Second Grader rolled a 3.
"Two plus one equals three!" I exclaimed. "That's enough for all of us to get into the castle together! We ALL WIN!"
I swept the board away before anyone could question my math.
The shared victory buoyed our spirits and got us through a stop at the library, grocery shopping, picking up the older kids after cross-country practice, and a simple meal of leftover garlic soup with "gooey sandwich" - a family recipe of cheese melted on triangles of bread.
We celebrated with homemade caramel corn for all!
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)
2000 - Microsoft Launches Windows ME
The Millennium Edition was the last of the operating systems of the Windows 9x series.
1985 - The Golden Girls Make Their Television Debut
The popular American sitcom about 4 single and older women living together in a Miami, Florida house ran for 6 seasons on NBC. The main characters in the show were played by Beatrice Arthur, Estelle Getty, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White, each of whom won the Emmys for their acting in the show. The series also won 2 Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and 3 Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series.
1979 - The Afghan President is assassinated
Nur Muhammad Taraki had taken office less than a year ago when he was killed by gunfire at the behest of Hafizullah Amin. Amin took the seat of the president after the assassination and ruled for only 3 months before he was killed by the Soviets during Operation Storm-333.
1959 - First Man-Made Object Successfully Lands on the Moon
Soviet space probe Luna 2 was also the first man-made spacecraft to land on any celestial object. It was launched on September 12, 1959, and lost communications with Earth as it impacted the Moon’s surface east of Mare Serenitatis near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters.
1956 - IBM 305 RAMAC is Released
The 350 RAMAC was the first computer with a disk drive and was primarily targeted towards business that did real-time transactions. RAMAC stood for Random Access Method of Accounting and Control. The RAMAC 350, which was one of the last vacuum tube computers manufactured by IBM, was replaced by the IBM 1401 in the early 1960s.
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
1983 - Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter
1965 - Dmitry Medvedev, Russian politician, 3rd President of Russia
1879 - Margaret Sanger, American activist
1769 - Alexander von Humboldt, German geographer, explorer
Remembering You
1936 - Irving Thalberg, American screenwriter, producer
1901 - William McKinley, American politician, 25th President of the United States
1852 - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Irish/English field marshal, politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1836 - Aaron Burr, American politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States
407 - John Chrysostom, Turkish archbishop
Pull out your favorite board game, make up some new rules, and make it a great Saturday!
Kim
1901 - William McKinley, American politician, 25th President of the United States
1852 - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Irish/English field marshal, politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1836 - Aaron Burr, American politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States
407 - John Chrysostom, Turkish archbishop
Pull out your favorite board game, make up some new rules, and make it a great Saturday!
Kim
Your comment, "I love to play," reminded me that I do too. I haven't thought of that fact for a long time, so I'm beholden to you. Some of my favorite memories of those events have been fun on Mikinaak Creek with my daughter, when she was more of a kid than she is now--not to say she isn't fun anymore.
ReplyDeleteBut I recall I was in my mid-forties, I'm thinking 46, when one beautiful spring morning after a long cold winter, the ice on the creek upstream opened along its banks and created small rivers of flowing water through an otherwise dry coolie, shortening its passage through the various S-curves of the wide creek basin, very near our home, drawing us like moths to light on a dark night, where we played floating little sticks, and listenined to its gurgles and chortles and chirps, and I thought aloud, "How many 46-year-old men, in Palmville, are playing like this right now?"
I may have even called-in to the toy factory and cited, "Lack of interest," as to why I anticipated not coming into work that evening.
There may have been more people at play, than just me at that moment, for I wasn't considering those men who, upon walking across a thawing barnyard, where rivulets of running water cascaded through expanses of mud and manure, stopped involuntarily to lose themselves in play, by damming a mini-river with a toe of their chore boot or a pull of a grain shovel, under the renewing warmth of a welcome spring sun.
Or a rural Palmville woman, on her way back from the mailbox, a quarter mile distant, stopping her power-walk to scratch a channel in the gravel road with a stick she had found, and enable water to escape from a widening road puddle and flow, unimpeded, into the grassy down-slope of the ditch at its edge.
Another favorite memory of mine is of when the creek was in almost full-flood stage after a refreshing deluge of rain, and my daughter, her mother, and I donned life-preservers, and walked 'way upstream of the house, then jumped in, to ride its exhilarating strong current downstream past our house, only to clamber out where the creek spilled into the yard, and we were able to regain our footing, and do it over again, repeating our cycle several times that warm forenoon, and losing her mother's participation somewhere in the process. That may have been another call-in day, for fun, especially the spontaneous variety, had its place.
Thanks for the refresher!
Yikes! WW's comment rivals your post for length. As for me, I never learned to play as a toddler or youngster. Back then, we lived on an airfield miles from other kids, so when I was old enough to go to school, I had no idea what to do at recess. Later, as I recall, there were absolutely no girls' sports teams, so I took up cheerleading. Image JP Savage with her cute little skort and her pom poms. (Blush) On the positive side, that airfield had endless prairies, tiny rivulets through culverts that emptied into small pools with any number of frogs and other "wildlife." There was even a beacon to climb, when parents weren't monitoring my whereabouts. So, I learned a different kind of play. One that interacted with nature almost every day, and that gave me the opportunity to exercise my imagination. And then, there was my favorite gift from my dad: a miniature bulldozer. Well, my second favorite; you've already read (maybe) "Remembering Flight," posted a few weeks back which was about my dad teaching me to fly, starting at about 11 years old. I tell you, that was one heck of a game! JP S
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