🎶 and i would walk 4 point 5 miles 🎶

 we walked up to the park, then across to the port, and we settled on babylon park even before either of us said anything. we had fun, though two of the games mr smear played (motorcycles and snowboard simulators) were remarkably unfair; if you win, you should get another go, no?

we looked for ice cream, but golda had removed their vegan indicators which was super suspicious. so we picked up a couple of drinks instead, and began our walk home. along the way, mr smear decided that he didn't want the traditional post-pesach pizza for dinner because he's watching his weight, which led to a lengthy discussion with gd over the phone because she was trying to be supportive and he... neither of us really understand what he was gunning for.

then, most of the way home, he decided he needed to stop by the candy store...

long story short, i "supported" him by not letting him go to the candy store, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the olive & mushroom pizza (with black salt, too, in my case). of course, gd ordered two pizzas when one would have done just fine :/

at least they were vegan. i'm never sure, and i *really* didn't feel like taking mr smear to the hospital this evening.

now to (hopefully) find out whether the kids are returning to school tomorrow or not.

paused

 i did eventually get back to sleep for a bit, and then woke up to a pretty good day. i read a little more blindsight (but only a little), we all watched kindergarten cop together (it's aged well), and in spite of his initial protests mr smear and i went out for a very nice walk, getting exercise and sunshine but also a couple of games of jurassic park at babylon park.

tomorrow's back to work and school.

i'm feeling a bit less post-vaccine, at least.

breaking the cycle

 it was the first real weekend in three weekends, though i was really, really tired last by yesterday afternoon. i think that's just because i'm working really hard these days.

i slept awfully and far from enough on what remained of thursday night, woke up yesterday and took mr smear to school, and then shortly afterwards gd dragged me to the mall to do some shopping. i was starting to feel worn down by the time we returned home, and was relieved to have half an hour to myself before picking up mr smear when he called to say that the juggling teacher was MIA. again.

*sigh*

i convinced him to calm down and just wait by the gate, and once the school day was officially over i picked him up and brought him home to change bags before we all headed out to the ayalon mall for purim costume shopping. after some bus shenanigans - waiting almost half an hour before giving up - we grabbed a rental and were there in no time.

we couldn't find a costume mr smear wanted, but we did find him a fake executioner's axe.

which he can't take to school because since october 7th, no costume weapons allowed :/

anyway, i dropped them off at home and returned the car and returned home, and napped hard, and took a hot bath, and then it was dinner time, by the end of which i was literally passing out at the table.

today:

mr smear and i got up around the same time, and i restarted buddy simulator 1984 which he'd begun last night. we had a great time together, but some of the events were quite disturbing and he had trouble going to sleep tonight...

the game's ESRB rating being for teens is... appropriate. i'm only a little way in and i'm first and foremost impressed by the use of lazy writing to disguise a very carefully crafted experience. secondly, what begins slightly creepy is only becoming creepier.

son of a *****, i'm in.

we had a bit of a fight about him coming out with me today... as usual. but he did, and once he was out he was great. we paid our friends a visit for a while - it was only supposed to be a quick stop to drop off the extra calvin & hobbes books and a hand-me-down onesie - but mr smear and their kids were having a good time and then we got into some conversations. eventually, it was time to go and they asked if they could join us, so we all headed out together on our bikes, through the park to the port.

we began at a playground, with mr smear uninterested in using the facilities and deliberately sunning his "herpes eye" (wtaf?!), and afterwards we biked through the port (big mistake) until the crowds proved too much and then we took a quick detour to get to babylon park. as we turned off the main stretch, right after two large women had just walked right in front of us while mr smear's temper was reaching boiling point, he angrily yelled something to the effect of "i HATE that obese people existing is a thing!" [laughs and dies inside simultaneously]

babylon park was a great idea, except that about 45 seconds in mr smear's friend burst into angry tears because her father wouldn't pay for her to use one of the gambling machines. that tantrum went on for a long time, while mr smear played some cool games (he's surprisingly good at the shooting games and he's getting good at the motorcycle ones too), and mr smear and her little brother and i played air hockey, and generally had a good go.

they left before we did, but when we decided we were done we found them still outside, with her refusing to leave. she agreed to go home with us (although we didn't agree to that :P), and we were almost out of the park when mr smear stopped and i had an opportunity to give her a talk about how her dad was protecting her from herself... it seemed to have landed, but she still didn't want to ride home with him so we all split up and i made sure she got home before mr smear and i came home ourselves.

overall, i'm really pleased with mr smear's attitude today and the two of us got exercise and sunshine and had a good time together, and i feel like i parented well even with the other kids. we had a good evening, with a less insane episode of delicious in dungeon, followed by a good chat with my mom and big sister (who's just arrived in cape town and is staying with her for a week).

and then it was bedtime, and the remaining half of an episode of monk that i'd fallen asleep during, and then comforting mr smear, and now... it's late, and we're about to lose an hour of sleep to the clock moving forward.

[checks]

why the fuck did anyone say that the clocks would be moving forward today? it's another few weeks.

either way, i'm tired and i hope i get a good night's sleep.

not with a bang

it's a quiet afternoon on a beautiful autumn day, it feels like a good time to put down some thoughts.

thursday:

around the time i finished posting, mr smear went to his friend's to celebrate his birthday, which was a very welcome surprise invite. apparently they all had a good time.

gd and i took the opportunity to finish watching deadpool & wolverine, which we immensely enjoyed once we were awake enough to watch it!

in the late afternoon, i took mr smear out to play some basketball. just as we were leaving, we received confirmation that sinwar was killed, and while lots of people are excited and celebrating, i'm just relieved. not because it means anything real as far as the war is concerned, because until our hostages are brought home nothing has really changed, but because for a large part of the last year i've been holding my breath with anxiety, worrying that the fighting would stop prematurely and the world would see a photo of sinwar coming out of the tunnels showing a victory sign. at least now, whatever happens, any symbols like that would feel as hollow as they are.

...

mr smear and i had a good time at the courts, not only is his skill improving but his attitude, too.

we completed the third season of the x-men animated series over dinner. two more season to go...

yesterday:

we got up and went pretty early. unfortunately, i couldn't get a haircut, but i was able to book it for tomorrow instead. the day began with a ridiculously long mission to get change for the bread guy who'd insisted on giving me something a few days ago when i had no cash on me. we eventually got hold of a stack of disgusting, sticky coins, which we tried hard to clean with hand sanitizer and water. when we finally got back to the guy, we found him with plenty of coins which had made the whole, gross experience unnecessary :/

we took a bus to the top of dizengoff, then picked up coffee along the way to babylon park at the entrance to the port.

now, the games they have aren't exactly what we were looking for, but the operation is really slick - the app, and unlocking games with the app, in particular - and we all had a jolly good time. in particular, mr smear loved the motorcycle games, and he got to play real pinball machines for the first time ever!

we took a break to find some food, and ended up at the little food market... at first, we were shocked by how much our two tiny plastic containers of nothing cost us, but then we were shocked by how shit the quality of the alleged "food" actually was. i told the woman working there that if i was me, i wouldn't sell it to people. that's absolutely the last time we try to eat something there.

we returned to babylon park for a bit more, but it was starting to fill up, so we soon decided we were all ready to go home.

we'd initially planned on cleaning the floors in the afternoon, but we'd all had too much of an adventure for that :P

the afternoon was relaxed, but just as evening was approaching mr smear had a moment (he was playing human fall flat, but more than that i have no idea) that turned into a proper tantrum. gd and i both tried various ways to deescalate, ultimately having to shut it down undiplomatically and with everyone felt like shit.

miraculously, though, when i went in later to tell him to go shower, he was calm and compliant, which i guess is as much of an apology as one can expect from a nine year old.

...

while we were all stewing, i compulsively restarted playing inscryption. between the time until dinner (which was much later than planned), and the bit of time between getting mr smear into bed and discovering that gd's never seen demolition man, a couple of hours this morning and an hour or so this afternoon, i've played through it completely and, i must admit, once again enjoyed the experience, even if in a somewhat different way.

...

gd and i both passed out pretty early on in the movie :/

...

i didn't sleep well, but i did sleep. aside from inscryption, we went to our friends for brunch and enjoyed a very pleasant late morning / early afternoon with them.

...

this morning i saw this video compilation showing the anti-american (anti-west) organizations explicitly describing their goals and tactics, and for anyone who isn't familiar with it this is what israelis have been trying to warn the world about for a long time, but specifically over the course of the last year.