Mendicant Bias

As I was blundering through the HALO game recently, I was pleasantly surprised by some familiar voices. I thought I had heard them before, but now that I blunder through a little less stressed, I find that I can interpret more of what is raining in on my senses. There is just a warm fuzzy feeling when you hear from trustworthy voices, like Mal Reynolds. That definitely gives one a sense of ease, when you know that you are with someone who has been through so much. It is also nice to hear Jayne, because then you know there is someone who will entice chaos that will only benefit you in the end. And that he adds some humor to the fight, invoking the name of his pistol. Where would we be without a little levity once in a while? And that is also why it is refreshing to know that Wash is still around. We have missed him so. I am glad that he was resurrected somehow.

I keep missing the opportunity to catch Rileigh holding Sammy. I guess it is a lot like Aunt Cindee holding their cat when Mom and she were little. And it does not matter how many times he bites, or scratches, or how many times we plead and punish, she still nearly strangles him every time she holds him. With all this holding, it is hard for me to understand why there is no photo.

Some independant quotes from the kids

Rileigh: "that (bike) helmet does not match my sunglasses."
Ethan: "these are my favorite pancakes."
Rileigh: "I want you to come after me at the gate because I need to get my helmet (from the car)."
Rileigh: "the mosquitoes tooked all the good water out of the camping kitchen and put yucky water back in." -this last one comes with a little more info. A couple days ago, we went for a little ride to kill some time. I took them to Banks lake, which is essentially one big park. ...or "wilderness area", ....officially it is a National Park. At any rate, it has many camp grounds, boat launches and the like. We stopped off at a boat launch that had running water/bathroom, and -we came to find out- an "outdoor kitchen" (basically a sink, under a roof. maybe for scaling fish, or prepping food for a large picnic, I don't know). So, I parked the van, and we strolled to the outdoor kitchen to fill the water bottles with water, noticing the squirrel (aka rabbit), quail and robin along the way. To my surprise, once at the sink I was beginning to be swarmed by mosquitoes -the like of which I had not experienced since Alaska, or one of my mountain trips. A sense of urgency was developing. The kids were noticing the increase in mosquito population as well, and I had to explain to them what a mosquito was (while being swarmed). Riles was kinda like Pleakley in Lilo and Stitch. At first calm and eager to experience something new, soon degrading to nervousness. She started saying "hey! get off!" -to the insects with no attempts at swatting them whatsoever. We got in the car as soon as possible. And in the car I had to explain that mosquitoes do not understand English, that they have a different language than we do. OK. Well, to add to it all, the water tasted funny. I think it is the minerals in the rocks, but to Riles, it was the mosquitoes fault.