Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Rest Of The Family
Now that all of my wonderful readers know much more about me than you probably cared to, I feel that I should provide an update on the other members of the Spakowiak family.
Colette once again is playing catcher for her high school softball team, and playing rather well, I might add. She has a strong and uncannily-accurate throwing arm, and is very adept at keeping mis-aimed pitches in front of her. She has even improved in fielding bunts, which is a common occurrence in fast-pitch softball. Unfortunately, my daughter cannot hit a lick. In twenty games, Colette has two hits, neither of which has gotten past the pitcher. However, she leads the league in throwing out runners at second base. In her first game this season, a pitch rolled about six feet from her and the runner on first tried to advance. Colette had the ball and threw the runner out by ten feet. Her team is currently playing in the state tournament, where they have won their first two games.
Maribel is back home. She was invited to a WNBA tryout in Chicago, which she attended. She said that she performed well, but was not invited to any teams' training camp. Maribel enjoyed her time in Israel, and has an open invitation to return next year, which she is mulling over. She confided to me that she's not sure if she wants to dedicate so much time to working out, practicing, etc., when they only play once a week. Bernie is helping her look into different opportunities in Europe and the US, including coaching. For now, she is working out and playing slow-pitch softball. With the men. Most of whom she can out-play and out-drink. She makes me so proud.
Angela has designed software for teachers and schools that allows them to create their own "intranet", or internal internet, that can only be seen by someone within that school's network. It has a piece that lets students make really slick, colorful web pages. Teachers can put up homework assignments, correct answers, reading suggestions, and reminders. It is really colorful and fun, and Angela has sold it to a couple of local school districts for a criminally low amount of money, considering how much time she has invested into it. She is negotiating with a larger software company for rights to the software, but Angela wants to retain the rights to the source code, which the other party is not so sure about. Angela says she'll pass up the deal if she can't keep the rights to the code.
Luke seems to be doing well. He has met with teachers from the local high school to gauge his progress, and they have given him satisfactory grades. He does well when he can learn the material through mostly reading, but he struggles with math. Still, he understands the fundamentals. He and Colette are actively "dating", which is an interesting challenge since they both live under the same roof. However, we have set some rules that seem to be holding. For example, since Luke is staying on the third floor of our house (which, as you will recall, is a converted large apple barn), Colette has to ask us when she "wants to go over to Luke's." I did once hear them giggling behind the closed door of Colette's bedroom, but it turned out that they were just watching Monty Python clips on YouTube.
Cat's kittens are growing up quickly. They are almost three months old, and they tear around the house with wild abandon. Cat has let Princess, our other cat, help with the kitten-rearing, so the two adult cats have been spending considerable time together. The kittens are good about using a litter box, but because our house is so big, we have had to put out several litter boxes. When a kitten's gotta go, it's gotta go. No matter how far apart they get, when one gets tired and decides it's time for a nap, the other two inevitably find it, so they sleep in one fluffy lump. Cat tried to herd them back to the laundry room, but the kittens are getting too big to herd. We've started offering them soft kitten food, but they still seem to prefer mommy's nipples. I can understand that preference. I have always been partial to Angela's nipples, but for a completely different reason.
As for yours truly, I am slowly getting around better. I can pretty much walk around the lower floor of our house, albeit with the aid of a walker, and sometimes I need to rest halfway to where I am going. I have started to regain some feeling in my butt, so Angela has started to give me a brief spanking every day, I tell her how much of it I feel, and she journals the results. She says it is for scientific purposes, but I'm not so sure. I'm scheduled to have an MRI next week, and, if the swelling around my spinal cord has gone down enough, the doctor is going to schedule me for surgery.
If you have stayed with this missive, you've noticed that nothing especially exciting has been going on. I'm still bored, and I've talked to my employer about picking up some work, but they are holding off for now so they do not stress me too much, as if boredom isn't stressful enough. So I'll find things to do, and continue to write. I'm convinced that I'll be walking normally eventually, although I may never be able to compete with Maribel on the basketball court any more. That's okay, she's been better than me for a couple of years, anyway. Perhaps, soon, I'll even be able to receive a proper spanking again. Now that would be fantastic.
Colette once again is playing catcher for her high school softball team, and playing rather well, I might add. She has a strong and uncannily-accurate throwing arm, and is very adept at keeping mis-aimed pitches in front of her. She has even improved in fielding bunts, which is a common occurrence in fast-pitch softball. Unfortunately, my daughter cannot hit a lick. In twenty games, Colette has two hits, neither of which has gotten past the pitcher. However, she leads the league in throwing out runners at second base. In her first game this season, a pitch rolled about six feet from her and the runner on first tried to advance. Colette had the ball and threw the runner out by ten feet. Her team is currently playing in the state tournament, where they have won their first two games.
Maribel is back home. She was invited to a WNBA tryout in Chicago, which she attended. She said that she performed well, but was not invited to any teams' training camp. Maribel enjoyed her time in Israel, and has an open invitation to return next year, which she is mulling over. She confided to me that she's not sure if she wants to dedicate so much time to working out, practicing, etc., when they only play once a week. Bernie is helping her look into different opportunities in Europe and the US, including coaching. For now, she is working out and playing slow-pitch softball. With the men. Most of whom she can out-play and out-drink. She makes me so proud.
Angela has designed software for teachers and schools that allows them to create their own "intranet", or internal internet, that can only be seen by someone within that school's network. It has a piece that lets students make really slick, colorful web pages. Teachers can put up homework assignments, correct answers, reading suggestions, and reminders. It is really colorful and fun, and Angela has sold it to a couple of local school districts for a criminally low amount of money, considering how much time she has invested into it. She is negotiating with a larger software company for rights to the software, but Angela wants to retain the rights to the source code, which the other party is not so sure about. Angela says she'll pass up the deal if she can't keep the rights to the code.
Luke seems to be doing well. He has met with teachers from the local high school to gauge his progress, and they have given him satisfactory grades. He does well when he can learn the material through mostly reading, but he struggles with math. Still, he understands the fundamentals. He and Colette are actively "dating", which is an interesting challenge since they both live under the same roof. However, we have set some rules that seem to be holding. For example, since Luke is staying on the third floor of our house (which, as you will recall, is a converted large apple barn), Colette has to ask us when she "wants to go over to Luke's." I did once hear them giggling behind the closed door of Colette's bedroom, but it turned out that they were just watching Monty Python clips on YouTube.
Cat's kittens are growing up quickly. They are almost three months old, and they tear around the house with wild abandon. Cat has let Princess, our other cat, help with the kitten-rearing, so the two adult cats have been spending considerable time together. The kittens are good about using a litter box, but because our house is so big, we have had to put out several litter boxes. When a kitten's gotta go, it's gotta go. No matter how far apart they get, when one gets tired and decides it's time for a nap, the other two inevitably find it, so they sleep in one fluffy lump. Cat tried to herd them back to the laundry room, but the kittens are getting too big to herd. We've started offering them soft kitten food, but they still seem to prefer mommy's nipples. I can understand that preference. I have always been partial to Angela's nipples, but for a completely different reason.
As for yours truly, I am slowly getting around better. I can pretty much walk around the lower floor of our house, albeit with the aid of a walker, and sometimes I need to rest halfway to where I am going. I have started to regain some feeling in my butt, so Angela has started to give me a brief spanking every day, I tell her how much of it I feel, and she journals the results. She says it is for scientific purposes, but I'm not so sure. I'm scheduled to have an MRI next week, and, if the swelling around my spinal cord has gone down enough, the doctor is going to schedule me for surgery.
If you have stayed with this missive, you've noticed that nothing especially exciting has been going on. I'm still bored, and I've talked to my employer about picking up some work, but they are holding off for now so they do not stress me too much, as if boredom isn't stressful enough. So I'll find things to do, and continue to write. I'm convinced that I'll be walking normally eventually, although I may never be able to compete with Maribel on the basketball court any more. That's okay, she's been better than me for a couple of years, anyway. Perhaps, soon, I'll even be able to receive a proper spanking again. Now that would be fantastic.
