I'm still here! Seems everyone in the house has rediscovered the computer after months and months of "meh"-ing at it and I can't get a turn!

Dinner with my parents was very nice, way too much food left over, though. Now I'm in the aftermath of hand-washing the china and silver. Actually, Busy Girl enjoys it and she's finishing up. The boys are still up and wild, I really need them to get tired soon. We got another one of these this year. I'm too lazy to upload the picture, but it looks like that one. The kids love it and it cracks me up.

Busy Girl had a basketball scrimmage today, she did well, overall. However, she's starting to do kind of what she does in soccer. She's really quite good, but she doesn't play with the intensity that the other kids do. I'm not talking about scoring or being the best player out there. It's hard to describe, she really plays well, but, we've been trying to explain to her what it means to "give the game everything you've got", currently, her efforts are "just enough" and there's a big difference there. She needs to learn that "giving it all you've got" may involve sweat, being out of breath and even a little discomfort.

I think she really thinks she's trying her hardest and she's not slacking, it's the extra effort that escapes her. No, we're not making her play, she really loves the sport and wants to play in high school. I think part of it is that when she was younger, she easily outplayed most kids without a whole lot of effort and she doesn't understand that they are catching up now.

Anyway, the coach is great, I don't know her real well, though. After the game, I said something like, "If you have any ideas how to get her to play with some energy, please share them with us as we have been trying to work with her on that." I said this because the coach is very experienced and takes the game with a healthy dose of seriousness and I thought I could learn something. She said, "What are you talking about?! She did great!" Oops! Now I'm pegged as an over critical sports parent before the season has even started. Busy Girl did play well, but she truly is missing something in the effort department, and I'm not being hyper-critical. The season hasn't even started yet, though, so maybe she'll catch on.

Confidential to the guy in Target this evening: Dude, you lost the kid while you were looking at action figures. I saw it. Your wife isn't going to let this one go anytime soon, you are so in trouble.