Greetings from not-yet-sunny Portland, Oregon where it’s 58-F outside with a good chance of hitting something in the mid-80s by some time in the afternoon. Or late morning, for that matter. I’ve mentioned before how I feel about summer, but that’s not really pertinent here and now.

This entry commences my Blogathon participation for 2003, my first ever. For the next 24 hours I will post at least one entry during every half-hour timeslot. Yes, I really will. If I managed to wake up this morning to start, I can stay up long enough to finish.

Let the fun and games commence. Welcome to the Blogathon.

(Cute, cuddly bunny pictures to follow in the next half-hour’s posting. Be patient, folks.)

So Mari dropped by (that’s why she called, see?) to see how I was getting along with this ‘thon thingie. That, and to see bunnies. And hold bunnies. And have bunnies claw her. And gasp as bunnies leaped off of her. And wish she could take a bunny home with her. And call Doug to ask if she could have a bunny. (He said no.)

She also tried playing a bit of Age of Mythology (you thought I was the one playing, didn’t you?) to see what kind of game Geoffrey’s been raving about all this time. She wasn’t impressed. Too much scrolling and what-not.

For additional fun, she put combs and crimpy-things in my hair. (Neat trick given my hair, wouldn’t you say?) She’s getting into the hair-braiding thing, and spent part of her time organizing some of her newly-acquired supplies.

As she was at the point of deciding to go grab some grub and head over to Lil’ and Geoffrey’s… she found that she’d locked her keys in her car. After setting a world record for jimmying her car door with a bent coat-hanger, she finally jetted off for her next rendezvous.

Thanks for stopping by, Mari! It’s never dull with you around… and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Wendi has fed me breakfast, I’ve posted bunny pictures (though more will come, have no fear), and now I think I’m going to take a Very Quick Shower. Yeah, I feel kinda grungy. The hot spray on my sunburned bits should be invigorating, wouldn’t you say?

When I get back, I’ll commence with the… settling in for 22 more hours of this. Yeah, that’s my grand plan for the Blogathon. I think big, y’all.

Here’s my rough plan for tomorrow:

12a to 6a: Finish last leg of Blogathon

6a to (undetermined): Sleep as long as possible

(undetermined) to (bedtime): Stay the hell off the computer

Sounds like a great plan, doesn’t it?

Okay, so I am having fun. Enforced journal writing, however, isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world, even with as lackadaisical an effort as I’ve been putting forth here.

Speaking of effort… Surprise, here’s more bunnies!

Okay, so now I’m bathed. And there’s goop in my hair to make it stand up the way I like. Of course, I’m not bothering to brush it or anything… I should look nice and dorky on the cam for Blogathon.

Yes, I said cam.

Scary, wot? What can I say, I have a weakness for opportunities to show off my goofy-looking mug.

I get a kick out of my kids.

Alex is so serious, just like his dad, when he’s not being silly, just like his dad. I think he’s doing a better job of things than I was at his age, though he can be stubborn about the darnedest things as well. Gee, I have no idea where he gets that. Recently he’s been working on mastering Sonic Adventure 2 and unlocking characters in Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, churning through The Elenium by David Eddings, and sussing out the secrets of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I’m hoping to start him on Raymond Feist’s Riftwar books once he’s done with the last of the Elenium trilogy. He just started The Hidden City this evening so there’s a few days yet. Alexander is a perceptive and surprisingly empathic young man who, if we can train him up right, will probably find himself more popular with the girls than he’ll know what to do about. Hey, it has to beat how I stumbled through that aspect of life for so many years.

Erica is such a normal little girl in so many ways, and yet surprisingly deep and mature in several others. Mind you, she’s far and away the more devious of the two. Nothing escapes her notice, and she learns very well just by watching. Case in point: Alex was playing one of the 3D platform-style games a while back, and Erica just sat and watched. She didn’t ask to play until at least a week had gone by. Then, when she did decide to play, she was off and finding things in the game that Alex didn’t even know about! Her current responsibility is that of General Bunny Wrangler (to her mom’s Bunny Wrangler In Charge, of course) and she takes great delight in handling the bunnies and making sure they have clean water and fresh food. She’s our little nature-lover and adventurer, no doubt about it. Not to mention her role as Social Butterfly, which is what makes her parents wonder what set of genes she picked that up from. Erica is a complete natural at social networking, though she has some hard lessons yet to learn about trust and about fairness.

Yeah, I have great kids. No doubt in my mind.