It turns out it’s man

A chaotic finger painting, mostly in reds and purples but with a few blobs of yellow and blue. There are a couple of places where an adult was instructed to help paint, most notably a recognizable red pineapple on the left side of the painting.

“Fire Sun Just Painting Painting, Tree, Three Clouds, Cherries, Pineapple,” but we can call it “Fire Sun Just Painting” for short

A child’s finger painting on paper. The whole sheet is covered in paint, mostly sort of a rust-gray-brown mix but with patches of blue and green peeking through from a lower layer. At the top of the sheet, a roughly circular piece of paper scribbled all over with pink and purple markers is collaged on over the painting. Some animal character stamps have also been stamped over the painting.

I started asking Willie what to call his paintings and I gotta say I recommend it. This is “Rainbow November Little Mole”

So I actually might have to hand it to the squirrels here, because the sunflower apparently survived - it is bent in half but then the end of the bent-over stem is curving back up toward the sun - and now it has THREE little baby flowerheads surrounding the chomped-off end of the stem

To be fair I think squirrels also planted that sunflower (see: growing directly under the birdfeeder) so, like… I GUESS if squirrels are going to do agriculture in my backyard they are entitled to the fruits (and nuts, seeds, etc) of their labor

Squirrels have knocked down the sunflower that was growing under our birdfeeder and eaten off the little baby flowerhead

The first 2/3 of Forrest Gump. Why always Forrest Gump? Why not a movie we could finish in 2 class periods, which was always the amount of time we had?

A frisbee on a roof. In the foreground, the top of a stepladder is visible. To the left, an unbent wire hanger attached to some twine is now also stuck on the roof.

Hmm

My dad: [on a stepladder, crabbily issuing instructions about bringing him wire hangers and twine]
Everyone else: would it help if we all stand around and say “well there’s your problem”?

Willie got his frisbee stuck on the roof at my parents’ house

It’s Willie’s first Boat Day, which is when they put the swim classes in an inflatable boat and make them roleplay Water Emergencies, and the guys are supposed to be yelling for help but they are having too much fun getting splashed by “waves”

I am normally pretty merciless toward the tree roach but I do feel a little bad for the dead one being fished out of the indoor swim class pool. The conventional wisdom is “they come inside looking for water” and, alas, he found it.

My mom did daily dramatic readings of the high/low temps in every city where I was considering a college. I don’t know if the GOAL was to prevent me from moving to Boston but the EFFECT…

I really enjoyed his whole deal in Rebels, I'm on board for more of that for sure

my job involves sending a lot of nearly-identical emails to long lists of people - today, faculty directors for 10 degree programs - but they are never *quite* identical enough to get away with using a template without a bunch of unique edits. can't all 10 of you get on the same page here.

classic college roommate behavior

A drawing of Charmeleon by a 3-year-old: his body and head are round purple shapes, connected by a long skinny neck, with two little arms coming out of the neck, two little feet coming out of the body, and a skinny horn on his head. His tail curves up and has a yellow and red flame at the end. There are three red hearts arranged around him, and at the bottom of the page is written “Charmeleon” except all the letters are out of order (“leMrChA-NOe” I think?)

Please enjoy Willie’s drawing of Charmeleon (photo by the artist). (Charmeleon is purple; the red is all the hearts because of how much we love him)

I had a roommate in college who had that, although I don't believe he ever teleported further than the bathtub

Sheep took flight on her LMFAO

Our overnight trip to Washington-on-the-Brazos got CANCELLED because ALEX [REDACTED BUT I REMEMBER] was a little shit on prior field trips

Two facing pages in a zine made of blue construction paper. Left page: I was driving my kid (3 1/2) to school when he said, “When I grow up, can I be an astronaut?” Of course I said, Yeah! It will take hard work, but Right page: I believe in you. There’s a crayon illustration of a faceless astronaut in a spacesuit, standing on a moon with craters.

Next two pages. Text: I thought it was cool! It’s such a classic kid aspiration, like being a ballerina or a firefighter. Crayon illustrations of a stick figure dancing in a tutu, and a stick figure with a helmet holding a firehose.

Last two pages. Text: I told his dad about it and he said, “That’s funny… On the way home from school, he told me, when he grows up, he wants to be a dog.” Crayon illustration of a dog wagging its tail.

Back of the zine. Crayon illustration of a dog in a spacesuit with bubble helmet, wagging his tail as he floats in space among stars and planets.

I made a zine while Willie was working on his coloring book.

Some other parent at swim class also plays Pokémon Go and is always knocking my guys out of the gym here… My Nemesis

The old logo for Houston Avocado Co. The company name is written in a rainbow-like arc in shades of green; below that, a smiling avocado wearing a crown sits between the two halves of a split avocado, presumably a rival for the throne. The slogan at the bottom reads “not just avocados…”

Every time I see a Houston Avocado Company truck I curse the day they decided to change their slogan (now “for ALL your produce needs”), but at least they did keep the Avocado King

I am happy to see Asanoyama again! I am sad not to see Asanoyama’s lovely spring green mawashi again. bsky.app/profile/elsa...

Also, at a glance it appears to be called NERD, which, well

to be totally fair to this guy, the degree program is being discontinued, so really who cares what he does next year. nevertheless.

question on the assessment form for instructor feedback: your students did not meet the standard on this scoring trait. how do you plan to address this next year?
instructor: "I will inspire them to new heights."

Yoshinofuji (formerly Kusano) got a better portrait! Hooray! Now let’s get one for Oshoma, who looks like they got his headshot by yelling “Oshoma! Think fast!” across a crowded room

A tray of click-together plastic Pikachu parts, laid out more or less in the positions they will go together in. There are both a happy face and a fierce face to choose from.

Willie saw this Pikachu model kit I bought and wanted to help with it, so I spent tonight assembling little pieces into bigger chunks that he can help me put together. The result looks like Dr Frankenstein is building a Pikachu in his lab but I think the kid will be excited.

I briefly had a job in college writing answer explanations for practice LSATs, which I was "qualified" for entirely because I love those puzzles