Cairo Wind Down Begins

Seven weeks to go in Cairo. About 104 fewer than anticipated. Thus, we rush to catch all the sites we thought we'd have plenty of time to see. Today's trek was to Sakara and Dashur pyramids, which were cooler than the Giza pyramids despite lesser reputations.

5,000 year old columns. Oldest in the world.

Katie as Egyptian goddess

Descending about 100 meters into the tomb.

Inside the pyramid.

Piazza Venezia and Coliseum (also selfie bonanza)

Piazza Venezia

Fora Romana and Palatino

Colossal selfie

Getting silly at the Coliseum

Pointing out the famous ancient electrical wiring of the coliseum. How'd they do it?

And the ancient bird poo.

Ancient air vents

Attractive multi-lingual signage from the ancients.

Spring Break: Pantheon and Spanish Steps (In Which I Embrace the Selfie)

A family selfie inside the Pantheon.

Giving photography advice at the base of the Spanish Steps

And a selfie from the top of said steps

Spring Break: Vatican and Gladiator School

Spring Break: Rome (Day 2)

First, Rome is an awesome city for a morning site seeing run. Vatican, Piazza Venezia, Coliseum. Great run. On the downside, after almost a month off from running, I didn't stretch first and then ran double my usual distance on account of getting a little lost. So my knees were killing me and making me grumpy for the rest of the day.

Our apartment is about a 25-30 minute walk (kid pace) from the action. Half way into our walk, Katie had to go back for all the things the kids realized they needed. So the kids and I trekked on and then waited for her at the bus stop. Once Katie rejoined us, I had to go up the hill and around the corner to get more cash (bus passes are a cash only purchase). Walking back down the hill, I saw our bus coming, so I ran, at great expense to my aching knees. I made it in time and then realized I was chasing the wrong bus. We waited another 30 minutes for the right bus, getting grumpier by the minute.

Once on the right bus and at our target destination, catacombs, we discovered the catacombs are closed on Sundays. Luckily, the afternoon was saved by a charming park/restaurant (pictured below). We continued the bus tour, which was awesome, had more gelato, which was awesome, stopped at the cinema for Captain America: Winter Soldier, which was awesome.

Overall, a great day. Gladiator School tomorrow.

See how Caleb was totally loving the walking tour?

Kids playing on see-saw at our favorite restaurant so far in Rome.

And some at-the-table hide-and-seek.

If you're dishonest, it bites off your hand. All hands survived.

Fontana di Trevi. We tossed in coins to ensure we would someday return to Rome.

Spring Break: Rome (Day 1)

We arrived late (ish) last night, settled in to our Airbnb apartment, shown below (I just became a huge fan of airbnb, by the way) and then made our first priority stop for gelato. Today we just walked around a bit, getting oriented.

Maddie and Katie have already declared their desire to remain here indefinitely. While Caleb and Henry decided to spend much of their day at the park and playing Pokemon, the girls went out for lunch and shopping.

View from our apartment window.

And street view.

Playing at the Circo Massimo.

More Circo Massimo.

The gladiator charged us $15 for the photo op. So that was stupid.

And one gladiator fell asleep.

A Special Day for Caleb (in his words)

I felt joyful. The water was freezing. Then I felt the spirit inside. I felt warm even though the water was cold.

Opening Day

One upside of being the Division Coordinator for Caleb's league and coach of Henry's team is being able to pick the team names. So we are the Red Sox in both leagues.

The Henry Red Sox

Caleb's Red Sox played the Yankees. Red Sox won, but it was more of a friendly (I suppose they all are at this level, but this game especially so since confusion led to not following the real league rules).  Caleb played great. It was fun to see so much improvement from last year. Caleb was one of the weak players last year and one of the strong players this year.

Henry's Red Sox also played the Yankees. In his tee ball league, there are only two teams, so he will play the Yankees 8 times. No outs. Everyone bats. We don't keep score. And it is super fun. Just a lot of cheering for the kids as they battle their own teammates for the ball and score runs.

Should be a great year of Red Sox baseball.

World's Best Remote Control Dad

I have been in Lebanon. In addition to our three biological children who typically reside with us, during my absence Katie was joined by three neighbor children whose parents were suffering without their little ones while enduring the hardships of Paris.

So, of course, it was essentially a mini vacation for Katie who is now feeling utterly refreshed. Meanwhile, I call in like a FaceTime rock star and say handy things like, "Have you read the scriptures yet today?"

And now that we're both using Todoist (recommended to all couples looking for a solution to the primary cause of marital fights--talking), I can also just assign fun tasks to her list. I am sure she was tickled to receive a notice that "change kitty litter" had been added to her list today.

Meanwhile, I acknowledge that my posts have been a bit Caleb-centric for a few weeks, but I must update that his team won the final basketball game in a dramatic 9-point fourth quarter comeback against the league's best team. I was absent, but the play-by-play offered total vindication of the coaching method we employed. We didn't teach dribbling. We taught basketball. And they learned it, reportedly running the pick and roll like Stockton and Malone.

The Untalented Are Too Talented

Basketball season ends this week. On to little league. I am division coordinator for the 7 and 8 year old baseball division, or Minor A as we call it, and Head Coach for Henry's 5 and 6 year old tee ball team.

As division coordinator, I assemble the rosters. With limited knowledge of the kids, I attempted to fairly distribute talent, gender, and parent volunteers, all while making sure everyone on each team was available to practice on the same night. I spent, no exaggeration, 8 hours on this task today after spending 2 hours last night.

My first attempt last night was thwarted when a parent (and one of my coaches--it is my job to recruit volunteers) suggested that one team was unfairly loaded with talent only to then say she didn't mind because she was going to coach in a different division anyway. Back to the drawing board.

So I sorted that out this morning and then discovered that I had put down the wrong days of availability for my new head coach, so none of the players assigned to him would be able to attend practice. Back to the drawing board. Then I received concerns that the team previously identified as too talented did not have enough talent.

In a curious twist, the players identified as too talented were also the players identified as insufficiently talented. Which made the solution simple. I solved both problems by swapping out those two players. Someone will turn out to be right and the other will lose a lot of baseball games.

Basketball Redemption

A player quit the team. This is regrettable. I felt really bad about it at first. But then a series of details came to light, which I will skip here because who knows who might end up reading my blog, and I feel totally exonerated.

Nevertheless, I still had to achieve basketball redemption with Caleb. Thus I conceived of the "hustle point." I told the team they would get a snack after the game, but only if the team achieved 50 hustle points. Players earn hustle points by doing any good thing that isn't shooting or scoring (e.g. rebounding, setting a screen, stealing a pass, making a good pass).

I tracked hustle points during the game and informed the kids of their totals during time outs and quarter breaks. This revealed to Caleb what I already knew, which is that he was contributing to the team despite not scoring. He was psyched to see he registered 4 hustle points in the 1st quarter. Energized, he re-entered the game and put forth his most vigorous effort yet, recording his first rebound and other positive feats.

The incentive had a similar effect on the other kids as well. They surpassed the 50 points required, won the game easily, and then happily consumed their cupcakes. And basketball is redeemed for Caleb as a valid pastime.