Leah entered her first woodblock print into the (adult) A&S competition at Bog 3-Day.  She won "Champion's Choice", and was beside herself.  She was recognized in Court and everything.

Today, I met His Grace Duncan in the finals of a major tournament (where have we heard this story before?).  I won Kingdom Champion in the 5th round of five, and people congratulated me on "defeating my nemesis".  I found that very odd.  I have never considered Duncan my nemesis.  He's just a good fighter whom I happen to run into in the finals of tournaments.  Where he defeats me (usually).  Plenty of other good fighters beat me in the finals of tournaments, or before the finals.  But I suppose that there have been two recent high-profile finals where I have lost to him, so it seemed like a had a particular problem beating him.  I do (did?) have a particular problem beating him, but I have a particular problem with some of the other fighters in the Kingdom, too.

Joshua is away for 2 weeks.  He is at a music camp in the Adirondacks (9 hour drive, thank you very much).  This is the first time that any of our children has been away from us for an extended period.  We of course assume disaster every time our cell phones ring.

Ian and I spent last weekend at a father-son wrestling camp.  I was expecting more interaction with the staff, learning how to be a good coach and support my son, but I just watched him practice for 3 days straight.  Nevertheless, it was the canonical definition of "quality time".

There are 4 mantises left, thanks to a gruesome fratricide.  The winner grabbed the loser and chewed slowly through his neck until he had two separate (and still moving) halves to consume at his leisure.  But the winner soon leveled up, and we now have a Level 9, which is the first to get the "Wings" upgrade.  It looks adult to me, although I imagine that there are more Levels yet to come.  They now each have their own cage.

Tonight, it is time to move the piranhas to their 50-gallon tank.  In case you were wondering, 50 gallons is a lot of water.

The kids have a new pet.  His name is Shelvis (figure it out) and I am pretty sure that he is ruing the day he set foot on our driveway.  Shelvis is about the circumference of my head.  He will be inheriting the 20-gallon tank when the "piranhas" are moved up to the 50-gallon tank.

For those of you who didn't buy the scorecard....

Current pets:
Wood Turtle (1)
Banded Syrian Hamster (1)
Chinese Mantises (7) [they are now Level 8, with bodies about as long as my index finger]
Tiger Oscar Ciclids (2) [they are now bigger than my hand, and will be moving up to a 50-gallon tank]
American Toads (3)
Various small fish (5? 6? who knows.)

Dearly departed pets:
Albino Corn Snake (1)
Leopard Gecko (1)
Tiger Oscar Ciclid (1)
Hermit Crabs (2)
Fire-Bellied Toads (2)
American Toads (3)
Multicolored Betta (1)
Various small fish (many)
Dog (1) [well, okay, this one was my pet, not the kids']

In the past two months, i have learned more about praying mantises than I ever expected to know.  Ian is raising a batch of 'em.  The batch size started at 300 babies, and is down to about 24 adolescents.  If a half-dozen make it to adulthood, I will consider the breeding program a success.

These creatures are beautiful and fascinating and downright ugly all at once.  They grow by molting, at which time they leave their old exoskeleton behind and don a new exterior.  Interestingly, the size of the mantid between molds is quite predictable.  That is to say, after undergoing five molts, all of the Level-5 mantids are essentially the same size.  And they remain that size until they hit Level 6.  So, you end up with a cohort of siblings that can be clearly divided into (for example) Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 .  The first creature to reach Level 6 is unmistakable -- he is way, way larger than all the others in the cage.

Fascinating! (And ugly.)

I am also learning a lot about breeding fruit flies as mantid food.  Fruir flies are not fascinating - just ugly.

[Update] One of the Level 5s just figured out how to kill a cricket.  Predator and prey are of similar mass.  My money's on him to be the first Level 6.

The next Baron and Baroness of the BMDL will be....

THL Liam Mac an tSaior and THL Constance Glyn Dwr

I guess that makes me a lame duck.

The kids want to see the movies, but I insisted that they read the books first.  In our case, this means that I read a chapter to them before bedtime.  I think it helps a lot (especially for the 8-year-old) to have different voices for the characters, otherwise they tend to muddle together.

Elrond's council elicited a long discussion of why they couldn't get rid of it in some easier way.  At the conclusion of this discussion, Ian (who had been mostly silent) said, "But if Isildur kept the Ring, and Bilbo almost kept the Ring, won't Frodo keep the Ring when he gets to the volcano?"

Also... as the Company leaves Lothlorien and begins the trip down the Anduin, Ian whispers to his brother, "I think Boromir wants the Ring."

As some of you may recall, two years ago at Blackstone Raids, I tore my right rotator cuff.  That was bad.
This year, I fought all day at Raids without a problem.  Then, as I was taking off my show after fighting, I put my back out.  So, I'm on bedrest (insofar as boredom will allow me to stay in bed) for about a week.  [I am confident that I will be able to supervise the upcoming Baronial election.]

So, not as bad as a torn rotator cuff, but still.... I'm beginning to feel like Raids is cursed for me.

"Hi, Honey!  I'm home."