Most know Ben is a quite a socialite. It is fun to watch him play t-ball: 1) hit the ball; 2) run hard to second base, (yea, a double!); 3) make polite conversation with the second baseman; 4) round third base and 5) home! Of course, the best part of t-ball is 6, the post-game snacks (with Gordon).

Just got back from 2.5 hours of baseball. Ben’s and Nick’s games were back to back at the same field, Cottonwood Elementary. It was a scorcher. During Nick’s game he hit a great one but slowed down on the way to first and got out. We ended up losing by one point, but they did really well. The other team was really good. The parents on our side really cheered when our team made a great play to get a boy coming home out after a grounder hit with bases loaded and full count. The pitcher picked it up and made it to the catcher at home just in time to stop the run and get the third out. You’d of thought the Sidewinders were playing from our reaction. It was an awesome play. The boys just knew they did something good, I don’t even think they realize just how cool it was. Way to go guys!

Nick informs me this is the Tattletron 2000 from Pilkey’s wildly popular Captain Underpants series. Alicia and I still don’t know what to make of them. They are disgustingly silly, but the boys read through them like crazy. These books are chuck full of silliness. Just a quick list of the characters makes this obvious. There’s “The Bionic Booger Boy”, “Sulu the Bionic Hamster”, “Professor Poopy Pants”, “The Wicked Wedge Woman”, “Doctor Diaper”, “The Turbo Toilet 2000″, “The Dandelion of Doom” and many more. [Nick correcting my spelling of "booger" and "wedge".]

The main characters are a couple of rowdy boys named George and Harold who always get in trouble by Mr. Krupp. George and Harold actually created Captain Underpants during detention or something. Ben and Nick, and the other neighborhood boys, spontaneously discuss plot lines. “I haven’t read about The Dandelion of Doom yet. That must be in book 3,” Ben will say. “Yes, that is correct,” says Nick

Thousand Hands is Nick’s own creation, but obviously influenced by Yu-Gi-Oh. I asked Nick why Thousand Hands is frowning. “No, that’s his jaws,” he replied.

Alicia came down to find Nick busy, as he often is, creating things on paper. He must have learned this measurements breakdown at school. It’s a cool way to visualize something most of us can never remember. If only we could fit the number of tablespoons and teaspoons in that little C somehow. This reminds me. I happened on Google’s measuments conversion by accident. Go to Google and search for something like “60cc in cups”. The conversions calculator give you the results. Great for quick lookups.