Mrs. Ha's dad kept asking her to visit him, way out in Hemmet California. She wanted to go over April break, but her job needed her that week, because the dad was starting a new job. They didn't need her the last three weeks of February, because he was starting a new job. A look at the calendar (must be home by 2/21 due to sixth grade exhibition, kids are off from 2/18-20 or 22)) and southwest's site resulted in flying out early on the 13th and returning late on the 20th. From Buffalo, because southwest doesn't do Rochester yet.

So I scheduled a few days of vacation on the 13th and 20th, got the kids to school on the 13th, made it to Buffalo with about 15 minutes to spare and she was off.

We survived, it helped that they were off much of the week. The weekend was tough, as 16 year old was running the lightboard for her school's production of Brighton Beach Memoirs and had to be shuttled back and forth to school on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We ended up seeing the Friday and Saturday productions (different casts), it was good. Throw in a trip to the mall Sunday morning with newspaper_girl, a trip to the library downtown for an art thing with 11_year_old's friend, then a trip back to the mall because newspaper_mom wasn't telepathic enough to realize she was supposed to pick up the girls and wasn't available for the return trip. To top it off, I dropped my debit card at the gas station that morning, the fraud department was kind enough to ask if I was draining my account at Walmart, or if it had been lost.

At the library I picked up Sex at Dawn, a book that I had been curious about. The author's thesis is that for 90% of humanity, we lived in small tribes that shared everything, and it was groovy. If we just get over our monogamous hangups and practice free love in commune type settings, it would be totally groovy.

In other media, 11_year_old has been struggling for a greater sense of self, and has decided to embrace her geekiness. To help with that, and based on her peers, she wanted to start watching The Big Bang Theory. I know, we're way late to that, but we're up to season four, as soon as I can find it in the public IP depository.

I like it, the stereotypes are rather broad, but we see some of Sheldon's mannerisms in 16 year old.

I tell her she's looking to be living in an age where geeks are well thought of, and if she really wants to become a geek, she should master Lego Mindstorms.

Speaking of 16_year_old, she's finally looking into college visits, prompted by newspaper_girl's nagging, and it being a topic at the upcoming mother-daughter book club. She's still not sure what she wants to major in, I was asking her what she prefers to do for homework, math or writing. She's going to be taking online assessments.

In other 16_year_old news, she was telling me sa_girl discovered a realistic teen drama on Netflix, My So-Called Life. I burst her bubble by telling her we had seen it when it first aired back in 1994. Mrs. Ha and I watched episode 4, the Grateful Dead one, before her trip. Since Angela Chase prematurely ended Althea I had to find one to listen to coming back from Buffalo, Dick's Picks 6 fit the bill. Next up she has to watch Freaks and Geeks , whose timeline overlaps with mine in high school.

So, Wednesday both girls were off and 11_year_old wanted to host a Risk party, inviting the members of the class's Risk club, and a few others. One of the boys from the Lego team had a gaming birthday party last month, and they discovered they loved playing Risk, with all sorts of alliances and such. Hence the Risk club, and the Risk party.

The Risk party went well, with two games being played, one to completion. Only three other kids showed up, all from the Lego team. One kid brought his copy, we had four. The sixth graders chose Risk: 2210 because mechs! and the moon! They didn't finish. There was also lots of junk food consumed and Nerf battles.

I think this is their third game of Risk, and like many games of Risk, they've never finished one.

The oldest chose Risk: Lord of the Rings which neither of us had played before, but it was good for two players. We figured out the rules, started applying them correctly halfway through when we realized we made a mistake, etc. It's nice in that it has an end, when the Fellowship moves out of the Dead Marshes on a 3 or higher on D6, unless you have a card.

I was losing near the end, so I gambled I could spoil enough regions and capture enough territories to maybe pull off a win, if I rolled 3+. I didn't, she came back and won 68 to 22. Points are scored by totalling territories, getting region bonuses and totalling fortresses.

Later that evening I headed out to Buffalo. Her flight back was delayed a half hour because a passenger was missing, the baggage carousels were malfunctioning, it was close to midnight before we got home. I was tired Thursday, I'm still tired today, and Mrs. Ha is still jet lagged. She also brought her Aunt back with her.