I know… It gives me the willies too, but the twins love it.

Despite the fact that I saved my own money to by my Nintendo as a kid (and I don’t think my parents so much as bought a single game cartridge), we allowed the boys to earn a Wii by having 100 “perfect days.” That is, if they did all of their chores and got to bed on time, they would get a sticker on a chart. When there were 100 stickers, we would buy a Wii and the game of their choice.

That was the day after Christmas. Miles has been working his tail off, while Ben appeared to realize that he he could glide by on his brother’s effort. So we “altered the deal”: Whenever one of the boys got to 50 stickers, we would buy the Wii, but the other child couldn’t play it until they too got to 50.

Miles got his 50th sticker on Wednesday, so Thursday morning he and I took a trip to the store. He was really good about only playing it when Ben was at school. In fact, Ben didn’t notice it until we pointed it out at dinner. Contrary to our expectations, Ben is OK with not playing it, though he would like us to play it a bit more so he could watch.

So Brooke and Miles have had a great time kicking Dad’s butt at Wii sports. The saddest part is that we’ve made Miis of everyone (even grandparents), except Ben because he’ll want to make his own.

Our home improvement projects are not as exciting as gluing Ikea flooring to the walls, but, hey, were just less exciting people. When we returned from Wisconsin Brooke said, “I’d like to get the boys’ room done this week.” I should have known better. What she meant was, “I want to pick out the color and watch you do all the work.”

Here’s what we were up against:

Notice the drab blue, the painted baseboards and outlets. Brooke had already taken down the wallpaper border in the middle of the wall.

It took an entire morning to take down the room, and then to putty and sand the walls. It was apparent that the boys would be sleeping on couches for a few days.

Yes, the previous owner had a teenager in the room. Can you tell my the number of tack holes?

A trip to Sherwin Williams set us up with a bright blue-teal and all the supplies we needed. We bought baseboard by the foot at Home Depot.

Primed.

The boys begged to help.

By Saturday the only things left to do were putting up the baseboards and replacing the outlets and the registers. I absolutely had to finish that night because the in-laws will be in town next week, so the boys needed to be off the couch by then.

Somewhere between an old Sharks Pacific Teal and Tiffany Blue...

I know there are no mattresses, but it was 2am.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have to buy any new tools for this project (unless you count the putty knife).

We didn’t take too many pictures this week, but here are a few.

Why play in the pop-up tent, when you can crush it and roll around on it?

The ward talent show was last week. Brooke signed up herself and Ben for a duet and Miles asked to play a solo. Yes, the four-year-old apparently has my confidence level. They both played well (the duet was an arrangement of Mozart’s Symphony #40, and Miles played the first lines of Ode to Joy), but the best part was seeing Miles walk all by himself, carrying a music book that’s almost as big as he is, from stage right to the piano on stage left.

He had a hard time finding Middle C because he wasn't used to the piano. So, he just played it an octave up.

For posterity's sake: Here's Tim, Kay, and Jeff singing Pearly Little Shells.

Brooke found an activity center called “Monkey Joe’s” near my brother’s home, so we took the kids, my parents, and some of the cousins out for an afternoon. Miles was unsure at first, but really loved the high slides. He was very tired when we left and he was sore the next day (he could hardly walk).

The twins couldn’t have been more opposite. Asher loved the kiddie slides, and I even pushed him down some of the bigger ones. He just giggled and ran back for more. Isaac would have nothing to do with it. For him, tiptoeing across the floor mats was adventure enough.

Madison is home to my favorite grad student (sorry those of you in 600 and 603), Margaret Merrill. It was fun to spend an afternoon with her, meet her new BFF, and remember what it was like to worry about what I wanted to be when I grow up… Wait. I’m still not sure.

Anyway, we all had fun.

Doing what academics do best... Talking

The twins thought that Dan's shelves were a little messy, so they cleaned them off for him... Twice.

He didn't solve it while we were there, but it kept him busy when he wasn't playing on the bunk-couches.

Why on Earth would I pay $25 for a video-screen mounting bracket when 20 cents of PVC will do the same trick?

An old buddy from BYU found me on Facebook. I browsed his recent activity, and found found a link to Fox Sports’ 9 reasons baseball is better than football. I couldn’t resist. Here is my reply:

You have to love how hard they tried. I mean, they couldn’t even come up with one more to make it a real Top 10 list. Here, let me debunk these (except #8)…

1. Baseball has more history. So Catholics are better than Mormons?

2. Baseball has more parity because more different teams have won the World Series in the last 10 years than teams have won the Super Bowl. Um, how about a little historical perspective (see Point #1)? There have been 109 World Series, and the Yankees have won 27. How’s that for parity?

3. It’s better to play in Chicago in the Summer than in Green Bay in the Winter. Um, sure. If you’re worried about being cold or wet, then you’re already not a football fan.

4. There’s not enough action in football games (only about 11 minutes of play). This coming from a sport (baseball) that supposedly cherishes strategy? You know, repeated visits to the mound, checking the base-runner, etc.? The between-play time in football is strategy time (as is the working of the clock). I’ll chalk up this point to ignorance.

5. Morality (players unions). Are you kidding me? The only sports organization with an anti-trust exemption is critiquing another sport for its players not being stronger unionizers? I remember how great those baseball unions made the 1994 World Series!

6. All baseball players (except in the AL) play both ways. Um, yeah, it’s a different sport. Are we going to complain that hockey players don’t take turns at goalie?

7. Average Ticket Price. Supply and demand, my friend. If baseball were more popular, it would cost more. Of course, baseball also offers 80+ home games each year, which helps keep the price down too.

8. Baseball literature is better. I can honestly say I have never read a book about sports other than “It’s not about the bike.” Maybe baseball does have better lit (“The Rookie” was better than “Invincible”), but who really cares?

9. Baseball has Albert Pujols. Yeah, and football has Peyton. Football has Chad Ocho-Cinco. Etc.

Let me add my own reason baseball is better than football:

10. Swastikas on uniforms!

While we were in Wisconsin, we drove out see some friends in Madison (don’t worry, Margaret, that’s a post for tomorrow). Madison has a small free zoo, and the weather was nice, so we took the kids. It’s more intimate than most zoos, but the small facilities don’t seem appropriate for many of the animals (though I’m sure it’s great for the university’s life sciences departments).