Gabe

Summer Vacation, Day 60: The Wizard of Oz

/ J. Thorp / 4 Comments

Last night the kids wanted to watch a movie. It’s sometimes a challenge to get them to agree on a single flick – but our DVD player downstairs isn’t working, so we’re limited to the older movies we have on VHS.

Still they were going back and forth, so I said, “How about The Wizard of Oz?” Why, you ask? I dunno – maybe because Jacqui had been blogging about it …

“Yeah!” said Emma.

“Yeah!” said Gabe.

“Um – no!” said Trevor.

“You haven’t even seen The Wizard of Oz, Trevor!” I said, although Jodi’s eyes warned me otherwise.

“Uh-HUUUH!” insisted Trevor.

“Really. What did you see?”

“There were monkeys, and even they could fly!” he said, a big smile breaking across his face.

“Flying monkeys?! That sounds pretty cool! What else?”

“And there was a lion!”

“Was it a mean lion?”

“No, he was a nice lion – even there was a scarecrow!”

“A scarecrow, too? Was he scary?”

“No, and even there was a dog!”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “The Wizard of Oz has flying monkeys, a lion, a scarecrow and a dog? This sounds like a pretty good movie!”

Trevor, by this point was grinning ear to ear, and nodding along with his description.

“And even there’s a collection!”

“A collec … a what?”

“There’s a collection, and even he can move!”

“A collection that moves?” I asked.

“Even the collection has an ax, and even the ax can break wood!”

But of course: the Tin Man, a collection! “Well, Trevvy – that sounds like about the best movie ever!” I said. “Wanna watch it?”

“Yeah – let’s watch it!” he cheered.

Summer Vacation, Day 57: Ball and Crosspins

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment

After I reported on Gabe’s day at the office and described his artwork, he read the report and informed me that the second picture wasn’t the pins being knocked down.

“I put the ball instead of a skull, and then used two pins instead of bones,” he explained.

Asked where he got such an idea, he thought a moment, then said, “Probably bowling. I’ve bowled before!”

Judge the result for yourself. Looks to me like the makings of one bad bowler tattoo …

Summer Vacation, Day 56: Go Yankees!

/ J. Thorp / 4 Comments

I know that the above subject line will make some people’s blood boil. To them, I say, “Tough!”

I purchased four tickets to a Yankees-White Sox game in mid-September – part of a week-long final home-stand in The House That Ruth Built. Brendan, Gabe and I (and one other person TBD) are going to the Bronx to see the old stadium before it closes and falls. Plus NYC, the Statue of Liberty via the Staten Island Ferry, maybe. Everything we can do cheaply. Suggestions? Woohoo!

A couple days later, the Yale football plays its opener at the Yale Bowl against Georgetown. Might hit that, too – and the Peabody Museum of Natural History and Yorkside. Oh, this is gonna be fun!

It’s also gonna be a lot of driving. Even figuring diesel at $5 a gallon and only 40 mpg (I average 46 or so), it’s still way cheaper to take the Golf than fly or Amtrak it. Could check the bus, I guess …

Summer Vacation, Day 55: Gabe at Work

/ J. Thorp / 6 Comments

Brought Gabe to work with me today, and thought I’d share a few of the highlights and authentic Gabeisms:

1. This being the U’s off-season, lots of rental properties around campus have “For Rent” signs posted – in windows, on the doors, on the lawn. We passed one such property and Gabe said, “That’s the second tree for rent I’ve seen today!” He laughed and laughed, then explained that the “For Rent” sign was stuck to the tree, but it was for the house …

2. In a colleague’s office, given full freedom of a white board, he drew three bowling pins and a bowling ball dropping from the sky – black outlines, red stripes on the pins. In order to use every color white board marker available, he signed the picture by: Gabe!

3. In a meeting immediately following the drawing, he sat quietly and recreated the drawing in his notebook. Then he drew another, with the ball actually striking the pins. Each of these he labeled “ARIGNL” — then made smaller version of each on a single sheet of paper, labeling those “COPY” and inviting me to hang them in my office.

4. In the same meeting, as people were filing in, he tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “How many boys will be in this meeting?” I replied, “Just us, I think.” (Most of my coworkers are women, and he seemed to be getting nervous – they all kept talking to him and trying to give him stuff …)

5. I was sitting at my desk watching the boy at the computer I set up for him, and got the warm, fuzzy, proud-papa feeling. “Gabe,” I said, “I think I’ll keep ya.”

“Fine by me,” he said.