UPDATE: 10/4/13
My hands hurt. A lot. Here's why:
My in-laws live on property in North Texas that has a lot of mesquite trees on it and recently I asked them to mail me several good-sized sticks that I could carve into wands for my family's Halloween costumes (this year we're Harry Potter themed - I'm Mad-Eye Moody). After spending most of Tuesday and a little of Wednesday carving these sticks, I found out something (later backed up with research on the internet): Mesquite is one of the densest woods out there and it has a reputation for eating carving blades. I had no clue. Now my hands are swollen and sore from having carved three wands using nothing but my Swiss Army knife. I can't grip a pencil comfortably, let alone draw, and I can't even clench a fist - it feels like I have thick gloves on. I'll be taking a little bit of a break from drawing the webcomic while my hands heal up. ~Rob
I've been reading the Harry Potter books to my daughters, because I must raise my little geeklets right. Right now, we are reading The Goblet of Fire. Tonight, we finished the chapter where Harry and Cedric (SPOILER ALERT FOR A BOOK THAT'S BEEN OUT FOR 13 YEARS) grab the Triwizard Cup and get taken away by Portkey, with the next chapter detailing the death of Cedric and the resurrection of Voldemort. My girls have never heard this story before, they haven't seen the movies – they don't know what's coming. When the oldest of my twins was walking upstairs to get into bed, she was so happy! "Harry and Cedric are going to win the Triwizard Tournament! Maybe they'll split the money!" My heart broke just a tiny bit for her, after hearing her voice so full of optimism. I am seriously wondering whether to wait for a while to continue the series, because Order of the Phoenix is next and they like Sirius Black, too.
It's hard being a Geek Dad.
Take care,
~Rob
A tad late with that warning there Dhur. I just hope you mark the traps from here on out.
Don’t remember how old your girls are, but we stopped our 8 1/2 yo son right after Goblet. We are part of a small group of parents of his friends who have all stopped at that point. I told him he could start again when his friends are allowed to start again (or when we feel he is old enough).
This is Rob’s wife – we were planning to stop before Goblet of Fire, but they were just so eager to keep going that we did. (They are 9.) I’m glad we are reading it aloud as a family rather than them reading it alone, though – we are able to explain a lot of things and discuss them as we go, and I’m sure we will have one of those discussions tonight. Order of the Phoenix turns pretty dark, so I think we’ll at least try to take a break for a while before we tackle it.
Thats always the problem I guess,..balancing the love of books with the sometimes dark subject matter in “Pre-teen -Teen”books. Now I will admit I have no children of my own [I prefer to spoil other peoples kids then run away,..lol] but I do love reading and have read to friends kids,… I usually read CS Lewis Narnia books to them,…or Shel Silverstein poems. My only advise is to deal with this one issue in the book when it comes then hold off on the other books till they are a bit older. Also my other recommendation are the Xanth series by Peirs Anthony or Discworld series by Terry Pratchett,…. to the best of my knowledge there is not dark themes really,….. though read them first yourselves ofcourse,….lol
I read Harry Potter to my daughters and they and I both cherish our memory of that time. I spoke to my youngest, now 28, last night, and she said: “Loss is part of life. It is better that your daughter experience it with you then alone.” Besides, how can you stop reading them H.P.?
Sorry about your hand. Surprised you didn’t try to find a local woodworking shop the moment you found out how tough the wood was. I know hand-crafting your own things, especially for Halloween, is nice, but I draw the line at self-torture.
Sorry about your hand. Mesquite is one of the best woods for smoking meats for that exact reason: it will slow burn for a very long time.
My mother knew better than to try censoring my reading list when I was a child. I’d just buy my own copy at a bookstore if I really wanted it, and telling me NOT to read something was openly daring me TO read it.