One of the LOLCat pictures on I Can Has Cheezburger? shows a picture of what is presumably the lolrus’ bucket, with the caption “In Soviet Russia, bucket misses you.” (Which is, of course, a Yakov Smirnoff/Slashdot reference.) I explained this to the girls after scrolling by the picture.

One of the few Gamecube games we’ve actually purchased, instead of just renting, is ”Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door”. I’ve gotten close to the end, but haven’t yet defeated the Shadow Queen or gotten to level 80 of the Pit of 100 Trials. I was taking another run at the Pit the other night when Donna called me away for some reason. After the girls got bored waiting for me to come back to finish, I heard the following line floating out from the living room:

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Walking up the hill from Bothell Landing tonight, I heard Ael saying behind me, “Ow, ow, ow…” Looking back over my shoulder, I said, “Define ‘ow’.“

Without missing a beat, she said, “Oh God, oh God, I’m gonna die?”

When I noticed Ael playing Catan Online yesterday, I told her “You know, we actually have a version of that game.” Well, nothing would do except immediately pulling it out and setting to work.

The Settlers of Catan Card Game has been sitting on our game shelf for years, since last time my wife and I tried to play it, we kept messing up the play by not having read the rules properly. It’s 10 and up, so I had my doubts about Ael’s ability to play. However, those were quickly dispelled when I wondered aloud about how to know when we’d won, and Ael promptly chimed in, “It’s when you have 12 or fewer points, Daddy!” Yes, she’d read and retained the rule book while waiting for me to get in gear.

So, we spent parts of the weekend playing it. I’m not sure how long a game is supposed to take, but we spent several hours getting to 8 and 6 points, respectively. She took her setbacks much more philosophically than I expected, although she wasn’t thrilled when my Arsonist burnt down her lumber mill. We’ll definitely be playing this again, and I want to introduce her best friend to the game, too.

On our way back from Safeway, the girls (6 and 4) decided they were playing a video game as they walked between Donna and me. They were moving back and forth on the sidewalk, picking up power-ups and collecting pieces for their cog disguise. As they walked by their favorite shortcut, Donna said “If you go the way we usually go, you’ll see Baby Jesus!“

Ael said, “Yeah, and if we see Jesus, we get extra, extra, extra points!”