Bassie: Yes.

Me: As good as Star Wars?

Bassie: Yes.

Me: As good as 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Bassie: Yes.

Me: As good as Lawrence of Arabia?

Bassie: (pauses) Well…

Me: I guess they’re really different kinds of movies, huh?

Bassie: Y:es, because in Jaws land is mostly scarce, but in Lawrence of Arabia water is mostly scarce.

Me: You just blew my mind.

Bassie: (dismissively) Yeah yeah…

1. Yosefblog has been reading David Foster Wallace’s Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity. Dina saw it on his bedside table and asked:

Dina: What’s this about?

yb: Well, it’s about infinity, and how lots of people used to think that if you thought about infinity too much, you’d go crazy.

Dina: I’ve been thinking about infinity my whole life! Are you telling me I’m crazy?!

2. I came home from a particularly trying day working with a pilot program at my school meant to create a values-based education curriculum.

Dina: So, how was your day at school?

Me: To tell the truth, a little stressful. I’m not sure how I feel about this values-based curriculum.

Dina: Why?

Me: Well, what might be some of the problems you encounter with trying to teach students to be “good people”?

Dina: Well, what if they’re just really bad people and they won’t do it?

Me: That could be a problem. Or, what if their idea of what’s good in a certain situation is just different from what we’re teaching? Should we make them do it the way the school has determined is best?

Dina: No, you should let the students decide for themselves.

Me: But then, sometimes, they might make decisions that would really hurt other people, or themselves. So this is the issue I’m struggling with.

Dina: Ahhh…I see…

Highlights included:

*Dina taking a day off from camp to babysit her little cousin Finn. She took her hard earned $5 and…bought a Subway sandwich. She claims that it was a tastiest sandwich she’s ever eaten. Ahhh…isn’t the fruit of one’s labor always the sweetest? Even if that fruit is low-quality roast beef.

*A hike up the famous Great Blue Hill Trail. It was rough going,

but we made it to summit and back, a glorious achievement. Next hike: K2.

*Bowling Day was our last excursion. In two games, Bassie emerged the victor by 2 points, although it is worth noting that she did use bumpers, so my self esteem didn’t suffer too horribly at the loss.

Action Shot!

*Last Friday was our Farewell Day. We made scrapbooks of all of our memories and had a friendship circle where we shared our favorite times from camp. Luckily, we all swapped addresses and phone numbers so we can keep in touch during the school year.

I can honestly say that, going into this month, I was really nervous about whether I could keep up with entertaining and educational programming for four weeks, whether the girls would make it through a whole month with pretty much only each other and me as daily companions, whether the whole thing wouldn’t just peter out and end up in three weeks of Movie Days. But I have to say, this was one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had, and such a wonderful and special time to have with the girls, especially because very soon they will not want to be seen with me in public. Sure we slept in until 10:30 when we meant to wake up at 9. Sure the girls had some knock-down-drag-out fights that may or may not have resulted in me turning around from the driver’s seat to tell them to “quit their bitching”, after which a discussion about whether I had just used a swear with them or whether the word, when used as a gerund, is merely slang and thereby not directly derisive (a debate that they’ll no doubt take up with their therapists at a later date). But, seriously, we had a great time. So great that Bassie thinks we should offer spots to other kids for Camp Klein 2011.

Gulp. Anyway, here’s some merch to tide you over until then.

Now the girls are in Chicago visiting Bubbie and Zaide and Gramma and Grampa (and soon Uncle Matt and Jazzy and Paul and Josie and Aunt Elisa and Uncle Pat and Uncle Mike). As I type, they are with Bubbie at Legoland. Don’t worry, I didn’t get left out. I chose to stay behind so that I could go to Tre Kroner for lunch. CINNAMON ROLLS! QUICHE! Honestly, I don’t recommend anyone go there unless he is prepared to forever have the IKEA cafeteria pale in comparison. Yosef, I am sorry I went there without you. But I am fully prepared to return for more quiche when you arrive next Friday.

The questions

And the girls in action:

Just look how charming they are! YOU'D tell them YOUR favorite movie, too!

Yesterday was Game Show Day. Dina was horribly frustrated by Jeopardy and her inability to remember to state her response in the form of a question. Today she watched an episode of the real show that I recorded for her last night, and her response was, “That show is for adults!” Touche, Dina. Touche.

Today we visited the Decordova Sculpture Park and Museum, which is quite lovely. It was also quite populated with insects, which did not make Basya happy. What made me laugh, however, was Dina’s belief that she had never been stung by a bee, when, in fact, she was stung by a bee in pre-school. See, it’s clearly no big deal, Basya. Unless you’re allergic to them and happen upon an entire hive of them while alone in the woods and your girlfriend’s dad ironically owns a funeral parlor. Then you will most likely become dead.

On Board Game Day, Dina threw Rachel under the bus when she quit Monopoly, giving all her properties to Bassie. Rachel’s superior reflexes and spatial skills won the day in Make or Break (small victories), and Dina learned some excellent SET strategies (such as the “Sniff & SET”).

With Lee here, it was Science Day for two days. We made silly putty, cracked geodes, and looked directly into the sun (w/special glasses, silly!)

This week is off to a lazy start w/Pool and Patio Day, but Scavenger Hunt Day is tomorrow, and I’ll have the girls running all over town.

Basya was 100% in charge of today’s events, which meant “warm-up” excercises (“This is a yin yang, it is a symbol of balance. Draw your own symbol and describe what it represents”) followed by each of us completing a full book with cover page. Here’s a teaser:

Bet you didn't know that!

Camp Klein is very excited to welcome Grampa tomorrow for his extended Camp Klein Weekend Tour. We predict many trips to Zaftig’s.

Snaaaaaake!

and discussed Thoreau’s philosophy (Bassie says that “man has become the tool of his tools” means that “the tools are tricking the people into working for them”).

Yesterday it was Beach Day, and it was quite an exciting time for a little Midwestern girls such as myself. I actually saw the tide go from low to high and back again for the first time.

Bassie’s comment that it was her first time seeing it, too, was met with me yelling, “Yeah…but I’m 32 and you’re 8!” Anyway, seriously, it was one of the coolest and most humbling things I’ve ever seen. The Earth and the Moon and the vastness of the ocean all moving in some cosmic rhythm…maybe my awe was what distracted me from reapplying sunblock thus leaving me with a raging sunburn.

But a sunburn could not deter Rock-Star Day! Based on a conversation I had with Dina the other week when she was done eating a cucumber while we were walking outside and, in lieu of a garbage can, suggested she might just place it in the nearest mailbox. Hence, “Cucumber in the Mail”. Enjoy!

After waking up a bit late and missing the 9 AM “bus” (our couch) we still made it to camp in time for morning calisthenics (Bassie let us know that there are late buses at 9:30 and 10:00. Phew!) Then we filled up our water balloons, got a few old pillowcases and headed out to the park for the games. Here are the results:

1. Sack Race: Dina won the qualifiers due to a glasses mishap on Bassie’s part, but Bassie pulled through with a second to spare for the win in the end:

Everybody loves Camp Klein!

2. I won the Balloon Toss, but somehow that meant free tosses at me in the end, so I also got the most soaked. Dina made some great catches, though. I think I’ve got a couple of second basemen on my hands. And one goalie (Uncle Matt, I know your preparing a curriculum for Bassie for the summer).

3. Rina (the combination of me and Dina) won the three-legged race. Close second was Baschel, followed by Dasya.

4. It was no contest for the egg and marshmallow races, with Basya pulling off easy wins with her steady hand and steely resolve.

5. The long-distance run (if I had to eyeball it I’d say it was 300 meters) was an easy win for me, but I was disqualified for having legs twice the length of the other competitors. In a stunning last minute sacrifice, Basya flung off her flip-flops (yes, we were clearly prepared for a 300 meter run) and ran the last 30 meters bare-footed on the hot pavement, narrowly beating Dina by 4/10 of a second. And the crowd went wild.

In the afternoon it was reading and craft time (my friendship bracelet is going well).

Camp Klein is off for the weekend, but we’ll be back on Monday with Nature Expedition and camp t-shirts.

Stay tuned…

We also wrote journals about the difference between books and movies, and went shopping for marshmallows and water balloons for tomorrow’s Field Day.

Camp Klein t-shirts available soon…

In the afternoon we read Maupassant’s “The Necklace” and wrote reader responses about whether or not we felt bad for Mathilde.

Of course, we took time to watch the end of the USA World Cup game. Go Landon Donovan!

Now we’re making friendship bracelets (hmmm…another theme: necklaces, bracelets).

All in all a great start to camp.

Tomorrow: Classic Movie Day.