Mousetrap

Allow me to give you a glimpse into an evening at Castilo Urf!. This evening I played the game Mousetrap with three of The Quartet. I haven't played Mousetrap probably since I was C's age, about 27 years ago, but he just got it for his birthday so it is currently the game of the hour. I don't think it's changed much since I was a boy, though my version may have been made of metal and asbestos instead of the safer, rounded plastics of today.

One does not need to be an architect or engineer to build the structure in Mousetrap, which is good because not one of my kids is even close to it. They're closer, in fact, to the vermin that are the game's namesake. I'm mean, you say? Uncaring? Cruel, even? Perhaps. But you didn't just spend an hour watching the blind lead the blind through an activity geared towards "Ages two and up."

Other highlights of the evening included a very inappropriate episode of How I Met Your Mother that we let the kids watch, and me recalling the album Dead Letter Office, which I do not currently own, by R.E.M., which led to a rendition of "King of the Road" by Kristy and me. GK threw up what Kristy called "real puke" all over her pajamas and JP spontaneously combusted every time he added a piece to the trap with "I'm a genius!" I don't recall Mousetrap being such a noisy game when Elizabeth, Katherine and I played as kids. But then, I also don't recall sitting around with my parents watching sitcoms about teenagers losing their virginity, or having them sing really bad versions of Roger Miller tunes either, thankfully.

So this was an evening in my home, and it's only Monday. Come by tomorrow night when we may play Battleship, and possibly with real explosives, if we can figure out where JP, the genius, hid them.

[Thanks to S.A.M. for the use of her old computer while my Apple is in for service. This isn't an Apple. I think it may be Texas Instruments. In fact, I may be attempting to post this on the interweb right now using an oversized calculator. Nevertheless, I appreciate the loaner. Grazie!]