battling tops

[gurdonark]

Yesterday morning we awoke to a cooling rain. I love a mid-August rain, relieving us from 100+ degree days. Wednesday we had a 109 degree day, which is very hot for us in north Texas. The rains made everything settle into a delicious, quiet day.

After doing some work, I went on the Spring Creek Trail, which I saw a huge tiger swallowtail perch for a long time on a small tree. He was so gorgeous, all yellows and blacks. I stopped by the remaindered bookstore, and bought for 3 dollars a collection of New Testament apocrypha. Sadly, no gnostic here among the works, but some of it is still quite interesting.

We got together for dinner with my brother, his wife and boys, and my cousin, his wife, two boys and a girl. We had such a good time! After dinner, I played battling tops with the younger boys, with plastic tops in a little plastic top fighting coliseum. I find, to my dismay, that I am one of those "trash talking" game players. I jokingly encourage them not to cry when I defeat them. I tell them that this is the "Tournament of Doom". I boast of prowess I do not possess, to get a rise out of them. The five year old cousin gets in the spirit, but gets his metaphor wrong. He says "I'm going to eat your dust!". his father points out that he should be saying "You're going to eat my dust!". Our tops all battle. My 11 year old nephew wins most of the tourneys, but what fun to watch plastic tops spin and battle! I have a lot of kid left in me.

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

are those the apocrypha from catholic bibles, or additional ones? i've read all of the catholic bible, but i'm not too interested in the gnostic texts. i used to have a friend who considered himself a modern gnostic. he evinced a lot of sympathy for the cathari.

it was fun reading about you battling tops and talking trash. tournament of doom! :D

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

No, these were the books that almost made it into the New Testament, but were rejected as non-canonical or redundant. things like Barnabas, Nicodemus and the tales of Infancy.

I love those battling tops. I'd almost get my own set!

[ghostsandrobots.livejournal.com]

Trash-talking top tourneys -- excellent! "I'm going to eat your dust" is classic.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The nice thing about having a fellow like Jude in your life is that you can look forward to years of that kind of fun!

[ghostsandrobots.livejournal.com]

Now that I'm excited about. :)

I'm going to eat your dust!

[lonestarslp.livejournal.com]

I wish I had heard that--I love it!

Re: I'm going to eat your dust!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

It was hilarious! I didn't get it at first, but then I loved it.

[msajiva.livejournal.com]

Swallowtails are gorgeous. One of the first butterflies we hatched from a chrysalis was a tiger swallowtail. After admiring the beautiful butterfly we released it.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I've seen two giants, a black and a tiger this weekend. We don't have many zebras here, but I saw one this Spring! Love them!

[gregwest98.livejournal.com]

Good for the kid in you. We should all retain more kid. I have perhaps too much.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You've a perfect blend of kid and grown up. Your son and daughter are so lucky!