#365Gratitude Day 362: Captain-Man

This is Captain-Man!

Captain-Man's powers include:

• Cat Petting
• Cuddling
• Admired Grownup Mimicry
• Being so ridiculously adorable it makes your face hurt.

He's Kate's little boy, and he's very special to me.  He loves sharks, both because they are, undeniably really cool, and because I love them.

Because he loves me.

And it's entirely mutual.  I love this kid.  Kate, and The Captain, have been a part of our lives for almost three years now.  I've watched him grow from a toddler to a little kid, and can see him moving at super-speed through that stage, too.  I've been waiting to read Harry Potter with him, and get him to begin a life long love with books, and bookish things, like me.  He's already excited to learn to play Scrabble - I have plans in the works to get him Scrabble Junior, and teach him how to play.  

Among the Captain's more amazing powers is his ability to soak in new ideas and experiences like a sponge.  Just yesterday I started to teach him how to play mancala, and after maybe two games, he totally understood the rules, and was playing like a champ.

I am powerless before this kid's sheer wonderfulness.

#365Gratitude Day 361: Giving

I know it's a cliché, but the older I get, the more I really, really love giving over getting.  Don't get me wrong, I got some lovely, amazing presents this year.  But I love watching people open the gifts we got them, and knowing that we made them feel special.  That really struck me when Kate & Ollie, and her son, C. were down with us this weekend.

I love that moment.  I love those people.  I love seeing them happy.

#365Gratitude Day 360: One of my few Christmas Traditions...

So as I've said before, Christmas can be an odd time of year for me.  I have found some ways over the years to make it my own, though.  One of these is a tradition my friend Scott and I have had for many, many years now.

We do a sort of planned, random act of kindness.  Here's how it always goes down.  We find a restaurant that's moderately priced.  We go out for a nice lunch or dinner, exchange gifts, don't act out of the ordinary in any way.  Then, when the check comes we pay in cash, and we leave a 100% (or more) tip.  We always leave a nice note too, on the check.

As soon as the cash hits the table, we get the heck out of there, so the server doesn't have to be embarrassed. or turn it down, or make a fuss about us, because it's not about us, it's about them.

I love doing this.  It always makes me feel good.  Merry Christmas!

#365Gratitude Day 359: Not quite the Polar Express

So on Thursday, I had the really smart idea to leave work, and take the train not home, but all the way down to Fredericksburg, where I would meet Missy, and my sister-in-law, and Richard for dinner, with his family and friends, for Christmas.

It worked out great.  I rode the train, and felt like I was coming home for the holidays.  I beat the traffic, and when Missy and Richard picked me up, it felt like I was traveling into an alternate universe, a bit.

We had a lovely dinner.  I ate way too much food, including baked ham.  That's not something I've had a lot.  I grew up in a jewish family, and while we did do the turkey at Thanksgiving thing, having a special Christmas dinner wasn't something we did a lot.  The ham was really, really good.

There's no deep message to this gratitude, it was just a particularly lovely day.

#365Gratitude Day 358: Can I get a volunteer from the audience?

I bet you know the moment I'm talking about.  You're at a performance, and the magician/ hypnotist/ aardvark/ whatever calls someone up out of the audience.  Hands go up, people want to help.

Except for our once in a while live shows at events, the Big Little Podcast's "audience" is a little different.  We have a live IRC chatroom, where people listen to the stream as we record.  People interact with us through the chatroom, or call in.  They also participate in show related discussions through our fetlife group. 

We lovingly refer to these folks as the Streamies.  I'm grateful for them, because they are, in a word, kickass.   

Just this morning I posted about an upcoming recording we're doing this coming Friday.  The holidays have tossed a really big monkey wrench in our usual recording schedule.  So, I knew I was taking a shot, asking for folks to join us on the panel with such short notice.  My inbox, Twitter DM's, and fetlife email account have been pinging all morning with people wanting to contribute.  We've got a great panel of smart, insightful guests picked out now.  People are already posting smart comments in our group, and I wouldn't be surprised if we get some voicemails, and see lots of folks Friday night. 

So the answer to the question, "Can I get a volunteer?" is no - we can't.  We can get many.  We love you, Streamies.