Pattern 158

November 25, 1998

Janet, Katie and Anna arrived tonight around 9 PM. Katie and Anna have grown considerably since I last saw them. Both of them remembered Myst and Riven, and Anna was especially focused on going back to Myst to finish things. They had to be patient and last through dinner before we would look at the game.

Jean served up some chicken dish. I hate chicken (and all poultry), so I pulled up a chair while the four of them ate. Katie and Anna ate ravenously. I'm not sure if it was that they wanted to get to the game, or that they wanted to get to dessert (M&M chocolate chip cookies made by Jean).

I did try to show them Secret Ops, but the language in that game gets grown-up quickly. The second bug I killed resulted in one of my fellow pilots yelling "Fry that bastard, Casey!". My hand was on the volume knob less than a second later, turning it down.

I quickly changed over to Myst. Anna, remembering the nature of the two boys trapped in the books, commanded that I not add a single page to either brother's book, since that would let one of them out. Instead, Katie suggested that I just end the game the right way so they wouldn't have any more nightmares like they did the first time I took them through the game.

Janet seems to be doing well, though I didn't get much time to chat. Most of my time was with the two girls, leaving Jean and Janet time to talk. We did talk briefly, though most of the conversation was about The X Files, which she likes but I've never seen.

We did talk about child discipline, specifically spanking. I told Janet about my conversation with Brian and Alice, and how I have no problems spanking our child-to-be under the right circumstances. Janet, like Alice, didn't want to spank, but after Anna was born, she changed her mind. I think it's fine so long as it's done for a legitimate and clear reason and as long as the parent has a cool head.

The night has run late. Our original plans were to go to bed around eleven. Jean and I are off to Blue Bell tomorrow morning, and we want to get a good start to avoid the traffic. We'd planned to leave around 6 AM tomorrow, but since we're finally going to bed just before 1 AM, I suspect we're going to get a later start.

Still, it has been fun to see everyone again. We're not going to get to see them at Christmas this year, but at least we get to spend a couple hours catching up.