Recently in Family Category

Gamesrankings.com is a great site that averages reviews across the web. Here are some games I found that I think the kids might like:

• Sports Games. Free downloads are key so they can try the games. Cnet has a great collection of sports games.
• Kids Games These are games for smaller kids under 7 or so. Amongst these, the Caillou games and Jr. Architect look pretty good and worth trying.

For bigger kids, there are the simulation games including:

• Ship Simulator 2006. You can download it, but it doesn't have sailing, but gives you big yachts around the world :-0 This game we bought and turned out OK, but ultimately it was a litlle too simple. Virtual Skipper which is just about sailing has turned out way more interesting. Basically just tooling around a harbor is kinda boring.
• GT Legends. This is a car simulation of authentic old models. It has a demo version too to try.
• City Life. This is Simcity for the 21st century with a demo version to try.
• Keepsake. An Adventure game updated and it doesn't sound like it is violent. Also has a free trial download.

Time once again to look at bikes for that interesting age between 9 and 13 where the standover height is about 26"

Anything above say 5 feet and most kids can get into an adult small or extra small, but here is the tough part. So here are some choices for reasonably lightweight road or cross bikes:

• IBEX Vantage JayVee. $600 with $950MSRP, this bike is 18 pounds, has 650cc adult wheels, but is only a 37cm frame, so sized nicely. Alex loves his and you get it direct. Also has Shimano Tiagra parts (a step up from the low end Sora) and a carbon fiber fork which is pretty amazing when you think about the price.
• Redline Conquest 24. This is a Cyclocross bicycle so not as heavy as a traditional mountain bike. It has 24" rims and does use Sora, but has an FSA Compact crank set at 34×46T and 24×1-3/8" tires. It lists for $669.
• Specialized Hotrock A1. These are traditional mountain bikes. $310 for the 21-speed. $350 for the full suspension version. Heavy but vesatile.

At the very high end, Bikyle has some amazing recommendations:

• Pinarello makes a whole line of kid bicycles with Campagnolo Xenon no less at a whopping $1500 a piece with 22", 24" and 26" rims
• Bianchi does the same with a $1100 list Bianchi Junior 24 with a 35/45T crankset and Campagnolo Xeno 9 speed as well.

squeetus: books. Amazingly, this is a book that everyone in the family loved. We listened to it for six non-stop hours. Shannon Hale's first effort and it is delightful. Ani is a little slow, but who wouldn't love the ending. It is a retelling of a Grimm's fairy tale and is a classic really.

There are as many camps as there are kids. Right now, I'd say that you are just missing the summer camp season. The main resource for this is the annual open house at St. Thomas. Was last month though. You can also find this post at http://tongfamily.com

Connie's approach to this BTW is pretty cool. She lets the kids pick three weeks worth of camps and they can thus decide and she tries to get them to pick different things. Try to pick one thing you've liked from last time and one thing that is new.

I don't know the ages of your kids, so maybe I'll hit the high points for kids 4-10 and which aren't too expensive:

• Seattle Zoo Camp. These are great for the younger kids mainly. They do half and full day. Who wouldn't love the zoo after all. A good program that's been running for a while. Not hard to get into. _BTW, can you believe they have the URL zoo.org???
• Museum of Flight Camp. This is mainly for boys (not to best sexist, but observational). They do a day long. The kids seem to love the experiments and building a rocket. Lots of different camps. The highlight for older kids is that you can fly a real play and run a space shuttle mission from their NASA look alike

For the more nerdy:

• Chess Camp. Believe it or not the average kid ends up loving this. George Orlov runs a great one. Sounds like, why would people want to stay inside, but most kids (again boys) seem to just love it because they play outside, play games, etc.
• Seattle Camps. The Seattle city runs the most incredible camps. Alex has done track. Calvin has done golf which he loved. They are more mellow and well run. Montlake for instance has a very strong program. Baseball camp for instance is very fun.
• SYC Sailing Camp. More for older kids, but the boys really loved this one. You really sail all the time and it is a wonderful location. It is for members only, but they do allow folks outside to register after the members have their dibs.

They are a really great bunch. Andy and Chris are working hard to make the world a better place for parents. They've got a cool new site.

They are doing a survey of schools something really needed as folks try to figure out where to go preschool, elementary school, etc. Take the survey now.

IMAX Film Schedule. Way cool, the Polar Express in 3D is at the pacific science center. Hope there are still tickets!

Time once again for Rich to take charge and roast the turkey. As usual, here's a list of recipes that work:

Whole Foods. The local high end but fresh grocer around here. They have a basic recipe that includes brining the turkey.

The brine ratio:

2 gallons water 2 cups kosher salt
1 cup brown sugar
6–8 whole black peppercorns
1 tsp dried thyme
4–5 whole allspice berries

Remove the neck and giblets from the cavity. Soak it in the above solution, fully submerged, for 12 to 18 hours, refrigerated. Before roasting, remove it from the brine and rinse it thoroughly inside and out before proceeding. This works for smaller birds, less than 20 pounds.

It should take 3-4 hours for a 12-16 pound bird, but use an instant read thermometer. They are a few bucks and they really work.

A funny category, but it is incredibly hard to find PCsoftware to learn Chinese. Here are some links:

• Speaking Chinese - Download Speaking Chinese from Education category. This is a $35 shareware package.
• Chinese Software Superstore. Well it certainly has the right URL.

The kids have been playing lots of our old favorite board games lately. Here are some places to look for tips and tricks: h4. Monopoly This is a game that really teaches you how to add and subtract. Here are some strategy guides: * Monopoly.com - Downloads. This has a strategy guide online that is interesting