The Sea-Farin' Life

Today I awoke to the sweet strains of my son's most cheerful Good-Morning voice. "Mom?! Is that you? Are you up? Guess what? I am going poop now!"

(Let's just keep moving....)

Shortly after I awoke, Miles appeared in the living room and began to sing: "Make him walk the plank! Make him walk the plank! ...What do ya' do with a scurvy pirate? Make him walk the PLANK!"

This is a strangely regurgitated memory from a cartoon we watched together months ago, The Backyardigans "Pirate Treasure."

Why the words should come to him NOW, today, this morning, is the stuff of serendipity. You see, just last night, as my own two scurvy pirates slept soundly in their bunks, I first discovered RealLivePirate.com. And of course, of course, I LOVE the site!

I committed to heart pirate etiquette (perhaps not what you think) and found a new pirate name and everything! (I briefly considered an official surname change to "Rackham," but I don't want to be disloyal to the family B. flag.)

I guess Miles' interests coinciding with mine are not that strange, given that he has some new Lego... or maybe Playmobile (the difference is?)... toys from his Mama Kay, all within the pirate theme.

In fact, truth be told, Miles was first on board the pirate boat. He played for a whole weekend with two little peg-leg figurines, a crocodile, a shark and a treasure chest. (Oh, how he LOVES the diamonds! Bling, bling!) Then he got a pirate boat with skull and cross-bones flag and a tiny red scorpion.

I was actually a bit disturbed by the pirate toys at first, but now that I am (see below) AKA Capt. Anne Rackham, I'm fine with it! :) Actually, I just find it neat, and appropriate, somehow, that soon after I discovered some of the coolest kids I know have formed a pirate web site, I realized my own kid is among the cool.

What choice have I, the laggardly cool, but to don a coat, tuck in a hand, grab a hook and play along?

My pirate name is:

Captain Anne Rackham

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

PS: I am guessing there aren't that many names/ descriptions total, as my friend Susie was first recognized "as the one in charge." Ah, well, we pirates aren't like Indians. We can have more than one chief! Especially if all in charge are groovy girls who like craft projects! I can see it now: Pirates with booty cozies! (For stolen treasures, you gutter-thinkers. Geez!)