Took the day off yesterday. It was a day with grandson Liam — sort of a “Camp Poppa” day. Liam is here all by himself for some one-on-one with Grandma and Poppa. We do this once a year with the two oldest grandchildren (Liam is 6, Joelle is 8). It gives them some good time to be the center of attention, rather than one of the crowd (there are 5 children in their family).

There’s a story behind the use of “Poppa”, rather than “Grandpa”. When my oldest daughter Christine got married (11 years ago), I mentioned that I didn’t really want to be a “Grandpa” before my 50th birthday. Christine agreed — well, sort of.

The first grandchild (Joelle) was born in 2000. I was 49 (really). Hence, I am not called “Grandpa”, I am called “Poppa”. Pam is still “Grandma”.

So Liam and I went to the local Scandia “Fun Center”, where we played two rounds of miniature golf, a bunch of arcade games, Liam went on the Bumper Boats (I watched from the sidelines, and got squirted for my efforts). Then some more arcade games, another round of miniature golf (Liam got a hole-in-one), and one more Bumper Boats. We had a great time — big grins on Liam’s face the whole time.

Then we stopped at McDonald’s for lunch, and I dropped him off at his cousin’s house for a couple of days.

I went home and applied ice packs to my sore knee.