G-A-B-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S

THURSDAY, JUNE 1 -- Today, we spent the afternoon watching the preliminary rounds of the National Spelling Bee. As you can see, Gabe was quite enthused about the event. If "Gabelicious" was a word they had to spell, perhaps the exchange would go like this:

Judge: "Gabelicious."

Speller: "Gabelicious?"

Judge: "Gabelicious."

Speller: "Definition, please?"

Judge: "The state of being represented by Gabe Shanoff."

Speller: "Use it in a sentence, please?"

Judge: "Look at this picture. He is so GABELICIOUS."

Speller: "Um, is it formed from the root word 'Gabe?'"

Judge: "Yes."

Speller: "Gabelicious?"

Judge: "Gabelicious."

Speller: "Gabelicious. G-A-B-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. Gabelicious."

Judge: "Correct!"

(Applause noises from audience. Gabe still asleep, even as we sit here acting out this parody for his benefit. We decide that we will encourage Gabe be whatever he wants to be, but -- really -- if he wants to be an ESPN-worthy competitive speller, we will threaten to have Dan home school him, which should be more than enough to scare him into merely being a skilled speller, rather than some would-be champion. Not that he couldn't be, if he put his mind to it.)