For the love of the Instrument...

great line booming from the other end of the house (from Sydney, in and end-of-the-world kind of tone): "mom! dad! miles keeps kissing the piano!!"

On Rules of the Naughty Chair...

Found myself having to lay down some law with young miles today. while he was in his "naughty chair," i told him he needed to remember THREE RULES!!! 1) NO HITTING! 2) listen to mom & dad! and then the dreaded parental moment: i didn't actually have a third that was relevant. so i improvised: 3) "always be clos...ing." man, that kid is gonna be lucky to make it out of childhood with some shred of normalcy...

On hiding, but more importantly on seeking

THREE SURE-FIRE WAYS TO FIND MILES DURING HIDE-N-SEEK: 1) when it's your turn to seek, look in the last place you hid 2) when you're counting aloud to ten, don't say the last three numbers and listen from whence the tiny-voiced "...;s...ezen... eight. ni-iine" comes. 3) look in the kitchen closet

Let the dating begin...

I was flippin' mortified when isabel came off the bus and announced that "chris" from her class has asked her out on a date. apparently, he wants to take her to the park. he gave her a heart pendant. maybe she can wear it to my memorial service...

On interacting with celebrities...

just in line behind charles s. dutton at costco. i've seen him a number of times over the years, always at costco. buys a lot of dog food. he did an exagerated toddler-wave at miles who then immediately told him "you shouldn't have ...been so mean to ice-t in 'surviving the game.' he was just a homeless man of who you were taking advantage." then i said, "oh WHOM, miley, of WHOM

The makings of a real Kodak moment...

okay, so i have a surgical glove on. i despise seafood so baiting a hook with bait-quality shrimp is - perhaps - the greatest display of my love for my children that they will ever encounter. my other hand is hidden behind me because on it i'm wearing a very thick suede landscaping work glove. this allows me to take fish off the hook without touching them. that's got nothing to do with hating seafood, that's just all about being a big nancy.

On lowered movie expectations...

actually enjoyed a rainy day in hh. saw "shorts" which was less than good, i thought, but the girls LOVED it. cooking dinner now and getting ready to watch "17 again." oye with the childrens...

Well, Murphy had something different in store for me...

is amazed that he breaks a strings on his racquet during tennis clinic this morning since it's the first time he's walked onto a court in maybe 5 years without 3 back-up racquets in the bag. only 1 racquet made this trip due to space constraints. nice...

So I says to the courier guy, I says...

getting ready to go to school to help unload school supply boxes. i'm doing it for the childrens, not just to be in close proximity to the fed-ex guy...

On entertaining the childrens sans television...

Trying to figure out how i prepare for a scheduled 4 hour power outage tomorrow morning (9am-1pm). seriously? can i feed the kids cheerios in the truck? i'm not sure their breakfast will digest without television? oh good lord! i won't ...have internet! that's it, gotta find a 24-hour place that sells generators...