Girl Power

Mouse displays efficiency and goal-orientation once again. Although her brothers have each logged more emergency room time than she has, she cut to the chase this evening to become the first Dinosaurov child to get a cast (a splint, temporarily, but plaster will follow tomorrow) when she broke her wrist in a fall from the scooter.

Angry Mob Fails To Materialize

The first phase of my office mega-move came off fairly well, by which I mean that the toilets in the building flush and I was not chased off the premises by a torch-carrying mob or burned in effigy on the street. I feel good about that.

Evening

Returning from Nephew Junior's 10th birthday party this evening, Dino Spouse being engaged by his Thursday night boxing class, the children and I repaired upstairs to hide from Babushka get ready for bed. Huey Dino played his last time on the computer, Riley Dino bathed, and Mouse played with the contents of the goody bag she scored from Eeeevil Seestor's house. A sample of our conversation:

Huey: Mouse, come here. (Poses sister next to computer monitor. I look up from laptop in surprise that hostile tween has invited his six year-old sister to do anything and discover that he is preparing to "shoot" her with the animated computer game gun he found online.)

Me: Boy, don't shoot your sister. Mouse, don't agree to be shot by your brother.

Riley (from tub): Freedom of speech!

Huey: Free speech is the right of every man and woman.

Me: Yes, all men and women have the right to freedom of speech. But you are all children. Riley, get your stuff when you're out of the tub and go down to Baba for your cream*.

Riley: Free speech! (Wanders into bedroom wearing towel.)

Me: You better get your freedom of speech downstairs to your Baba, boy.

Huey: Freedom of speech looks a lot creepier than I imagined.

For the record, Mouse looks shockingly cute in the Groucho Marx nose and glasses from the goody bag.

* Riley is prone to all sorts of weird skin rashes and needs to be basted nightly in cream to keep from erupting in red, weepy foulness. Babushka will not entrust this important task to anyone else in the household.

Blisters In The Sun

Outdoors and temporarily in data/cell range between meetings. My toes are all blistered from seemed like a good shoe experiment when I got dressed this morning. Today is the day before the first phase of my ginormous, multi-year building project goes live. If my toes weren't blistered - or if shoes weren't necessary to get across the street and through the park - I would go sit in Einstein's lap. I think I'll do that tomorrow, when I'm in my sneakers.

The Latest Meme

From Facebook, the latest meme all the cool kids are doing. "You can only type ONE Word! Not as easy as you might think. Copy this into your own note and change the answers to suit you. It's really hard to only use one word answers. You can only type one word."

1. Where is your cell phone? Charging
2. Where is your significant other? Hiding
3. Your hair? Sloppy
4. Your mother? Tried
5. Your father? Ruddy
6. Your favorite thing? Alone
7. Your dream last night? Beatle*
8. Your dream/goal? Satisfaction
9. The room you're in? Bedroom
10. Your hobby? Reading
11. Your fear? Stasis**
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Here
13. Where were you last night? Here
14. What you're not? Content
15. One of your wish list items? Leisure
16. Where you grew up? America
17. The last thing you did? Lied
18. What are you wearing? Absurd
19. Your TV? Off
20. Your pet? Sleeping
21. Your computer? Laptop***
22. Your mood? Hollow
23. Missing someone? Yes
24. Your car? Focus
25. Something you're not wearing? Brassiere
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? Meaningless

* George Harrison
** Actually I fear becoming Madame Merle from "Portrait of a Lady, Morgause from "The Once and Future King," or a couple of senior people I know at work. Hard to get that into one word.
*** I'm a PC.

(Urp)

I had dinner at La Fiesta tonight with Mamie, one of the first and coolest people Jill Dino introduced me to in 1986 when I moved to Columbia from Ypsilanti in 11th grade. It was fun seeing her again and catching up. Now, however, I reek of ranchero sauce and margarita.

For dessert, I bought klondike bars for Dino Spouse and the boys (Mouse prefers popsicles) at the grocery store where once stood the Columbia Palace 9.

Quick Before We Ruin It

Fourth of July WIN. Parade, traditional cuisine, and fireworks with all members of nuclear family unit present and satisfied. Babushka enjoyed her participation in the day's events without sucking all the oxygen out of the surrounding air space. No one quarreled with anyone else. No one was injured. I kind of want to go to sleep right now just to make sure the day ends before something goes wrong.

You don't have to answer, gentle readers, but who's reading this from Wells Fargo? and who's reading this in Finland? I'm just curious.