| | The Monday Morning Epistle |
 | 8 January 2007 |  |
After a Christmas break that was extended by several days due to snow, the Gruesome Twosome returned to school this week…whether they liked it or not. Alex was genuinely relieved to be back in the classroom—his first semester final exams had been hanging over his head the entire holiday—while Jacob groused about having to get up early again. (Jacob inherited his mother’s night owl tendencies, and if given the choice, will typically be the last to bed and the last to rise.) Garion’s week was marred by tragedy, as he insisted on bringing his beloved Superman action figure to school (daycare), only to have the Man of Steel return home an amputee. This caused Mommy & Daddy to enact a ‘no toys at school’ policy, which Monkey-Boy disputes on almost a daily basis, usually somewhere between putting on his coat and being loaded into the car. On a more positive note, we have decided that our dog has become much too complacent, and that her life needs more excitement. Consequently, when Alex started campaigning for a kitten last Fall, we took his request seriously; even so, our only condition was to wait until the New Year so that we didn’t inflict new pets on houseguests (and vice versa). We also decided that two cats would be better than just one, because a pair can amuse each other while everyone is at work or school, and the dog can’t run in two directions at once. While discussing “dogs & cats” with Mary, I mentioned that I expect to come home one evening to “…find the dog duct-taped to the refrigerator and two kittens with innocent expressions.” Her answer was “Well, that’s better than only one kitten and the dog not hungry!” Eeewwww… Much to Alex’s dismay, we deliberately spurned the expensive purebred kittens offered at retail pet stores, and started casually looking for ‘those in need’. Be it good or bad, finding unwanted animals turned out to be easier than we thought, thanks to ‘a friend of a friend’ in Mary’s office. Following her recommendation, we contacted a local volunteer group called “Purrz”, who rescue feral or abandoned cats and provide foster homes and medical care. To our mutual delight, they have a pair of sisters—one black, the other a black-brown tortoiseshell—who were born around Halloween and are in need of a permanent home. After reading over our ‘adoption application’, it took Purrz a grand total of ten seconds to approve it, and if everything goes according to plan, we’ll be bringing “Heather & Zoe” home in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, they sent us a picture of the kittens—“…just to make sure they’re acceptable”—which promptly appeared as the desktop background on almost every computer we own. Like there’s such a thing as an ‘ugly kitten’… KidBit: As Monkey-Boy finished a bowl of Lucky Charms (or “Lucky Germs” in Garion-speak) he announced that he wanted a bowl of oatmeal next. When I teased him with “How many breakfasts do you need? Are you two people?” he instantly corrected me: “No, Daddy! I’m FOUR!”  PotW: Jacob in costume (and character) for his 7th grade class play; he played a wealthy industrialist whose son falls in love with a country bumpkin in the play 'Murder Most Fowl'.
2007.01.29-10:54 |