On My Toes

Ms. P's daughter did come home that first night, to sleep and ask me to wash some of her clothes.  Since i had washed a lot already, i asked her to bring her stuff to her room.  In typical teen fashion, all she did was grab what she wanted and leave the rest on the couch where i put the laundry when i fold it!

When i woke them Thursday morning, Youngest Boy really didn't want to get up.  He shouted and kicked and pitched a fit, and i thought i was going to have to take all the bedclothes off the bed to keep him from getting back in.  By the time he came downstairs for breakfast, he was much calmer, but he explained that no one is allowed to wake him up, it makes him mad.  In return, i explained that he was going to get waked up, because he was going to school, Boss' orders.

They had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, as they had asked for that the night before, and daughter caught her ride when i piled the boys in the car to get them to their schools.

We talked a bit about Jalopy, and her funny noises, and Eldest Boy decided he likes her, she is cool and sounds like she's going to fall apart.  How much you want to bed he grows up to fix old cars?

After dropping them off at their respective schools i went to the store for apple juice, as they had finished off a whole gallon the day before.  While there The Big Boss called and told me to get back to the house because someone was coming over to pick something up.

When i got there, a strange car was in the drive, and a man at the door.  It wasn't the person picking up whatever it was.  Instead, this was someone in a uniform, but an unmarked car, and he was looking for Ms. P to serve her some papers.  It made me very nervous that he wanted to know where the kids were, and when she would be back, and whose cars were in the drive, and etc.  It made me wonder if the STBX was up to something, especially as he was going to be getting the kids from school that day.

The rest of the day i spent puttering around the house, getting crumbs out of the toaster (and a quarter of a waffle! it was a wonder the thing hadn't caught fire!), remaking beds, doing the hand laundry, and tidying the places you forget you have when you don't get into them very often.

After Middle Boy's football practice, STBX dropped them off, and i asked what they wanted for dinner.  They couldn't agree, but wanted to go out, so i piled them back in the car and we drove up the road to where there are enough food places to please even the pickiest eaters.

Eldest Boy and Middle Boy wanted to go to the Greek place, and Youngest Boy announced, as i pulled in, "I'm about to get mad!  I don't want to eat here, I don't like anything here!"  As i explained that he didn't have to get angry, i'd get the older boys a meal here and him something somewhere else, he calmed right down and asked for Popeye's.  That's exactly what we did.  First we went in the Greek place, got the bigger boys what they wanted and they sat to eat, and i walked Youngest Boy to the chicken place next door, where he told them he wanted a large beans and rice!  He got chicken and a biscuit and the very smart worker at Popeye's gave him 3 small beans and rice containers.  We went back to where the bigger boys were.

Youngest Boy wouldn't eat his meal at the Greek restaurant with the rest of us, so we didn't linger.  They were fascinated by the vegan stuffed grape leaves i was having.  They thought i was nuts enough eating seaweed, but now grape leaves?  They only became more convinced when i told them about picking the grape leaves with my grandmother as a child, and watching her stuff them with meat and rice and cook them.

My Jalopy is an endless source of entertainment, too.  They love having to shut the doors hard or kick them to get them to close properly, as they aren't allowed to do such things to the other cars they ride around in.  Again, a beater car does have its advantages, at least in the eyes of a young boy.

At home for baths they pulled the usual boy shenanigans, with Middle Boy insisting on running around the house in his birthday suit, Youngest Boy eating two of those three containers of beans and rice, plus his chicken, and Eldest Boy goading them in any way he could.  It was such a fun and exhausting reminder of my own when they were all below the teen years.

By the time all of us went to bed, i think we were all more than ready.  Eldest Boy didn't want to sleep in his room, i believe they all miss their mom, so they snuggled together in the large bottom bunk, like three peas in a pod.



Today is:

Chicago International Children's Film Festival -- Chicago, IL, US (the largest annual festival of films for children ages 2-18 in the world; through Nov. 2)

Election Day -- Botswana

Feast of Good & Plenty (the candies)

Food Day -- US (inspiring people to change their diets and our food policies)

Hijra -- Islam (Islamic New Year Begins at the viewing of the new moon crescent, so exact time/date varies by location)

Independence Day -- Zambia(1964)

Jain New Year

Lilith's Day -- Ancient Mesopotamian Calendar (Lilith, legendary first wife of Adam, mother of the giants; date approximate)

Maladay -- Discordianism

National Bologna Day

Peniamina Gospel Day -- Niue (celebration of the conversion of the islanders to Christianity)

Provincial Anniversary Day -- Hawke's Bay, NZ

Sea Witch Halloween & Fiddler's Festival -- Rehoboth Beach/Dewey Beach, DE, US (parade, costume contest, Sea Witch Hunt, horse show on the beach, and more; through Sunday)

Share a Pop Tart With Someone You Love Day -- internet generated, and how much do you want to bet the Kellog company may have had a hand in it (or at least they highly approve)?

St. Anthony Claret's Day (Patron of weavers; Catholic press; Claretians; Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary)

St. Crispin's Eve Celebration -- Tenby, Wales

St. Raphael the Archangel's Day (traditional date; Patron of health inspectors, druggists, happy meetings, leaving home, travelers; against blindness)

Suez Victory Day -- Egypt

Take Back Your Time Day -- Canada; U.S. (anniversary of the day in the US that the Fair Labor Standards Act went into effect, specifying a 40-hour work week as the standard, in 1938)

United Nations Day
     Disarmament Week begins
     World Development Information Day

World Origami Days -- held each year from today, the birth anniversary of Lillian Oppenheimer, founder of the first origami societies in Britain and the US, until Nov. 11, which is Origami Day in Japan; a couple of good sites are http://origamiusa.org/wod and http://www.japanese-city.com/calendar/event/index.php?eID=31502


Birthdays Today:

Monica, 1980
Kevin Kline, 1947
F. Murray Abraham, 1939
Bill Wyman, 1936
David Nelson, 1936
J. P. "Big Bopper" Richardson, 1930
Y. A. Tittle, 1926
Moss Hart, 1904
Melvin Purvis, 1903
Alexandra David-Neel, 1868 (first female foreigner to explore Tibet)
Belva A. Bennett Lockwood, 1838
Sarah Joseph Hale, 1788 (author of "Mary had a little lamb")
Antony van Leeuwenhoek, 1632
Domitian, Roman Emperor, 51


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Dancing at Lughnasa"(Play), 1991
"Voices for Today"(Britten Op. 75), 1965
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game"(Single release), 1908
"Zibeunerbaron/The Gypsy Baron"(Strauss Opera), 1885
The first Transcontinental Telegram is sent, 1861


Today in History:

Cathedral of Chartres is dedicated, 1260
The Treaty of Westphalia ends the 30 Years War, recognized the independence of Switzerland, and marks the end of the Holy Roman Empire, 1648
Felix Mendelssohn, age 9, performs his first public concert in Berlin, 1818
The match is patented, by A. Phillips, 1836
The first US transcontinental telegram is sent, from San Francisco to Washington, DC, ending the need for the Pony Express after only 2 years, 1861
Levi P. Morton, US ambassador to France, drives the first rivet for the Statue of Liberty, 1881
Dr. Robert Koch discovers the germ that causes tuberculosis, 1882
Anna Taylor becomes the first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, 1901
The first NYC subway opens, 1904
Harry Houdini's last performance, 1926
The Hershey Company is incorporated, 1927
"Black Thursday", the start of the stock market crash, Dow Jones down 12.8%, 1929
Al Capone is sentenced for tax evasion, 1931
The George Washington Bridge, connecting NY to NJ, opens, 1931
US forbids child labor in factories, 1938
The United Nations Charter is signed by the first member nations, 1945
Eisenhower pledges US support to South Vietnam, 1954
Government of Poland legalizes Solidarity trade union, 1980
Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission, 1998
The Concorde makes its last commercial flight, 2003
Justice Rutherford of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down the "motive clause", an important part of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act, 2006
"Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices, 2008
The Northern Lights become visible over much of North America due to a coronal mass ejection, 2011