Thank God For Sunday
So this is what we have to look forward to in Rochester over the next several days:
And you know they're probably wrong about Sunday.
September 29, 2009
August 2, 2009
Lessons in Communcation
Scene: Bedtime in the Smoker house. Teeth have been brushed, pajamas donned, but non-stop, high-decibel chatter continues...
Kari: Okay! I need everyone to stop talking for a while!
Chris: Why can't--
Kari: Stop!
Cris: Uuuugh!
Ben: Why--
Kari: Stop!!
Chris: Uuuuuughh!
Ben (rapidly): Why-can't-we-talk?
Kari: St-- Because! You've been driving me crazy for the past half hour!
Chris: Oh.
Ben: Oh.
Kari: ...
Chris: ...
Ben: ...
Chris (loudly): Hey Ben! Do you want to see Optimus Prime crash really hard?
Ben: Sure!
Kari: Uuuuugh!
July 15, 2009
R.I.P. Buddy
We have very sad news to report. Tonight we said good-bye to Buddy, our 8-yr-old, bouncy, big-nosed, tender-hearted Catahoula Leopard.
Kari took Buddy in to see the vet this morning after a couple of days of noticing that Buddy did not seem to be acting like his bouncy self. After analyzing his blood, the vet narrowed her diagnosis down to either cancer of the spleen or an autoimmune disease. The treatment options we had were limited to combinations of high-risk interventions and debilitating long-term medications. Several layers of moral calculus (which we had worked our way through once before) led us to the decision to euthanize Buddy.
Hard as it was to say good-bye to Buddy, the hardest part was having to explain it all to Christopher, who has been shaken by the idea that Buddy will not be coming back home. Seeing the boys' reaction (and Sam's) reinforces to us just how much he was loved. Perhaps more than anything else, Buddy was a lucky dog. And we were lucky to have him.
January 4, 2009
Take Only As Directed
We had a great Christmas vacation. The boys love Christmas, of course, and we got to visit with family we hadn't seen in a while (or at all, in the case of Ben and Christopher's baby cousin, Catherine). The travel even went well. The long drive to North Carolina and the shorter drive to Pennsylvania were uneventful both weather-wise and stir-crazy-kids-in-the-backseat-wise.
Mostly.
With about three hours left in our two-day trip home from North Carolina, Kari gave Christopher his regular medication in the form of a small chewable tablet.
Heaven knows why, maybe it was just a little bit too quiet in the back seat, but a minute or tow later it occurred to Kari to ask, "Christopher, have you taken your pill yet?"
"No," was the sheepish reply.
Now, Christopher is generally good about taking his meds, so Kari's rejoinder was somewhat incredulous: "Well?! Where is your pill?"
"In my nose."
"What??!!"
"Right here," he said, pointing to a place between his eyes.
I immediately pulled the car over into a small church parking lot, got out, circled around to Christopher's side of the car, opened the back door, and, peering up Christopher's nostril, called out to Kari like a surgeon to a nurse, "Tweezers!"
Kari, already on top of the situation, smacked the tweezers into the palm of my hand and the next thirty seconds or so were tense as I tried to extricate the slippery white tablet without shoving it deeper in. Finally, I resorted to what should have been Plan A in the first place and called to Kari, "Kleenex!"
Three blows and out it popped. Kari and I were nearly in unison: "Now pick it up and eat it!"
Ten seconds later we were back on the road, a minimal impact on the trip's overall miles-per-hour average.
December 4, 2008
Ben the Capitalist
(In the car, riding home from school. Ben and Christopher are in the back seat. Ken is driving. Ben is thinking of ways to earn some extra cash.)
Ben: On Saturday, can we go around the neighborhood and sell the paper airplanes I made? I could sell them for a dollar each!
Ken: Well, you need to know your market, right? Do you think people will want to spend a whole dollar on a paper airplane?
Ben: Why not?
Ken: You need to sell things people want. Like in the summer, kids sell lemonade because it's hot and people are thirsty, right?
Christopher (exuberant): And it's yummy!!
Ben: So, maybe...maybe we could sell...hats.
Ken: Sure! It's cold, right? And people want to keep their ears warm, right?
Christopher (silly): And it's yummy!
Ben: Yeah, Mommy could make the hats and I'll be the manager! And you guys can be my...workers!
Ken (dubious): Yeah....
Christopher: And what will I do?
Ben: You can draw the pictures, and Mommy will use the pictures to know how to make the hats.
Ken: So, you've got design, and production, and management. What else do you need?
Ben: And you can tell people to buy the hats!
Christopher: Me too!
Ken: So...now you've got sales. What about HR or Accounting?
Ben: What?
Ken: Well, you need someone to keep track of all the money you will be making and so you can pay your workers...
Ben: Right, I'll give some money to the workers and the rest I'll use to buy toys!
Ken: Right. That's called spending the profits.