Quick Hits

You know you're old... when you turn on Saturday Night Live just in time for the opening monologue and you find yourself staring at some stranger on the screen and you have NO IDEA ON EARTH who the host is. And then to make matters worse, you've never heard of the musical guest either.

It's the scariest night of the year. Tonight we went to the symphony because TeenTuna was among the cast of thousands singing with the orchestra. As we left the concert we had to wend our way through campus and downtown. Because it was Saturday night, the usual hordes of stumblers were making their way from watering hole one to watering hole two. However, the number of stumblers seemed to be larger than usual, and it took me several blocks to figure out it was the Saturday night before Halloween, so not only were there stumblers, there were be-costumed stumblers. We decided to avoid downtown and Bar-Boulevard as much as possible, but as we waited at a stoplight, TeenTuna looked out her window and said, "OH MY GOD, WHAT IS HE WEARING? .... IS HE WEARING A ... DIAPER???" I just looked at her and said, "Be grateful he's wearing that much. The night is still young.

Teach by doing. I know some people learn by observing. Others learn by something archaic called reading the directions (I know...it's blasphemous). Still other must take the hands on approach to learn a new skill. I definitely fall into the last category and simply must learn by doing, not by watching or reading or listening. I think it's training attention deficit HEY AN APPLE! syndrome. Since I learn by doing I generally take that approach when I teach as well. Might as well jump right in and muddle through for a bit until you figure things out, right? That would be why late this afternoon, if you had the misfortune of wandering through my kitchen you would have observed TeenTuna -- also known as The Coalition of the Unwilling -- being forced to wash a sink full of dirty dishes that she had let pile up oh these last several days. She grumped and complained and ewwww GROSSed her way through the entire affair while GreenTuna -- also known as The Coalition of Forget the Coalition, This is Dictatorship Whether You Like it or Not -- enjoyed watching her experience what the dictator (who must double as a maid) goes through all the time. We're hoping the message was received loud and clear and there might be a little more dish washage on the front end. We'll see.


But Not to Complain All The Time. I am proud of TeenTuna for lots of things, not the least of which is her ability to correctly use and put into practice the family saying, Save it for the Car. Knowing when to flap the gums and zip the lip is a skill many grownups haven't yet mastered. We save LOTS of things for the car, which makes it one of the most interesting places I know.

Who Knew? Today we went to DSW. I knew it was a shoe store, but had never been inside. TeenTuna asked what DSW meant. I had no idea, but decided it was something like "Dat's Shoe Warehouse." I have since heard the "D" stands for "Designer." Not "Dat" or "Disbe" or the full on "disbedat." Designer. I dunno...I still like my answer better.


Happiness is...lots of things, but today happiness was a clean bunny cage, a new bag full of soft, luscious sheep and llama fluff, a clean refrigerator AND freezer, a new pair of jeans in a smaller size (oh yeah!), TWO under-the-counter iPod/Radio/TV players originally $170 purchased for $35 (with a MAGNETIC REMOTE. Do you know how AWESOME THAT IS??) and TeenTuna correctly defining the word poseur ... after we saved it for the car. I'd call that a good day.