napoleon reincarnate

bug's speech has really been improving. so much so that we can now understand when she's giving us orders. and if we don't respond quickly enough, she adds, "right now!" but her little voice infused with imperiousness is so cute, we just end up laughing.

in the car last week, she gave me a time-out. and then gave one to kisu for laughing. at various other points in that drive, she admonished me to slow down and to keep both hands on the wheel.

she's just having fun, trying to see how far she can push it, i'm sure, as opposed to really wanting the things she's demanding. for example, she tells us to stop tickling her. seriously, what 2 year old doesn't really want to be tickled? coincidentally, she has stopped using "seriously" when yelling at us.

her current favorite phrase actually is, "knock it off."

if she starts walking around with one hand stuffed in her shirt, i'm gonna get really freaked out.

independence day with attitude

we had a very nice holiday weekend. kisu and i both had friday off, so we got the yardwork and housework done before the big day. saturday morning, we ran around and picked up awesome dessert from the grand traverse pie company. (YUM!)

i even got to take a delicious, if unplanned, nap before the guests arrived.

we hung out, played cards, did some more impromptu yardwork, admired the garden, and then it was time for fire.

the first fire was the grill, of course, so that we could eat yummy food. which we did, in abundance. after some more play time, we enjoyed our cherry pie. *slurp* then there was more fire!



we opened the garage door and the rear door of zed for a place to contain bug and burnt stuff in the driveway. i wasn't sure how bug would react, but i knew pooka would love the colored sparklers i bought.



kisu, pooka, and dani had fun lobbing smoke bombs, until pooka almost launched one into daddy's defunt car.



at first, bug was content to sit on the deck and watch, but she overcame her timidity and wanted to throw snappers. poor kid is so small she couldn't even make them pop. of course, she mostly was arcing them instead of aiming straight at the ground. she finally got the hang of it and i had to stop her from throwing them directly at people, as the older girls were setting a bad example by doing.

bug even decided to try her hand at some sparklers and then, look out. she ran threw them so fast. again, it was some work to keep her from injuring other people with them, but she had a blast.



that's the most fun i can remember having on the fourth in a long time. i never did get to see any 'real' fireworks, but i'll take family fun anyday.

swim time!

summer trips to kevin and marianne's always mean swimming!

pooka was an eager beaver to get in the water and didn't care that it was cold (well, 78).

once i finally convinced myself that i should get in for bug's sake, i pulled her in with me. i think she would have much preferred it if i hadn't taken the trouble.



pooka stayed in for hours, as usual. bug and i were done pretty quickly, especially once she started screaming. (so i dunked her, big deal!) i was a little disappointed that she didn't take to the pool this year as much as she did last year, but i chalked it up to water temperature.

the next weekend was caleb's birthday, and this time there was a selection of swimming containers to choose from. bug was a lot more enthusiastic in the baby pool and downright ecstatic in the toddler pool, especially after kevin enacted my brainstorm to have the toddler slide land in the water.



she was even more photogenic after donning a suit i found at a local garage sale. can't go wrong for 50¢.



she spent hours in that mid-size pool, just splashing, climbing the slide, and just acting like a lunatic in general. we pulled her out occassionally for food and party activities, but she was drawn like light draws a, well, a bug.



in the evening when i was ready to put her to bed, she got away from me and squirmed out the back door. before i could grab her, she sprinted across the deck and did a fully laid-out, head-first dive into the baby pool. i wish i had managed to take a picture of it. it was amazing. she laughed like a loon. typical bug.



don't make them angry, you wouldn't like them angry. especially when they're hopped up on enough pinata candy to choke an elephant.

fit to be tie-dyed

*just found this draft from 4/13. it was waiting for pictures, so here they are.

we colored easter eggs on saturday.


bug was delighted with the idea of coloring eggs. she was so studious about it.

daddy even got in the act, which doesn't always happen.

i bought a tie-dye kit and it was pretty neat, but very time-consuming. each egg took at least 5 minutes to apply all the color and then let it sit. not the typical "plop it in a cup and wait impatiently for 90 seconds" method.



and then we colored the baby.

cheese is contagious

so last weekend we did it again. this time i made the excursion, dragging along pooka and my niece danica.

at first, pooka didn't want to go and she pitched a fit because she thought we would make her eat everything and wouldn't let her choose one or something like that. i'm not sure exactly, kisu us the family psychotherapist on her. i get too frustrated.

anyway, we bravely ventured into the cheese fridge at westborn market. that place is freezing! they had everything nicely sorted on wire racks. an entire 4' wide, 6 shelf rack of cheddar! one for swiss, several shelves for italian, blue, and french. the featured selections this month are irish, naturally.

pooka cheered up and decided to participate when i pointed out a chocolate cheese fudge. forgetting, momentarily, that we tried it and didn't particularly like it at the cheeshaus in frankenmuth, i allowed her to buy it.

danica picked out one, i chose one for me and one i thought kisu would like. we grabbed a baguette and headed home. $30 in cheese, people!

we tried to prepare a proper cheese tasting board, with a selection of crackers, baguette, and apple slices. elegance went right down the drain, however, when i dropped two hunks of cheese on the floor downstairs. pooka had to retrieve one from under the couch. the cat licked up the smears.

a very short time later, we were crumb-covered, lactose-saturated, and lethargic. we also had some new data for our cheese files:

chocolate cheese fudge: meh. one bite cheesy, one bite chocolately. neither in a good way. pooka liked it, so she will be getting it for lunch desserts for awhile.

white stilton with lemon zest: a (poorer) cousin to the mango/ginger variety we had last time. good flavor, but the zest left a gritty feel. paired well with the apple slices.

chevre with honey: i like goat cheese when it's incorporated with other things, like as a binder for a portobello filling (which i've done), but not so much when it's the main flavor. kisu and danica enjoyed it and the small portion we bought was eradicated.

formaggio with roasted garlic, tomato, and basil: like a pizza without the crust. so much flavor! i think it would be perfect melted onto the baguette, but we couldn't be bothered to go back upstairs.

a dutch cheese labeled vlaskaas: not sure if that is the brand name or the type. it was a hard cheese, similar to parmagiano reggiano, but not as pungent. it was described as buttery and sweet. it was fairly strong, but i decided that i liked it. good on the apple slices.

a good haul, but left us only wanting more. danica wants to participate again and we have already marked out 2 to try next time. i want to avoid too many mix-ins, like the herbs or the fruit. they're good, but i want to experience the natural flavor of the cheeses first. the inherent character infused by the bacteria that create each individual type.

wow, that makes it sound kind of disgusting.

cheese extravaganza

kisu and i don't consider ourselves foodie snobs, but we do think that we know how to appreciate the finer goodies in life. to a certain extent. we are both at least willing to give everything a taste test. often, the most pretentious items just don't suit our palettes. for example, neither one of us cares for caviar or wine, really.

what we do like, though, is cheese. i would even consider a trip through europe based primarily on cheese-tasting, in fact. (and i have seen them advertised, btw.) we are perfectly fine with american slices on grilled cheese, but also enjoy a nice, sharp aged cheddar or a smoky swiss. periodically we get cheese on the brain. several months ago i scouted the cheese case at the grocery store and came home with a garlic cheddar (great on lunch sandwiches) and a cranberry wensleydale that was like dessert.

last weekend, we wanted to scope out a more upscale place but neither of the girls were up to leaving the house. we actually attempted to get a babysitter so that we could go out and buy cheese together.

**ahem**

anyway, i consented to let kisu go alone and he came back with a smoked swiss, apple cinnamon monterey jack, and mango ginger stilton. the first and last we adored. the middle one was only alright. you could see the apples, but not really taste them and monterey jack itself is a very mild cheese. i ended up putting it on pooka's turkey sandwich this week. the mango/ginger was pretty much killed in a day and a half and the swiss is gone as of today.

this weekend we are putting another expedition on the to do list. we will drag the children if necessary. that's how tight the grip of cheese is upon us right now.

thank goodness we're not lactose intolerant.

january catch-up

wow. i guess i did get distracted by facebook.
that and the switch around at work doesn't leave me the same freedom to blog during the day.

anyway, here are some of the things we've been up to since the last post:

• we got all dolled up and went to see wicked with noel and nancy.

• we rang in the new year pretty quietly with the girls and danica (well, really bug was already asleep).

• we met some new friends at a board game party for adults (thanks, jen!)

• the girls were cute

• we discovered that bug needs a real haircut but will never sit still for one.

• make-a-wish gave us tickets to the jo bros.

there are some cute videos to be seen, but i haven't edited them yet. maybe i'll get around to that before next month....

christmas day

it was a nice, fairly quiet day, although it started waaay too early. i had told pooka the night before that if she woke up before we did, her stocking was fair game. (i tried to ensure the girls would sleep in by keeping them up a little later than usual.) i never expected to be startled awake at 3 am with her looming over me complaining, "this is all that was in my stocking!"

i sent her back to bed, only to be woken up at 5 by a whining bug. something unidentified woke me up at 730, at which point i couldn't go back to sleep. at 8 we got the kids up and started unwrapping gifts. this year the gifts were few in number, but great in meaning. pooka was disappointed that she didn't get the ds she's been asking for all year, but she was thrilled with her mp3 player and her heated mattress pad. we only had to remind her a few times that it wasn't about how many gifts she got, but how great those gifts were. bug actually was interested in opening presents. a little bit. she loved her new bear and wanted me to open the play-doh right away, but i wasn't ready for that.

we cleaned up, got some breakfast and then retreated to the big bed to watch a dvd. this caused bug and i to need naps. later in the afternoon, dad and tina came over and the gift cycle started over again. kisu was thrilled with the new single cup coffeemaker. now we need some visitors to come over and test its versatility. both girls were very happy about their personalized weekender suitcases, especially bug who know has her own 'bock-ock'.

then we got dressy and headed over to kisu's parents for dinner and more presents. thanks to (childless) uncle adam, pooka got a giant makup kit. oy. kisu knew what he had bought and apologized to me in advance. i wonder how long until she uses everything up. she tends to go overboard on things like that.

bug had only had about an hourlong nap, so i was nervous about how crazy she would get. by the time we sat down to eat (which took her all of 10 minutes) she was wound tighter than a spring. when we let her down from the table, she started spinning in circles and laughing like a maniac. the adults were entranced, waiting for her to crack her head on the solid wood coffee table with the super-sharp corners. (that house is not even kid-friendly, let alone child-proof)

it was a pleasant day, the gifts were not out of control and we all just enjoyed each other's company. although i was not feeling very much in the spirit leading up to the holiday, i did enjoy the day. i am thankful to have a lovable and loving family and also for the birth of our savior.

merry christmas to all.

snow day

it was pretty much a foregone conclusion. the storm was so well predicted that everybody was prepared for today to be a snow day.

everybody but me.

i forgot to have pooka bring home her snow pants and i left bug's snow boots at daycare. i also left my desk at work with half-finished projects (some of which are christmas related).

this really screws with my pto time, too. i only had one day left, which i planned to use on tuesday to take pooka to clinic. with both the elementary school AND daycare closed (that never happens) i had no choice but to stay home. i could take pooka to work with me, but there is no way i can contain bug for 8 hours at work and actually get anything done. so tuesday i can either try to hurry and get to work for half a day or have poppa take her. pooh. i had planned on movies and a haircut with her.

once i dragged myself out of bed (after being rudely jolted out of a doze by bug who was wielding a pen all over my sheets, my devotional book, oh, and herself) i decided to make the most of the day. but when i asked gleefully who wanted to play in the snow, i was greeted with silence and blank stares. my new boss had ok'd me staying home, but as it turned out, kisu forgot his meds and i was going to take them to him. uh, that is, i was gonna try. we got about a mile away before concluded that the effort was not worth it. even in zed, the roads were slow going with at least 8 inches of snow and no plows in sight.

so we promptly turned around and i convinced the kids to play in the yard, instead. while pooka went inside to add more layers, i took bug for a sled ride. i started too fast for her at first and she was nervous. when i slowed down, she started to enjoy it. we were heading in for a break, when she leaned over to look at something and stuck her face right in a snow bank. she laughed until she realized how cold it was.
once pooka (finally!) came back out, i put both of them in the sled. it's amazing how much harder it was to pull with two kids in it. they both enjoyed it, though, until the end of the ride when i dumped them out. pooka's legs actually ended up planting bug deeper into the snow. she was pissed! pooka was laughing, though.

it was a lot colder than it usually is when snow is falling (how does that work, anyway?) so we didn't stay out long, only 10 minutes or so. when we came in i got the girls changed and in the big bed to warm up. i threw the wet stuff in the dryer for a potential return engagement and made some hot cocoa. it might have been bug's first try and since i put it in a sippy cup, she downed it superfast.
we spent the rest of the day sleeping, basically.

sometimes i hate cars

not really, i just hate when the time comes to spend money on their maintenance. especially when said money is hard to come by.

two weeks ago, i got the girls loaded into the truck and headed for daycare as per usual. i left pooka in the running vehicle because it was freezing! and quickly dropped bug off. then we headed over to latchkey to drop pooka. this time i shut the truck off. by the time i came back, it was dead.

turning the key, i heard an abbreviated startup kind of grinding, then lots of clicks and the dashboard lights starting flashing.

oh, hell.

after a brief prayer, i tried again, with no better result. i called kisu and let him know. he suggested i call dad, but dad couldn't take me to work after the tow truck dragged me to the garage.

i waited 45 minutes for the tow, and kisu met me at the garage whereupon the manager told me it was going to be "major surgery." always nice to hear.

halfway back to work, the garage called and gave me a laundry list of things that need to be replaced. predictable, right? when i asked what caused the non-start this morning, he said, "oh, that was just the battery."

thug bug

our little bully put this outfit together on her own, except for the pajamas which she was already wearing. she pulls the potty into the bathroom, sits on it (clothed), gets up and pushes it back into the living room. maybe soon she'll really use it.

since we're talking about old music

certain songs bring back specific events in my memory, and other songs just bring up general feelings or images from recurring scenarios.

hearing jim croce's "bad, bad leroy brown" reminds me of driving around in dad's truck singing along until i realized i said 'damn'. i didn't know if i would get punished for swearing. i don't remember dad saying anything at all, but having parenting experience now, i'm sure he was laughing at me.

listening to "hot legs" or "do you think i'm sexy" by rod stewart always makes me think of pam and i remember sitting in her room next to her tiny record player as she danced on her bed. hearing "bridge over troubled water" just makes me think of her in general and our relationship.

we used to do a lot of duets back in the day. dad had a reel-to-reel player and used to tape us singing. sometimes it was just for a lark, or to record candid memories, but sometimes it was a performance. i remember pam and nicole practicing "you light up my life" repeatedly for days and days until i was about ready to scream. then again, jeanine and i rehearsed "love will keep us together" almost as much. she and i also made up some of our own ditties which we thought were awesome, of course. i haven't spoken with her in years, but whenever i hear that song i think of her. thanks to 93.1 doug.fm, i hear all these old songs a lot more often than you'd think.

dad had some of everything on those tapes. his music, our music, our voices. there's one reel of dad trying to get me (approximately 3 years old?) to recite something for the tape, but i refused to do it. what's there is probably more than 5 minutes of him offering different requests and suggestions, but all his coaxing was futile. i don't think you hear me say anything more than "noooo."

it's funny how kids will do some of the strangest things for attention, unless their parents ask them to.

a classic (rock) education

one of the very first songs i ever sang to pooka was don mclean's "american pie." it became one of her favorites and to this day still is. i feel bad that bug has only heard it from a cd. i just don't have the patience anymore to sing all 6 verses at one sitting (unless i'm driving).

pooka also had her fair share of nursery rhymes and other typical kiddie songs, but she also was exposed to a lot of the music that kisu and i listen to on a daily basis, although we keep out anything that's too, um, adult for her. therefore, she has a great appreciation for such artists as big & rich, barenaked ladies, cowboy mouth, great big sea, gaelic storm, third day, dixie chicks, jimmy buffett, and other assorted music.

i was pretty pleased with the breadth of her music experience until saturday morning. on the way home from dance class, i turned on a local folk-type music program only to hear the closing notes of simon & garfunkel's "the boxer." i was bummed that i missed it, but thrilled to hear the opening notes of "cecilia" follow immediately. it was at that moment that i was struck by a regrettable hole in the girls' education: no simon and garfunkel. no jim croce. no beatles.

what the hell have we been doing?!

immediately upon our return home i gathered up the respective cd's and vowed to have pooka listen on our next car trip. when next we entered the car, kisu hijacked the radio and played queen. despite the fact that i was by then actually craving some lennon/mccartney, it did start filling the hole.

pooka thinks i'm tormenting her, but after the tenth listen, she usually starts singing along.

tidbits

saturday when kisu and i were out and about, we noticed a curious trend: the cops were out in full force. we passed through at least 5 different municipalities and saw cops (mid-action) in every one. was saturday some kind of cop holiday? i even saw several earlier that morning on the way to dance class. the really weird thing is that many times we saw them in groups of 3 or 4 cars.

there must have been some major shit going down that day.

****

this morning on the way to work i saw a vette pass me. (you know he was going fast if he passed me.) as he went, i noticed some large wheels in his passenger seat. thinking bicycle, it was only as i saw his handicapped plate that it clicked: a wheelchair.

i guess a vette doesn't have a lot of trunk room, eh?

last respects

the first encounter with death that i can remember is my grandmother when i was 14. pooka has faced not one but two episodes this week.

first it was the dog. friday morning, it was g.g.(great-grandma). kisu's grandmother's passing was no surprise, but still comes as sad news.

the most difficult thing for pooka to accept was that we were going to grandpa's friday night instead of the school fall festival.

she has accepted both deaths with an equanimity that's almost chilling. but then again, she's only six. and perhaps her distance from both entities helps to dull the sting. she only knew the dog for a brief 3 weeks, being told the whole time how sick he was and that he would soon be leaving.

she wasn't much closer to g.g. we saw her only occasionally, and she was never a very affectionate person. she did try a little bit with pooka, but i think the kid saw through her, saw her internal discomfort with intimacy. pooka is a very loving and affectionate child, but only offered g.g. the dryest and quickest of hugs.

kisu and i debated whether to allow her to attend the funeral services, but g.g. pre-empted that concern by mandating no service. she only requested a family luncheon, to which we have been told not to bring the girls. so much for the love and support of your blood relations.

singular suckitude

kisu had to take primary responsibility for his mother this week, which took up most of the after work hours. so i have been living the life of a single parent. i have to admit i hate it. there's a reason i went the traditional family route: getting a husband and then the kids, you know?

i have new-found respect for those heroic women (and men) who manage to raise multiple children on their own, particularly in despicable circumstances, particular when they manage to instill in the children a drive to succeed and a measure of self worth. that isn't easy to do, even when you have a partner present to prevent you from getting medieval on those kids butts.

in particular, i have renewed respect for my sister who spent a large portion of raising her children doing it on her own. three kids, who were practically triplets, on her own because her husband was not only not helping, but often times actually trying to cause more trouble for her and for them.

once upon a time, i thought i wanted three kids, but after this week i think i have buried that idea. (as if the crashing economy hadn't already.) the tiny island of sanity to which i am desperately clinging would be completely engulfed by the tsunami that a third child would bring to our world.

maybe in ten years or so we'll have one of those 'oopsy-daisy' babies. by then our sanity will either be sufficiently recovered or completely blown and crazy will be normal.

vanity plates

there are typically two options for personalizing license plates: vanity plates and 'support' plates.

vanity plates are the fun ones that offer so many options.

you can label your possessions: mybenz
you can go with your oh-so-clever rebus: 2fast4u
you can compress your name: lkeisha
you can hint at your favorite comic book: snikt (the sound of wolverine's claws, for those who don't know comics)

i have often thought about what i would put on a vanity plate, if i could bring myself to spend the extra $35. (i am so cheap, but definitely NOT easy.) i like 'megachk' or if i wanted to fork out an additional $35, i could get the u of m plate that has the first letter built in, and go with 'egachik' or 'ishu'.

the challenge, of course, is not only do you have to come up with something readable in 7 letters or less, but it has to be something that no one else has already taken.

the other way to go is a support plate. support plates are usually fundraisers for specific organizations, like conservationists or a university. they also have patriotic plates. these are the ones where you can proudly display in which armed service or conflict you served. i have seen quite a few that said korean war veteran, vietnam war veteran, a couple world war II veteran, and an increasing number lately for gulf war veteran.

today for the first time ever, i saw one that said cuban missile crisis. i didn't know they printed those. was that a conflict worthy of a plate? history's not my best subject, but i didn't think there was any actual military action for that. not technically a conflict but a tremendous build up of tension? that's like having a plate for cold war veteran. but maybe it was a special run for this particular driver because he looked an awful lot like castro.

up in the air

pooka and i had the rare opportunity today to pilot a small airplane. my boss's boss has a beechcraft sundowner in which he graciously offered to let us fly.

we met him at plymouth airport and spent some time learning about the machine and how to fly it. pooka seemed genuinely interested and learned some factoids. she was in the co-pilot's seat for the first trip and as soon as we reached a stable altitude, jim let her take the yoke on the way to fly over our house. she did a good job of staying straight, turning, and keeping us from plummeting to the earth in a fiery wreck. not bad for a 6 year old's maiden flight. especially since she couldn't hear jim's instructions. we found out later that her headset wasn't picking up communication inside the plane, only the chatter from other craft. that also explains why she said not a single word the whole trip. jim thought she was terrified, particularly when she refused to give up control when he took over. i thought she might have been scared, too, but i figured it was due more to concentration.

i got a little nauseous up there. between the heat in the plane (who said it gets cold up there?), the turbulence, and trying to locate the house while jim was circling repeatedly, i nearly lost it. not until leaving the airport did i find out that pooka felt a little sick, too. she hid it better than i did, though. i was dripping with sweat.

we arrived back at the airport and did a switcheroo so that i could take my turn at piloting. honestly, i wasn't sure i wanted to endure another trip, but i didn't think i should send ragan up by herself on just her second flight. but i calmed down after a few minutes and we headed for the house again since pooka didn't hear me point it out the first time.

this time, i took the plane all the way to our neighborhood, where i gave up control in order to pinpoint the house. you know, it's awfully difficult to identify things from up in the air. most buildings look the same. you have to use landmarks like water, or freeways, or in our case football fields to get your bearings. it was a lot harder than i thought it would be. and finding the airport? forget it. i'm amazed at pilots who could do that, at night no less, before gps.

i got queasy again on the second trip, worse this time because i hadn't completely recovered from the first bout. i just sat there thinking, "if you puke in his plane, he will fire you." that helped.

when we got home kisu said that he and buggy saw us and waved on our first pass. the whole thing took about an hour, and pooka enjoyed it despite the nausea. she has been so fortunate to have such a wide variety of opportunities in her young life.

encounters with animal control

because dugan's stay with us is temporary, we didn't buy a doghouse or make any major modifications to our home or schedule for him. thankfully, the weather is pretty nice, so he's been staying in the back yard while we're at work and in the florida room or foyer at night.

monday we came home from work to find a mysterious supply of dog treats on the ground near his food bowl. we were perplexed, and a little angry/creeped out that someone was in our yard.

wednesday it rained. hard. fortunately, i was taking the girls to the doctor so i returned mid-morning, only to find an animal control officer parked at our house. he had the collar in his hand and said that someone called in to report no shelter for the dog. (we usually left the garage door open but had forgotten that day.) i gave the officer a brief run down of the situation and he said that he would close out the complaint and that we wouldn't hear more of it. he actually said that he wished he could tell me who called but he didn't know. i had my suspicions, but nothing i could do.

{there's only one neighbor who can see into our yard, who's home all day to see the dog there, and who (we suspect) has called the township on us for other petty infractions (lawn too high; wtf?) in the past kisu has actually caught the husband in our back yard 'helping' us with our fallen leaves. they usually help by picking up those leaves that fall into their yard and dumping them back in ours. yeah, they're that kind of people. never once have they actually talked to us (about anything). some neighbors. }

kisu put a padlock on the fence gate between our houses and we thought it was done, although we silently raged that we couldn't catch them again in their interfering, trespassing ways.

thursday we came home to find an empty yard. there was a note from the police in the mailbox saying that dugan was found "wondering (sic) the streets" and we could get him at the p.d. we were incensed. how the hell could a blind, arthritic dog escape our fenced yard? we suspected that someone (see above) intentionally let him loose. to what end we couldn't figure. to get rid of the eyesore of an old dog in the neighborhood? to force us to make 'proper' accomodations? or did he really escape? this dog who moves between three positions all day, can't see the wall before he bumps into it, and trips over every twig on the ground? he forced his way through a slack gate or a 5-inch gap from a missing fence post (he's a 26" inch tall dog, people) to go, where?

kisu retrieved the dog, although he wasn't able to speak directly to the animal control officer. he did speak with the desk officer who acknowledged that when the weather starts to get colder they get a lot of calls about the 'cruel' people who leave dogs outside. they're dogs. they have fur coats. get over it. he was sympathetic to kisu's situation.

kisu and i expressed our doubts and our suspicions to each other and pooka picked up on them, of course. she disappeared into her room and came out proudly brandishing a 'writing exercise' that said:

there is a mean lady next door. she is ugly and stupid. i want to kill her.

although it was funny in a very dark, macabre, and misspelled way, i'm disturbed by it. where did she get this idea of killing people over such a thing?

we're waiting to let dugan go until kisu's brother and mother can see the dog one more time, but i'm getting antsy because i don't want any more incidents with the police. also, i don't want him to suffer any more than he already is. he needs some mercy.

still hanging around

well, at least he got a thorough bathing, and a blow-dry, no less! kisu complained that dugan's shampoo is fancier than his (more expensive, too!)

since the bath, i have deigned to let him stay in the house. kisu thinks i'm getting sweet on him, but that's not the case. i don't have anything against the dog personally (?), but i know what's best for him is not lingering in pain. his imminent demise notwithstanding, i can't in good conscience make him sleep in the 40 degree weather. he spends all day outside as it is.