Sunday Night Thoughts

This weekend I bought stamps, mailed my letter, got my hair cut, and worked on one of my projects. We bought 3/4 of the girls' first day of school outfits. We cleaned the house. I had every intention of getting to the mail and bills, but it's kind of late, we've had a lovely day at the beach followed by dinner with friends, and the Sunday newspapers are calling my name. Soon I'll go to sleep on beautiful, soft, adequately-elasticized, mint green sheets, courtesy of the best sister on the planet (that would be my sister, though S's sisters are pretty great too, and I'm sure you have a sister who is best on your planet, she's just not quite as great as mine, on my planet, at least).

*****

One of the great lines of American literature:"Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!" went Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack, just as loud as their little quackers could quack.

Yes, E is on a heavy Make Way for Ducklings kick--we've read it every night this week. Which is just fine with me, because Make Way for Ducklings is one of those books (unlike anything starring Franklin or Clifford) which I can read over and over. Chrysanthemum* is another, and a third is Clementine's Winter Wardrobe, a sleeper that nobody seems to have read except for us and the people for whom we've chased down scarce copies.

*****

This summer we reconnected with old friends who have lived in New Orleans for the last several years (he was actually one of the witnesses at our wedding, but the last time we saw them might have been at their wedding, and now they have a post-marital five year old). One time when we saw them, we spent quite a while talking about the fizzled hurricanes they'd been through since they moved down there. So my kids are quite obsessed with Katrina.

I'm sure our friends are fine, as he's quite the worrier and probably evacuated days ago. But we've sent them email, we've been watching the news, we've been talking about hurricanes, and we've discussed what we would take if we evacuated. M would take her Anne of Green Gables and Little House books because they were mine when I was a kid. She would also take Mr. Smith (a bear her teacher gave her when we went to England last year), S (a stuffed animal our neighbors gave us when we left Red State whom she named after one of her best friends), and her American Girl Doll of Today, if there were room. E would take Bitty Baby, Nicole (another baby doll), Teddy (surprise, a teddy bear), her All-of-a-Kind Family books, and Make Way for Ducklings. M and S decided we would also take my laptop, the photo albums, some of the oldest records, and one of S's guitars. I added the upper drawer of the file cabinet and passports. Now we're ready to go, but luckily we don't have to.

*In general I prefer to link to Powell's, as a fruitless gesture against the corporate hegemon, but alas, often the corporate hegemon just has better information...