Toilet talk with the kid

K: “When Daddy gets home I will show him how to use the toilet.” Me: “I’m sure he’ll be fascinated.” K: “Yeah, he will be. We will do it together” Me (in reference to an earlier “situation”): “It’s a lot easier to use the potty without pants on, isn’t it?” K (shaking head sadly and…

Why slippers, hardwood flooring and border collies don’t mix

When wearing slippers, it is sometimes difficult to tell that you are standing on the tail fur of a sitting dog. If you then throw a toy for said dog, there is much skittering and little forward motion of the dog. You, however, may find yourself flat on your back being quizzed by a child…

Katherine’s musical “evolution”

Katherine has discovered music videos. The somewhat dated adult pop music kind. To be precise, she found Herman’s Hermits. I have a couple of mp3s of Herman’s Hermits playing on Ed Sullivan and had not realised that they were, in fact, mpegs. I upgraded Winamp today and it must have changed some file associations, because…

Last clean-shaven on October 8, 1994

I didn’t really mean it. All I said was, “I wonder what your chin looks like now. We haven’t seen it in over ten years.” That should not translate into, “Please remove all of your facial hair, thereby obliging me to remove all of the lightbulbs in the bedroom and purchase a blindfold.” I would…

Anatomically correct – an Olympic moment

My perspasive and succinct husband commented on seeing the spandex suits of the short-track mens’ speedskating teams, apropos of nothing at all, “Huh. They have nipples.” You’d think he’d know better than to voice such thoughts aloud. Immediately a small, parroting, screeching voice promptly picked up the chorus and leapt around the house screaming, “NIPPLES! NIPPLES! THEY HAVE NIPPLES!” The…