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“Does anyone know where the ice cream scoop went?” Mom asked.

Carrie laughed tentatively. “Well … let’s just say it hopped over the rainbow bridge, Mom. I was hammering a nail into a tree with it the other day, and the head went flying off and all this blue stuff exploded out of it, so I threw it away.”

“Why were you using it for a hammer?” Joe asked.

“Because you boys lost all the hammers. Why do you need it anyway? Does Dad need to break up the ice cubes?”

“Yup.”

Meanwhile, you might have thought it was Puck’s birthday too: an orange and yellow rope lollipop from the Puck-and-Grandma Box, a poncho from Rose that shrunk in the wash, and melted pennies from Francis and his blowtorch.

When Grandma Combs sat down awhile later to feed the cats, Snuggles with the swollen eyelid pawed at her to move faster.

Puck offered some advice. “Let Snuggles have more than Pumpkin, Grandma. He has the broken eye.”

After corned beef – Linnea’s request – and gifts ranging from cardinal bird salt and pepper shakers to moccasins to an iPad from Rose, we watched some funny videos of Linnea as a cute little kid, and then the party branched out into other things like Shelley Duvall’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and baking chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen.

Grandma wanted to get home by dark, so she walked out singing, “So long! Farewell! Auf wiedersehen goodnight!”

When Francis took Linnea up to the school to teach her how to drive the stick-shift – as his birthday present to her – he asked, “So … how old are you now, Linnea?”

This was after the big “17” candles on her ice cream cake.

On the drive home, Puck serenaded us with his own original on-the-spot composition.

“Good King Pu-uck. All he saw was – oh my word – why are your underpants in my eyes? Good King Pu-uck has a Sprite. Good King Pu-uck went to the chemistry factory. Good King Pu-uck said, ‘Oh my word! Why are there so many underpants! Oh my word!’ Good King Pu-uck went into the pantry and said, ‘Oh my word! There’s a time portal!’ He got in there after he got a granola bar. Good King Pu-uck ate! His! Und! Der! Pants!”

NLCS Game 2

St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants

7:07 pm

The mini heart attacks continue. Honestly, gentlemen.

Cardinals: 1

Giants: 1