16 OCT 25

Yali's sitting by his snake's tank early that morning watching him roll lethargically through the mulch the day after horking down some kind of huge Canadian green worm... “He's a fat cow” Yali laughs at him as he pushes his plate of scrambled eggs right into my same copy of C.S. Lewis that Patience already damaged with her Stanley of ice water yesterday...

We're on the road about ten minutes later... Yali has six and a half hours to share with his buddy down in Byrnes Mill which includes running around at the park and lunch at Burger King...

While Oxbear and I escort Patience to the tailor's shop for another dress revision... she's a weed this year...

Home to catch S's Youtube interview on dulcimers while discussing dress ruffle options with Patience for Milwaukee as she prepares her first draft seascape painting for the St. Louis Symphony's youth art contest before catching an episode of “Is it Cake?” as Puck emerges to type a two-weeks notice for Schnucks on my laptop... boot camp is approaching...

Leaving the dinner table smudged in Puerto Rican blue paint... conduct Puck first to a five-hour shift at work...

...before schlepping Patience to the studio door to realize that I'm off by an hour with all the schedule changes... so we make an equally unscheduled stop at Target for dental floss... and a pack of Pilot G2s in five shades of pink and a pack of Joyride rainbow sour strip candies for Patience before returning to class...

It's nearly eight o'clock... Puck knocking around the kitchen waiting for Mandarin orange chicken wearing his ski helmet... pockets one of Patience's G2s when she isn't looking and swipes the last of the striped sour candies...

“So Yali... the drink in your Lunchable has lead in it?” I call to him in the living room... “Is that what you heard?”... knock-off Lunchable I guess... apparently everything has lead in it now... Patience grabs the unopened bottle from the kitchen island and begins reading the label... “It's okay... there's no lead in the ingredients”...