10 FEB 26

Dog barking and howling in the night... Oxbear releases her into the dark to investigate... she returns some time later and sprawls herself on the kitchen floor waiting for belly rubs as reward for her vigilance... ultimately seems more like the whole thing was just a ploy to get out of her kennel... at the cost of keeping the owners awake a couple of unnecessary hours in the night...

By morning Yali is already carefully detailing play-by-plays of monster and “nightmare goblin” carnage for future film ideas before breakfast... “...and Mom watch... and watch this... and watch this”... as he collects more rings onto his fingers to complete his very specific costuming...

Conversation continues through fractions as Yali has questions about The Bloop of the South Pacific and about what life would look like if the Earth were encased within the Sun... other than everyone looking a little more crispy... this drifts to the topic of Mexican food and checking on Yali's big arm bruise from whacking it into a table at Sunday School when the boys were getting a little too wild before the teacher's arrival... and Patience is asking about starting pottery classes... “Then I can make you new stuff when we break your plates and stuff”...

There's enough time after classes for both men's figure skating and a half-hour at the park in a higher wind and temperatures in the 60s as they clown across the play equipment...

...until Patience is shuttled over to the studio for another class and Oxbear leaves for an elders meeting...

Kids are packed back in for the night with hot food and cold sports and Yali putting on a muscle show after practicing all those pull-ups to later impress Puck...