April 6th, 2025
Cold Sunday... Yali helps Oxbear prepare for church by brushing out his beard and adding beeswax (Yali has been all about beeswax lately)... then he calls me into his room where he's moved the Colombian flag on the wall next to the Chinese flag... “Patience and I were arguing last night and I decided that we needed to be closer together so that we'd stop fighting” he explains... then spontaneously salutes both flags while bum-ming out an “instrumental” version of “The Star-Spangled Banner”...
Building off that theme about forty minutes later we roll up to the back door of church, Colombian national anthem half-blasting on the minivan's speakers...
Some time later... join Oxbear at our usual Bible study table where he is very busy constructing/writing an AI-generated Italian-opera poster about clay shooting... and he calls me a nerd...
When I pick up the kids an hour later from Sunday School while one of the members of the Chinese Lutheran church sits on the sidewalk hand-whistling “The Old Rugged Cross”... Yali walks out mad about scissors and glue for awhile... apparently his access to both was limited during the Sunday School craft... “Because the girls were hogging them all!”...
...but this offense passes quickly after he's distracted by discovering that back home the dog has raided Oxbear's office trash can spreading content across the floor and into the hallway... “She's a RACCOOOON!”
Meanwhile Puck's cat is folded up warm and smugly in his Easter basket... everlasting treats for this bad boy even after leaving a puddle on Yali's raincoat the other day...
Afternoon is for Minecraft happy meals and the Minecraft movie for Oxbear and the kids... mirroring Puck's experience the previous afternoon... Patience whispering to Oxbear on one side during the film → “This movie really is stupid” while Yali whispers from the other side → “This is the BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME!”...
While they're busy doing that I drive back out in a crash of green cold everything to the Big House with some of the boys' hand-me-downs for young Mr. T... where the younglings are gathering bit by bit for naps and tears and laughs and simple domino races... as the adults discuss varying topics from the Lewis & Clark expedition to the times various grandkids have chewed on and/or swallowed poisonous houseplants, bleach hair dye, plastic lampshade shards, etc...
Lavender light into the evening... and some Jack Black on SNL...