Just an Ordinary Day
Friday, November 18, 2011
In which another work week concludes with some laughs around a box…
Back to the office.
Henri and Babe Ruth were in for some time. The phones were pretty quiet. Of course the day she had not been in, Thursday, Babe Ruth had been swamped with calls for six and a half hours, straight.
Back on the ranch…
Puck had been out shopping with the ladies. For his efforts, he was rewarded a box of goldfish crackers.
Joe was busy cleaning out the entire garage.
Francis left for work.
And Linnea for volleyball.
“Sun!” Puck declared. “Why do you have a hole in your sweatshirt?”
“Oh, that was just a little love note from Earnest.”
And Mom would be leaving for her last Jane Austen Book Club meeting.
Carrie brought out the tub of honey-raisin-oat cookie dough.
She and Puck had also been making bets. Apparently if Puck had won, Carrie owed him three chocolate pennies, and if Carrie had won, Puck would owe her five kisses.
“So get those little lips ready,” Carrie had told him. “’Cause you’re going down!”
“Well, you get those chocolate pennies ready,” Puck replied. “’Cause you’re going down!”
Then they shared secrets over hot cocoa.
Linnea returned from volleyball for Puck to give her a back massage, which ended with a grand fall on the seat of his pants on her spine. No harm done…
“Time to clean up,” Carrie was saying, “I made all-organic carpet freshener for my room so it doesn’t bother the bunnies. Baking soda and orange oil.”
“Earnest made a stain on my knee pads,” Linnea said with a frown.
OLeif returned from work for the pick-up. On his person he carried a printed sign on a sheet of paper…
“One of the guys at work is really picky about people touching his things,” he said. “And today he was on vacation, so he left a big sign on his desk that said: DON’T TOUCH MY MONITOR. So Chet Danger and I made a sign that looks exactly the same except it says: PLEASE TELL ME STUFF ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN. We’re hoping he doesn’t notice…”
At 7:30, the kids arrived, Rose in a new very soft pale pink bathrobe from Carrie, over jeans and her carpet shoes, and the boys toting in their own selection of treats, including a sack of the old-fashioned grocery store donuts.
And Joe and Rose did a little Puck-bragging, while Magnus had his own niece stories to share…
“Well, she said ‘James Joyce’ the other day, so…”
And later…
“Yeah, she thinks all my drawings are scary. She brought over all her stuffed animals to show them the drawings. ‘That one’s scary!’ ‘And that one’s scary!’…”
Magnus’ choice of film. Being unprepared for the selection, a sweep of Netflix was conducted, which first landed them with Santa Claus 2. About five minutes in, Joe turned around from his rocker…
“Are we seriously watching this right now?”
And so Magnus easily settled on the new version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Towards the end, Magnus was curled up in a blanket on the couch, apparently about to fall asleep. Joe saw this as an excellent photo opportunity.
The night concluded around 10:30, but not before all the kids got their kicks out of the incredibly squeaky floorboards in the living room, raising their own symphonic melodies…
“They should open up a dance floor somewhere that’s just all creaky floorboards and no music,” said Rose. “They could call it ‘The Squeakies’.”