Keeping up with the Calendar

Friday began with the police station. No, we weren’t in any kind of trouble. Rather, our (circa) sixth visit in five years to this very Scandinavian-architectured building was only our most recent adoption update criminal background check. Every sixteen months. While we waited for our paperwork, Puck prowled the hand-cracked vending machine. Cheez-Its. He finally figured out the coin machine and crank while a more than friendly woman behind the glass checked our arrest record. Fortunately we were both still clean.

El Oso still had to work of course. So while he chugged off to Clayton, Puck and I wrapped up another week of school.

Puck’s primary distraction of the morning came in the form of a yellow Lego piece with a clock painted on it. He had been hankering to build a clock tower since Wednesday evening, and couldn’t locate the piece. After awhile, he threw himself against the side of his bed and declared:

“OH! … Temptation is saying: ‘Oh, I know, Puck! Go pray to your Lego statue to find it!’”

Reaching … reaching. But at least he’s honest.

Then Rose texted me:

“Well, I’m not blind.”

Good news, indeed. Lasik had taken about twenty minutes. Carrie was overseeing her recovery.

At the Big House, before another spend-the-night and “The Jungle Book,” Puck indulged himself in more Legos, this time with Francis, who was also suffering from spring-type allergens. Mom and Irish returned from the store with pizza. And Mom and Dad settled in for the evening with Puck while Francis drove off to Troy and Irish with friends. And I stuffed an incredibly strong and sneaky “Mrs. Gigglesworth,” with Mom’s help, into the bunny carrying case.

Turns out it was mostly for naught, because Ricky, who had given her this ridiculous name, decided he was not ready for a cat:

“I just wanted to pet her,” he grinned.

Then Carrie called him a “fake” for being born in Connecticut, not Puerto Rico. He pretended to take offense. Not sure how he felt about Carrie mocking his Canada t-shirt though.

Meanwhile, Rose sat on the couch behind protective goggle lenses taped to her head and a recovering case of laryngitis.

Anyway, with El Oso, Joe, Jaya, razzleberry pie, and a large paper sack of Trader Joe’s, we wrapped up the game in Pittsburgh followed by a newer release of “The Haunting,” our childhood classic. Of course by the end, Joe, Jaya, Carrie, and Mrs. Gigglesworth had left, and Ricky was asleep on the couch. We try. All these late-night partiers.