Kitchen Surfing & Appliance Woes
Monday, February 19, 2007
It was back to tutor Rose that Monday morning. And sometime during Francis’ and Linnea’s hot chocolate break, Linnea came pounding into the kitchen with a piece of bright green felt wrapped around her shoulders with pockets on each end, in which she had slipped her hands. Then, having started with both feet and hands on the floor, she ran into the kitchen on all floors, slipping at a good pace on her flannel hands.
“Man, I can really drift!” She exclaimed, nearly colliding with Francis.
“Look out, Linnea,” Francis said. “Watch this.”
He took two dish cloths from the drawer in the kitchen, and placing them on the floor under his hands, he also took off. The two continued their races until the tea kettle boiled.
Both soon joined Mom in the living room for “together time” (a ritualistic hour of history, geography, and general humanities) with giant mugs of hot chocolate.
And between class and work, while Collette tutored, Rose managed to eat her way through almost an entire bag of popcorn. It occurred to Collette that this was likely why the kids were not very hungry (even an hour later) for lunch. Dad wasn’t too keen on lunch either – a pizza made of prepackaged wheat pizza dough.
“That is the worst pizza I have ever had,” he said, twice.
…which meant it was pretty bad, for Dad not to want a second helping. Even Mom, “Miss Pollyanna” had to admit that it wasn’t tasty.
Meanwhile, Rose was preparing to leave for a brief session of work for two hours. Before she did leave, however, she and Dad got in a bit of a throwing-a-tennis-ball-at-each-other match from across the living room. Trooper also got involved, always looking for a good fight.
“Rose, I’m getting tired of ferrying you around everywhere,” Dad said, after he had brought her to and from class and to work.
Rose somehow managed to insist that this was not her fault.
And the snow was melting quickly that day. By the early afternoon, the head had disappeared from OLeif’s and Linnea’s snowman. By mid-afternoon, one of his stick arms had fallen onto the ground.
Collette returned home that afternoon, after leaving three hours’ worth of practice exams with Rose, to make a lasagna for dinner. While she browned the meat, she noticed that the dish washer was running, running without water. Once again, OLeif placed a call to the guy who sold them the home, who (being a very obliging man) called the plumber to find out what was going on with the machine. The problem was, thankfully, soon remedied.
Oh, the joys of home-ownership.
After OLeif had had his lasagna, it was off to the store to register for baby things. It wasn’t exactly what Collette would call a “fun” experience, but it had to be done, either way.