November 19

Friday, November 19, 2010

The day began with four hours of sleep. Fortunately, OLeif had napped an extra hour before actually leaving for the movies the previous night.

Over at the house…

Francis had been up and back to his weekly breakfast Bible study by 6:30.

Grandma Combs arrived at quarter till ten with a birthday cake for Mom and Carrie-Bri iced as an Argentine flag, sitting on a silver-papered board.

And Francis, Linnea-Irish, and Puck were given boxed slices of Marshmallow Pizza P’Eye (covered in gummy worms and gummy eyeballs).

Puck also had been given a blow-up puffer fish-like ball, which he called a ‘sun’. He was also very intent on telling Grandma Combs all about the ‘heart pumping thing to check your heart’ (stethoscope) that he had put on his wish list.

There were gifts for Carrie:

• Viva Argentina pillow

• leopard/zebra silk scarf

• stationary from The Met embossed with gold suns and housed in a nice box

• ‘sol’ scented laundry detergent from the Spanish grocery

And after a few cups of tea, Grandma departed for her lunch appointment, and Mom left at the same time to attend a surprise birthday party with Gloria in Old Saint Charles at the Lewis & Clark Restaurant.

Algebra, Portuguese, library for Francis to check out The Pit and the Pendulum, deposit a check, pick up stamps printed with evergreens at the post office…

Meanwhile, a Tibetan bell bracelet had arrived in the mail.

“Mom missed my jingling bracelets,” Carrie explained. “They always put her to sleep while I’m doing her hair.”

A pile of sleeping eye masks had also arrived, bearing goofy prints upon them: Sponge Bob eyes, panda eyes, dollar signs, and cartoon hearts.

It must have been the jackpot day, because Dad had also received two giant air filters. He brought up the old ones in plastic, where spiders had been nesting. The audacity!

And Rose, working on the continuing process of contract research and sending out resumes… The upcoming season of holidays made such work a bit of a challenge.

“No one’s hiring until January,” she said. “ I’m just going to work for the mafia.”

Because it was Friday night, Dad had ordered in the Little Caesars. And everyone sat around in the living room watching The Sound of Music, for Linnea’s and Puck’s first time. And, for Collette, probably the first time in fourteen years, since she had played a nun and Louisa, the perhaps brattiest of the Von Trapp children, in the Snicketts-English-Blots production back in the day, in the English’s backyard. Carrie had acted as the sophisticated baroness, as well as a Nazi guard, who forgot to remove her baroness make-up. Joe had been ‘the old butler’ and a guard. And Rose had been a little nun herself, being only six years old at the time.

Comedy night arrived.

Joe and Rose returned Collette and Puck to the house, as OLeif was working later. And while Collette put Puck down for the night, Rose cooked beef for OLeif’s dinner. And then Magnus arrived, who had apparently had a rather dismal experience trying to attend Harry Potter the previous night, and had finally gone home when all the seats in the theater had been taken.

There was also a late run for the boys for essential groceries to consume during 30 Rock: ice cream sandwiches, Cheez-Its, and smoked Gouda.

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