Just Pointing Out That People Have Felt This Way For A While Now

Nowadays what isn’t worth saying is sung. 

– The Barber of Seville by Pierre Beaumarchais (Quote frequently misattributed to Voltaire)

He’d Know Better Than I Would

While out to eat yesterday, my four-year-old announced that he needed to go the bathroom, so Lala told him that she’d take him.

“I don’t want to go to the girls bathroom!” he protested.  “I want to go to the boys bathroom with my dad.”

Knowing that he’s reaching that age where kids start to take serious notice of gender, him saying this wasn’t a total surprise, but it was the first time he’d ever expressed such a sentiment, so I asked him why he didn’t want to go to the girls bathroom.

“Because,” he answered, “there’ll be a ton of girls in there, and it’ll be too noisy!”

Okay, Maybe Calling It “Logic” Is A Bit Of An Overstatement, But It Was Still Satisfying

Some days it’s winning the little battles that feels the most satisfying, like successfully using logic to sway your four-year-old:

“That’s it!  I am done with you fussing because what you are playing with doesn’t do exactly what you want it do despite the fact that not only was it not designed to do that, but will never in a million years actually do that without you taking the time to gain the knowledge and skill to redesign that toy from the ground up, so in the meantime I strongly suggest you either stop fussing at it, or that you play with something else for a little while, because if you fuss even once in the next fifteen minutes you can fuss it out in a time-out without any of those toys until I get bored.  That’s a full fifteen fuss free minutes I’m talking about here, by the way, and since it’s 6:32 now, that means any fussing before that clock says 6:48 lands you in time-out, so chose your next action very carefully.”

*4-year-old considers this, then goes to quietly play with a different toy for 20 minutes, and doesn’t fuss on my watch for the rest of the night*

Dear Eyes, That’s Not Your Department – Love, Ears

It’s funny how we think sometimes, which is why it’s important to be self-aware enough to recognize when the thought you just had was . . . inane.  Today, for instance, I watched a jaw-dropping vocal performance from an unassuming looking man, and my first thought was, “Wow.  He doesn’t look like somebody who could sing!”

Let The Record Reflect That She Was Pointing To Her Cup Of Earl Grey Tea

Slowly but surely the household is recovering from last week, but a certain . . . lassitude, particularly mental, persists.  Case in point:

Over the weekend I asked L’s Mother how she was feeling, and she replied, “A little better now that I’ve had . . .”  She trailed off here, making vague point pointing gestures.  “You know, that . . . thing that I like having every weekend.”  Clearly she was looking for help in finding the right word.

So naturally I looked at her in mock horror and proclaimed, “I can’t say that word in front of our son!”

So Maybe It Balances Out

As the end of a less than fun-filled week comes to a close, for no apparent reason I find myself asking myself how I got into the habit of not complimenting people any more than I do.   The answer, put simply, is because if somebody looks good/has done something good/etc., I tend to default to assuming that either A) They already know that, or B) They wouldn’t believe me if I told them.

Then I realized I don’t generally insult people these days for exactly the same reasons.

I Do . . . Now

Due to a touring case of strep throat visiting my household this week, to say I’m “pressed for free time” is a painful understatement, but I still feel that yesterday’s entry deserves a bit more explanation.  To best preserve the identities of all involved, let me just put it this way:

When you find yourself in one of those million to one shot chance meeting situations of “You know them too?  Awesome!  Tell them I said hi!”, do you pause to consider the likelihood of that message not being a welcome one?

This Happened To Me Today (Via Remark, Not Via Automobile)

When you’re cruising down the road in the fast lane and you lazily sail past a few hard driving cars and are feeling pretty pleased with yourself and then accidentally change down from fourth to first instead of third thus making your engine leap out of your bonnet in a rather ugly mess, it tends to throw you off your stride in much the same way that this remark threw Ford Prefect of his.

– The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Did I Mention That He Died On The Titanic?

This is one of those days when an inordinate number of thoughts are clamoring for my attention, so I’m just going to pick one:

Jacques Futrelle certainly isn’t a name you hear often these days, which is a shame for someone described as the first American after Poe to write any “important” detective stories.  You’d think the creator of a character with a name like Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen (a.k.a, “The Thinking Machine”) would get more than more than the occasional notice . . . but you’d be wrong.

Fiction can be a tough business.

This Sounds More Like Something I Would Say

I believe in the inherent goodness of the human spirit, but I also acknowledge the human ability to overcome that goodness if the desire is strong enough.

– L’s Mother