Can You Tell I Started This on the Weekend and Lazily Didn't Finish It Until Today?

What a long, strange week it's been. Well, not that strange, but long and a little strange. Here are the two weird parts:

- Dead racoon. Fun fact! I am kind of creeped out by racoons. They are bigger than you think, they RULE our neighborhood at night, and occasionally we hear multiples of them thumping and scuttling around on the roof. It makes my skin crawl. On Thursday morning, Jim did a "Psst, c'mere" and asked me if I knew what was about this big, has stripes, and is DEAD. Ha! and AUGH! I sneaked out and threw a few pebbles at it, through the fence, to verify that it was truly dead. When I came in I did a creeped out jump around dance, which made Naomi ask just what was going on?! Jim and I both said- "It's COLD out there!"

Which it was. But Naomi is a subscriber to a nature magazine that features a little racoon and his friends (a mink, a skunk, and a beaver) who have good times in the woods and learn about nature. And who am I to pass along my prejudice? I didn't want her to see the thing. Jim used our neglected, lonesome snow shovel to move the remains. Lucky for us it was trash day!

- Creature from the Black Lagoon. The other day Jim called me and told me he was on his way to REI to buy something, and he wasn't going to tell me what it was, because he wanted to see my reaction to it, whatever it was. He had seen a guy at the mall with it, and asked him where he got it, and was now off to start making his own impression.

It turns out his instinct was right on, because when I saw what he bought, I laughed and laughed. And kept laughing every time I saw it. "It" was a pair of...shoes? Feet covers? Jim is mildly obsessed with the notion of barefoot, ball of the foot-first running. He has been trying it out, reading up on it. It turns out they make special non-shoe shoes for this kind of runner, and it looks like a scuba diving toe sock. I will take a picture of that soon- I realize it is irresponsible to describe this and not give a visual.

And now the good- on Sunday, for the second party of a two-birthday-party weekend (the first one was great, as well), Naomi went to a bowling alley! First time ever! She wasn't bad- on one frame, she even bowled a spare. Of course, this is kiddie bowling we're talking about- there are bumpers blocking the gutters, making it more like slo-mo pinball. It's the ultimate Zen exercise- the kid starts the ball rolling, you go and order a burger, eat it, make a to-do list, call your mom, find out what's new, run to the bathroom, and just when you return the ball has finally made contact with the pins. Cue enthusiastic cheering! Naomi was totally into it, not because she liked the bowling, but she loved the turn-taking and the scoring. And I reverted right back to my amateur woo-bowler persona, cheering raucously for every kid on every frame. High Five!

Naomi is also taking swim lessons. She is really enjoying it, and this seems like a good time tout the "lazy parenting is its own reward" method that I default to, I mean, espouse. Before I even thought about potty training Naomi, her pediatrician said I could start any time, but if I started earlier, it would take longer. Which meant, of course, if you wait to teach a child something until the child is really ready to learn it, the child will learn it lickety split. Which was true when she was potty trained (at the somewhat late age of three), and true now as she takes on swimming lessons, a newly fearless five-year-old. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that her scarcely-teenaged boy teacher is named Ryker. I am sure that really is his first name, and that it is not the case that his real first name is Commander and he just goes by his middle name. Make it so, Mom and Dad!

More good! Luna's lame owner finally got her to the vet for an update of inoculations and a nail trim. We went to a new vet, whom I like very much- no aggressive upselling based on horrible infliction of pet owner guilt! Now I am more than willing to take her back for the dental cleaning. She has been sick, poor girl, from eating trash, about which perhaps the less said the better, and has lost a lot of weight. But she seems to be nearly recovered, so, hooray! More good!

Everyone's getting some specific air time, but I don't have anything for Muriel. Oh wait- today on the way home from school, at the intersection near our house where we always have to stop for a light, she watched a crow swooping around, landing on the median, swooping back to the grass across the sidewalk. She said, "I wish I was that bird." Yeah! I love that so much. I asked her what she would do. She said, "Fly up to the top of that tree, and then swoop back down." She actually said swoop. She also was rocking a funny Three's Company sloppy high ponytail today, just as a bonus.