Weather Report

We had a very warm weekend.

Can you guess who's air conditioning is broken?

Appliance Question

If the bottom of my dishwasher is full of water and I can't get it to drain, does that mean I need a new dishwasher?

Till

When I was in elementary, junior high, and high school, I was fortunate to have teachers who assigned bazillions of writing assignments. We wrote about what we wanted to be when we grew up. We wrote and illustrated stories. We wrote reports on states of the union. We wrote book reviews. And essays. And analyses. And poems.

And I used the word "till." As in, "I won't be able to go to law school till I finish college."

And my teachers--not all of them, but most of them--invariably crossed it out and substituted "until."

I was always unclear as to why they crossed out "till." I read a lot, and I read "till" all the time. Being chronically overconfident, I figured my teachers were simply unaware of this usage of till.

The funny thing is, I still get a little thrill every time I read "till." Just this Sunday, as I was reading the first chapters of Sense and Sensibility, I read "till" at least twice and thought, "Ha! It can be used that way."

Jokes

When Victor was post-laugh but pre-talk, he had a little gas when I was changing his diaper one day. Then he laughed. He thought it was the funniest thing ever. And I thought, "where on earth did he learn that was funny?" He certainly didn't learn it at home, and he doesn't go anywhere else.

Fast-forward two years. I was reading a little songbook to Zeke this afternoon. "A you're adorable, B you're so beautiful, C you're a cutie full of . . . " "BUM," Victor interjected, giggling. Bum?

But wait--there's more. I kept singing along, and so did Victor. Except I was singing "M N O P, I could go on all day," and he was singing "poop poop poop poop poooooooooop," and laughing hysterically.

I want to know where he learned this!

Banks

This year, my mom was in town for Victor's birthday. If you know my mom, it will not surprise you that when Victor showed her his birthday money, she said, "You can put it in the bank!"

That was it. Victor was determined to put his money in the bank. All $11.00 of it.

Yesterday was the day. We all put on nice clothes (i.e. clean for the kids and for me, not a faded Target t-shirt), and went to our local branch to open Victor's very own savings account.

We completed some paperwork and Victor handed over his $6.00 (I couldn't find the other $5). Then he got a green lollipop, and we went home.

That night, when he told Jeremy about our trip, it became very clear that he thought he had gone to the bank to purchase the lollipop. So I guess our next lesson will be about the value of money.

Movies I Don't Like

Yesterday, I watched part of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine goes to see The English Patient, and doesn't like it. Everyone else likes it, but she thinks it stinks.

It got me thinking about movies that I really didn't like, but which other people seemed to like. So far, I can only think of two:

Happy Feet

Pretty Woman

Oh, and The Book of Mormon Movie deserves a special mention for being the worst movie I ever saw. It was craptastic.

Opposites

Victor and Zeke talked to their Grandma Nancy, Great-Grandma Alice, and Aunt Kassie on Skype this morning.

Well, Zeke babbled and waved. And Victor flopped on the floor behind me and said he could not talk. Then he turned the lights off with a Matchbox car.

Grandma Nancy cheerfully told Victor that when she came to visit, she was going to "lay the smack down" on that kind of behavior.

Victor wailed, "No! You will not lay it DOWN. You will lay the smack UP. You will lay the smack up in the airplane. You will leave it there up in the airplane!"

Grandma laughed her head off. And I was happy that Victor could showcase his knowledge of opposites.