No Wire Hangers!!

The title of this post is a double reference. Over the weekend I mentioned to my parents that my high school 20th reunion was going to be held later on this year, but because it's on a Friday night, I wouldn't be attending. I never really kept in touch with anyone in my high school, most of my friends were from when I worked at Wendy's, or were people I met at college. They asked about one friend, but I reminded them that he moved when I was around the 9th grade or so. He loved the movie "Mommy Dearest" and would frequently turn to me and start quoting "NO WIRE HANGERS!!!!!" But I lost touch with him several years ago, and didn't know how to contact him any more. My dad, Mr. Retired, said he was pretty good at finding people, and would take the challenge. He contacted me a day later and said he tried all 50 states, but couldn't find him. He asked if I knew his parents name, and I did. A few hours later dad called me and told me he contacted my friend's mother, and I'd be hearing from him soon. My friend called about an hour later and we had a nice conversation. We traded addresses and phone numbers. No e-mail address though, he doesn't have a computer and doesn't e-mail. Yikes, how do I keep in touch?? Might have to actually write letters on paper or something. *grin*

The other hanger reference is something that occurred when I got home. Laya informed me that Tikvah locked the bathroom door, and closed it. This was after Tikvah and Ahava conveniently placed all of our shoes in the bathroom. (Why? Who knows what goes through the minds of 2 and 4 year olds???) The doorknob had a small hole in it, so I thought it was the type you have to poke, so I found one of our few wire hangers and tried to unlock it. No luck. Grrrr... The screws that hold the knob together were on the outside of the bathroom, fortunately, so I unscrewed them, and was able to unlock the door. I also learned that to unlock it, I'd need to insert a very small screw driver, and turn it. Ah, I'll remember that. (although I may replace the knob with the kind you can unlock with a regular screwdriver, or a butter knife for that matter) But Tikvah has been told that she is not to close the bathroom door for a while. I'm just glad Ahava wasn't in the bathroom at the time. Kids... ARUGH!!!!! :-)

Whew, that's over!

Sorry for the long delay. Besides visiting family over the last holiday break, I got involved in one other thing, and I didn't realize what a time commitment it would be. I started reading the first Harry Potter book. I knew it was popular, and since I hate waiting for the next book in a series, I waited until they were all available, and bought the full set of 7 books. I figured I'd read one or two, then later on pick up another one, etc. No dice. I read the first two books in 4 days. I didn't have the rest of the books with me while on vacation, so had to wait until I got home before I could start on the third. But then this pesky thing known as "Work" got in my way, and it took longer to read books. Oh, and I also needed to do the basics... you know, eat, play with the kids, sleep, etc. But I finally finished the last book. Whew! What a ride! And it ended differently from the way I heard through the grapevine. Maybe a false rumor was put out or something. Anyway, now that that monkey is off my back, hopefully I can get back to writing more!

The following Sally Forth comic pretty much summed things up for me.

Sharing Leisure...

My parents have been going to the same resort hotel in Massachusetts for almost 30 years. When I was growing up with them, I would go annually too. We went with several other families. Just about all the fathers (and some of the mothers) were teachers, so it was during the holiday break. One thing I remember is at some point, I'd always grab a book and go sit in the lobby, near the big fireplace which always had a nice fire going, and just read for a while. Now that we live so far away, I rarely get to join my parents anymore. However, this year we loaded up the kids and made the trek to visit and relax.

Somewhere around the middle of the day, I told the girls I was going to sit by the fireplace and read. Ahava jumped up and grabbed a book to join me. Tikvah ran after us after we started off. After we all settled by the fire, the girls opened up their books and looked at the pictures, and I started to read. It was only about 5 minutes later when Tikvah piped up with "I'm ready to go back now." I told her that she'd have to give us another 5 minutes (I wanted to finish the chapter I was in) then we'd head back. I was a little disappointed as I wanted to read more. About halfway back to the room, we ran into my mother. She was heading toward our room, and offered to take Tikvah back. I asked Ahava if she wanted to go back with grandma, or back to the fireplace with me. She didn't answer, just gripped her book (Sesame Street Dictionary) and turned right around and headed back to the fireplace.

We sat down and enjoyed the fire for a good half hour before heading back. It felt so nice to share an activity like that with her. Laya sometimes thinks that I favor one child over the other. I really don't think I do. Tikvah is older, and is at the point where she should be expanding her horizons and trying new things. Some things, Ahava just isn't ready to try out yet. But this was something she could do, and when I stole a few glances at her, I could see she was really enjoying the book. While she can't read yet (that I know of anyway!) she was pointing at all the pictures and talking to herself about them. And I had a chance to catch up with a few more chapters of Harry Potter. If Ahava did catch the reading bug from me, she has a lot of books ahead of her to read.