Ka-chunk-a-chunk-a-clank. The disposal makes a distinctive sound when there’s something stuck inside, but the sounds aren’t distinctive enough to identify the obstruction. It could be a harmless sippy cup valve. It could be a sharp bone fragment. It could be a brown recluse. Regardless of what is in there, the only way to retrieve it […]
Toy Story 3 Beautiful. Fans of the first two Toy Story movies will appreciate the continuity and new fans won’t feel like they’re missing something. Before the movie, I accidentally read an article that said the writers thought about “The Great Escape” when they wrote this movie. I don’t want to spoil “The Great Escape” […]
“Mooooom!” Amy’s voice is extremely animated and expressive. She has a very specific tone if the problem is her little brother. When I heard her call me in that special way of hers, I expected to see her brother sitting on her, trying to steal a toy or doing any of the many, many things […]
Me: “I need to make a grocery run. We don’t have Jack right now.” Amy: “Who’s Jack?” Amy: “Little Dharma is a cuddly, wuddly puppy.” Me: “There’s nothing little about Dharma.” Amy: “Except her brain.” Me: “WHY did you dump the clean and dirty laundry in one pile on the basement floor?” Amy: “Because you […]
After many weeks of listening to “I don’t have aaaaanything to wear” whines several times a day, I took the clothing-deprived complainer to a discount department store. Before we walked in the store, I asked what our focus would be. “I definitely need shoes. I also need pants and shirts. Oh, also socks and underwear.” […]
This summer’s heat has been made increasingly intolerable by the presence of an outrageous quantity of mosquitoes. What has the other guy been doing while ordinary Tennesseans are being drained of the very blood that keeps them alive? Nothing. The lack of concern about this parasitic terrorism is outrageous. Where is their outrage? Why do […]
Two large German Shepherd dogs give lots of love, but they also leave a lot of mess. One of our dogs hides in the forest to make her mess. The other dog? She doesn’t care about privacy or the perfect spot. She goes anywhere. Since she, umm, walks it out, it is literally everywhere in […]
The unofficial supervisors of our cove have always been the seniors who quietly monitored everything from the bug-free safety of their screen porch. They have been here longer than anyone and know decades of stories about the people and buildings in this wooded cul-de-sac. While his wife always sweetly charmed everyone, Buster stoically kept a […]
Me: “Can owls turn their heads all the way around?” Amy: “No. They turn 1/3 of the way, because their eyes only see straight ahead.” Evan: “Only the Hatter can spin his head around.”