While she was in the hospital, Gamma for a while shared a room with a 7 year-old girl who had been beaten up by a male relative. She also had a gynocological exam, but we don’t know what the results were. She had two black eyes and a broken nose, among other injuries and when the doctors asked her if anything hurt she said no, nothing hurt.

Gamma is wearing stolen slippers.
She is home from the hospital now, and feeling better although still not 100%. But well enough to go to daycare. On my way to work, I usually drop her and Beta off at school and daycare.

It is a finely-honed routine, with no room for surplus motions.

We sweep into nursery school, whip off coat, hat and scarf, whip off shoes, put on the slippers the kids there wear indoors, hand kid to teacher, run back outside, wave, zoom off.

Today, her slippers were no where to be found, although I did locate a similar pair. They fit, so she’s wearing them. My guess is the parents of the kid they belong to put Gamma’s slippers on him, because they were in as big of a hurry as I was…

This weekend will be very busy and will take me out of town for part of it so I just wanted to warn you, don’t worry if the posting frequency here suffers for a while and I make like only two dozen posts this weekend instead of the average 99. Meanwhile, go visit I Ate the Gingerbread Man, a newly linked weblog written by Mae, who has larger biceps than most of the men she meets and who by the way participated in the 100% Miguel meme and was harrassed via AIM for her troubles (for using an illegal background color) by two anonymous men with too much free time at work.

See you Sunday.

Cosmo our middle cat doesn’t like to be touched. If he’s standing there and you try to pet him, he does this limbo-dance thing where his front and rear remain more or less where they were, but his middle part disappears, sinking way down to the floor. If you keep up the petting he will slink away in that position. As you can imagine this results in me petting him a lot when I’m bored.

I can also mimic the movement he makes, doing a funny walk with my back swayed. This may not sound like much, but it gets a lot of laughs around the house. I do the walk and ask, “What animal is this?” and one of the girls shouts, “Cosmo!” It no longer makes them squirt liquids out their noses, but it’s still good for a chuckle.

This morning Beta and I were visiting Gamma in the hospital. It was very quiet, way before official visiting hours, and Beta, who is 12 and sensitive about such things, told me that my shoes were making too much noise in the empty corridors. So I did the “What animal is this?” walk on tippy-toes down the hall. The look on her face, a mixture of amazement, shock and glee, made my morning.

It’s important to be able to shock one’s children.

Liebestod. Weltschmerz. Wunderkind. Schadenfreude. Wienerschnitzel.

What’s your favorite German expression?

Good cop: [Looks up from notes spread across spartan table, switches on bright light] “Take a load off, Mig.”

Miguel: [Flops heavily into ergonomically-incorrect fiberglass chair] “Gee, thanks. So what can I do for you guys?”

Good cop: “We’d like to know where you were on the night of March sixth.”

Miguel: “That’s easy. I went home after work.”

Bad cop: [Straightens up from leaning on the wall, in a threatening manner] “You a smart guy? You one ‘a these smart guys?”

Good cop: “Take it easy. Mig’s cooperative, ain’t ya, Mig? Would you care to elucidate on that?”

Miguel: “Elucidate on? You mean expound on, don’t you? Or just elucidate without the on…”

Bad cop: [Cracks knuckles, loudly]

Continue reading →

Fly season is starting. We live across the street from a pig farm. So a lot of flies fuck in our kitchen. Yesterday a pair was having wild fly sex on the lintel of the door leading into the living room. I lifted Moritz, the feisty red cat, up there and he nabbed both of them and ate them while they were still engaged.

The German word of the day is Liebestod, meaning, literally, “love-death” or “death for love” or “dying for love” except it’s a noun. Heck, I’m ruining the whole joke. Eh, go somewhere else if you want to learn a foreign language right.