Indiana Idylls

Thursday, October 16: Draft discovered from return duct in family room. Friday: Serviceman comes to repair duct. I voice my discontent with prior workmanship -- our THIRD fallen duct in less than two years?! He goes under the house, discovers more extensive damage due to "chipmunks or squirrels". His boss agrees to cover the work under warranty, and will send an install crew Monday morning. Monday, October 20: Install crew works under the house for a while, then comes sheepishly to the door and asks that I call someone to vet the crawl space to confirm that no animals are currently in residence -- they fear a raccoon was responsible for the damages, and that the damages were more extensive than initially thought. I call several places, most of whom refuse to go into the crawl space. Finally, Critter Control comes and crawls underneath the house but there's so much damage and so many places to hide, that they can't verify that the raccoons have left. They set two ...

Alex has been recently fascinated by stickers. Slow to reorganize my office, my sticker stash -- until very recently -- was at home in a chest of drawers easily accessed by a curious toddler. Thankfully, he can't pull the stickers off by himself! I saw no harm in giving him a sticker the day he discovered them; it was a small price to pay to work uninterrupted for a few more minutes. I was somehow surprised that it was such a hit. I've since moved all my "good" stickers out of reach, but left the freebie stickers from various magazine offers there. I have several sheets of Disney characters, and even though Alex has never seen a Disney production he recognizes Mickey Mouse and likes the fact that there are ducks. I usually let him pick one out to put on his shirt. The other day, he chose Jiminy Cricket. He was lost for a while but Alex found him today and kept repeating "Um. Ick," which I took to mean something-sticker. So I kept replying "Yes, it...

10-12-08 17-45-09 : first boo boo : theGteam Two minor injuries worth noting: Last Saturday, the 5th, we learned that Alex is not allergic to bee stings. I bought a bushel of apples at the Farmer's Market and Alex was eating one as we walked around. I was bustling about my market business, leaving Paul to tend to the wagon and Alex. I'm picking out potatoes when I hear a boy crying. Then I realize it's MY boy, and I'm scanning the crowd for Paul and Alex when they approach me. Alex is very sad and has a bee bum sticking out of his upper lip. Paul tells me that a bee was after his apple and Alex batted at it and the bee retaliated. I had to pull the stinger out (which I later learned one should never do -- scrape the stinger out) and we found some ice (that he didn't want held on his face). He calmed down fairly quickly, and after his nap the swelling had gone down considerably and he was back to his old self. It seems he's learned to have a health...

A week ago Sunday, Paul was at a meeting and I was getting dinner ready for Alex and I -- leftover chicken, sweet potatoes, and brussel sprouts. Alex had been snacking in his tower so when I had everything together I told him that he should go to his seat at the dining room table. He scurried down and off... to the microwave? He rummaged through his cabinet there and returned holding the red, semi-divided dinner plate on which we had previously served this meal, as if to say: " Now I'm ready for dinner." It was the first time he's been concerned about his place setting and it cracked me up.