Spiralleds Space

Bunnies, it must be bunnies

spiralleds — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 02:43:01 GMT

My folks and their neighbor, B, came over today. My dad and B took on the dead animal dryer. After taking the entire back off of it, they found the remains. Of a rabbit. :(

Apparently my dryer vent is a) too close to the ground, b) so full of lint that the flange doesn't stay shut when the dryer is off, c) this is in part due to it being too close to the ground and being smothered by a bush, and d) even when the flange isn't stuffed with lint, it's an unevenly cut pipe end and doesn't seal well/could easily fit a mouse.

But after much work and scrubbing (my bamboo brush for cleaning tall glasses was sacrificed for the cause) my dryer no longer smells like putrefaction. In fact it smells a lot like Mr. Clean...

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The Foot Print is Shrinking

spiralleds — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 01:49:43 GMT

So the good news is that I finally found the missing mouse trap... with one small foot in it. And eventually the smell dissipated.

Only to return. In my dryer.

The first guy from the Property Committee, G, suggested that the best plan was just to run the dryer empty and "burn" it out. Yeah. I tried that over the previous weekend to minimal effect.

I think G liked this idea as he was on the cusp of going out of town and just didn't want to deal with it. He also hadn't had a chance to deal with the ground wasps that are living in the wall of the parsonage, need my main door.

So P, another guy from the Property Committee came over to spray the wasps and plug the hole in the stucco, and then he and I braved taking the dryer venting off. Unfortunately there wasn't much in the base of the piping, given the smell. Which means whatever got in, got quite in. :(

So I've been running wetting rags and drying them, along with running a dehumidifier to try to mummify whatever stuck in the innards. I need to purchase several boxes of baking soda too. In the meantime I think I've caught 7 mice in traps in August. I've NEVER had a mice issue in August.

And to add insult to injury, after first blocking the entry, a few wasps showed up dazed and confused in my house. Then they found another crack to enter into their home. So P came back, sprayed some more gunk and caulked the crack shut.

This time it appears to have truly sealed their outside entrance, as my more wasps are in the house. Thankfully mostly dazed and half dead. I've closed the french doors to the sun room to try to keep the poor dying things in that room (it's nearest to their outside egress). Granted, there's a huge gap at the base of the doors, but I'm hoping their not that systematic.

Which means I'm not using that room or door to the outside and I'm not keen about being in my basement either. Any bets on what room I'll "lose" next.

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With 36 hours to go

spiralleds — Sat, 20 Aug 2016 02:53:00 GMT

It's Friday evening and I've got my Sunday sermon written. This is major.

Part of it is in hopes of going shopping tomorrow at a story called Title IX with real! sports bras. It's the little things (or not so little things) that motivate me.

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Missing: One Mouse Trap

spiralleds — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 03:16:26 GMT

Recently I was gone for a week and came back to proof of mice in the house, which included but was not limited to a dead mouse in a trap I baited last October.

It seemed prudent to rebait my traps - two in the basement and one between a wall and the fridge. Today I was checking the basement traps. One is missing. I just recently cleaned and organized my unfinished basement, so there's not a lot of places it could have gotten to. Yet it has, as I can't find the mouse and trap, but can smell it. I'm hoping the dehumidifiers will dry it out relatively quickly, as I've already looked in all the likely - and several unlikely places.

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Promos that don't promote

spiralleds — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 03:28:40 GMT

I've been watching a lot of Merlin on Hulu. While Hulu has very short commercials, they do tend to be very limited and therefor repetitive. A laundry detergent one - Gain I think. One is for a new Hulu original show called "The Path" which looks creepy in an intriguing way. Another is for the NBC midseason replacement called "Heartbeat".

Possibly Heartbeat is better than its promo makes it appear. In part I say this because I don't think a promo could do a worse job of introducing a show.

The tag line is that "she's a doctor who operates by her own rules." And if the word play wasn't cheesy enough and completely lacking subtlety, the music underneath? Renegade.

Add to that it appears that the first ep is about a patient with a heart issue and a surgery technique that hasn't yet been approved. But because she's got heart (the show is called Heartbeat), and her patient needs a good heart (the show is called Heartbeat), and "she operates by her own rules," she goes ahead and operates without the proper permissions.

And if there weren't already enough cliches, the administrator appears to be more concerned about liability than the patient's life. And when said admin chastises the doctor, telling her that if her patient dies she will surely lose her license, was is the witty repartee of this brilliant heart-on-her sleeve surgeon? "Bite me."

I think the first ep aired yesterday. I didn't watch because, well, work, but mostly because cringe worthy train wreck.

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I Smelled Oranges and Lived to Tell About It

spiralleds — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 01:57:03 GMT

Note: This contains what might be considered a small spoiler for Mad Men. I have no idea if it's a big deal or not as I've not had an opportunity to watch Mad Men. But the show is over, so there is that.

I was tucked up in my bed, playing spider solitaire (but let's pretend it was a fabulous book) and I realized I was smelling oranges. This was odd, as there were no oranges in my room. I figured that left my cat, myself, or possibly my sheets. I'd newly made the bed. But it wasn't a citrus detergent and the sheets had been stacked in another room for quite a while. And I know it's shocking but that room had no oranges either.

Could my sweat be smelling citrusy? Could my cat, who was curled up next to me, be smelling citrusy? That would weird. I know! I'll google it.

This seemed like a good idea. I figured I'd learn something about unusual body reactions.

I did not expect the top link to be to an episode of Mad Men. Apparently there's an episode where a guy says "I smell oranges." Then promptly has a stroke.

At this point I asked myself, "Is it good or bad I've not seen this episode? The good is that I have no idea how big this stroke was. Maybe it was small and no big deal. The bad is I am laying in bed and I could TOTALLY IMAGINE it being horrible and deadly."

Other links are also talking about people smelling smells, usually unpleasant, but sometimes citrusy preceding a stroke. So more taking to myself. "Self, if I'm having a stroke, would I know I was having one? Would I be able to google stuff that is freaking me out? No, I don't think so. But hopefully if it happens I'll still be able to say 'Hey Siri, call 911'. Of course she'll probably say, 'I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Who would you like me to call?' Damn, I really should have revised my Nano notes into a novel."

Weirdly, I fell asleep without too much trouble. And I'm still alive, so I don't know what that citrus smell was. I didn't smell it the next night. So it's a mystery. But it got me to come see you all, so there's that.

In other news, after months and months of medically trying to get to the bottom of ongoing exhaustion it turns out that I'd become semi-immune to the anti-depressant/migraine preventative I'd been taking. I'm taking one in a different class and it seems to be working. Though it's possible I may need it kicked up more. We'll see.

And why geeky Giles icon? (Which may not transfer to my LJ account.) Because my Holy Week comfort TV has been watching Merlin for the first time. As Uther, ASH doesn't get to smile often. But when he does? Oh, baby. He's still got it. :: fans self::

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Strawberry Rabbits Forever

spiralleds — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 03:07:25 GMT

You know the dew point is out of control when going from watering outside to the air conditioning inside and the change is so severe that you get goose bumps and chills. I'm not sure I would have been out watering if I'd realized there were tornado warnings. Since that usually means there will be rain. Ah, well.

It also turns out that I'm running a rabbit refuge. I knew the rabbit population was out of control in the area, but I figured they were living out in the wooded area. Which some are. But I discovered little bunnies snugged up together under some strawberry plants. Which also explains the burrow dug under the roots of the cut down bush that now makes up the center of the strawberry patch.

They (and their buddies) have been eating up my broccoli and brussle sprout plants. Plus the yards of clover that is my yard. But I have zero heart to evict them or permanently remove them from my patch.

In other news, our area has tons of gray tree frogs. Last year I began to notice them consistently hanging out on my window nearest my couch. I finally figured out it's probably due to the automatic light that comes on right by that window. Which means bugs and moths and stuff are drawn to that window. Which I'm guessing that they like. It's good entertainment for the cat and me.

And today's discovery was that one of these frogs has taken up residence in a decorative bird house. I'm guessing that it was drawn in by the spider who was previously making its home there... I'll see if I can get y'all a picture.

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Remix! Remix! Rah rah rah!

spiralleds — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 02:09:25 GMT

I haven't gotten my fic on much the last few years, but I did remix. And I enjoyed remixing - and it's probably not the type of content folks might expect. Add to that, I'm hoping to tie up a little remix madness today/tomorrow.

So check out Remix 12: Dirty Dozen. And my remixer played around with a mal/river drabble of mine and created Black Hole (The Effects of Gravity Remix), which has some great lines, including about the relative craziness of crew members.

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Remixing season

spiralleds — Mon, 18 May 2015 03:10:55 GMT

I managed to return to read and post in time for Remix Redux. Which is about the only fannish writing I've done the last few years, so I'm glad they were running it a bit later than usual an that I caught it. \o/ (I'll admit to being a bit nervous too - as I don't have the rhythm of fannish writing. But I'm trusting that like in the past, it'll happen.)

I finally took the plastic wrap stuff off my living room windows and opened them wide. While the cat loved it, I immediately regretted it because it was a lot more humid than I realized. (This is why I need a smart phone back - to monitor humidity.) But that weather front moved on as windy wind moved in. So all windows are again closed as it's supposed to be a high of 45 tomorrow.

Makes me feel better about slacking on gym time in order to get out in the yard. I pulled out at least a cubic foot of post-compost soil to add to my newly made raised bed gardens. (The yard is way too packed and filled with small rocks to try in-ground gardening.)

The cat is now staring at me with intent to get me to call it a night. Best not to rile the lovey dove.

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Cohabing with Asian Lady Beetles

spiralleds — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 03:42:55 GMT

I live in an oldish house. So as we began to have warmish days over the winter, asian lady beetles started coming out around the window sills. Particularly the window sill in my bathroom. I think it must be the attraction of the moisture.

I've begun to feel rather badly about the ones who die, as there are not aphids in my bathroom. In fact, I felt so bad, I began to set out small amounts of a honey paste for them to eat. Which maybe helped? Hard telling, as lots of dead ones, regardless.

But it's been warm enough consistently that yesterday I decided to collect a bunch of my little friends and put them outside where they belong and might survive. And tonight it snowed. Not a lot of snow, just a dusting. So I'm hoping they're able to manage it, as I feel rather bad about moving them from warmish bathroom to coolish outdoors. And I've delayed the next round of asian lady beetle relocation until the snow melts.

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Batting .666

spiralleds — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 03:41:05 GMT

Last night I set three mouse traps. Caught two mice. Tonight I added a fourth trap. Wound what my percentages will be in the morning.

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The Week in Review

spiralleds — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 02:35:20 GMT

Spent Thurs - Sat with a friend during post-shoulder surgery. She's single, no kids, parents are no longer living, and her brother doesn't do well outside of his home/comfort zone. The bummer thing for Kathleen is that they found a very infected cyst which had eaten into the ball of her arm.

So they cleaned it out and did put in a new ball, but it's a temporary thing and she's going to have to go back in six months or a year to have the shoulder redone. So, particularly given the pain, she's more than a little bummed about that.

During my time there, in addition to cooking meals and cleaning, I rearranged her fridge, freezer and cupboards so that the easier to make/heat foods were the easiest to reach. It seemed like she was in decent energy and spirits when I left. I do need to call and check in on her. I want to make sure she's eating decently, etc.

Today I got to go hiking with a woman who works at our preschool. Beautiful day for a hike in one of the multiple state parks near here. First time S and I did something social together. She was easy to converse with. And she was impressed with my hiking stamina. (Yay)

I warned her that I hadn't been hiking in a while and am more of a slow and steady kind of hiker than a fast one.

After that, I napped for nearly two hours and then went out to my yard to pick and move more rock in my goal of getting the last of my yard strawberries in their new bed before we get into freezing-type weather.

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still pulling pine stuffs out of my hair

spiralleds — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 02:53:14 GMT

After a ridiculously long liturgical nap, I got myself outside for some yard work. One of the goals was getting some of my seed-grown tomato plants in pots. This was managed with a 1/5 of ~~gin~~ bug spray, and even then the mosquitoes were vicious.

And while in theory, the plants and bushes in my yard are really under the care of the church, they've been benignly neglected. Plus I kinda enjoy messing around in a yard, so I spent some time clipping off the dead/old parts of some bushes. There is a bit more I should do tomorrow, as I did run out of time prior to running out of shrubs in need of TLC.

There's one bush that has these neat read flowers that are working toward blooming as well as an interesting shape. However, an evergreen bush has been overgrowning into it for who knows how long and the one side of the bush is deadish. The evergreen bush thing is rather ugly, old, and overgrown. It needed to be trimmed over the years and now is beyond being trimable, as the inside is dead, not to mention this winter was hard on evergreens in general.

So I just started whacking away at it to free up space for the preferred bush. While doing so I came across an old bird's nest. Which caused me to stop and think, perhaps there was a current next somewhere around here and I should look before I got to carried away. And low and behold, in the other evergreen bush next to it - the one I am planning to leave alone - there is a nest with several baby birds hanging out in their nest mostly sleeping. I really really hope that my whacking around on the other evergreen bush didn't make momma and poppa birds too unhappy.

I finished cutting off enough branches so the red-flower bush can grow in a more healthy way, but stopped far short of taking the whole bush out, since it and the bush with birds have grown into each other. The rest will need to wait until those birds get bigger and make their way into the world.

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But there's a John Barrowman

spiralleds — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 01:22:24 GMT

So last night I was surfing through my channels and came across "Sing Your Face Off". It is this wacky summer fill show in which celbs dress up like famous singers and then sing one of their well-known hits in persona. It's absolutely cheeze-tastic. And I was about to go one when I caught a flash of the MC. John Barrowman.

Yes, I clicked back just for John. But the problem is I'd much rather see John get in to costume and take on any of these characters.

He's sticking mostly to be MC and not outshining the performers or judges, but there was one darling moment among several of the men. How to Sissy-up that walk. The show definitely is in its right groove when it doesn't take itself too seriously.

What's wild is John is not short (hah). But there's a 6'7" basketball star, and then Sebastian Bach in Gaga heels and John looks like a wee little man. :)

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A totally soiled friendship. :D

spiralleds — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 03:04:26 GMT

I've come up with a new high water mark for friendship. A real friend will sift your compost bin for you.

I was at my friend T's house yesterday evening and we were in the backyard playing with planting things and whatnot. I asked what she'd like me to do. Mostly joking, she said, "You could pull dirt from the bottom of the compost bin."

"Okay."

She may have done a double take, although she knows I'm as much of a greenie/compost geek as she is, so maybe not. Granted, it turned out to be a bit wetter and stinkier even at the bottom than I'd expected, but once I was in the zone it wasn't so bad. I filled a five gallon pail with high quality soil. And in the process throw the un-broken down parts back into the top. I also gave it a good mix up with a pitchfork afterward, which is also supposed to be helpful for the whole process.

She definitely needs more browns in her pile, though. I'll have to work on bringing her some dry leaves or more shredded paperwork.

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So this is what the world looks like

spiralleds — Thu, 29 May 2014 03:10:27 GMT

I finally picked up my new glasses - complete with seemless bifocals - and wow. I can see the world so clearly. I've also been trying mono lens contacts and I'm not sure they are going to cut it compared to the crisp of these glasses. Or I need to do what the doctors have been saying for years and not wear the contacts all day.

I have one of those health plans where if I attend my gym 8 times a month or more, I get $20 back. Because of getting ready for the open house, I was sweating while cleaning and clearing, but not getting to the Y. So I've been hitting it the last several days. And also hitting the resistance weights. Sore, but in a good way. Mostly.

I was going to work on my (theoretical) garden. But it was closer to dusk that I realized, so the mosquitoes were killer and I had no bravery.

Also, I adore Colbert and Stewart. They help me laugh even when its about people behaving badly.

The newest delight being Colbert's shock at Ellen Page coming out as Canadian. And of course I thought of both my Canadian and "Canadian" friends.

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Serendipity is weird

spiralleds — Wed, 28 May 2014 03:33:54 GMT

So twice today the character Rerun was referenced. I'm not sure I've heard anyone talk about Rerun since a "where are they now" show that Youtube tells me was in 2002.

In other news, the allergies I've been dealing with for a few days aren't allergies but a cold. Again.

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Remix Redux Reveal

spiralleds — Wed, 21 May 2014 00:42:00 GMT

On Sunday the sooper secret portion of Remix went live. So, if by chance you were curious what I wrote, here it is:

Rules of Flying (The Time in Bottle Remix) (6824 words) by Spiralleds
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Malcolm Reynolds/River Tam
Characters: Malcolm Reynolds, River Tam, Simon Tam, Zoe Washburne, Hoban "Wash" Washburne, Jayne Cobb, Shepherd Book, Kaylee Frye
Additional Tags: Time Travel, Angst, Romance
Summary:

"While there are infinite futures...while my current interests indicate a high probability of becoming a physicist, it is also possibly I'll meet the captain of a pirate vessel and take up a life of crime."

P.S. There's even a small nod to Castle. And possibly to Scotty of Star Trek. :)

On the one hand, I'm pleased with it. This is particularly true since it has been since nano that I've written story. And it's been an even more way ridiculously long time since I've written fanfic. I've missed the writing and the fannishness and the people, like woah.

I'm also pleased that once I finally got myself to sit down and write, I found the gathering word count didn't seem so amazing or odd (like it did once, earlier on). Instead it felt natural, which is a good feeling.

I'm very pleased that my remixee really enjoyed how I played with it. Definitely not a required thing for me to be happy with how a remix story turns out, but it is a very nice perk.

On the other hand, I wish I hadn't put off the getting started on words as long as I did. Granted, there were work things and being very sick things going on, but part was just nerves. And while what is there works, IMO, there was so much more I would have written and fleshed out if time had allowed.

But back to that first hand, fun and joy were had.

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Remix Redux

spiralleds — Mon, 12 May 2014 03:06:15 GMT

Though my fic writing has been a bit... thin for quite a while, I signed up and had fun with Remix Redux. It went live today, though anonymous for the week. My remixer took a drabble I wrote, called Doctor Who Knew and wrote a sweet little Xander and Spike piece called, Wounded Champion (the Searching for Home Remix)

Now I shall go read in bed and enjoy a bunch of brand new fic.

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Remix Season

spiralleds — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 20:44:36 GMT

So today's the last day of remix sign ups and though I've not written in forever (well other than doing Nanorimo), I can't resist signing up for Remix. I've found it to inspire some of the most creative stuff I've done. So I'm signing up.

I've qualify in BtVS and Firefly verses, but not in AtS. Why? Because the majority of my AtS stories are "crossovers" with BtVS. And since there are apparently people who have only watched AtS without BtVS. O.o

So I'm toying with writing a couple of AtS drabbles so it qualifies too. To that end, I thought I'd rewatch a bit. And then recalled that there were portions of season 1 I'd never seen because I lived in a part of the country that stopped carrying the channel the month before the season started.

First ep is cracking me up. I nearly forgotten how funny Joss can be, particularly with actors who know how to play into it. "Have you looked into a mirror lately?" Which probably shouldn't have cracked me up as much as it did.

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Curry with a chip on top.

spiralleds — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 04:38:32 GMT

Note to self - don't eat a hot curry after having a sliver of tooth come off, causing the tip of my tongue to be a bit irritated. Not. Good.

Did I mention my canine house guest appears to also be a mouser? There's been quite a few cat toys strewn about my living room, including fake mice. So it wasn't until I walked up closer that I realized the thing on the rug was not a toy, but a well-slobbered dead mouse. Pretty sure it was Sampson and not my Clara. I wonder what else he might manage whilst still in my care. We've only got about 48 hours left of together time.

Also, I've been watching - and enjoying - Copper. But all I can think as I watch it is there is no way dancetomato could be exposed to it. It's New York around the time of the Civil War and both the city and many of its people are grimy. Even I have to fight the urge to want to take the main character, Kevin Cochran, and throw him in a big tin tub full of soap and hot water. Mmm, might have to climb in to that tub... just to make sure his well muscled body gets properly cleaned up.

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Double Snap

spiralleds — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 04:55:34 GMT

Since I last posted, I've caught two more mice. I learned about the first at about 5:30am when my cat carried the dead mouse - in the trap - up a flight of stairs and proceeded to play with it in the hallway. When I heard the unique sound of wood hitting wood, I just knew it was the trap. And it was. So dead mouse went out to the snowbank and the trap under the sink for later.

I moved an already set trap to that same space between the wall and the fridge. Can home this evening to another dead one.

And, slightly concernedly, I've lost a trap. There's one I set just inside the opening to the right of the dishwasher. It wasn't there in the morning. I think it got dragged further back. I'm just hoping nothing caught in it. I tried using a stick to pull anything stuck back there out and got a baby toy ball thing and a gatorade cap. Then I remembered I have this extendable tool thing with a strong magnet on the end. That garnered an old bent nail and a screw. I guess I'll know if and when anything starts.

And in the time it took to write all of the above, I caught another mouse. :: shudders::

I think I'm going to ask the guys on the Property committee to pull the fridge out and make sure there isn't a hole back there and if there is, fill it.

Now I'm going to try to ignore all the crazy and go upstairs and get some sleep.

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Guests, welcome and unwelcome.

spiralleds — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 04:07:59 GMT

I live in an old house, so I wasn't shocked at the start of the winter cold when I started seeing mouse droppings. While I am not keen on killing even mice, it's kinda a necessity

I set a couple traps, they ate the peanut butter. I reset them. They left most of the peanut butter, but no captures.

Then this week I've caught two, had them steal steal all the goods from two traps without springing them. (I've grown to dislike the Tomcat brand traps. They just don't trigger.) Then the past two days there's been a sharp uptick in droppings. I did a thorough cleaning of my pantry today, moving anything in a plastic bag into a jar and making gratuitous use of Clorox wipes.

I also dug out a package of Victor brand traps from my dad had gotten for me for my last place, but I hadn't ended up using before moving. I'm now up to four traps, focusing on the narrow spaces around my fridge and dishwasher.

In the invited guest category, I fell into dog sitting. My colleague, "Southwest", had agreed to dogsit a bichon of a parishioners. (I'm guessing maybe they live near one another?) Except within the first 24 hours, Southwest knew it wasn't going to work. His husky's hardwiring was to take a bite out of said bichon. So I offered that as long as the dog could get along with my cat, he was welcome to stay with me.

The first day or so was a little interesting, as I don't think he'd every lived with a cat as wasn't sure if she was friend or foe, so to be on the safe side, he barked and growled at her as if she were foe. He's since realized she isn't and now wants to make friends. Of course his idea of how to make friends is to come up behind her and try to snif her butt. Clara is not amused by this and can whirl and whap in short order. This causes him to yip in terror, which is sorta funny as she doesn't have front claws. Overall he's got a sweet personality and like my cat, few things make him happier than getting me to sit still on the couch where he can snug up next to me.

Anyhoo, Ive got him until the 23rd, I believe.

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You now you're a writer when...

spiralleds — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 21:48:59 GMT

You're in a coffee shop and can't decide if you're annoyed by the pair of people talking about how to get started as a financial adviser or be fascinated by the possibility for characters and dialogue. (It started with the following from older white haired man to not-quite-middle-aged woman , "You're not required to meet with me, I just want to get to know you better." Then it was on to talking about her brainstormed list of potential clients.

Ponzi scheme, anyone?

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Various Firsts

spiralleds — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 03:35:15 GMT

Greetings!

Back in late October I decided to give Nano a run. The good news is that I made it through the month and ended up with 50,000 plus words. The bad news was that I wasn't able to do much of anything else and, again, fell of the posting wagon. So back on again.

Today I made my first cappuccino - with a machine I'd been given as a gift years ago. So, it took me a while to suss it out, what can I say? So for a first try, even if a ridiculously delayed first time, not bad. Should have heated the milk longer. Next time. And I didn't give myself steam burns. That's a double win. Particularly when the closest coffee shop is about 7 miles away and closes at 3pm!

~~~~~~

Yesterday I made it out cross-country skiing for the first time this season. Okay, the first time in several seasons...

There's a state park less than 5 miles from where I live with a fab groomed trail system. I had such a good time, I went back again today and was out longer and further. My inner thighs were not amused. So we'll give them a break tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today at coffee hour, one of the 4 year olds who is frequently at church wanted to come to my table to say hello. Her mom made her wait until there was a break in the conversation. So she came over, introduced me to her stuff Scoobie Doo. (She's cute as a button and a dear thing.)

I asked, "What are you going to do later in the day? Maybe lunch and a nap? I love naps.

"No," she said, "but I have to be quiet."

"Because your sister naps?"

She nodded yes. This then led into a conversation about her stuffed animals. How her bed was full of them.

"Is there room for you?"

"Yes." But then she went on to tell me, "I made them stay on the floor. They get one pillow, but I need the other."

"So," I asked, "Do you think the your stuffed animals get back up on your bed when you're not there?"

She gave me that look. "Noooo. They're stuffed animals."

"Well, that is a good point," I said sadly.

Mom had been keeping an eye on us at the next table. I related the last part of the convo and she laughed. "Yet Toy Story is one of her favorite movies!"

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