Not that I'm an expert

But a note to the parents across the street:

Thisbe has some concern regarding your offspring. We will call him Young Sk8er Boi. We will call him this because for the last week*, for approximately 23 hours a day, Young Sk8er Boi (who we think is about 10 years old) has been outside in your driveway, apparently fused to his skateboard, and alternately skating over his skateboard ramp**, and dragging it all over the driveway.

This raises concerns for 3 reasons.

First, Thisbe has noted that Young Sk8er Boi has absolutely no protective gear: no helmet, no knee or elbow pads, nada. So if he were to take a tumble, we imagine that his injuries would be unpleasant.

Then again, bringing us to concern #2: we have *never* seen you outside watching Young Sk8er Boi, so we imagine you would not notice.

Finally, the incessant noise of both the skating and the dragging of the skateboard ramp is driving the Thisbe family CRAZY, particularly since it starts (true story) at 7:30 am. Every day. Including weekends. We here at the Thisbe family like to sleep in on the weekends. We are training the wee kraken to do so, and the pre-dawn skateboard warm-up is not helping matters. We are concerned we may have to disable the ramp while Young Sk8er Boi is sleeping (we think he sleeps, we can't be sure).

Soooooooo......how about you lighten up with the skateboarding? No. Seriously. Because otherwise Thisbe will be forced to serenade you with The Mikado at 2am, and we don't think you will like that.

*It was spring break, so he did not have school. But he is out there every waking minute when he is not at school as well.

**We think the ramp may have been a Christmas or birthday present, as it was not around in the last few years we have lived here.

Today's Project: A mishmash.

Today's Life Observation: Lovely weather? Lovely mood.

Thisbe is moving to Canada

See this?

This is the unfortunate turn of events Thisbe predicted upon the election of our "fearless" leader.

And I am extraordinarily sorry to say that it is happening.

Today's Project: Whatever

Today's Life Observation: O Canada! Our home and native land!

And the hits just keep on coming...

So. Yesterday Thisbe notices that the house is a little cold. Indeed, the poor wee kraken had tiny cold hands, so Thisbe immediately goes over to the thermostat to turn up the heat and....wait a minute. The heat is up to 72, but the temperature reads 65, and there is no heat coming out of the vents. Not good. No heat. Fortunately Thisbe's house has 2 gas fireplaces which kept the Thisbe family warm last night, since the service man couldn't come until today.

In other news, Thisbe *finally* gets to sleep after checking the wee kraken to make sure she was not frozen, and is suddenly awoken by a high pitched whining noise (not made by the wee kraken).

PBB, half-asleep, also notes the irritating noise. Thisbe walks all over the house to locate the source of the noise and ultimately determines that the noise is coming from a large green fluffy frog puppet owned by the wee kraken. Normally the puppet croaks as you open and close its mouth to the tunes of "London Bridge", "Old MacDonald" and "Frere Jacques". However, at 1:30 am, it decided to die, and make the horrible noise to herald its ascent to the choir invisible.

To stop the frog, Thisbe had to locate a screwdriver, unscrew the back of the battery pack and take out a battery. At 1:30 am. This toy is lucky to not be in many pieces, as it would have been a lot easier to whack it with a hammer at that point.

Argh.

Today's Project: You know. You know what I'm working on.

Today's Life Observation: Fireplace. Good.

Loop? What Loop?

I tell you. Thisbe is so out of the loop, she cannot even see the loop.

Thisbe is not even sure there is a loop. Stupid loop.

Reese Witherspoon is dating Jake Gyllenhaal? WHAT? How did I miss this? Seriously. Pre-kraken, I would have not only known about this at least a week ago, I would have known when they started dating, when/if they have been spotted together, and which magazine will be first to have pics.**

Oh, indeed I am lame, my friends. Shame on Thisbe. Letting her popular culture intel go so far astray.

Pathetic.

**Don't judge me for being all "superficial" you supposedly pretentious academic types. Thisbe knows that you are secretly reading US Weekly and watching The Soup. THAT'S RIGHT! I SEE YOU OVER THERE!

Today's Project: The end is in sight for MBP #1. Thank GOODNESS.

Today's Life Observation: Rain sucks. Also, isn't it supposed to be spring? Am I out of the loop on that one too????

Recharging.

Thisbe has spent a great deal of time with the Thisbe family in the last two weeks. Thisbe LOVES her family, but they are WAY high energy, and frankly? Thisbe is exhausted.**

Amid a whirlwind of shopping and driving and traveling (oh my!), Thisbe is hoping for a slightly quieter next couple of weeks, hopefully with less drama (see previous post re: various illnesses).

Also, more frequent posts (and phone calls, to those of you Thisbe knows IRL).

**Notably, the wee kraken is also exhausted, so it is not just Thisbe. The wee kraken slept for 2 hours this afternoon!

Today's Project: A final push on the MBP #1. That kid will be in college if I don't get cracking.

Today's Life Observation: The couch is LOVE.

Where to begin?

So.

On the good news front, the Passport Authority (aka the Wizard of Oz), deigned to allow the Thisbe family to take the Wee Kraken to Canada for her very first Passover. As it turns out, the Wee Kraken is quite a lovely traveler, and also, really enjoyed the Passover festivities. She was quite enthusiastic about the hordes of adoring relatives, particularly her boy cousins, who thought she was extremely cool. She looooooooved them. She was also very fond of her plush Passover Seder plate (a gift from Thisbe's aunt and uncle), complete with plush Seder objects (look wee kraken! Plush lettuce! To symbolize herbs! Or, a stylish tiny hat!); and, her Four Questions Finger puppets (A gift from Thisbe's other aunt and uncle. Thisbe's favorite is the reclining chair. Hilarious, I tell you).

On the not-so-good news front, as most of you readers know Thisbe IRL, you know that the last 6 weeks have unfortunately, been unpleasant, which is why there have been so few posts (Thisbe feels quite guilty about being a Debbie Downer to all her loved ones).

To sum up: in the last 6 weeks, three separate family members of Thisbe & PBB's families have been diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses. This is causing major havoc in the Thisbe household, and if you have any spare happy thoughts, we could use them. We here at the Thisbe household also apologize for being generally flaky and not getting back to our loved ones as promptly as we would normally like. We are working on it. Also, Thisbe will try to keep the depressing posts to a minimum.

Today's Project: Finishing up MBP #1 and working on a special birthday gift for the Wee Kraken.

Today's Life Observation: You never know how much you will miss bread until it is Passover....again. (Or, I suppose, if you go on the low-carb diet).