Shutdown

Since the House and Senate can't come to an agreement on a budget, this blog will be shutdown as of 12:01 Saturday morning. Just kidding! Although, now that I think about it, given my level of inactivity, you may have already thought it was shut down.

On the flip side, upon hearing that national parks will close on Saturday morning, Gwen started to panic. "Does that mean the Cascades will close?"

"Yes."

"The Blue Ridge Parkway?!?"

"Well, it seems to be closed a lot of the time anyway, but yes."

"SURF AND SOUND REALTY?!?!?!"

"Uh, no, Surf and Sound is a commercial entity."

Gwen visibly relaxed. Our trip to the beach is safe.


Sibling rivalry takes many forms. Gwen is approaching the ripe old age of ten, and, as a result of things that are mostly happening to other people (her friends), we've had to spend a lot of time doing "Girl Talk." You know what I mean -- discussing various facets of growing up.

The other day, I went to the health food store; Gwen stayed home, but Xav tagged along. As we were buckling up, Xavier asked, "Mommy, since Gwen isn't here, can we do some 'Boy Talk'?"

Since I'm technically a female, at least last I checked, I felt a little awkward in the role of 'adult educator' for my eight-year-old son. "Well, um, wouldn't you rather talk to Daddy about 'Boy Talk'?"

Wounded look. "No, I want to talk 'Boy Talk' with you. Now."

"Ummm, okay. So, uh, did you want to talk about puberty?"

"Naah, I'm not as anxious about that as Gwen is. How 'bout we talk about soccer? Or maybe about making cupcakes?"

Whew! What a relief ... as long as we are not playing soccer with cupcakes.