Aftershocks

(Not actually "shocks," but "aftermoments of mild startlement" just doesn't have the same ring.)

Christmas or Christmess?
In preparation for the someone from the insurance company who is going to be calling in the next couple of days, I decided to look for any original-packaging type items. I was pretty sure the box and manual for the digital camera were somewhere in the basement, so downstairs I went. Whereupon I shouted the following:

"Hey Dragon? Were you digging around in the box of Christmas lights?"

"Me? Uh, no."

"Well, damn. I guess they did mess around in the basement after all."

A quick check revealed that all of our holiday decorations appeared intact, complete with Sesame Street's holiday-themed DVDs. At least we still have Elmo Saves Christmas! Nothing else appears to be missing, but, well, it's a basement. Here in Wisconsin, we put junk that we're not quite sure what to do with in the basement. I already had to toss a lot of what was down there after our December plumbing adventure, so I'm not clear on what I should be looking for (other than "Are all major appliances still there?" Which they are.)


Adventures in Banking
While looking through the paperwork this morning, I realized I was missing one booklet of checks. Now, they could have already gone to the Great Paper Pile in the Sky, or I could have written them out of sequence. Or they could have been taken yesterday, because even delinquent middle schoolers know what checks are. The nice man at the bank offered to just put a stop payment on that batch of checks, for free, but I bank and pay bills online, man, and you can do that with an account number and a routing number, both of which are displayed prominently on a check. So I made him open a brand-new account for me, and for some reason the branch manager came over to introduce himself. Hopefully, no one will steal our mail over the next couple of weeks. (But if they do, I take comfort in the fact that that's a federal crime.) As I was leaving the bank and heading to work, I briefly wondered if a piano would fall out of the sky and land on my head, or if perhaps a bike messenger would plow into me.

Safe-ty
Dragon called to say that he was leaving work early to undertake some DIY home security projects; anything I needed? I requested that he look for one of those fireproof-box type things, as the police officer recommended we get one of those for sensitive documents and decent-quality jewelry. He brought back a nice one, and now we have to decide where to keep it and its key. Oh wait, I'm on the Internet. Excuse me; he brought back a professional-grade, robbery-proof safe, which will soon be moved to an undisclosed location after we memorize the impossible-to-crack combination.

Thank you for listening. Tune in tomorrow for further adventures from the House of Strep, Spontaneous Vomiting, Relatives with Cancer, and Far Fewer Electronic Devices Than We Had Earlier This Week.

Dear Universe: WTF?

So, yesterday my mother came home from the hospital. Yay! I was going to stop by and visit her on the way to class today; accordingly, I left work at 4:30 feeling glad about seeing her and looking forward to class.

The phone rang as I was in the parking structure, walking to my car. It was Dragon.

"Hey, did you have any problems with the garage door this morning? It won't open."

"No. Sorry."

Then, a few minutes later, the phone rang again. And again, it was Dragon.

"Hi. I've just called the police. Someone's broken into our house. The computer room is trashed. I've got the kids outside and we're waiting for the police."

"Okay. I'll come home then." Call to school admin, asking her to explain to instructor that I will not be at class. Call parents, asking Dad to perhaps not tell Mom about break-in. (He does anyway, I later find out.)

Dragon was still waiting for the police when I got home 20 minutes later (boy, that felt like a long drive.) I'd spent the drive home having visions of calling all of the banks and credit card companies to cancel/freeze accounts, and having to look up everyone's number without benefit of the Internet. I went in to check things out, being careful to not touch anything, and confronted a confusing mess in the computer room. The camera and iPod (sniff) were missing, but the computers, although disconnected and in six different places, were still there. Credit cards, though scattered everywhere, were also still there. Papers were everywhere. The living room was also somewhat messy, and the DVD player and PlayStation 2, along with some games, had vanished. Still there: TV, DVDs, and digital photo frame. Upstairs, most of the dresser drawers had been dumped out, and my jewelry box was in pieces and mostly empty. Still there, though: wedding bands and engagement ring.

Soon the police, in the form of a nice female officer, arrived to collect evidence. (Noteworthy: "There's a beautiful handprint on this window. Unfortunately, I think it belongs to one of your sons.") Reports from the neighbors indicate that several middle-school-aged kids were the culprits; they were seen emerging from the house with a sack (my pillowcase, that would be).

So, not as bad as it could have been; big mess, but for the moment, most of the valuable items are still here. (Many of them will be relocated shortly.) We have our suspicions as to who these middle schoolers might be, and we have attentive neighbors.

On the other hand, I could cheerfully rip the lungs out of said middle schoolers, or perhaps their parents, because Boy Wonder is freaked right the hell out by all this. Thanks, guys; you left us most of our stuff, but now my five-year-old is afraid to go to the damn bathroom without me. Because there were Bad Guys in our house, and our closets, and what if they come back?

They didn't cover this in the parenting book, I don't think.

Action Hero singalong

The other day, Dragon e-mailed me this link, accompanied by a message saying, "Watch this with Action Hero in your lap!" I was at work at the time, so was not able to accomplish this immediately. But, once I'd acquired Action Hero from daycare, we watched it. And Dragon has created a tiny monster. Here, you watch this, and then I will explain.

Feist on Sesame Street

Action Hero LOVES this clip. LOVES it. We watched it for the first time on Friday. When it was done, he said, "Aden! Aden!" (Guess what that means.) So we watched it a few more times, and then he said, "She say hi to me! To ME!" I puzzled over this for a few seconds, and upon another viewing, realized that the singer gives a little wave when she comes out from behind the gate and starts walking. And, since he is two and thus the center of his own little universe, she is waving at him, of course. Anyway. We watched it a few more times the next day, and when it was time to stop, he started shrieking and stomping his feet, saying, "Aden! Aden!" He was quite put out when no more YouTube was forthcoming, but recovered enough to dance quietly around the living room, singing, "One two free four, countin countin nummer four," for a little while. And we watched it

Of course, child song love has drawbacks for grownups. First of all, I am pretty sure that the regular versoin of this song, which is probably not about counting chickens and penguins, is never going to sound "right"; I will always see dancing monsters when I think of it. And, second, but perhaps more important, I cannot get it out of my head.

I bet you can't either, now. You're welcome!

More barfing. No, I'm not kidding. And some bad news.

My family would like to turn this year in for a refund, please. Though it all looked very bright and pretty right after the holidays, it is not performing very satisfactorily.

The day began reasonably well, with trips to Target (diapers) and the library (Boy Wonder and I have now read 70 books together this summer; 30 more and he will get FABULOUS PRIZES. Well, he'll get prizes, anyway, and he will certainly think they are fabulous). In between trips, I made pancakes for lunch. Some phone conversations indicated that my mother, currently in the hospital minus a kidney and various lymph nodes, was feeling reasonably well and up to a visit with Boy Wonder. Action Hero was sleeping, so he and Dragon held down the fort at home while Boy Wonder and I went to the hospital.

News on the hospital front was not great; reports are back on the kidney and lymph nodes, and it's NOT QUITE THE NEWS WE WERE HOPING FOR. Chemotherapy, perhaps even a bit on the aggressive side, will be required. My mother is not thrilled, but is feeling more ...comfortable? secure? something along those lines?...now that she knows what is going on. After having been a nurse for 40 years, the past three weeks of not knowing were driving her right up the wall. She is looking forward to getting all aggressive with the chemo. We managed to have a nice visit, and she was very happy to see Boy Wonder.

Who, as we were in the parking lot on our way to the car, suddenly said, "Mom! I'm COLD!" We had just walked under a shady overhang area and the wind had been blowing, so I didn't find anything odd about that. He also dozed off on the way home, which I also did not find odd; it was 4:00 and if he's going to doze off anywhere during the daytime, it's late afternoon in the car. But when he began rubbing his eyes and complaining of a headache, I started getting rather worried. He was really not acting like his usual self, or even his not-feeling-well self; he was acting really odd and was obviously in pain. He didn't have a fever. Had he bumped his head? Did he somehow have a concussion? Soon enough, all was revealed; at 4:56, I said, "Boy Wonder. Does your belly hurt?" and he nodded, got up, and said, "I think I am going to puke." Which he then trotted off to the bathroom and did, voluminously. Twice. Then his skin became hot to the touch.

So, once again, Dragon and Action Hero (now awake) held down the fort at home while Boy Wonder and I went to the hospital - a different one, with Urgent Care. A bit further away than the other one, but, as it's just opened and is probably not high on the local radar, absolutely lacking in other Urgent Care seekers. Thus, we had the staff to ourselves, and quite attentive they were, immediately ushering us into an exam room and presenting us with techs, nurses, and a doctor in short order. Visit in brief: temp of 102. Patient very drowsy, kept dozing off on gurney but would wake up periodically to say, "I don't want a shot!" Conclusion: there may still be some strep, or related bacteria, hanging around in there, as his throat and neck glands were still quite irritated. Different antibiotics were prescribed and acquired, along with new bottles of children's fever medicines, since in recent weeks we've killed the old bottles but good. Home at 7:30.

Current status: Boy Wonder dosed with antibiotic and "fever medicine"; he did perk up a bit but still requested an escort to bed shortly after we arrived home. I cannot visit the hospital tonight, in case I am carrying any Bad Sore Throat and Fever germs. I briefly wondered if I should visit the bar instead, but am instead visiting my couch, library books in tow.