File Under "Why On Earth Do You Bother If That's All You've Got?"

I abandon you for a week, I return with nothing but a random bulleted list that lacks real bullets, even. You understand how it goes sometimes, right?

-- Sean is all better. Phew!

-- We were all set to see Thomas the Frickin' Tank Engine on Saturday. Tickets purchased in advance? Check. Game plan for 2-hour one-way expedition established? Check. Two healthy kids? Check and, wait, no check. Fever and vomiting befell poor Miss Allison. Fortunately Thomas returns in September, so we will try again. Instead of a ride on Thomas, Sean and Jeff rode the commuter train into the city and played on an out-of-commission trolly car. Not a bad tradeoff, I suppose.

-- After throwing up a few times on Saturday, Allie solemnly informed me, "My tummy isn't crying any more." Cute, I thought, but a little perplexing. Till I realized that I had been telling her that she threw up because her tummy was upset. And the state of being upset, for Allie, generally involves tears. No more upset, hence no more tears.

-- I have gotten completely sucked in by this book, such that I want to do nothing but read, that I regard such plaintive statements as "Mommy, I'm hungry" as nothing but petty annoyances to be summarily dispatched. 'Tis a good thing, I suppose, that I don't often stumble upon cerebral page-turners.

-- The afore-mentioned book is a welcome relief to this one, which appears to have been written and edited and proofread in approximately 7 days. The typos and mistakes were jumping off the page and smacking me in the face. Only respect for the library's ownership of the book prevented me from reading with pencil in hand to mark corrections.

-- In an attempt to find something other than M&Ms to quench my desire for a sweet and crunchy yet somehow more grown-up snack, I have discovered cinnamon almonds from Trader Joe's. Heavens to Betsy are they ever scrumptious. Am I permitted to feel just a little virtuous for eating nuts, even if they're covered in sugar?

-- You know how you can never be entirely certain that your kids will be models of well-behaved behavior around other people? On the one hand it might be at least a little cute that your son completely commandeers your delightful guests and chatters like a magpie nonstop throughout their visit. On the other hand, it is decidedly not cute when your daughter bites your son on the arm, leaving teeth marks, in the presence of the same company. Nope, not cute at all.

That's all I've got in me for today. Yeah, really. Thanks for continuing to click over to read my increasingly tepid and decreasingly frequent posts.