Doing the babysitting gig this weekend for my brother's kids. He's a pilot whose schedule constantly changes. The kids are wonderful. Sierra and I colored princess pictures. I had filched some paper and ink from my company and printed some princess pictures for her to color. Hayden was content to watch his two trucks bump noses. And play on the swingset. Take off running down the sidewalk in his diaper. And then he got sick...three times. Called my brother several times informing him. The two older girls went to Homecoming this evening and their mother (my STBEXSIL) and her mother Kitty came over fawning and prettying them up and taking lots of pictures of them and their dates. Erin and date went off in a big white limo- she was wearing an orange floral print sundress and he was shy and cute. Leah had to go to her date's house, so I didn't see him, but her mother and grandmother took her there- of course Leah's the statement-maker- wore a long black lace dress that had to be altered by her mother since she's so skinny. And she had been wearing clunky sort of grunge shoes and a cat collar to complete the pseudo-goth look, but STBEXSIL got her into a more "conformist goth" look by getting her some other black shoes and the exchanging the animal collar for a cute black-string necklace with a dolphin pendant. In the end both girls looked very cute and got a lot of attention ,The first minute i saw Hero today, my first thought was - pregnant. Puzzling, since it isn't kitten season. But I am guessing she's about 7 or 8 months old. A little older than Oreo. So...I told Leah, I think Hero's going to have babies...maybe...not an expert but I've had a lot of cats have kittens...and she says that's funny, she hardly ever goes outside. And she doesn't leave the yard if she does.

Dave confirmed during one of our calls by saying, She's an indoor cat. I think the most she's ever been outside is about 10 minutes.

LOLOLOL!!!! I laughed at him.

Anyway either she or the other cat was out long enough to bring Leah three gifts this morning. I discovered them when I went out with the kids, and told Leah her cat was trying to contribute to the income of the family by doing what she could. Well after a while the gifts became, well, aromatic. I can tell you, though, they weren't gold, francincense, and myrrh.

Reminds me of Oreo a couple of mornings ago- charges in through the house with a rabbit in her teeth- well I wanted it out, out, out of the house- so i shooed them out. Micah wanted to save the bunny but I said, No, it's dead already. Anyway, unbeknownst to me, Oreo slipped back in Nathanael's room (N. had his window open!) with said bunny and laid it on some paper of Nathanael's on the floor. Micah promptly cleaned it up before I knew.

Nathanael went to another band competition today. They've already qualified for state. Last night after playing at Indian Hill (football team lost, by the way but the band is my interest) some members went out to Buffalo Wild Wings. Like midnight. Nathanael called and said he'd forgotten there was this dinner afterward and could he have some money. So of course I took advantage of the situation and got some food, too. The kids had fun playing the trivia games and other stuff there. I sat apart from them, not wanting to embarrass my son by being his geeky mom. But close enough to hear and have fun, while still reading the paper. At the end, those goofy teens got up and did not leave a tip. I said to two or three of the approximately ten who had gone to the dinner, "Hey guys, you need to leave a tip!" "Uhhhhhhh.....I don't have money....uhhhh....I only ate one piece....duhhh...." and so on. I put a ten on the table and said, "Every one of you here owes Nathanael a buck and he'll give the money to me. You always leave a tip. Look at the mess you made and these servers did a good job. " "Uhhhhhhhhhh....." Nitwits! I guess being obtuse and being a teen go hand in hand...? I was pretty obtuse at that age.