Meet our friends Jerry and Jess, and their daughter Katie. Joe and I still refer to them affectionately as "the kids", even though they aren't very much younger than we are.
Jerry and Jess were Joe's downstairs neighbors when he lived in Richmondville. And were often the reason he'd come to work at Storyhouse either hung over or still drunk. Jerry and Jess were attending college at the time, and had lots of parties. And then they were no longer neighbors when they moved up to live with Joe, taking over the spare bedroom. (I was still commuting from Mom's house at the time.)
I recall Jerry cooking massive loads of unbelievably tasty foods, and a New Year's Eve spent with the four of us playing Risk on the Playstation until the wee small hours. Those guys were fun! And suddenly...gone. Moved to California. They came back to live in New York briefly, but downstate. We spent a weekend with them before they moved back to Cali one more time, and Xander had a blast with Katie at Rye Playland.
Now Jerry and Jess are expecting their second child, and just found out it's a boy. Congrats, you guys!!! And guess what they want to name the little guy...Joseph! Of course, they don't realize how difficult life will be living with a Joe (ha ha!).
So here's to Jerry, Joe's "brother-from-another-mother", Jess and Katie - the best pals we hardly ever see!!
The old laptop is now hosting our old Sims game (won't install on the new laptop). Xander likes playing this as well, but he has to wait for either Joe or myself to have our turn with it. And soon he'll really be out of luck, because I have Heroes of Might and Magic III coming (remember that one, Jerry? It's all your fault I had to buy it!) and I can play that for days without a break!
The good news is that Xander is watching less TV and spending more time playing educational games on the computer. Once I figure out the benefits of me playing Sims until 1am, I'll let you know!
If you know us at all, you know that Joe prefers the stoic look when it's picture taking time. If you flip through our photo albums, you'd think he was the most miserable person on earth. But sometimes...sometimes I get a really good smile. A red-letter day to be sure!
Second, at bedtime he actually...gasp!...goes to bed! No playing, no reading book by the light of his head lamp. I turn on his vaporizer, put the ice pack on his head, and make sure the garbage pail is next to his bed just in case (he hasn't puked, but seems to find it comforting to be prepared). The last two nights he's come in the middle of the night to sleep with me.
I hope these guys feel better soon!
Between the two power outages we've had so far this year, we lost seven fish out of our tank, including our two giant Oscars. Joe was pretty despondent about that, he really loved those fish. Now we just have three fish left, including Nero. (Thanks, Nanny, for financing the new fishy purchase!)
This week, both Xander's teacher and I will be starting a rewards program. Five well-behaved days will garner a reward. I hate to have to do this for school, but nothing else is coming to mind. I don't want him to hate school, I really don't. And I think for the most part he doesn't - he's been bringing home good work.
New Year's Day we spent at Skinny Grandma's (aka Trudi's) house, as has become our tradition. Xander played with all of his cousins, including Dylan and Andrew. In fact, Andrew seemed to be everyone's favorite toy! I admit I was taken aback by Andrew - puberty is in da house and his voice has really dropped!
On Friday, Joe joined Xander and I at Eli & Krissy's house. We hung out, visited with Aunt Marge, had dinner, and played games until midnight. The kids all made holiday suncatchers. Xander was supposed to come home with us, but he was sound asleep on the pull-out bed so he got to have a sleep over.
I brought my new MP3 player (thanks, Joe!), so there was music to dance along to. Eli and I did some boogying, and then Aislin horned in. It was really great spending family time! Sure wish we could do this more!
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