I just want to say one word to you

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Plastics. I have found plastics Nirvana. I can now fully indulge my bizarre fascination with Things for Holding Other Things. I have found little squeeze bottles in all sorts of sizes for shampoo when traveling. And big plastic jars for flour and sugar. Not to mention all manner of buckets, pails, bins, barrels and drums. AND! Did you know that we ordinary mortals can also satisfy all our pump, valve, and pipe/duct/blower needs from the privacy of our own computer?

Take a deep cleansing breath... OK. The rest of life pales in comparison, but for the record, it's been the usual whirlwind of grocery shopping, taking the kids to the dentist, a family outing to go apple-picking (SO New Englandy), and visiting my dad, which was really nice last night because my brother from Texas was in town, so we stayed and talked until the kids sent a registered letter to the dining room that said WE ARE DAMN TIRED AND CRANKY – WOULD YOU PLEASE BE RESPONSIBLE PARENTS AND TAKE US HOME AND PUT US TO BED? Yes, they did use all caps, which was sort of obnoxious but got the point across.

So this morning we rushed around with me making lunches and trying to read yesterday's notices from Sarah's school while Ben coped with the toxic waste dump that Milo's litter box had become. As an aside, if you ever get a male cat, make sure you get it neutered before it hits puberty. Milo was about two years old when he got snipped and I think this is why his pee stinks to high heaven big-time even though he doesn't spray. The last couple of weekends, I thought I was going to get caught up on household stuff, such as the blizzard of paper littering the place (mostly items that came in the mail and children's artwork). But the past two Saturdays, my head has been filled with cement, and also we had Invasion of the Head Lice. It's either allergies or galloping incurable cancer of the nasal membranes. On the horizon: dinner with an old college friend tonight, dinner at preschool tomorrow, curriculum night at Sarah's school the next night, and then oh yeah Rosh Hashanah, which I suppose we should do something about. I can't remember what I did with all that time before I had a family. I think there were hobbies and conversation with adults but I'm not sure...

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