Friday bullets on Saturday

I was so excited about my little discovery and so excited to share it with you yesterday, that I kind of forgot it was Friday. So let's pretend it's still Friday even though it's really Saturday.

• I finally got people to play our new game, Pandemic, last weekend. M. was over, and joined D., J., and me to play it. (It's just a four person game.) The goal of the game is to eradicate the five viruses that are spreading across the world. You are given a game character with certain capabilities, and together all the players try to beat the game. Now, usually I am not a huge fan of cooperative games. I like a game where I can beat everyone soundly and be pronounced the winner. I'm competitive like that. Everyone winning or everyone losing didn't seem as satisfying. Well, I have to admit that I really enjoyed playing this game. I think it was because to beat the game, there is a certain logic puzzle to it all. Who needs to do what and when, because the number of rounds you are given is rather limited. Now, we did beat the game and I did play the winning hand at the last possible moment, so that probably colors my perception, but I really liked it. Because of the amount of logic and cooperation required, I would say it would be suitable for ages 13 and up, depending upon maturity. D. did fine, but he is an experienced game player. 
• Speaking of D., he is currently playing Oberon in Thin Ice Theater's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream this weekend. If you are in the area, you still have two more chances to see the show. It's a lot of fun and is a terrific introduction to Shakespeare for your children if they have never seen a live production. It's very funny. D. is enjoying being in it, though he did get in the car after last night's show and said, "I don't get any funny lines. I'm just a plot device." I'm afraid he has an accurate reading of Oberon's role in the play.

• We had our one year post-placement social worker visit this week, with yet another new social worker. (I've lost count as to how many we've had over the years at this point.) While they've all been nice enough, that's about where it starts and stops. This time? Wow, do I like our new social worker! I mean, you've got to love a social worker when your daughter, L., in this case, walks into the room in full velociraptor mode... short arms with claws waving, stalking, growling. The social worker talks to the velociraptor and the velociraptor growls back. After a while, with never breaking character or speaking a word of English, the velociraptor stalks back out of the room. There is a pause, and the social worker says, "Isn't she cute?" I wanted to hug her. The social worker, not the velociraptor. I've learned that velociraptors are very difficult to hug. 
• K. has started the process to get an expander placed in his mouth later this month, starting with separators that were put in on Tuesday. This has meant that my child who suffered from severe malnutrition early in life is now more than a little obsessed about what he can and cannot eat. I'm going to take the suggestion of another experienced adoptive mom and make sure the office knows not to discuss banned foods with him. I can take care of making sure he doesn't eat what he is not supposed to. I forget his early trauma most of the time, and sometimes am caught off guard when it rears its head. The expander is to make room for braces, which in turn will make room for the bone graft to close up the hole (finally) in his alveolar ridge.
• If it's too good to be true, it probably is. How many times must we learn that lesson? I just got off the phone with J. He was downtown, trying to pick-up a treadmill that someone was selling and we were going to buy. It was a nice treadmill and we were paying a tiny fraction of what it would cost new. All we had to do was bring some cash, dismantle it, and take it away. The story was that the guy was moving today and it wouldn't fit, so he was trying to sell it. He was always a little hard to get a hold of via fb, but I'm willing to understand not everyone looks at it everyday. Details were (sort of) worked out last night and J. and B. headed downtown. Well, a bit ago, B. calls to see if he got the phone number correct because the number he tried calling was not to the treadmill guy, and this guy was definitely not selling a treadmill. So they head into the building and the front desk has no idea who this guy is. He really went above and beyond and as the story unfolded, it turns out there wasn't even a moving van scheduled for today, which was the story treadmill guy told us. You want my theory? I think Treadmill Guy was planing on just meeting J. in the lobby of the building, taking him to a different building, and then showing him a hot treadmill. But, J. and B. were a little late, so Treadmill Guy couldn't hang around the lobby indefinitely, so left. And no treadmill. Drat.
• A. went back to school today for the next semester. It was so much fun to have her here over Christmas break and we're all going to miss her. Some little girls I know were especially sad to see her go.
• My people have been eating me out of house and home. I'm going to the grocery store later and the situation is rather dire. We've had no leftovers from dinner for multiple nights in a row and practically everything I keep on hand for lunches and breakfasts is gone. It could be a massive growth spurt for everyone at the same time. I hope it stops soon, because this is a significant amount of food they are eating in a week.
• Over the past month, we have lost somewhere inside our house one library book and one Netflix DVD. I have no idea where they are and have searched high and low. It's not as if we are living in a hoarders episode... things are generally organized and have a place. This is a mystery. I think in all my years of using the library and the 1000's of books that I've checked out, I have only had to pay to replace two. One was because it was lost and never found and the other was because I accidentally mailed the book in the post office drop box instead of returning the book in the library drop box. They are next to each other. You would think that the postal worker would see a library book in the mailbox and just return it, but no, you would think wrong. It drives me a little nuts not to be able to find these things and have to pay for them.