Friday bullets, Oct. 20, 2017

• Well, Wednesday was a terribly busy and productive day, but we all paid for it yesterday. We were all wiped out, especially me. It may still take me another day to recover completely.
• We have left Mexico and have headed to Brazil. The immigration stamp I bought for the pretend passports we made continues to be a huge hit. Everyone lines up at the passport control desk, and waits to go through customs. You would think this is the single most fun thing we have ever done. I'm going to quickly run out of immigration official personalities, I can tell. Maybe I'll have one of the big boys leash up Kenzie when we leave Brazil and have him play the fruit and vegetable sniffing dog. 
• On Tuesday, A. came home from work, and asks, "What's with all the birds?" when she entered. I had no idea what she was talking about, so went outside to investigate. Our silver maples were all filled with what turned out to be grackles, all making amazingly loud noises. There were hundreds of them. Occasionally, you would see a bunch of them fly to another tree, but the noise never stopped. It was pretty amazing. And then, as if someone had flipped a switch, all hundred plus birds in all the different trees, became quiet at the same time, and flew off together in a huge mass. It would seem we were merely a brief resting spot on their migration route. It was pretty darn cool.
• For those of you who read The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig when I recommended it a while back, be aware that there are two more books which follow Morrie, the school teacher on his further adventures... Work Song and Sweet Thunder. I enjoyed them both, perhaps not quite as much as the first, but they were worthwhile, especially if you liked the character.
• Olive was five months old yesterday, and is now officially taller than Kenzie. 
• We have discovered that Q.'s favorite treat, besides bugs, is graham crackers. He loves them. He does not love worms, however. Not one little bit.
• I still have room in my piano studio, for anyone in the area who is interested.
• L. has moved from writing fiction (last week), to writing reports this week. She carries around a pad of paper and a non-fiction books, and writes out her report. We will frequently hear her say, "I need to go do my research," and she marches off to find another book to look at. 
• I took G. and L. with me to go get P. from her riding lesson yesterday. It seems there was a line waiting for the wash rack, so it took a little longer than usual. As we were waiting, L. asks (again), "When is she done?" G. replies, "You can practice your patience." L., correctly, says loudly, "I AM NOT GOOD AT PATIENCE!" G. and I heartily agreed with her.
• I think all my children will be home this weekend. Hooray!
• We had to wait a couple of days for a book to arrive at the library for our tea time read aloud earlier this week. People were not happy at not having a book to listen to, so K. offered to read one of his. He read a few pages and the masses were happy again.
• Y. has used her knee immobilizer for three nights now, and the difference is amazing. (It's essentially a leg brace, like they put on people after knee surgery. This is at least our third one in the family, due to the crazy amount of knee surgeries my children have had.) After the first night, she felt as though she was leaning the whole day, because the leg she used it one was so much straighter. The next day, she felt even again. She is so pleased with the difference that it makes it easy for her to comply. Plus, she loves not having to wear braces during the day. I imagine that once we get the night time AFO's made, the difference will be even more noticeable.
• We have friends from Evanston joining us today. I'm excited to see the, and I'm sure that Y. will be excited to have some Mandarin speakers around for a bit. 

Enjoy your Friday and your weekend.
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And yes, my Friday post is publishing on Thursday night because in my stupor, I forgot to set the publish date for tomorrow.