Reading: An Instance of the Fingerpost, a historical thriller about a murder, set in England in 1663. Dad is reading it right now and highly recommends it. We have similar tastes in books, so I think I'll enjoy it.

Watching: Back to the Future on TBS and old sitcoms on Nick at Nite in the early morning hours.

Background courtesy of
Ace of Space

Laverne and Shirley and Me

Tab had thought he would be done with his wedding by 5:30 yesterday at the latest. I expected he'd be home around 6:30 so I held off on getting anything ready for dinner. By 7:15, I finally went ahead and ordered takeout from our local Chinese restaurant.

I was not in a good mood last night. I was annoyed that Tab had not called to tell me he would be late, and I was tired of having dealt with the three boys by myself all day. My deadline for my latest project for the Press was looming, and I had little time to work on it during the day since Tab wasn't here to take over some of the child care. In my haste to get the boys fed and the twins ready for bed, I knocked over a half gallon carton of milk and spilled at least a pint of it on the kitchen floor. Amber, one of our cats, glided over to the spill and took an experimental lick, then walked away.

"If you're not going to help clean up a milk spill, what good are you?" I muttered at her.

By the time I finally got to work it was after 9. This book was not a particularly complicated one, but it had a few tables that needed to be set as well as footnotes, which are always more difficult to set than endnotes.

While I worked I watched Back to the Future on TBS and mulled over the Turner network's curiously inconsistent policy on profanity. "Ass" is acceptable but not "shit." "Damn" is okay but not "Goddamn." "Bitch," passes but not "son of a bitch," leading to Biff's line to Marty: "You caused $200 dollars worth of damage to my car, you bitch, and I'm going to take it out of your ass!" Kymm had commented on this strange editing a while back and had pointed out that cutting the "son of a" gives the line a bizarre, homoerotic insinuation quite unintended by the screenwriter. When I heard it for myself last night, I laughed out loud and thought, "Kymm was right."

I'll gloss over the remainder of the long night. I knew it was going to be a late one, but all along I had thought I'd be able to get a little sleep. Somewhere in the early morning hours, however, I realized I wasn't going to get to bed at all. When I found myself singing along with the theme song to Laverne and Shirley at 3 in the morning, the scales of denial fell from my eyes, and I conceded that I was in middle of another all-nighter.

"And we'll do it our way, yes, our way, make all our dreeeeams come truuuuue, for me and you!"

And is it just me, or was The Dick Van Dyke Show ever really funny? I've watched it on Nickelodeon every time I've been up late, and I have yet to laugh at that program, yet it is touted as a classic example of television comedy.

The good news is that I did finish not only this job but another smaller job and turned them both into the Press this morning. If all goes well and the Press's accounting office isn't on vacation this week, I'll be getting a nice-sized check in the mail late this week or early next week, which means I'll be able to pay Daniel's tuition bill this month. Oh, the joys of living check to check.

I tried resting on the couch this morning, while the twins watched Mulan. I must have dozed off for a few minutes, then suddenly Matthew was standing in front of me saying, "Reno put a stone in my ear!"

Upon questioning it appeared that Matthew had been lying on the floor pretending to be asleep and when he wouldn't answer Stephen, Stephen retaliated by dropping a stone in Matthew's ear. Earlier this year, Stephen swallowed a marble, and when he was two he stuck a raisin up his nose, which our pediatrician had to remove. This is the first time he's ever done something like that to someone else. I yelled at both of them: Stephen for doing the deed and Matthew for letting him do it.

I'd been hoping to get some rest this afternoon while the twins napped; the last thing I wanted to do was to have to make an unscheduled trip to the doctor's office. When I looked into Matthew's ear the small stone was plainly visible. With a pair of tweezers, being careful not to push the stone further in, I managed to dislodge it.

As it turns out, I didn't have much of a chance to nap today because the twins didn't nap long at all this afternoon. I feel a lot worse today than I have after my previous all-nighters. All day I've felt like I was moving under water. I had to force myself to pay especially careful attention to my driving in order to avoid any dangerous, fatigue-induced lapses of judgment. Even with another deadline looming Friday, I'm going to bed early tonight.

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