Of Lice and Laptops

Well, today has just been a bundle of joy so far. Got a call at 7am from one of Kira's friend's mom, to let me know that there are two cases of lice in Kira's class that she knows of, including her daughter. I checked Kira out, and she is thus far clean, but I will be keeping an eye on that one.

Also got a call just a bit ago from the school, to let me know that Mark's laptop got damaged on Sunday at practice in the gym. Mark apparently was bringing his laptop back home from his father's house (X drops Mark off at the gym and I bring him home, and I am there during the entire practice, so there was no reason for the laptop to be unattended. There's a $100 deductible on the insurance, which the school pays half of, and X and I are responsible for the other half. Mark is paying the $25 on this end. I'm pretty sure X is going to make him pay the $25 over there, too (just got off the phone with D). Maybe it will occur to Mark to be more responsible

What else, what else.... Oh. Mark's coach is looking at different ideas for what Mark can do after the busline season is over to get more basketball in. One of the possibilities, that one boy did a few years ago, is that he might be able to practice with the high school team. No games, obviously, but the practice will be superb. There also might be some kind of travel team league that Mark could participate in. I know also that the girls' coach is planning to run intramurals starting after winter break and running until the beginning of baseball season. So I think Mark is going to have some good opportunity to play b-ball this winter.

Kira has her first game tomorrow through the Y league. She's on a combination 3-4 grade team. She's very excited, and I'm looking forward to it, too. She's not as into basketball as Mark is, in fact she still thinks soccer is her favorite sport, but she does enjoy the activity very much and she's skilled, so it'll be fun.

Kira and I created a new style of cleaning for her room, which has once again become overwhelming. After school today, we are going to do "rainbow cleaning." First she will take care of everything red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. (and black, brown, white) She's actually looking forward to this. Weirdo.

Tomorrow night is the third meeting of our international food group. It's Italian night, and we are gathering at my mom's house. I am making a Torta di Mele (Italian apple cake). The recipe I have uses shredded coconut, raisins, chopped walnuts, apples of course...it should be very yummy.

Mark & I were talking last night, and I was asking how the whole girl thing was going. Last I knew he had an intense crush on one particular girl. Apparently that is waning, to be replaced by come-and-go interest in just about all girls. This was confusing to him. He is finding something attractive about most girls, but not always the same girl and not always the same thing. One day he'll think one girl's eyes are really beautiful, for example, and the next day they're just eyes. I had to break it to him that this is normal and natural and will, in fact, never go away. The way we look at other people, and things that may seem attractive to us, are often in a state of flux. I love that he is seeing so much beauty around him, and I hope he continues to enjoy that. Too many times we stop really seeing the people around us.

OK, I really should go do something about this house. grrrr. Kira said last night that she wished we could just push a button and everything would go back where it belonged. Oh girl, don't we all. mk