Nanny would have been 99 today, but she died two years ago in December. Grandmommie's birthday was a month from today. I miss them both.

I don't like Tuesdays. I know it's Mondays for most people, but for me it's Tuesdays. We have department meetings during lunch so I never even leave my hall, and that makes for a really long day. Then it's a mad dash after school to try to get dinner in before Carmen's 6 o'clock piano lesson. Tonight we also had to go to the library (with overdue stuff from yesterday). So we didn't get dinner in before the lesson, which meant we were running late towards bedtime. During dinner, Carmen spilled her milk for the second night in a row, then Gabe spilled a little of his. Just a general comedy of errors, which I guess lifted my mood a little.

Then after dinner I heard Carmen playing, among other things, We Are the Dinosaurs, Fur Elise and Doo Wah Ditty on the piano. When it was time to go upstairs to get ready for bed, she was working her way through a Mary Poppins book that was mine a long, long time ago. (She'd already picked out Stay Awake before we found it. Tonight she was amazing me with Chim Chim Cheree.)

While I was in the laundry room, I heard David tell Gabriel to take the footstool back to the laundry room. "I can't," replied Gabe. "It's the candy stool!" (He had it positioned near the bucketfuls of candy we ended up with after Halloween.) I had to stop what I was doing and take this picture.


And a story for Paloma: Sunday morning she woke David up, climbing on his chest and pulling on his shirt, saying, "Nana! Nana!" (meaning, "Feeeeeeed me, Daddy!) David almost always lets me sleep in on weekends while he feeds the kids, which I wholeheartedly appreciate.

My own story for the day has to be about making pralines for tomorrow: it's an essay-grading day and we're having a taco salad lunch with everybody bringing different things. I signed up to bring pralines since I haven't made them in a year. Each time I make them (with Grandmommie's recipe), it's an adventure. I've messed them up every possible way. Tonight was a new way. I forgot to put salt on the wax paper before I spread out the liquid pralines, so they stuck to the cabinet. When I tried to pull them up, they crumbled to smithereens. Lots of wax paper & sugar was stuck to the countertop. I had to use a spatula to get it all off and it took me a long time. Why did I sign up to make these on a school night???

I don't know if these are an acquired taste or not, but I have acquired them every chance I could since I was a child. Here is what they are supposed to look like: (I happened to have the camera out after the "candy stool" comment. But even when they look like they're supposed to, they wouldn't win any beauty pageants!)


If you're still reading, you're invited to Carmen's Spanish Celebration on Thursday. It's a play (she has a speaking part as a sailor on I think Christopher Columbus' ship!) with a few songs and poems thrown in for good measure. Her class is singing "Susanita Tiene Un Raton". Don't worry if you can't make it; we will record it. There is a morning performance for the school at 8:30 and a night performance (not sure what time!). Also, she's probably going to be in a Christmas piano recital soon--either December 9 or 16. Nevermind that today was her first lesson with the Christmas book! I'd say she's obsessed except she's the same way with drawing, writing, and almost as fond as reading.