Dominica’s parents are coming over today around noon, so a lot of house cleaning and cooking and stuff going on before they get here. From about eight until eleven, it was continuous house cleaning. Then Dominica started baking apple dumplings. So it was a very busy morning.
The girls are happy as visiting grandparents means no school for them today. They slept in as long as they could and were still in bed at eleven when I made them get up and start brushing their hair.
I got right up and got back to building that server that I was working on last night. That went smoothly this morning.
While cleaning in the kitchen, Dominica sliced her finger very badly on the new food processor blade which was sitting on the counter and she had not paid attention and crashed into it while scrubbing the counter. And that was less than an hour after Paul had just given her a whole safety lesson on avoiding that because it was so sharp.
Dominica made apple dumplings this morning to have while her family is here.
Dominica’s parents were supposed to get here at noon, but did not arrive when expected. They got stuck trying to get here, so didn’t arrive till after one, and were only able to stay a little under an hour. Truman was very excited to be back at the house and to see everyone.
Paul made homemade potato chips and then did fried clams and shrimp for a late lunch, since we had all skipped breakfast today. Having a fryer at home is the best.
Today was not nearly so crazy at work. Finally the insanity is starting to break. I hope.
Liesl showed me her library book today that she is starting to ready today, and I was amazed that she picked out one of my favourite books from around her age. Dominica had no idea that I had read (or that we already owned a copy of) it. So today Liesl starts The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
Luciana read her library book today, too. Luciana keeps claiming that she cannot read. But she read her “My First Little House on the Prairie” book today and knew every word, including loads that she’s not been taught how to sound out, without any help except for the word Wisconsin! She read the entire book! She is already a full reader. She is so excited and plans to read a lot more books now. Dominica is very excited too, being the reader of the family herself, she was hoping that at least one of the girls would be really into book.
Luciana’s new favourite thing is having me read to her while she is in the shower. She also refuses to use the old shower, which was her favourite, because the new one is so much better. Which is what I told Dominica (and the girls too) about getting a non-tub shower. Dominica was convinced that Luciana at least, if not Liesl too, was young enough that she would want a bath tub for several more years and that having only a shower was only okay if the other bath remained a bath, rather than a shower only. But as soon as we had a nice shower, that’s the only thing that the girls will consider. They never liked the bath tub at all. So we read chapter seven of the first Harry Potter book.
Once work was slow, I took some time to relax and watch Deep Space Nine. I’m midway through the sixth season and it is quite good at this point. The story is actually pretty complex. Dominica will wander in and want it explained and she is always shocked by how much is going on and how little she has followed it thus far.
We all (the adults) watched another episode of Star Trek: Voyager, as well.
It’s sad to think that long ago there was a time when three series of Star Trek were all running at the same time, so three new episodes, in three different series, were coming out each week. All three were great series. There has never been anything like that before or since. The three series were carefully synchronized and things happened across them and the universe was consistent between them. And then it all went away, long ago. And nothing like it has been done, since. There is a little talk of something like that happening now, but we will see if it comes to fruition. It’s been so long since the those were airing.
Dominica and Paul went to shoot some pool this evening. The kids stayed with me, but they had a busy day and just wanted to do their own things. So I was just in charge of making dinner and stuff, but we didn’t do anything together really.
Got the kids to bed rather late tonight. Tomorrow Luciana and I are scheduled to have eye appointments at noon and twelve thirty. Time for Luciana to get glasses, and for me to get new ones. Mine are nearly a decade old and the glass is literally splitting down the middle, and has been for nearly a year now! I can’t believe how well they have held up. They are the same glasses that I wore when we first took the girls to Europe in 2012. They are the only glasses that Luciana has ever seen me wear, and the only ones that Liesl could possibly remember. I think that I got them in 2010 or 2011. I know that I got them while in Texas and my pictures from my trip to Germany in 2009 were the glasses before them (which I’m sure that I had for at least five years.) What’s amazing is that these never fit right at all. They were crooked the day that I got them, and remain crooked today. I just live with it.
Tonight I started reading East of Eden by Steinbeck. It is considered his greatest work and one of the great American novels. It is supposed to be better than The Grapes of Wrath, which I really did not like reading as a kid, or Of Mice and Men, which I also read when young. I think that I would appreciate GoW much more now, as an adult, with more appreciation for the history and socio-economic situation at the time.