Assorted Randomness in Bullet Form

• We are fascinated with the Olympics around here.  Gymnastics and swimming are the biggest hits among the under-nine set.  Jason informed me the other night as we watched an American gold medal winner looking stone-faced during the National Anthem that when he wins Olympic gold he fully intends to sing.  We are appalled when they don't even bother to mouth the words.  My beloved did mention that if he competes in diving he will likely opt for his standard knee-length trunks instead of the standard Olympic-issue Speedo.  Such a rebel.

• Are you watching Downton Abbey?  I wasn't either until recently, but now I know what I was missing.  The costumes alone are worth the time......for heaven's sake, those people changed clothes constantly!  It's really just the perfect guilty-pleasure combination.  There's enough soapy drama to keep you hooked, but it's a British show that airs on PBS so it makes you feel a tad sophisticated while you watch.  It also makes me want to talk constantly in a British accent.

• The girls have discovered that if you schlep the garden hose to the top of your two-story playhouse and let the water run down the curly slide, it's almost just like the waterside at the pool.  We have discovered that girls can be just as messy as boys.

• I never really mentioned potty training Henry, mostly because it was pretty much a non-event.  I will mention how fascinated I am with his adoration of peeing outside.  I realize this doesn't make him unique, but it still mystifies me.  In one (thankfully) isolated incident we did have to remind him that peeing outside is okay, but you can't just open the basement door and pee onto the deck.

• School starts in less than two weeks.  If I think too much about Charlotte eating lunch in the school cafeteria I want to cry and sing Sunrise, Sunset with my face buried in her hair.  The school supply shopping was all they could have dreamed of and more, although they were crushed (especially Caroline) when I wouldn't allow them to augment the list with scientific calculators, glittery scissors, assorted colored pens and binders large enough to hold multiple reams of paper.

• Today Caroline said to me, "Mom, I think you're being a little over-dramatic."  I said, in the words of Phoebe Buffay, "Hello, Kettle?  This is Monica (or Caroline).  You're black."