Turnabout...

...is fair play, I suppose. Just eight days after I returned from the US, Anette has gone and left me alone with the kids for her own trip to New York City. This morning as I sat on the edge of Deanie's bed, bleary-eyed and gulping coffee, daughter number one was counting the cats on daughter number two's pajama top. "Look, V: one-Papa! Two-Adinah! Three-V.!"

I said, "Hey, where's the fourth cat-Anette?"

Adinah looked at me, looked back at V.'s pajama top, then said, "There's only three cats here."

And so there are.

Last night was a typical "While the cat's away" night. I fixed a quick (but healthy!) dinner, put the kids in the tub and washed their hair, then got them into bed (without a protest!) Then I:

1) Cleaned up.

2) Had a smoke.

3) Listened to loud music, in this case some pretty misogynistic, but funky Nigerian high-life, and the ancient back-country warblings of the Carter Family. I can always listen to music with so much more concentration when I'm alone. And like the Dalai Lama says, everyone needs to spend a little time alone every day.

4) Searched YouTUbe for hits corresponding to the phrase "classic science fiction," and then watched a handful of the 80-100 results.
I was drinking red wine and eating popcorn, and even that didn't help. Most of the clips were bad tv and student film dreck. Oh well, so much for the infinite wonders of cyberspace.

What's on the program for TONIGHT? Methinks a pizza party, then after the girls' bedtime...hardcore techno, hardcore hard rock, hardcore blogging and hardcore laundry folding. Yo, YO, YO!!!