7 Quick Takes about Shark Life, Interesting Occupations, and How the Names for Breakfast Foods Were Invented (Probably)

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

When Phillip came home from a work trip earlier this week, he put his bags down and immediately started fixing the dryer (which broke just before he had to leave.)

My daughter raised her eyebrow and asked, "You don't even want to sit down first?"

I'm sure he wanted to, but if he sat down he'd be too tired to get back up and take care of the dryer, so that's what he did.

I know how he feels. Sometimes after the last ride of the night has been given and the last kid is in bed and I'm totally exhausted but I have to clean the dirty kitchen anyway, I feel a lot like a shark: if I stop moving, I'll die. 

—2—

Last weekend I was having a stressful day so Phillip, meaning well, brought home some strawberry ice cream for us to share and relax.

Things were so insane that day and for the next several days that we didn't have time, and then he left on his work trip, and then it was really busy because I had nobody to tag-team with in the evenings, so it's been a week and it's still sitting untouched in the freezer.

So I never even ate the stress ice cream because I was too stressed-out... which is why he bought it, and also why I don't have time to eat it. 

—3—

Phillip is an engineer with a company that does building materials, and his recent work trip was to see one of the products his team designed being installed on a house and take some measurements.

I don't even know how to describe his job. He has a PhD and is in charge of multi-million dollar projects, but he also wears work-issued steel-toed boots and sends me texts like this from his business trips:

That's actually just the way he likes it, though,. He would be bored to death if his job was all just one thing.

—4—

The kids' Halloween costumes are finally done! The 16-year-old may have superglued her fingers together and gone to work with her hands covered in silver spraypaint, but she's finished with a Black Widow costume.

After some thought, the 14-year-old finally decided to go as a "mug shot" and his costume turned out really great. He drew horizontal lines with heights on a foam board, strapped it to him like a backpack, and printed out a mug shot board to hold. (I suggested he also put on a Hawaiian shirt and do his hair like Nick Nolte, but judging from the blank look on his face I guess that was before his time.)

—5—

My 8-year-old wanted to be Poseidon, so we worked this week on making him a trident. I realize you can buy those things, but I hate spending money on stuff like that so I cut the spear part out of cardboard, attached it to a broom handle I found in the basement, and wrapped it all in aluminum foil. 

It was even more tedious than it sounds.

The pièce de résistance of his costume, though, is the fake beard I found for him. It's meant to be for an adult, so when my 6-year-old puts it on it practically goes down to his knees and he looks like a garden gnome.

It gives me flashbacks to when my older son got a banana costume and wore it around the house in funny situations all day.

—6—

As I write this, it's really loud. We're having our driveway torn up and replaced, and there's a crew of 6 or 7 guys outside with heavy machinery handling the demolition. 

I kind of wish I needed to be somewhere else today, since it's a little disconcerting to look out your window and see this:

Logically you know it's supposed to be happening, but it just feels like something you should be heavily concerned about.

—7—

The other day as my 14-year-old was making himself oatmeal for breakfast, he said to me, "You know, 'oatmeal' is a pretty dumb name."

"Do you think so?" I asked.

To prove his point, he grunted in a caveman voice, "Me have oats. Me make meal. Me call it... OAT MEAL."

He has a point.

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