Friday Funny

Wrote this a few days ago:

So Jonah comes in this morning straight from bed. I’m in my office, packing up the briefcase for the day, and he’s in his Huck Finn jams: pants too short by a long inch and t-shirt worn and oversized. He’s upset and half-asleep, and he bursts in and stands at the doorway and blurts out, with a perfect admixture of husk, chagrin, and accusation, “Why’d-you-close-my-door-Dad?” Well, Wendy had closed it not ten minutes before hoping he’d sleep in a little (no school today for him), but I played along. I said, equally chagrined and faux-offended, “I-didn’t-close-your-door. Somebody-else-closed-your-door!”

He says, “Maybe-it-was-the-monsters-that-came-in-the-night. That’s-twice-I’ve-slept-in-the-dark!”

Realize there’s no fear in his voice or manner, just massive perturbation.

I assure him he had not been asleep with the door shut for long, and that it wasn’t monsters it was his mater, and even if it were monsters, they’d take one look at my pythons and run screaming from the house. Then I flex Shanana style, and he laughs. Not sure what that means, but I’ve decided not to take it personally.

Dreamt last night about Tom Cruise, artichoke hearts, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Maybe there are monsters. Who’s up for an exorcisim?


Today:

As a follow-up: last night's dream was that Wendy and I had begun socializing with Brangelina while in Italy. Very nice folks. Cute kids.

Was our Sabbath again, and I gotta admit, it's not easy given the inverted weekend. We don't have a free evening where we can party late and sleep in with impunity, so that sucks. But we do our best. Anyhoo. Today was leadership training in Bahrain, so our BP, his partner, and the RSP were all gone, which left, of active participants, us and Adrian. So we slept in (with approval) and had a GC catchup day. Adrian joined us (see above). Here's Christopher paying very close attention, striking a meditative pose:



What was funny was hearing the difference between our talks and the incantatory stuff broadcast outside. On Fridays we can hear the weekly sermons being delivered over the loudspeakers, but the style is either monotonic or angry, the latter making us nervous and the former quite frankly grating. Anyway, the difference was interesting: I'd rather do 10 hours of expressive, warm, and doctrinally stimulating stuff than the twenty minute alternative. No plans for conversion at present.

Three desert pics from the outskirts taken during our late afternoon drive today, playing Matisyahu and having a sing-along.







And, finally, though not clear: check out the chariot-wrecker hubs on this baby (double-click to magnify). The mud flaps were like a muslim wedding announcement: engraved, brightly coloured, and ornate. The pic doesn't do justice.



Shout-ats: was no one appalled when I suggested we'd be going to Sudan for the summer? We're actually trying for Italy for 6 weeks: a little rental just outside Rome as home base. Speaking of which, I need to pin down my contact. We'll let you know if we'll have room for boarders.