If It's Wrapped in Crescent Dough, Move Along the Buffet Line

Remind us never take the little hot dog roll-ups at China Buffet. They're poison and Brigid got the brunt of it Wednesday night when she woke up at midnight, calling out and crying. Jack heard her on the monitor, said it sounded like she was choking, so we went in to check on her and, sure enough, she had thrown up all over. We stripped her, stripped the crib and brought her in bed with us. Thing is, she didn't have a fever or that glassy-eyed look babies usually get when they're sick in the night. But she was definitely not herself. She snuggled in and fell back to sleep only to wake up a few hours later and spew again -- all over me. After some hustle to keep her from being sick all over the bed, we were able to settle back down and she slept some more and was sick one more time. But that was it. The next day, she ran around like nothing happened. We're pretty convinced it was the hot dogs.

I took the girls to the mall in the afternoon and spent some time at Borders, where I was able to parlay a gift card Brigid got from Chet and Marilyn and a Borders coupon into a great deal on a Winnie-the-Pooh DVD. We had the VHS tape from when Margaret was a baby, but I can't find it. The DVD was outrageously priced, but a 30-percent coupon made it more reasonable. And I think Chet and Mar would approve of the gift card being spent on Winnie-the-Pooh. We thank you, Chet and Mar! Margaret and Patricia have been hoarding their gift cards, calculating purchases like croans at the market in 1900 Kiev. They did pretty well this Christmas, gift-card wise, so they're enjoying regular trips to Borders. Thank-you notes are still forthcoming. In the meantime, we watched Pooh last night and Brigid was transfixed -- for the most part -- especially the Hefalumps and Woozels segment. Don't know if she was mesmerized or terrified. I remember both Margaret and Patricia being afraid during that segment when they were babies. No wonder. It's pretty scary.

Margaret's "team" at school had a field trip today to the Adirondack Park Visitor Interpretive Center at Paul Smiths to go snowshoeing. We had wonderful snow at the holidays; it's melted down to nothing now, but with any luck, they'll still have some in the mountains to traipse around on. It's Pajama Day at Oak Street School, and Patricia loves the idea of going to school in her pajamas. I wish we had pajama day at work. I think it would just encourage us to sleep at our desks.

Patricia brought home paperwork for a jump-rope-athon (don't know if that's a real "athon," but everything is an "athon" these days) for the American Heart Association. The kids will be jumping rope for pledges. It's a fund-raiser I can get behind. Sure beats those magazine drives and junk catalog sales they've done for other things. I've looked through those catalogs for hours trying to find one thing I could actually use and not have to sell a kidney to buy it. At least this jump-rope thing will benefit another organ.