Don't Kick to the Curb What You Can Sell Yourself Downtown

Brigid told a joke, or at least, made a deliberate funny. Oh, she's a funny kid already, and she's done some funny things mirroring what we've done. For instance, we'll put something silly on our heads and say, "Is this how it goes?" or "Is this where it goes?" and she'll laugh and say no. Then she'll do the same thing. Or she'll play peek-a-boo or say, "Where's Brigid? Where did she go?" Stuff like that. But the other night, she really made a deliberate joke. Last weekend, we had a yard sale and I pulled down the bin of Barbies to unload a few in the sale, and she found a Barbie shoe among the dolls. She carried it around most of the day and at bedtime, she had it on her finger. I asked her, "Is that where that goes?" and she looked at me, smiled and say, "No! It goes on your head!" and she held it up on top of her head. She knew it was wrong and that fact made it funny. I laughed and told her, "Brigid, you just made a joke." She laughed and said, "Brigid a funny girl."

Margaret and Patricia aren't feeling too much like funny girls today. They're home with fevers and stomachaches. Brigid had a low-grade fever on Friday and Saturday, so it's no surprise to me that the other two succumbed as well. Today is the first day of jazz class, so they'll be missing that as well. I'll have to pick up their homework assignments this afternoon. It's too bad that days off from school aren't like the old days off from school. When we were out as kids, it was a freebie. You made up the stuff when you got back. But the girls get so much homework every day, there's no way they'd be able to make it all up. I think the school should set them up for the real world, where no one steps in to do your work for you when you're out and away from your desk. It's piled up there until you return. Why cushion them for the inevitability of a never-ending workload?

The yardsale was fairly successful, but it was a long day. Jack took Margaret and Brigid up to the lake for the day and Patricia stayed home to help me. As a reward, we dressed up and walked downtown (we're down to one car now) to go to Irises for dinner. But before we went to the restaurant, we stopped by the used-book store to browse. While I was waiting in line to buy a book I picked up for Margaret, I noticed the woman at the counter checking in books for someone. They looked familiar and then I realized they were familiar. They were the ones I didn't sell in the yardsale and put to the curb! The kid picked them up and headed down to sell them to the bookstore. The girl made $17 on them! Doesn't that just dogear your pages? At least Patricia and I had a great time at Irises. But that $17 would have come in handy.