When the Cat's Away...

...the family gets to play! And eat dinner together! And just, in general, remember what it is Daddy looks like. Daddy's "cat" is away this week, so he's been leaving the office at around five, which puts him, with L.A. traffic, home around six. With the crazy hours he's been keeping, seeing him before eight or nine feels like he's breaking some sort of rules, and I half expect his Blackberry to burst into flames with the influx of messages he's left unattended to be with us.

Alas, Collin doesn't understand Blackberries, and all that they entail, except to say, "put the phone down," something he says to both Daddy and Mommy. Instead, he's just enjoying the spoils of Daddy being home this week. Can you tell he's happy Daddy took a bath with him last night? Ignore the crusty booger on his nose. Clearly, Daddy did the washing last night. Why don't things get done properly when Daddy does them?


Mommy is happy that Daddy is home too. I got to have a conversation with my husband last night that did not involve me poking him in the eye to keep him awake during it's completion. I got to watch my men play together instead of seeing my son push him away because he's too upset by the routine being disturbed. I got ten minutes to myself while they splashed away and tonight, I'm thinking I may take ten more minutes, as at 4:37, he was on his way home again. A girl could get used to this. I don't even mind going to cook dinner, because for a change, we all get to eat together; as together as 2/3 of us eating the same meal can be. Daddy and Collin are having a beef stir-fry and Mommy is having leftovers from last night's yummy green bean pasta.

I don't have a good explanation, by the way, for this no more meat thing. It's something I kind of have been thinking of for a while. In principle, I don't like the idea of eating animals, but I get it. I'm not against it, but I don't love it. Heck, leather boots are like heroin to me. And, I have wanted to try cutting back on red meat for a while, then other meats too, to see if it helped with some tummy issues I have (read: my pooper ain't what it used to be--too much for you?). It worked. Each little cut back was easier and easier and helped more and more and then suddenly, there was no meat. I've got a weak explanation but my body feels good. Even my headaches have been more mild. I'm not going to go around toting a poster with a little lamb with a teardrop telling everyone, or anyone for that matter, that they shouldn't eat meat because heck, we are omnivores by nature; but, for now, I'm not going to do it. My mother-in-law, in fact has a great point about how we are pretty much equally as cruel to migrant workers who pick the vegetables that the veggie-eaters on high horses think they are saving animals to eat. Alas, I'm a mild vegetarian at the moment. And, if chicken broth makes its way into a recipe, I'll probably eat it, but maybe not so much the chicken.

Grandpa and Nana Debby, thanks for the world's messiest sucker :) Seriously though, he loved it. He's giving you his "here's lookin' atcha!" grin with the wink. What a stud muffin, eh?