White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Standard morning with the added bonus of a good night's sleep. I wake around sevenish when Hero-Dad wanders downstairs and surprises the hounds who have managed to escape once again. I guess the reinforced concrete retention walls were not enough to keep them in the den. Gramps lets the dogs out and tosses snow balls at them while I fill their chow bowls so they have something to fill their bellies other than concrete and rebar. Since it is Saturday, we head out to Friendlies for pancakes. There is no IHOP or Perkins in this neck of the woods so we will have to make due. The service is painfully slow so Jake gets impatient and wants to walk about. Since we had no space to pack the 'retention' seats, he insists that he should rightfully sit on the Wife's lap. Big Little Brother shows up shortly after 0900 and we get down to our orders. The food is luke warm and the pancakes are mealy. Next time, we'll order the French toast.

We are scheduled for a haircut appointment at 1115 so we have an hour or so to kill. Down the street a mile or so, there is an Asian Market that we like to visit whenever we are in town. We gab some tea and I pick up a couple of energy drinks that I want to try. One is in Korean and I have not a clue what is in it. Could be Yak turd extract for all I know. While the Mrs and I are trolling the small store with my brother, Grams and Gramps walk around out behind the store with the kids. There is a large abandoned parking lot that is mostly covered by gravel and grit. There, the kids are shown a quick lesson in rock tossing and apparently get into in with great gusto. This puts them in a fairly good mood and makes the rest of our 'burn time' fairly enjoyable. We still have a bit of extra time so we head off to Lowes to nose around for some replacement hardware. Bathroom fans are on the top of the list. We did find some interesting vinyl flooring that looks like wood. That would go nicely in the mud-room and the foyer. The old linoleum is starting to get really beat up and has gotten to a point were it is no longer salvageable. There is some sub-flooring as well that will work nicely in the kennel if we do not go with the pergo type flooring. It is a concrete floor so putting real wood on it just will not work. I'll have to look into this once we get back to the manor, it might just be do-able.

We get to the barber shop just in time. We expect a lot of grief since the kids have never sat still for a haircut. We are pleasantly surprised. Jacob sits as still as a Greek statue for the whole time he is in his chair. I just don't know how to explain it. Not a whimper, not a wiggle. I was certain that our son who would not sit still if he would be granted a mountain of sugar was replaced by some sort of doppleganger. Or a powered down cyborg. I have never seen anything like it. To add to my befuddlement, Alexis followed the same route. I swear that they put something in the spray bottle that either intoxicated or stunned them. I'll have to get a sample and bring it to the boys down in the lab. I could use that stuff! After the miracle hair-cut (I gotta call the Pope on this one), we went for a stroll about the Ithaca Commons where we watched people walk their dogs and the granolas herd their little ones dressed in gunny sacks. There was a play-ground at one end that was completely overrun with the local young ones. We let the twins play for a bit, but it was so crowded that there was very little space for anyone to do much but thrash about like a miniature versions of mosh pit goths. After they had their fill of trouncing the locals, we head back to the outpost and have a bit of lunch. The kids eat pretty well and we send them off to bed by 1400 for a well needed nap.

While the kids nap, SuperMom and the Mrs go out shopping while HeroDad and I stay home and wash the dishes. Hey, washing glassware is incalculably large factor better than having to go out shopping so we engaged the task with much vigor and urgency. That, and I get to put away all the utensils in strange places as a pay-back for Super(confusing)Mom doing the same thing in my kitchen. After the Lady-folk return home, the kids wake up and the Grandparents break out the hard boiled eggs for coloring. You just cannot have Easter without egg coloring. Getting the smocks on was hard and the twins were not very interested in wearing these pseudo-straight jackets, but they eventually forgot about these restrictive yet festively colored garments as they dove into the activity. We lost a couple eggs to ... exuberance, but we had two dozen so there was no crying over spilt milk. We will not be hiding these eggs, mind you. The kids are novice egg hunters and there is a good chance that if we hid them, we may never see them again in the same shape. Or at all. Then there is the added potential for the Hounds to sniff them out and eat them shell and all. I really do not want to deal with the potential emissions of a hound that has eaten two dozen eggs. Heck, I can barely tolerate my own ... byproduct ... after a good egg salad sandwich.

Dinner was good. Lasagna and garlic bread. Jake was resistant at first, but after a short time out he became a bit more cooperative. After a bit of desert, he was satisfied and we retired to the living room to watch a bit of television. Alexis insisted that we watch The Incredibles and would not stand for any other hack-job DVD. She can be rather persistent. It was getting late and it was showing in their eyes. Jake saw grams laying on the floor and decided that it would be nice to curl up beside Gramps and snuggle. He laid down, grabbed Gramps rugged but gentle hand and pulled it over him. Gramps heart immediately melted. Jake can be a real schmoozer when he wants to be. After the movie ended, it was bath and bed for the depleted little ones. They spent the last of their energy jumping up and down on the Grand-parents bed for a good 5-10 minutes and then tried to seize the bed as their own by crawling under the covers. We put an end to that quickly and they nearly dropped off into sleep the second their heads hit the pillows.

The rest of the night was spent putting coins and snacks into plastic eggs and hiding them about the house. You would think that putting 100 or so eggs in semi-obscure locations would be easy, but the number of locations dwindled quickly until we were resigned to placing them in plain sight. We finished up shortly before midnight and put another day to rest.

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 9:26 PM