The one in which I attempt a segue between halitosis and Strawberry Shortcake

The kid is recovering well from her surgery and was all set to go back to school today . . . until school was canceled because of a winter storm, that is.  The only real issue we've noticed after the surgery is her breath.  It could "knock a buzzard off a shit wagon" as my stad would say. The doctor had warned us about this possibility, but I guess we didn't think about it until it came to fruition. I assume it has something to do with dried blood and/or healing tissue from the adenoidectomy.  Whatever it is, we don't have the heart to say anything to her.  Of course, one time I ate some garlic-parmesan pretzels and the kid didn't hesitate for a second to tell me that I had problem. There was all sorts of hand-waving-in-front-of-the-nose and "Oh my gosh, your breath, Mama!" theatrics going on.

Other than that, she's been doing fine.  She goes back in for a follow-up with the doctor on Thursday. She and I spent the day together on Saturday.  We went to Weight Watchers, out for breakfast with a friend of mine, and then to a local farmers' market (yes, a farmers' market in the winter - see, I told you we were capable of finding a festival or celebration anywhere and any time!) The kid got her face painted and ate a wee cupcake on a stick ($7 for the face painting, $2 for the microscopic cupcake, in case you wondered). After that, we headed to a meet-n-greet that the rescue was holding at a pet supply store about an hour north of us.  We weren't there officially as volunteers - we just went to check it out and say "hey" to the others. I bought Gideon a skull-and-crossbones collar because you know how he likes to look tough with his four remaining teeth and all. We rounded out the afternoon by catching a performance of "Beauty and the Beast" at our local junior high.  A friend from church was playing Belle (yes, we are that well-connected!)

I was a little nervous all weekend because I was scheduled to lead the service at church on Sunday as well as to deliver the sermon. I must say I have a renewed respect for pastor-types, as it took me a couple of months to a) come up with a topic, b) write it, and c) obsessively edit the bejeebers out of it. Obviously there'd be no hope of pulling this off every week. Also, I'm officially out of topics now (this was my third time presenting) so I guess it's a moot point anyway. 

Part of our service entails reading a story to the children before they go off to their religious education classes.  I chose a book called "Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!" by Dr. Seuss.  I sat in a rocking chair and the fellowship's youngsters sat on the floor in front of me.  My kid made sure she was physically closer to me than anyone else. As I was reading, another little girl made the mistake of inching closer to the chair.  I was trying not to look down but out of the corner of my eye, I saw my daughter's arm fly out and give the other child the  universal "stop" signal of the open hand.  By this time, A was sitting on my feet, with her arms and legs wrapped around my calves. At that point, she could not get any closer to me without having herself surgically implanted in my flesh, so she settled for glaring at the other kids.  I wasn't expecting the green-eyed monster to appear quite so menacingly during an innocent children's story!

A snowstorm was scheduled to roll in by afternoon, so we stopped at Red Robin* for an early lunch after church. I had my free birthday burger coupon and, as you may have noticed, I am not one to let free things go by. After that, we headed to Best Buy to buy a wireless router. Our neighbor was willing to let us tap into her wireless network, but the signal was not strong enough.  Anyway, we can now view streaming movies through our Netflix account (via the PS3).  A immediately wanted to watch Strawberry Shortcake, which caused us immediately to second-guess the purchase of the router.

The storm ended up dumping about a foot of snow on our fair city. I can't say that I'm too upset about it, in as much as the poop swamp in the back yard has now been returned to its unseen glory.

*After lunch, I played the claw machine and won something on my first try (an orange teddy bear).  Just as P started to say, "You know you'll never win any-" my ugly little bear came tumbling down the chute.  Take that!