Staking Claims

I never did get my act all the way together today, but this evening, after properly haranguing my kids for their homework and then feeding what must have been the entire neighborhood leftover pizza and KFC (or ucky fried ick, as Dan likes to call it), I declared myself off duty at 7 pm so I could watch the THREE HOUR ER finale tonight. I went downstairs, switched on the flat screen for about the second time since we got it, and commandeered the basement. The little darlings and the neighborhood were left upstairs with strict instructions to not eat popcorn in my bed and to keep Olivia inside.

I have spent every Thursday night of the past nearly 15 years watching ER, and I have to say I'm going to feel a little lost on Thursday nights now. That show has been around longer than most of my kids, and it's really the only show we watch regularly. So I really wanted to see the last one, even though the original glam wore off a few years ago. It took a few stern warnings, but I have to say the kids did really well at leaving me alone. Will came down once to ask if he could sell the GameCube to his friend (no). Audrey came down once to tell me her frog was dead (it wasn't), and Olivia came down to ask me where her Snow White dress was (behind the couch, where else?) I even remembered to send the neighborhood home around nine....don't ask me where their parents are, or why they don't ever call their kids home before 9pm on a school night. But the point is, I sat downstairs in my family room and watched a whole TV show, on my couch, without getting up 46 times, without folding laundry, and before 10pm. And nobody's head exploded, not even mine.

Maybe they are growing up.

My review of the finale? Kind of boring, and predictable, just like the last few seasons have been. I think Michael Crighton was the genius who created the really good story lines. But the first hour, the reminiscing stuff was good, and made you long for the good old days of Green, Carter, Ross, Romano and Hathaway.

On a completely unrelated topic, we must love seeing our kids asleep, because we sure do take a lot of pictures of them that way:

Please take note that these pictures are taken in MY bed, where certain little people have been sleeping far too often of late.....