Blatherskite, continued

Linnea has a summer school class that started this week. Because her school is in New York State, the 9:00 AM start time is 8:00 AM here in Minnesota. Monday through Thursday, for six weeks. Linnea is not thrilled, mostly because she has decided, sensibly, that she needs to go to bed a bit earlier. As she shares a room with Caroline, who goes to bed later, we were able to get a full report of a recent conversation.

Linnea: "I got you something."

Caroline: "Oh, really? What did you get me?"

Linnea (exasperated): "I'm talking to Mom."

Caroline: "Oh. What did you get Mom?"

Linnea: "Ummmmmm . . . a flower."

Caroline: "Is it a pretty flower?"

Linnea: "Yesssss . . ."

Caroline: "What color is the flower? Is it purple?"

Linnea: "Ummmmm . . . I don't know?"

Caroline: "You don't know?"

Linnea (now wide awake): "Why are you talking to me?"

Blatherskite.

Calendar Trivia

Tim -- "Here is the next trivia question to ponder -- What is a blatherskite?"

Mom -- "Hmm . . . that ite ending suggests something geological to me"

Sabine -- "That's what I was thinking, rocks in caves, or something. Maybe a mold or growth."

Caroline -- "No, no no, here's what it is . . . some kind of disease where you talk too much. Like Linnea has!"

Linnea -- "Hey! How is it always pick on Linnea day?"

Dad -- "I was looking at blather, too, and thinking it might be talking too much."

Linnea -- "Thanks, Dad."

Dad -- "I didn't say anything about you!"

Linnea -- "Uh huh."

Mom -- "Well, what about looking at blather and kite? A giant mouth shaped kite that looks like it is talking when it is flying?"

Everyone -- "No. Definitely not that."

Mom -- "Well, I'm usually wrong, I'm just trying to be creative. I'm sticking with geology."

Sabine -- "Me, too."

Tim -- "It's probably something gross, like a weird wart."

24 hours later . . .

Sabine -- "Any more guesses for blatherskite? No? Okay, here is the answer . . . huh. Look at that."

Mom -- "Well? What is it?"

Sabine -- "Blatherskite: A person who talks too much, often without making sense."

Caroline (with fist pump) -- "YES!! I was totally right!!"

Mom -- "No, you said it was a disease."

Caroline -- "Whatever. I totally said it was Linnea."

Linnea -- "I hate you all."

Mom -- "Really?"

Linnea -- "Wellllllll . . . no . . . I do talk a lot . . . but I usually make sense!!"

Caroline -- "Not in your sleep . . ."

10 Influential Albums

Those of you on Facebook may have seen or participated in the listing of ten albums for ten days that influenced your life, musical growth, general outlook, or just have pretty album covers that you like. Being the musical people that we are, the Kralls had to jump on board. Since only three of us are on FB, and we could never wait ten days to see our lists, we just laid it all out at the dinner table last night.

Linnea: "Wait, I'm not ready!! Did I know we were doing this tonight?"
Mom: "I'm pretty sure I reminded you three times."
Linnea: "I was BUSY!" -- grabs a Post-it and begins to scribble frantically, while mumbling

Caroline: "You guys wrote yours down? Mine is just in my head! You can't just remember all ten?"

Tim: "I have five Honorable Mentions . . ."
Sabine: "FIVE?!? I thought we weren't allowed ANY! The list is limited to TEN!"

Sigh.

Without further ado . . .

Anneke's List (in no particular order)

Sesame Street's Grover Sings the Blues
Broadway Recording of Annie Get Your Gun (Ethel Merman)
Manheim Steamroller - A Fresh Aire Christmas
Air Supply - Greatest Hits
Clannad - Past Present
Great Performances - Romantic Favorites for Strings
Bette Midler - Bathhouse Betty
Grey's Anatomy Original Soundtrack Volume 3
Tracy Chapman - New Beginning
Mindy Smith - One Moment More

Andrew's List (by decade?)

Rush - Signals
Yes - Yessongs
Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Grateful Dead - Reckoning (live acoustic set)
Gordon Lightfoot - Gord's Gold
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Beck - Sea Change
Ella Fitzgerald - Live in Berlin
Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory

Tim's List (Ranked 10th to 1st, with Honorable Mentions. Five of them.)

Honorable Mention -- Celtic Tides, Jagged Little Pill, Reckless, Heartbreak Weather, Best of Daughtry

Real List
10. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
9. Taylor Swift - 1989
8. Mindy Smith - One Moment More
7. Creed - Greatest Hits
6. Oasis - Definitely Maybe
5. Nickelback - All the Right Reasons
4. Tracy Chapman - New Beginning
3. Nickelback - Dark Horse
2. Heart - Essential Heart
1. Paramore - RIOT!

Caroline's List (Earliest influence to current. Flawlessly listed outloud with no cheat sheet.)

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory
Beach Boys - Endless Summer
Taylor Swift - Fearless
The Beatles - Revolver
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox
Boyz II Men - II
Guardians of the Galaxy - Awesome Mix Volume 1
Five Seconds of Summer - Youngblood
Day 6 - The Book of Us: Entropy

Linnea's List (Written and modified at the dinner table, while listening to other lists, possibly adding albums as they were mentioned by others.)

Child's Collection of Songs
Celtic Tides
Peter Paul and Mary - Peter Paul and Mary
Simon and Garfunkel - Greatest Hits
Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory
Jay Sean - All or Nothing
Vitamin String Quartet - Lady Gaga
Backstreet Boys - This is Us
Chopin - Nocturnes
Dvorak - New World Symphony

Sabine's List (After Tim's five Honorable Mentions, she felt compelled to add three herself!)

Honorable Mention -- Jagged Little Pill, Celtic Tides, Night Visions

Real List
Kenny Loggins - Return to Pooh Corner
Sara Barielles - Little Voice
dvsn - SEPT. 5TH
Marshall Crenshaw - Marshall Crenshaw
Mike Doughty - Haughty Melodic
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
Maroon Five - Songs About Jane
Taylor Swift - Fearless
Nickelback - All the Right Reasons
Grey's Anatomy Original Soundtrack Volume 2

Tim and Sabine would like to note that they don't need to hear any complaints about Nickelback. They know that everybody hates Nickelback. They love Nickelback. Deal with it.

Please feel free to comment, agree or disagree (except for Nickelback, see above), and provide some of your own favorites.

Now What?

Over the weekend, the final papers and tests were submitted. Spring Semester 2020 is in the books!

Now what?

Summer jobs -- all on hold. Tim's awesome internship -- moved to summer 2021. Caroline's research will still happen here in St. Paul, but let's be honest, we don't see much of her during the day anyway. How different will it be to have her in her room doing research instead of watching YouTube? Linnea has big plans to train for another marathon, but with no set date for a race that will probably not be as intense as it could have been.

Swimming pools? No. Movie theaters? Probably not. Museums and the zoo? I don't think so. The Mall? Amusement Parks? The State Fair? Highly unlikely, and we wouldn't be able to go anyway.

Obviously, there are house and yard projects, but really, how often do you have to mow the lawn?

Once a week. Less if there is a heat wave.

This could get ugly real fast. I may have to teach them all to knit.

Sometimes, there is an Unnecessary Trip to the Grocery Store

We really do try to limit our grocery store visits. As mentioned before, the biggest challenge here on the daily is having and cooking enough food for six adults. Especially considering that three of these adults are used to college life, where snacks are plentiful and stored in a bin under their beds. And they haven't had to share. Apparently, a box of crackers lasts a lot longer when only one person is eating them!

After dinner the other night, the rumblings began . . .

"Is there any dessert? Didn't we just make brownies today?"
"Please! Those were gone by lunch!"
"I really want ice cream? Do we have any ice cream?"
"Nope. No room in the freezer for ice cream, remember?"
"Right. Boy. I really could use some ice cream."

"Hmm...how late is it? Is the grocery store still open?"
"Not much longer."
"Anyone want to go get ice cream with me?"
"I'll  go with you, but you know we really aren't supposed to . . ."
"I know! I know! But, ice cream!!"
"Well, if we're going, we should get more snacks, not just ice cream."
"Sure! Let's get all the snacks!"

"Mom, we're going to the store. Is there any food money?"
"Why are you going to the store? Do we need something?"
"We want ice cream! And all the snacks!"
"Well, then, no. If you want snacks, you can spend your own money."
"Huh. She says we have to spend our own money."
"Really? Why?"
"Because it is for snacks. And she obviously doesn't think we should go!"
"We shouldn't go. We know that."
"Well, we're going. Let's get it done, here's your mask."
"Fine. But I'm driving. And you're paying!"

"We're back! Here's the ice cream! What flavor do you want? We got chocolate or mint."
"Ooh, mint! What other snacks did you end up getting?"
"Other snacks? Are you crazy? We had to spend our own money!! You're lucky we got two flavors of ice cream!! We certainly didn't buy anything else!"

Shades of the past, when they were responsible for all the grocery shopping. I distinctly remember teens limiting snack purchases during that project because, "I'm not wasting MY grocery money on YOUR snacks!" Have they learned the value of a dollar? My work here might be done!

Probably not. But it's a start.

Why College Students Need to Go Back in the Fall

Obviously, if it isn't safe, the college students should ablsolutely stay home and continue remote learning. With four college students in this family beginning this fall, I am prepared for each school to have a different plan, which will have it own complications. We can continue our set-up in this house for quite awhile, and we will. None of that changes the fact that I really hope they go back to campus. Because . . . Finals.

I have discovered this week that college students need to be on campus for finals week. There is clearly a reason why I have encouraged them to go so far away for college. Finals week. The stress levels among the three college students are off the charts. They are so wound up that even I had a stress dream about taking a final in solidarity!

Linnea waffles between being convinced that she failed the finals she has already taken, and being certain there is no possible way she can pass the test coming up. It appears that she has tests only, and no papers, and I can't figure out which would be better. I am quite certain, however, that if she had to call me to worry about her finals, I would hear a lot fewer things like, "Do you think I failed?" or "What if I failed?" and "I'm sure I probably failed." Only because I would actually have the opportunity to not answer the phone, not because she wouldn't be calling! She would be far better served by being surrounded by her cohort of worriers than being here with us. Although, we will still love her in the end, even though she is driving us crazy . . .

Caroline appears to have mostly papers and some tests. As usual, we can't figure out when she actually does her work. Mostly, we hear, "Ugh! I don't want to write this paper!" and "I know I should be doing that paper." or "Maybe I'll wait and work on that paper later." When asked later how her paper is coming, we inevitably get this response, "That paper? Oh! That's finished, I turned it in!" I'm pretty sure she is a vampire, working diligently at night as the rest of us are sleeping. Which leads to high levels of cranky fatigue during the day . . .

Tim has been the biggest surprise. He seems very organized and scheduled -- which would come as quite the shock to his first grade teacher, who despaired of him ever having a tidy desk. It is comforting to realize that study skills and habits can be learned over time. However, he is exhibiting anxiety that is very unexpected. For some reason, he cleans the kitchen when he's anxious. More than once, he has been found muttering over the dishwasher as he reloads it, "Why would you put the bowls there?" and "Who loaded it this way?" He has also been seen loading the dishwasher on days other than his, because he can't stand looking at the mess in the kitchen. Even his sisters are noticing, Caroline just asked him if today was his dish day -- to which he responded immediately, "Yes!! This is why the kitchen looks fabulous!"

Hmm . . . maybe only Linnea and Caroline need to be on campus for finals week. Tim can stay here.

Things that Surprise Me

How long a standard bar of soap lasts. Dial bar soap, even with all this hand washing, does not get used up as fast as I thought it would.

How little trash we are generating. It seems like last summer when everyone was home, we constantly had more bags of trash each week then would fit in the trash can. Those of you who live in St. Paul will recognize that too many bags for the can is a big no-no here. So far, we have only had an extra bag one week, and were able to save that to put out the following week with no overflow. It appears that when you cook at home, and never shop for anything else but groceries, that there isn't as much trash. No shopping, no packaging to toss. Who knew?

How reasonably decent Andrew's hair looks without a haircut. Especially considering that he was a week from his next scheduled appointment when everything shut down. He is now at nearly three months since his last cut, and while shaggy around the edges, doesn't look bad at all. The greys are more noticable though . . .

How often someone says something in our house that is also a lyric from Hamilton. And how the statement is always followed by someone, or several someones, singing the next line. Every. Single. Time. Oddly, the second place winner in the accidental lyric contest are songs by Weird Al Yankovic. Which they also sing on cue. Because, we span the range of musical culture in our house.

How I notice the amount of toilet paper on the roll every time I go into either bathroom. We have plenty of toilet paper and even found a large package of our preferred brand last week. Which I bought, because six people live here. But still, I find the toilet paper thing very stressful. On the whole, I believe a person's TP use is a personal deal. As long as the little children never pulled a whole roll off at once and tried to flush it, I figured I could stay out of their toilet paper business. Now, I'm on high alert about TP use all the time. It is both annoying and unnecessary. By the way, somehow, as the mom, I am still the only one who changes the roll. Baffling.

How much useless triva Sabine knows. We have a daily triva calendar, which we answer at dinner every night. Unless it is something completely obscure, she always knows the answer. And she has a good correct answer rate on the obscure ones, too. How does she find out all this stuff, and how is she retaining so much information? After the usual accusations of cheating from her siblings, she'll say something like, "I remember hearing about that in 4th grade . . . at camp . . . when I read . . . in a dream . . on BuzzFeed . . ."

How it is nearly two months since Andrew picked up the college students, but I still wake up every day and feel like we are being pranked. Before I look at any news for the day, I always think that maybe this is all a dream, and we brought our kids home for nothing, and everyone else is laughing at us for being so ridiculous. Then I look at the news, and switch to thinking that the world is ending.

I mean, Murder Hornets? Really?