"Thing"

When did "thing" become a unit of measurement?

My wife will often ask me for a "thing" of something, and she gets annoyed when I ask for clarification. Not sure what my response should be, I suppose.

My coworkers have been doing it, too. They seem to see the humor in my replies. Still, I have no idea when or why anyone started using the word "thing" as a unit of measurement. So freaking weird.

Mid winter fever

This week is that odd week in the middle of February where kids in NY don't have school. I don't know why, but if it were up to me I'd cancel it then end the school year a week sooner. (There's no good reason school out here should run through the end of JUNE)

But then my kids got sick. First the daughter, aching and sleepy all Saturday. Then the boys, one by one with the same symptoms. My third son was the holdout. He was fine all week. Then last night happened. He was up all night throwing up.

My dear wife, knowing full well that I have work in the morning, tried to minimize the disturbance, but he was rather distressed. Poor kid.

Meanwhile, my oldest, who has been reading my old Calvin and Hobbes books, has been acting a bit like a lawyer.

Rules

Rules I have broken:

Do not watch Contagion while your kids are sick.
Do not try to play a video game that takes place underwater when you have a fear of drowning.

I'll add more to the list as I remember them, but honestly... I almost drown as a kid, and developed a genuine phobia of being underwater. Then I go and think Subnautica would be a decent game to try out (following user reviews and all)

Meanwhile, Contagion was a decent movie. The coughing coming from my daughter just added to it. (Like when your phone rings right after watching The Ring)

Music slump

That's right, I'm in a slump. Like everyone in the 90's, I got my new music by listening to the radio. The more robust the internet became, the more I could find that wasn't being promoted by a billion dollar label without having to scour music shops and DJ hunting.

Now I've found that pretty much anything I could ever want is everywhere I want to look. My problem right now isn't an abundance of choice, it's a lack of real time I can spend looking for this.

I need to set aside some time to fix that problem.

The unwatchable

My kids were going to watch a movie tonight. Each of the boys powered over each other with the remote to find whatever action packed cartoon filled with robot dinosaurs exploding would sate their age-appropriate needs.

Then my daughter softly said that it was her turn to pick the movie. They all stopped and recounted recent history, taking notes as to what was watched on what day. They all came to the same conclusion: she was right. With no hesitation, one of them helped her navigate the menu to find the subcategory that contained Barbie movies, then selected the one (per her instruction) about mermaids or something.

I could see it in their eyes. It clearly wasn't their first, second... (how high can I count here?) choice. They were clearly disappointed, but didn't mutter a word against their sister. They decided to suck it up and see how well (or not) put together the movie was.

When I saw this play out, I realized that the TV truce is more of a well-written treaty they all closely adhere to.