Bad News

Monday is the day we get emails from my brother. We sit around all morning with our computers or phones waiting waiting waiting. I usually write Sunday night, summing up my week, telling him about the goings on back here at home, and sometimes I have to be the bearer of bad news. Like this week. This is what I said:

One of your IKEA bamboo stalks has gone the way of all the earth. Dad had to put it to rest. Forever. Just one. Weird, right? The other one is fine, just lonely. I hope you were sitting down for that.

Also...

Mom's car got smashed this week. Twice. The first time, she was backing out of a parking spot at the temple and she hit not one, but two yellow posts. To make matters worse, she was backing out to let someone in, so they witnessed the car crunching debacle in its entirety. The very next day in the Dan's parking lot (it was snowing--remember how I said it's still winter here? In April?) another car hit her. The back bumper was falling off. The tire scraped the rim when you turned the corner. It's getting fixed as I type. The silver linings: All those dents that happened in the Olympus Parking lot? Gone-zo! Lining Two: All of this, and not once has she hit the Howell's car, which is more than a lot of us can say. What a blessing.
There were happy tidbits included as well, like how we surprised Papa at his office for his birthday. We took him a sandwich from Grove Market (which was more of a mountain than a meal) and ate apple pie in the Clark B. Fetzer Memorial Dining Room (á propos, no?) while Baby Naomi sat on Brian's lap. Afterward she did her fishy face (which I am rather proud of, seeing as I worked on it with her for weeks) and she clapped hooray for Papa's Birthday. So amidst the bad, there is lots of good.