A busy night, and a busy week to come

The Tors came into town last night. For those of you who don't know, "The Tor's" are my wife's parents. I would spell their names but I would spell them wrong and that would get me in trouble.

So anyway, the Tors are here. Tor was disappointed that he didn't have ample time to spend with the computer when he first arrived. I told him there is nothing wrong with it. He didn't believe me. He wanted to sleep in the basement but changed his mind when I suggested the computer was his mistress.

Got home from work and went to Isabella's first grade singing show at the school with the Tors and Drew. It was only 2 degrees or something yesterday, walking on ice, good times.

To say this was the most politically correct school show I have ever seen is an understatement. No Christmas songs, no songs about playing with a draddle. Just a bunch of folk songs and Raffi covers - although Down by the Bay is one of my favorites. Bella rocked. Regardless, it felt more like a blue grass festival than a school performance in December. Give me some Silent Night, Jingle Bells, I'd even encourage songs from other religions, Kwanza, Festivus.

Meanwhile, Caroline was at a dress rehearsal for her upcoming performance as a mouse in the Nutcracker on Saturday, hence part of the reason the Tors are here. We will also have the Wolf's coming into town on Friday. The Wolf's are Daina's sister's family affectionately named after Uncle Wolfgang. Life is never dull.

Caroline came home with her face painted in all its mousy glory. She was pretty proud of herself. I'll post a picture on Saturday night after the big performance. (Insert pun about not letting the mouse out of the bag)

If you are interested in seeing Caroline perform, we'd love to have you join us. Caroline will be performing at the Hoyt Sherman Place, 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec 13. Tickets are available at the box office or on TIcketmaster. Man, ticketmaster? Cool!

You can all say you knew her when....

Mini-Tor

If you don't know my father-in-law this may not be as amusing. I encourage you to read it anyway as it paints a picture of who my father-in-law is and who my son is becoming. If you do know my father-in-law, Kazimierus Totoraitis (Cuh-Zim-Er-Russ Toto-Rye-Tis), or Tor for short and obvious reasons, then I encourage you to get a fresh pack of underwear. Tor is from Lithuania, speaks in a high falsetto voice yet stands 6'2 and weighs about two and a half bills. Think, Kojack, with white hair and more lovable.

My son is turning into Tor, or mini-Tor as his sisters have been calling him. Here's the evidence.

Tor will walk into a room at any given moment. You will be in the middle of a 30 minute story and he will but right in and say, "What's the problem? What are you talking about?"

Mini-Tor runs around yelling at people at any time. "What doing? What saying?"

Tor will drive seven hours to our house, not even stop to use the bathroom or say hello and go straight to the basement and work on the computer. The computer doesn't really need work, he just lists "defragging" as a skill on his resume. For hours on end he will defrag, update, check his updates, install programs I will never use and provide me with the latest and greatest version of Norton Anti-Virus. He won't sleep because he is worrying about something happening to the computer. Lightening struck the house the last time they were here. He didn't rush to see if we were ok, but he made darn sure the computer was just fine.

Mini-Tor spends hours in the backyard focused on one task that really doesn't matter. Whether its moving dirt from the sandbox to another location, or moving buckets of water between the kiddie pool and a sand bucket, Drew is focused on the task at hand.

Tor is a very generous man. He will often tell you he is going to do something overly kind and you object. He resonds with "Don't argue with me. Please Sashua don't argue" (He can't say the letter "J" so he calls me Sashua.)

Mini-Tor doesn't like arguing either. I will say, "Drew, its time for bed." He responds with "No say that!" Both of them seem to live avoiding confrontation.

So if Drew grows up to be a generous, determined, focused and thorough adult I guess I can't complain. Although everyone enjoys a good argument every now and then.