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Health & Fitness

The Commune: Let the Peeing Begin

This next installment of the Commune Blog describes the cats and one of the kids in greater detail. And food!

Rats. Crud. Bummer, dude. The cats have begun peeing in the house and it stinks. Mostly it stinks because none of us know how to make them stop now that they've started. So, we've compromised and put a litter box smack dab on the spot they were marking. It's not a very lovely sight.

We've also noticed a distinct attitude change on their parts. They're getting along much better, roaming much further afield, and... well, treating the house like it's theirs. Not cool. (Except for the getting along better part. That's cool.) 

All in all, this was a good week. We had our first dinner of all The Commune members on Father's Day, which we renamed Jhon Day in honor of Flashdance's spelling and John's place as the only adult male, who also happens to be the father of 1/5th of The Commune Kids. Since I'm currently starving and can't stop thinking about food, I'll tell you we had marinated flank steak, grilled new potatoes/garlic/red onions, grilled ciabatta bread smothered in garlic and olive oil, and chocolate fondue for dessert. And cheesecake dipped in the fondue.

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Speaking of food, John and Dragonslayer had a good trip to Iowa for the reunion/memorial and sent us a picture from dinner. It was a well-ordered plate of pulled pork sandwich, ramen noodle salad, meatballs, chili-Frito dip, and a couple of bits of lettuce salad. Yum.

One really great thing that's occurred is that Flashdance has taken to calling Kat "Auntie Kat." She's imitated her at dinner, asked to ride in her car, invited her to go to the park and the movies, and done a good job of being the daughter Kat never had (except for not letting Kat brush her hair...wait -- she doesn't let ME brush it either!). As Flashdance's mother, I'm so grateful for this other woman in my daughter's life. I completely believe in the village concept (duh, right?) and this blossoming relationship feels like it was meant to be and like it's the best possible side benefit of The Commune.

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Cat Update: I think those brats have gotten enough blog time for this week, haven't they? No? Okay, here you go: No new dead animals, Jupiter's still finding ways to stay out all night, Juno's more affectionate than usual (and why wouldn't she be? She's getting her way with everything), and Phoebe's laid off the hissing and once even let ME pet him (he doesn't particularly care for me for some reason).

Grownup Update: I'm up to $2.79 in freelance income and have a speaking engagement next Tuesday night. If you're in town, please come!! Kat's phone's been quiet but she's still applying for things every day. Her really, really new cell phone is scheduled to arrive today, so I'm sure she'll be sending out her newest new number by tonight.

John's big presentation last week didn't land him the client, but he's got some cool projects going on anyway. Also, when he got back from Iowa, he brought African violets and other plants that were his grandmother's and that I'm going to try my hardest not to harm. He also brought back the dates for next summer's family reunion which we will be at NO MATTER WHAT because it looks like a big, giant blast.

Norm's life gets more complicated by the second and she officially signed The Commune poster. She hasn't moved in, though. Not yet... Her sister, Cliff, is reading my book and not a moment too soon. We've been asked by several people when we're having the next Commune party. I'm thinking August 27th, since that's the first next weekend we'll all be here. More details later!

Kid Update: Rook is taking an interest in playing lacrosse. Lettuce and Cubes play lacrosse every week, so that's a good match. Rook's an awesome basketball player and I like watching him school the other boys during the driveway matches. Lettuce is still working on his Minecraft server, which has some fancier name I don't understand. I should mention that I left out of the featured kid segment last week that Lettuce has a wickedly funny sense of humor. John mentioned buying a Sequoia to replace his car and Lettuce said,  "Really? A Sequoia? Is our yard really big enough for that?" Then, one night at dinner, Lettuce said, "I've got it!" I said, "Got what?" Lettuce said, "An elegant solution to a zombie outbreak...outward facing treadmills." That kid cracks me up. Cubes went to DC and came back taller and with a lower voice. That's two years in a row I've sent a son to DC and he's come back older. Hmm. Flashdance starts break dance class tonight. Thank goodness. That girl needs to dance someplace other than the driveway or the trampoline every once in awhile. Dragonslayer comes back on Friday afternoon for a bit to hang out with Rook.

Featured Kid -- Cubes: Ah, Cubes. Cubes is my second son and was not, I repeat, NOT an accident. He just happened to come a little earlier than I'd planned, since I hadn't totally planned on having two kids within 371 days of each other. Cubes is wickedly math smart. He's like Malcolm in the Middle math smart. In fact, he takes math problems, shoves them up a Pythagorean Theorem, twists them around his little finger, then flicks them onto his paper, solved in less time than it took me to write that. He's also into cubing, hence his name. Cubes can solve every cube we can put in front of him. The regular old 3x3 Rubik's cube? In under two minutes. Some of them take a little longer, like ones with more than 3, 4, or 5 sides. Crazy-shaped ones.

I'm very proud of his abilities, but those cubes make a lot of repetitive, nails-on-a-chalkboard noises when you're trying to drive, watch tv, read, talk, eat, sleep, talk on the phone...you get it. He's obsessed, but I guess it's hard to argue with an obsession with smartness. He's also obsessed with dirty jokes, though, which is a little easier to argue with.

Sponsorship Update: I've sent emails to Sunshine and Pepsico informing them of our  official food and drink and asking, pretty please, if they'll sponsor  us. That all happened about 20 minutes ago, so I haven't heard anything  yet. Ha. Fingers crossed. The kids would like to make their own list of official foods and drinks, so if I ever let them participate in the writing of the blog, they might get a say. 

It'll be a quiet weekend at The Commune, with Kat and Rook (and the evil cats) having the place to themselves while John and I go out of town to watch my boys play in a tournament. Next week, we're back to work on Dragonslayer's new bedroom. I mean it!

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