penguin weekend

Back to life as usual following our terrific vacation but all week my mind kept wandering back to all the fun we had, and to the funnel cake with strawberries and whipped cream which I waited for all week and ultimately never got to enjoy. Sweetly, John asked if he should find a funnel cake source near home, but no. That's an amusement park only sort of dessert.

Disneyworld is on the kids' minds too. "When are we going back?" asked Erin about ten times so far. "I think we should go back soon. Maybe next summer."

"We'll go back in a few years," we responded.
"A few YEARS? Like, how many? That's a long time!"
"Unless you get a job and save your money for a trip sooner than that, yes, it will be a long time."

When I picked Erin up on friday she was beside herself with excitement because THIS was the weekend...THIS weekend she got to take Patty Penguin home with her. Erin's school mascot is the Penguins, Erin's class has its own penguin and each child takes it home for a weekend and documents (in photos and in writing) their adventures together in a journal that travels with Patty. So each child can read about Patty's previous adventures, and then add a page of their own.

I was curious to know if Patty was male or female. Erin insists female, but the truth has been tough to ascertain. Like "Pat" of Saturday Night Live, I think this name was chosen to be purposefully ambiguous.

Patty picked quite a weekend to come to our house, lemme tell ya. He/she's been one bored house guest. Well, what can I say. If he had come our way a little sooner we could have taken him (her?) along to Florida. This weekend we had three kids with colds and some household errands to catch up on.

Erin did take Patty along to her swimming lesson:


And she/he joined us and John's parents for dinner on saturday night. We went our for Texas BBQ but I guess Patty didn't like the menu. No fish.


It occurs to me that it would have been funny to FedEx Patty to Trish (Auntie Trish to the girls). She is always travelling for business and it would have been hilarious to return the journal with photos of Patty in unexpected locations. Like that gnome on those Travelocity commercials. Ah well. The mundane will have to do. I did Tivo "March of the Penguins" for the girls to watch with Patty, you know, just to help him/her feel at home here.

Tomorrow he/she goes back to school with fresh stories and pictures from Erin to share. And it's a good thing too. Benjamin Franklin observed that "fish and visitors stink after 3 days." For penguins I think that's especially accurate.