In which Maddy almost loses an earring and makes a strange find....

"Okay, girlfriend, big smile...."

"Why do I want to say don't point that thing at me if you don't know what you're doing---?"

*FLASH*






I have a feeling the next few days are going to be like this. Maddy sold some RC airplane and model train stuff that's been in a box in the downstairs closet since way before her father passed away and bought a better camera. Now she just has to figure out how to use it.

I kind of hinted that I wanted the plane, but she said it didn't fly, had never flown and probably never would unless someone threw it hard enough - and even if it did, she would never have trusted anything her father put together enough to send me airborne in it.

"Caroline, believe me. He only thought he knew what he was doing most of the time," she said, taking out something that looked like a silver hair dryer. "Eek. I thought we got rid of this."

"What is it?"

"Heat gun. Also known as The Thing He Broke My Window With That Time."

"How?" I was almost afraid to ask.

"He was watching a bunch of cooking shows one Sunday afternoon in January on PBS - this was back in the very early eighties - and Martin Yan was showing how to smoke a chicken in a wok using tea leaves. Well, he'd bought my mom a wok back over that summer, so - he decided to smoke a chicken in it. Put it this way - just because Yan Can Cook didn't mean it was a good idea for him to try it. Remember, it was January. About 10F out. All the windows were down, the house was closed up tight and here he was torching tea leaves in a wok with a chicken on a cooling rack over them. The entire house was full of smoke in no time, the smoke alarm went off and my mom came running up from downstairs wanting to know what the heck was going on. Long story short, she and I starting opening - or trying to open - all the widows to let the smoke out, but most of them were frozen shut because it had been so cold for about a week. Well, my hairdryer wasn't doing anything to thaw any of them out enough to open, so my father - who was getting really pissed off by then - stormed downstairs and got this thing. 1200F of heating goodness, 10F glass window - the one in my room, nonetheless - and you can guess what happened next. I was just glad it was the storm window and not the inside one. At least I could pull the inside one down in front of the screen. I don't know if my mom was more pissed off over that or over him ruining her wok."

She was right. I didn't want to be anywhere near that plane....

~*~

 "John-John, give me a smile, cutiepie..."

"Is this what you call a glamor shot?" He was actually quite amused.

"Aren't you supposed to be naked except for a strategically placed boa constrictor for that?" Shel said, waking up.

"In your dreams," John-John said.

"You bet," Shel replied with a grin.

Just a little more information than we needed....

~*~

This was the only spot in the yard dry enough to sit on for a photo. After we came back in, Maddy realized she'd lost an earring somewhere and went to retrace her steps.

"I'll be back, guys...." She hurried out to look before it could rain again.







"I don't think it's under here..." John said, looking under the bed.

I like having a place with a view, if you know what I mean.....

"Found it!" Maddy came back in about ten minutes later. "I also found this out near the butterfly bush. Any ideas what it is?"










John took it. It was tightly corked and sealed, with something swirling around inside.

"I don't know," he said, then looked around as his aether detector went off. "But it's something..."