Errands, family, entertainment, and work. AKA my life in bullet points.

1) I HATE going food shopping.  I hate going food shopping with children even more.  Today I earned my first-ever "I hate you!" from Xander: I wouldn't let him drag his feet standing on the cart, I wouldn't let him use the men's bathroom by himself and insisted on going with him to the women's, I wouldn't let him put candy in the cart, I wouldn't let him run off by himself in the parking lot...  I'm the worst mommy ever, apparently.

2) I was highly amused by our Netflix "recently watched" list when I pulled it up today.  Ah, the variety in our family's tastes.  See if you can guess what was for who.

Nikita
Dumbo
The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories
Secrets of the Viking Sword
Tinker Bell and the Mysterious Winter Woods
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales
Spiderman and Friends
National Geographic: The Battle for Midway

Dinosaur Train
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Doctor Who

3) Simcha has happily settled in at my mom's and doesn't seem to miss us.  Which is good I guess.  And we talked to our landlord and the head of the Homeowner's Association again, and thankfully, the neighbor hasn't complained since Simcha left.  Which leads us to suspect that he was the culprit of everything.... which also means Osher and Yentl can stay, hooray!  Osher has become quite the cuddler in Simcha's absence - Jonathan calls him our "retired ninja cat" who has given up his ninja skills for love and pets.

4) I read two really interesting books in my sick haze: Hikikomori and the Rental Sister by Jeff Backhaus, and Dog on It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn.  I love that Jonathan always has books on hand to gift me.  I highly recommend both books, but they're very different.  The first is about an American man who hides away in his room for years as a reaction to a horrible trauma, and how his wife, in desperation, turns to a Japanese shopgirl familiar with the hikikomori phenomenon to try and help him.  Can their subsequent affair bring him back to his wife, and in turn, to a social life?  Who's using who, and can they all help each other heal their wounds?  It's a fascinating psychological tale, and the insight into all three characters is amazing.  I do warn you, though, it's kind of haunting, you'll be thinking about it long after you turn the last page.

The second book was a fun rollicking mystery tale: Chet is the dog of the private eye Bernie, and Bernie is hired to find a missing girl.  The mystery itself is interesting, and the plot tight, but the great part about the book is that it's told in first-person, from Chet's point of view.  And the discrepancies between what he thinks is important to relate about his day versus what Bernie thinks is important is hilarious.  I laughed out loud often, and I'm not even a dog person.  If you like dogs and/or mysteries, definitely check it out.  Dog on It is the first of a series, and I'm planning on reading the next ones for sure.

5) And lastly - I'm a little bit in shock at how the summer is so quickly coming to an end.  We're deep into planning the High Holy Days at work, religious school starts in a month, and Xander starts kindergarten in two weeks.  Life is going by so fast!