Pirates ahoy!

Recently, a pirate attack on an Italian cruiser was thwarted.  Before that, pirates captured a ship and took the captain hostage for five days.

Huh?  Last time I checked, this was the 21st century.  Most peple think of modern piracy applying to DVDs, not ships.  When we think of the swashbucklers of the high seas, we think of tall ships carrying the likes of Blackbeard, Long John Silver, and Captain Hook.  We think of Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, chests filled with gold dubloons and treasure, eye patches and peg-legs.  We think of the Jolly Roger, lusty wenches, swords, and Jean LaFitte (technically a privateer).  Mostr of all, we think of the 18th century.  Nowhere in our image are Somalians running around with AK-47s.

Last post before Pesach

Has it been a crazy month here in this cat’s hat!

Life with the Things has been–interesting.  Thing 1 got Pinocchio from the Queen Mom and has watched it about 10,000 times.  So far she’s picked up her colors, can count to eight in one-to-one correspondence and can identify two letters of the alphabet–Q and Z, or as she calls it, “zebra.”

Thing 2 wants to crawl, and is this close to crawling backwards.  She’s also making a few “baby noises.”  A part of me just wants her to stay this age–tiny, cute, toothless, and in love with Mommy!

We had a babysitter for a while, but she was pretty worthless.  She came, and she sat.  I had to push her to engage my kids.  Of course, this is really fun while I’m trying to clean for Pesach.

Also, like everyone else, I am following the recovery plan with some interest.  The stimulus knocked $1,200 off our tax bill this year.  Yay for President Obama!