Behind the scenes photo of Harry with Buckbeak (Witherwings).

Henry is super agile. He prowls around the edge of his lofted bed, and if he can be on top of something, up he goes. Lately he’s been working on being upside down more. He went from headstands on the couch or against a wall to free-standing. And it’s not like he falls over after a second; he seems like he can do it indefinitely. I don’t know what’s next, but maybe lifting up so his head isn’t on the floor. Stay tuned.

“make your best cowpoke pose!” Henry has a lasso, and Ele is running a stick up operation.

First of all, my glasses finally came in! The originated in NY, swung down into Jersey then took a sharp detour to Chicago before wandering back to Rochester and finally to me. But they’re here!

Second, my job changed again at work. I’ll write more at another time, but now I’m a Lead of Leads (we actually call this a Happiness LOL), so I now lead a team of Happiness leads, all who have their own teams. I’m very excited! It’s a great chance to help create a more cohesive Happiness.

I took some time this week to get rid of some dead leaves from the succulents. Not full maintenance, but just some clearing out. In the spring I’m going to do some transplanting and dividing, and create some new arrangements – I’m thinking of including some of the ladyfinger cactus and some Jade as well.

Whenever I hear or read the word “archetype” I always imagine that original of that thing is carefully stored somewhere for reference every half decade or so. For example, the Hero archetype. In order to be of the Hero archetype, someone has dutifully sent off to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and asked to have the specifications for the original Hero. They’ll place a call from, say, Leipzig, and someone on the other end of the phone (it must be a landline, and it must be from 1957), just outside of Paris sets the receiver down and goes to a dusty back room where the Archetypes are stored. There will be no recognizable system for cataloguing, so that each time the attendant visits the Archetype room it’s a new adventure. Finally the attendant will find the original Hero under their protective double glass dome, and they’ll note down the specifics for their inquirer.

Most countries will travel to compare their Hero (or whichever) to the original Archetype every couple of decades, to be sure that there aren’t any major deviations. To account for local taste, the Paris office will make some copies of the originals for different regions to establish their own archetypes.

I imagine it as wonderfully quaint and delightfully rooted in the physical world.

It’s also how we all agree on what a kilogram weighs. So there is that.

Even with rain, high 30s temps, and high winds, the twins and I needed to get out of the house. We went on a muddle (a walk where you look for mud puddles to jump in), and found ourselves at the mall. The kids knew a secret item to order at Auntie Anne’s, which was sour patch kids on top of their lemonade. Who knew?! Then we loitered in Bath and Body Works. The kids got to pick out two things, so we left with two unicorn sponges, one unicorn bath bomb, and one hot dog hand sanitizer. Then we ordered a pizza for dinner from Rennas and hit the arcade. It was a full afternoon!

Grant is obsessed with hotel phones (probably because we don’t have a landline). He gets on the horn every chance he has and chats

One day on vacation, Grant had such a busy day that he fell asleep sitting with Bob.