Quick! Go buy a lottery ticket.

We have had quite the 24 hours over here at the Hotel Dumpling. Zach has been offered 2 new big woodworking jobs (helping a buddy make a custom circular staircase for some huge house on Long Island, and making a table and 8 chairs for a friend of the family's) and sold a cello all in a span of a day, and then our stimulus check came in the mail (Which we will spend on a very sexy purchase. Heating fuel. Oooooh baby!) It makes me want to run out and buy a Powerball ticket, and I never buy lottery tickets.


Usually the holidays just mean that a giant vacuum is attached to our bank account and turned on high. It makes for a nice change to have this year be one where we can relax about the finances a bit, especially before the festive season and given the current economy.


The woman who bought Zach's cello flew up here from Puerto Rico to try it! And the weather could NOT have been any more disgusting today, sleet and snow and rain and yuck!!!Thank God she loved it. I am almost jealous of the cello. How come it gets to jet off to the Caribbean? She is the 2nd cello in the PR Symphony, so the cello will be back in PR tomorrow and it's first gig is playing the Nutcracker. Kinda sweet isn't it? I like knowing where they are going and what they will be playing. They are a bit like kids. A lot of love, hard work and quite a bit of swearing goes into them. They drive Zach crazy, but turn out beautifully.



So, our REAL kids have started playing hockey, and I literally don't know what to do with all the gear. Between the hockey bags and the downhill and cross country ski gear I am having trouble getting into our mudroom. I mean honestly, look at the pictures of them posing next to their hockey bags. These are 4 year old human beings. They are not large. Can you imagine them once all the crap in those bags is on their little 40lb bodies? I'll get pictures of that next week.

I love that Grace gets out of her hockey gear and immediately dons her princess garb again. But look at the size of those bags! They couldn't have taken up Hackey Sack? Or chess? Something that doesn't require a U-haul to get the gear to the rink or the slopes?

I know, I know, I'm the one who introduced them to skiing and riding. But the hockey thing is all on Zach. I don't even know how to dress them for it. Although I am a very capable cocoa buyer at the rink concession stand. I can hand over $5 like nobody's business!

At least Noah's only sport is Olympic Jolly Jumper bouncing in the heavy-weight class. He always seems to be wearing this outfit when I take his picture. I guess I do put it on him a lot. But it pleases me no end to be able to wander around the house and shout "I found Waldo!" whenever I see him in it.

My life is full of simple, and inane, pleasures.