"Don't Eat The Bonsai Tree!"

From my day:  

Calling home from the office and speaking to Thomas, who had just got home, I hear Eler Beth talking in the background.  "Did I just hear her say there are two gallinippers mating?"  A co-worker, overhearing me,  said, "What the h--- is a gallinipper?"  No one there had ever heard of gallinippers.    I had to go online to find evidence of such a creature.  (Tomorrow I'm taking in a dead one in a plastic bag just to prove to them that they probably have seen them before.)                                              

On my drive home from work I call Thomas to let him know I'm on my way.  He says, "Oh, by the way, did I tell you I fractured my finger?"  Well, no, he hadn't mentioned that when I'd spoken to him an hour earlier!

He doesn't know how he did it; he says he wasn't even doing anything at work that seemed to be putting much pressure on that finger.  But it is definitely fractured.  They taped the finger to the finger next to it to keep it straight so it doesn't heal crooked.

Andrew was invited out to eat with a friend and his family, and Eler Beth was jealous.  Thomas didn't really want to do anything tonight except relax and get to bed, so I told Eler Beth we'd go out to eat, just the two of us, and then we'd get some things for her bonsai plants.  I let her decide where to eat and she chose Chinatown Buffet.  I'm not really a big fan of most Asian food, but I do like Chinatown Buffet's Spring rolls, their fried rice, bourbon chicken and sweet biscuits.  We had a nice meal and during our table conversation I asked, "Do you remember how to say 'good-bye' in Chinese?"  Eler Beth nodded.  (We learned from watching "Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Kitten" on PBS)  I said, "Is it ______?"  (and I pronounced the word that I thought means "good-bye")  She nodded again, looking at her plate, then she looked up at me quickly and asked, cautiously, "Why?  You're not going to say it when we leave, are you?!"  I laughed and asked if it would embarrass her!  Poor kids, they're so easy to embarrass!

At home Eler Beth was reading the care instructions for her bonsai plants, and out loud she read a little post-script on the card, "Do not consume."  "What does that mean?" she asked.  "It means don't eat it,"  I said.  "Oh," she said, then she looked up at Andrew who was just entering the room and hadn't heard the conversation.  "Don't eat the bonsai tree!"  she told him sternly.  He stopped, said, "Okay," very slowly, turned and walked right back out of the room!