It could be teletubbies ... one of them is gay, you know.

My mom just called to tell me that she'd already talked to my grandmother and told her to make some extra food for me since I was going there tonight (in order to pick them up from the airport tomorrow morning).

I told her I had already called her and told her not to, since I wasn't eating dinner there. There's a pre-race marathon dinner I'm going to tonight.

"Ah, the marathon people are feeding you, huh?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Do you have to pay for it?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Then why are you going?"

Rather than explain that training for this half-marathon has been a life-changing experience and I wanted to be part of the communal pasta party, that I wanted to see some of my fellow running mates and get some contact information to keep in touch in case we didn't see each other on race day, that the coaches would be giving last-minute tips, that the meal was designed to be digested over the next day and give me the proper energy for race day...I politely, calmly, without malice but with only the slightest hint of exasperation, said, "Stop complaining about everything I do."

There was silence for a few seconds, and she said, "Okay, that's fine, you just get to [your grandmother's] when you get there." And...it wasn't the snappish, defensive, right-about-to-hang-up-the-phone tone I normally get. We continued the conversation in a civilized manner.

...is this progress?

Sounds like progress to me, bub.

WOO! Progress!

EXCELLENT, PC. For serious.

It may have helped that she was distracted by yelling at my little sister's driving. My little sister is driving ! They grow up so fast.

Dang, P-C, that's awesome.

Max and Ruby? I actually LIKE that one. Along with Wonder Pets and Backyardigans. It's Dora and Diego who make me want to tear out my eyes so I don't have to see their freaky staring visages and puncture my eardrums so I don't have to listen to their SHOUTING VOICES ever again.

I think there's a law that you must loathe at least one show your child thinks is the best EVAH.

Emeline loves all of the above. She frequently needs the Wonder Pets theme song sang to her at bedtime.

We're not too big and we're not too tough but when we work together we've got the right stuff! Goooo Wonder Pets! YAAAAAAAAAAYY!

That song must be like a toddler/preschooler earworm--Annabel loves to sing it, too.

It's possible that I've occasionally responded to Big Events by turning to DH and singing, Ming-Ming style, "This. Is. Seewious."

That definitely sounds like progress!

I had a weird phone call that was transfered to me from the main line-

Caller: "Can I speak to X"

Me: "I'm sorry, he's not available, I can take your name and number and have him call you back."

Caller: "Um, does anyone else doing buying for X?"

Me (cheerfully): "Yes, but they aren't here now and are frequently away from their office, I can take your name and number and have them call you back!" (Translation -- there's no way in hell I'm giving you another name)

Caller (now sounding shady): "My, uh, my receptionist is, uh, away and I can't, um, take the call. Icallback."

Me (fishing): "Okay, May I ask what company you are calling from so they can expect your call?"

Caller: "Um...uh....um....uh" CLICK!

Okay, who stumbles over the name of their business? Seriously that was shady. And then he called back fishing for someone else's name again when I told him X had gone home. Again I didn't give it to him and tried to get a name and number and he hung up on me. I did get his phone number off caller id, but it's either busy or there's no answer.