Our homeschool studies have brought us to China, so we have spent the last many days learning about the culture, traditions, and lifestyles of the Chinese. Did you know that 2008 is the year of the rat? Allow me to share a delightful little ditty about how we celebrated that in our house last night...
I let Morgan, my thirteen year old Golden Retriever, outside late last night. What Morgan lacks in brilliance she makes up for in an unabashed sense of loyalty. Her greatest fault is that she is old, and age has brought with it a putrid smell that hangs around her like an unpleasant cloud. She has developed several annoying habits over the last many months that motivated us to drag her to the vet recently. He diagnosed her as having "OCD". For that I paid good money. Morgan is really my dog. She has been my constant shadow since puppyhood, a trait which, until only recently, I found completely endearing. There are about six things about that dog that are really starting to annoy me. When my kids need to find me they only need to look for Morgan...or, sadly, follow their noses. Anyway, I opened the back door last night to let my old dog in, paying little mind to her odoriferous entrance. I busied myself at the sink, and she assumed her usual stance at my side. Moments passed before she gave me a nudge and leaned in real close. I looked down, and what I saw by my side astonished me.
The year of the rat, indeed.
Now, please understand. It was no field mouse that Morgan held so tenderly in her mouth. It was, by all accounts, a creature most definitely here on vacation from the New York sewer system. The ruckus I made rousted the children from their beds, and sent all family members running. Thankfully. The one I was most glad to see was the Man, who was promptly sent out with the rodent. "And your little dog too!!!" (Insert Wicked Witch of the West here.) The kids have laughed and joked and carried on about it.
I'm. Not. Amused. There are now seven things about that dog I find annoying.
Moving right along, we had Chinese food for lunch today. (See there? A transition from rats to lunch. You with me??) We made a low table out of a box covered with a towel. We put a few cushions on the floor to sit on. (I think that is more of a Japanese tradition, but we never did that when we studied Japan, so we thought it would be fun today.) Years ago, my husband had a sweet Asian coworker who gave us a set of beautiful rice bowls from China. We used those bowls and ate with chopsticks. We left the LoMein noodles long, because in China, you eat long noodles if you want to have a long life. Tonight, it's the Man's turn to let the dog in.
2 comments:
Then last year must have been year of the oppossum!! My dog, brought in with him, through the dog door, a oppossum, who was playing...possum. When we said"BUSTER!" he immediately dropped it, like any good dog, and it promply "woke up" and ran into my bedroom!!! Luckily my Man and two little men captured it with a trashcan and set it free. WHOA was that a close one!! I think he is still hanging out in our backyard at night.... and we live in the city!!
ok, my bad. An oppossum.
And this is Julie by the way....
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