Mary Jane out of Hospital

It took three full days plus a few hours but our little girl finally was cleared to leave the Phoenix Children's Hospital this evening. She was admitted on Christmas Eve with bad congestive signs. She was later diagnosed with RSV which is some form of respiratory virus (you go look it up). It is something that could be fatal if left unchecked for too long. Luckily our girl was surrounded by lots of family that night so everyone was all, "What's up with that wheezing?"

The hospital was extremely efficient in admitting her. We never had any doubts regarding her health, it was just the inevitable wait for her to recover completely. After three full days, she sounded so much better and her eyes started to dart around like the Pilot's Boy in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." OK, so some of you have not read that recently. Well, snap to it!

Anyway, she is back at Chez Kendall now and will head off with Mister John and Miss Jill on Wednesday. Of course the fates have it lined up that it will rain incessantly on Wednesday again. Joy. Didn't we just leave that alluvial madness?

Penguins Tend to Relax on Sundays

The Pengoon is spending his vacation in style. For much of the year he sits atop Mister John's (aka Mr. Erb) mobile school closet. But for a few weeks during Christmas and summer break, he gets to chill with the family. Of course that brings the annual conflicts with TV Turtle and Sharkey as they all want to eat fish. And clearly this proves to be a greater problem as the Pengoon is much larger than them. Never discuss issues of biomass with Decathlon penguins, television turtles, and cloth-toothed sharks (they get a bit testy). Furthermore Shark Week comes on just in time for the fish eating conflicting every year. This year the three have bonded and have enjoyed watching all the Shark Week programming. This has left Miss Jill and Mister John a little worried as the new programming for 2010 dealt mostly with shark attacks on humans. When either Jill or John walks by, they all turn their heads to look at them like the ghosts did on the Ancient Mariner's ship (what, you haven't read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" lately? you suck!).

In the afternoons, Pengoon gets out and lounges in the back yard. Good for him, he deserves a good rest from all the action inside. Besides, in about ten days, he'll be back at Mary Star and surviving all the sophomore madness. And he also knows that January is coming soon enough: the Decathlon awaits. Mister John (aka Coach Erb) will be ready to bring him into battle. And nothing drives fear into other Decathlon teams than the Pengoon. Because they know Mary Star is coming. Well, that and the onslaught of parents that come.

Root Beer Float Trapped in a Time Vortex!

In a near rabbit tragedy today (or was it not today?), Root Beer Float was trapped. I believe it was a time vortex. Or it was some sort of oogly-googly fence keeping her trapped. It may have been one of those energy vortices in Sedona, Arizona, which Mr. K is ensconced in. Then again we all know that Mr. K is from Turkey. Or a city named Lithuania in Turkey. For those confused, please go to the following link:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/zydrunas-ilgauskas-figures-he-must-be-from-turkey,17164/

Anyway, where was I? More precisely, when was I? Well, possibly in the future. While looking at this picture of poor Root Beer Float trapped in a temporal vortex, I noticed the timestamp at the bottom of the picture. It's in the future! She hasn't been trapped in a vortex yet! Or maybe when I saw her, I was the one in the vortex and then I was shipped back in time. But I don't own a DeLorean. Oh, the paradox of time travel.

Yet dear Phillip tried to come to Root Beer Float's rescue. He reached the outside of the time vortex and was unable to rescue her. Honestly, I don't know how or when (which when assuredly!) she escaped. I noticed she was in her cage this evening. But she seemed older and more forlorn for the activity, almost like the Wedding Guest at the end of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

On a related note, at some point in the next fortnight (hey, I'm a British Literature teacher, I can get away with that), the new season of Doctor Who is out. Yes, there is a new actor playing the vaunted time traveling iconoclast. Let's just hope he was as good as the previous one. Just stay away from police boxes and don't, I repeat, don't pet the cholla! (You thought I was going to say, "Blink," didn't you?)