So, today started with a bang. Literally. I walked Jack into school to deliver a few things in advance of tomorrow's luncheon and to help him pass out teacher gifts. As I was heading back upstairs, an enormous boom brought everything to immediate, uncomfortable silence. What was that? As it turns out, a transformer had just blown, knocking out all the power at school. Two hours later, as I had those pesky thirty chicken breasts a'poaching, school was officially canceled. Anyone who reads Em-i-lis with any regularity will understand why I thought, "of course this happened today of all days when I need to finish preparing a darn lunch for 70 folks." Seriously, y'all, isn't this uncanny? Every time I have a large job on the exceedingly near horizon (within a day), something big happens (Jack starts bleeding from his ear; snow day; Ol sick; etc) which forces me to call in helper troops as fast as my little fingers can dial, email or text. I'm very lucky that things so often work out. Good lord people, a blown transformer?

So Jack and his pal Annie came over for an hour and then we went to pick up Oliver whose last day of school wrapped up at noon. Meanwhile, I'm trying to chop all the damn chickens and stay marginally on task. It is my utmost hope that school resumes tomorrow because otherwise, what a bummer of a last day today would have been AND I've got a heck of a lot of food here.

I then had to call the DC-government hotline because hanging out of a drain-pipe from our yard onto our sidewalk is a seriously dead squirrel. His head, neck and one paw are up the pipe, torso, other paws, tail just splayed out for all the walkers to see. It's just awful and though I don't get skeeved out by much, the flies swarming his poor head just took it too far. I simply could not dispose of Mr. Squirrel. So I put in a request and hopefully a sanitation worker, probably a horribly underpaid one who didn't think he'd be shoveling dead squirrels from sidewalks, will come out and remove the small corpse.

Also today I saw two different AU students wearing shorts so short that their bottoms hung below the seam. This would have been an unfortunate solo sighting, but twice? My eyes started to roll back into my head. And, it's further proof that not nearly enough people use their mirrors to see their backsides. In my opinion, you always need to get a rearview before committing to an outfit. And, if they looked in the mirror, saw their peek-a-boo butt-cheeks hanging low and still approved these outfits? Well, gross. Didn't your mommmas raise you right?!

Jack and I just toodled to get a coffee, for me, and a rice krispie treat, for him, and I ran out of money at the register after he'd bitten into his treat and my drink was being made. Like I needed that one, people. Audrey, gal at the register, was infinitely lovely and made it work somehow. Thank you SO much. Random acts of kindness are incredible, you know?