The Coronacation Diaries, Episode 35

Adventures in Quarantining

Trapped together  Sheltering-in-place together offers much in the way of family bonding. We are all just a bit closer than we used to be, a hodgepodge family of personalities in a just-slightly-too-small home. What follows is a list of bonding moments adventures from today, moments that may have brought us closer than we maybe needed to be.

Moment #1: An adventure involving monsters.
My ex-husband Nick came over to pick up the kids for a few hours. As he sat on the couch, he talked monster movies with Michael while they simultaneously mocked me for the Hallmark movie currently on tv. Apparently there is a monster universe (a monsterverse?) that exists, full of King Kong and Godzilla, and secondary characters like Mothra and this is where I forgot to listen and they really have no room to mock my guilty tv pleasures. Nick then retrieved his pants, the ones that somehow ended up in our laundry, before he left with the kids.

Moment #2: An adventure involving the dog. 
Our poor dog Dobby is so in need of grooming, he looks like a miniature Wookie. I've been taking him on increasingly longer walks, because I am hoping that the concrete will file his nails. Unfortunately, another side effect of the lack of grooming is too much hair in his nether-regions. Meaning I have to sometimes wipe his butt. On a long walk today, I ended up having to carry him part-way. After he had pooped. Twice. At least I don't have to deal with anal glands?

Moment #3: An adventure involving dinner.
I made a "waffle bar" for dinner. It may be the one meal where everyone is happy and no one complains, unless you consider Sam's complaints that I made real whipped cream instead of buying shhhhhhhhhhht. There was chicken, homemade strawberry sauce, homemade whipped cream, syrup, chocolate chips, and American fries. Imagine my surprise when Sam then proceeded to load a waffle with strawberry sauce, whipped cream, chocolate chips, and hot sauce.

Moment #4: An adventure involving the cat.
After dinner, Michael and I attempted to put kitty caps on Katniss' claws, so that she will stop scratching her face off. The poor kitty has some sort of auto-immune or allergy thing that keeps the local vet in business, as we end up there about every six weeks, after Katniss has clawed off all of her own whiskers. In case you wondered, putting kitty caps on an angry cat is an exercise in patience, especially when the claw-capper (Michael) jumps the gun and tells the cat-holder (his very patient partner) to grab the cat long before he is ready to go.  As it stands, the cat now has 11 caps on her nails and I have a lot of cat hair stuck to my face. Victory?

Moment #5: An adventure involving home improvement projects.
Finally, that sound you hear? That is the sound of Michael tearing off the exterior siding that has lined the interior walls of our basement since I purchased the house. I don't know why there is siding on my basement walls; the previous owners were both very industrious and questionable decision-makers. I also don't know why Michael has decided to begin this project at 8:00 on a Sunday night. Nor do I know what he plans to do with the siding, since Granger currently won't take outsized trash or anything sticking out of the wheelie bin.

But you know what? I'm not going to worry about it. Because there is a Hallmark movie I've been meaning to watch, and the living room is blissfully quiet. Except for the sound of the cat chewing her nail caps off.