Wednesday’s Activities Include: still working on forms, walk, piano tuning

The biggest headache of the camp application has been trying to figure out how to best transfer forms from the health portal to the camp application online system. I got that mostly figured out, but then I needed to transfer a camp form to the doctor’s office, and the portal doesn’t support that at all. So they signed me up for their secure mail system that they ONLY use for sending attachments — CipherPost Pro. This confused me even further, but I think I got it to do what I wanted.

The piano tuner showed up. I’m not sure how this happened, but I completely forgot this was going to be today. It’s on the paper calendar, but not the google calendar, so maybe that was how I missed it. I looked at him very confusedly on the front porch, but it’s all good.

My brother-in-law (husband’s sister’s husband) has been sending me pictures from 2004. They are awesome, and there is a serious risk I’m about to break my lifelong streak of never crying at anything wedding related. One is a picture of R. and I on our wedding day, with niece (who was flower girl, and who walked us in for the ceremony). She’s in college now, but she was little then, and absolutely adorable. (She is still adorable.) Another was of me at the rehearsal dinner, with that niece, and a step-niece sitting in my lap. That’s the one that is risking making me cry. I remember them getting a little bored and rambunctious and we went for a walk around the block, and they got tired and I ended up carrying them back one on each hip. They were so cute! I don’t often experience nostalgia, but this is a powerful hit.

ETA: And now one of T.’s long time ... not sure what her precise title is. But she’s been working with T. at one school or another for years. She just sent me a picture from her phone from May 8, 2014 of T.

This is apparently Make Walkitout Appreciate Her Beautiful Life Through Photographs From Years Gone By day.

Book Review: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents a Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo

SPOILERS!

I will tell you the ending first, in case you, like me and the hedgehog, read the ends of books first to find out whether they are too sad for you to read:

"Stink bugs are temporary. Love is Forever."

(Yes, I am aware that the proposition "Love is Forever" especially in the context of two people who apparently get married _the day they meet_ or really, really shortly thereafter is much more probable in fiction than IRL.)

This short book has a complex political background that I don't fully understand. And while I bought the kindle version, it is one of those incredibly irritating kindle versions that only works on a very short list of devices, so I had to go read it on my Mac, which meant I had to download a current Kindle for Mac and so forth. No, it does not work on iOS apps. Boo, hiss, Chronicle Books.

That said, it is a children's picture book, so I do grasp there are some tradeoffs. Not sure I agree with those tradeoffs, given how awesome the tablet versions of Sandra Boynton board books were, but, whatever.

In this book, a bunny who lives in the Pence household is a little lonely and bored, when, one day, he meets an amazing other bunny and they fall in love and no longer feel lonely any more. Deciding to hop together forever, they gather friends (turtle, hedgehog, a very good dog, etc.) and an officiant (a woman cat named Pajama, who brings her wife as a date) to get married. The ceremony is disrupted by a Stinkbug who thinks he is in charge, so they hold an election, putting Stink Bug up against Not Stink Bug on the ballot, Not Stink Bug wins, they shout down Stink Bug's heteronormative ideas about Love and proceed with the wedding.

The pictures are enticing and entertaining. The story is told concisely and with great humor, with a moral that entirely aligns with my values. And while I'm sure some would disagree, it manages to make its point without blugeoning the reader with it. If you grew up in a world with No Stink Bugs, you might scratch your head at the implausible Bad Guy, but the rest of the tale would be absolutely enjoyable regardless. I mean, Meet Cute, etc.

Should you ever find yourself confronted with a ballot with a choice of Stink Bug or Not Stink Bug to be In Charge and to Make the Rules, please please please vote for Not Stink Bug.

This was Lucky Number 13 for the year, if I'm counting correctly.