Last night I went for a run and, as I am wont to do, perused my path for lizards along the way. It's one of my little known foibles: I like to catch lizards. And frogs. And, on occasion, snakes. I do draw the line at spiders, though. They're creepy.
At any rate, I saw him by the wall: stiff, cold-blooded, not at all pleased by my advances. But I picked him up and took him home anyway.
Backtracking a good five minutes of my run, I might add.
What can I tell you? Some moms help their kids with math homework. Some moms sew. Some moms give their kids advice on how to be popular at school. Some moms help their kids avoid library fines. I am, regrettably, not that mom. But I am the mom who brings a lizard home to her children and tells them they can keep it overnight.
When I got back from my run, the girls were still undecided on a name. Sophie wanted to call him Agent X. Caroline wanted to call him Old Joe. Izzy wanted to call him The Dean. I have to tell you I was impressed. I was expecting some frilly, lavender-ish name that would make my face twitch, when in fact even I couldn't decide which name was best.
After enduring their heated debate awhile, I shut things down with denunciations of pettifoggery. Such a great word, so many applications around these parts. I've taken to singing it like a Bach fugue as of late.
The next morning we released him into the wilds. Two minutes later, we saw a black cat climb over the wall. As you may imagine, I spent the rest of our walk to school reassuring Caroline that Old Joe was probably halfway to The Strip by now.
Which she thought was pretty funny. But she worried all the same.
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Dear reader, one of my little brothers is coming to spend the weekend today! So I think I will sign off now and wish you a lovely few days of peace and relaxation.
First, calling your attention to Elsita's post about her niece who lives in Chile.
Second, the comments on the "little old lady" post are amazing. Thank you for adding your thoughts and bringing so many ideas to this very interesting topic. Well worth your time if you have a moment to read on...
