Monthly Archives: March 2011

Yes hello, what have you got in a zero down, 99 year mortgage?

Posted on by Before I Had Kids
1

We are very fortunate.

We’ve just bought a beautiful house that a bank was foolish enough to loan us the money for.

It’s just a house.

It’s lumber and shingles and concrete and wires and metal.

It’s so much more though, already. It’s home. It’s a soft place to land at the end of a long hard day. It’s time out when the world’s daggers feel particularly sharp, poked from all directions into all your soft fleshy bits.

It’s that little place we’re carving out for ourselves, for our kids. And most importantly, it’s a reminder of what really matters – surrounding yourself with people you love and building a little blanket fort with them to keep out all the scary monsters – and keep in all of the warmth.

Let’s at least hope it’s tobacco, little monkey.

Posted on by Before I Had Kids
Reply

I was reading the original Curious George book to my kids last night.

It’s not too bad.

And really, in a kid’s book that you’re going to wind up reading several dozens of times, not too bad is a HUGE victory. (May God cast his darkest cloud of vengeance down upon “Barbie’s Fairytopia,” btw.)

So I was reading Curious George, which was originally published in 1941. Given its age, you would naturally expect a few quirks.

Like when I came to the page where George and the Man With the Yellow Hat were relaxing at home and george has a “nice meal” and then . . . smokes a “nice pipe” before bed.

I have to admit I was a bit shocked to see smoking in a children’s book.

And then I realized that I’ve been reading far too many animal books to my kids because I never once formed the thought that perhaps it was even stranger that it was A SMOKING MONKEY.

As for how it all ended, and what mischief that silly little monkey might get into next, I guess you’re just going to have to read it and find out for yourself.

Curious George Smoking a Pipe