Are you well known to them?

Do you give them your account number or a card or bankbook or a check?

Or maybe you carry a gun?

Wait, I gotta paint it myself? I’d have better luck molding the clay from scratch freehand than getting the painting right.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/mr-poppers-penguins-newbery-honor-book-9780316058421

They’re very cool but ELIacompleteidiot how one would turn, say, a Blue and White ceramic incense burner from a picture on my phone into something on my shelf?

It’s a grocery store, I’d rather be able to smell tomatoes and strawberries and rotisserie chicken and bread

Be patient, this too will pass. Those hours last aeons but the years fly by.

Know that for every person sniffing with disapproval at your kids’ worst behavior there’s three thinking, “Oh yeah, I remember how hard that is” or “I’m so glad that’s not me today!”

That’s a great cat.

I’d take a college course from that cat.

In fact I’m pretty sure that cat wrote the article.

It’s the power behind the podium.

No, sounds like you followed the instructions perfectly. (Edit: stand upwind for less onion discomfort. No one will notice you’re really crying about everything.)

I was thinking it was Ponder Stibbons

Rocks guardin’ the rock garden

Okay fine and all, but are we not going to talk about the cat?

Peeling and chopping doesn’t have to be done in the same room. In fact, if you take those onions outside everyone will be grateful, and unlikely to come pester you.

Frustrating indeed.

But maybe the reason she didn’t want you in the kitchen was because she didn’t want you (or anyone) to watch her struggling. And the reason she’s so critical is that she spent decades criticizing herself in there.

Or maybe not. I don’t know your mother.

Well she’s cold enough to keep wearing her down jacket and have her non-typing hand tucked in. She’s straight upright, scooting her chair to reach along the row. No lolling back with thigh-highs on the desk for her.

Probably already are

Yes, the word is not used to group them scientifically anymore, but can still describe them as thick-skinned.

The hungry Hungary hippos have thick but sensitive skin, so they soak in the swamp. Rampageous rhinoceroses and easygoing elephants also have thick skin, often mottled with mud, as they saunter through the savannah.

Oh TIL that, while pachyderms are elephants, they’re also hippos and rhinoceroses and tapirs! Good thing I checked before being confidently incorrect! Don’t trust anything you learned as a child.

Search “contralto singers” and pick a few who will help support your inner girl when you use your voice.

Pig in clover?

Sew in some lumps or just tuck a few cotton balls randomly underneath?