I don’t have much today. I survived most of the day with a bit of the ‘quils. But this evening a headache descended and stayed with me. The monsters were cute, all four of them. And to celebrate the monsters we watched “The Monster House,” a computer-animated movie that was a bit too scary for my sister’s two older monsters. They went screaming out of the room three-quarters of the way through. It probably would have been better if they stayed to the end of the movie to see the happy ending. But I guess the tension got to them. “Can I look now,” was repeated many times. The answer was usually “no,” as the Monster House tended to eat anyone who got too close.

I haven’t been able to post my musing in Buffalo. There is wi-fi here, but my computer has been having trouble connecting. It’s been acting up for a bit now. I’ll wait until I arrive home on Monday night to catch up on my postings. It’s enough that I’m writing now trying to get this finished. With my head banging away, I thought today would be the day I wouldn’t get this done. I’m more hopeful now that I’m in front of the computer, delaying my much-needed sleep. I’ll get to it after I finish typing these words.

My sister’s two older monsters have developed distinct personalities. It’s interesting to see how different they are as they grow up. I don’t get to see them much, and because of that I get to see the marked differences in the personalities between this time and the last time. I last saw time I saw them was during our Sagamore trip this past summer. The younger was not much of a person back then. She’s developed a personality. The older has grown up but is still the same person. The two newborns were still A and B back in the summer, gestating in my sister’s belly. Big differences across the board.

Buffalo is as cold as I remember. This weekend turned out warm for a Buffalo winter, but for me, cold is cold is cold. I lost my cold weather abilities when I left NYC many years ago. After Houston and now Seattle, I barely remember the cold. Well, that would be true except for Seattle over last month. I don’t know what’s happening there, but I do know that I’m remembering what it means to be cold again.

Doolies is still downstairs feeding one of the newer monsters. I’m trying to keep my distance to ensure that whatever illness still bakes in my body stays far away from the newborn monsters.

We slept in late this morning. I probably should have gotten up a few hours earlier to avoid the headache. After a ‘quil, I was feeling decent until the headache descended. We spent the day in my sister’s house enjoying most of her kids. Her oldest was out for the day visiting a friend. I’ll post photographs when I return and once again have an umbilical cord to the world. That’s some fancy imagery there.

Finally past the halfway point. I didn’t think I’d ever get here. I’m low on things to talk about and my head is still pounding away. It’s again one of those pathological yawning headaches. I think they might be caused by too much sleep or not enough breathing. I haven’t figured out which yet. But it’s not pleasant and made me first of two days in Buffalo not as good as it could have been. Que se va, or something like that.

My sister’s house is packed with too many toys. She acknowledges it. My older sister has given her plenty of hand-me-down toys, and my mother and my sister’s in-laws provide the rest of the presents. In Buffalo, real estate is relatively cheap and she lives in a very large house. Even in such a large house it’s difficult to find a place for all of the toys. That’s going to one of the rules if I ever have children: no toys for the monsters. Or, and this is a huge concession, one present per monster per year from any one person (including proxy gifts, mother!). That should keep our house (or hopefully condo) neat and tidy and not overrun with toys that monsters don’t play with.

We’re sleeping in my sister’s finished attic. Over the last week she took all the toys that had clogged the downstairs areas and stored them up here. The floors are covered with the toys, and two oversized closets are packed to the gills. I don’t know this from firsthand knowledge. I’m trusting my brother-in-law who warned me not to open them, lest the toys fall out and crush me. I’m not one for being crushed so I’m looking at the doors. They’re tempting, very tempting. But I’ll resist opening and seeing the mess.

When we arrived, Doolies attempted to straighten the attic as much as possible. She’s of the personality who cannot stand being in messy places. Similar to my older sister and (to a lesser extent) my mother. As I’ve grown older, I don’t like living in a mess. But I’m of the personality that won’t do anything about it. If I’m in a messy room, I’ll feel bad about it but I won’t clean it. I think I have the worst type of personality there. At least my younger sister doesn’t mind it as much. I guess when you have four monsters you stop minding many things, including how the house looks.

I’m glad I finished this. Even with monster headaches (and by monster I mean large, not caused by monsters of either the children-kind or the movie kind), I can still pound out the words like a champ. I’m going to go find Doolies and see what she and the monsters are up to. It’s almost bedtime and I think I’ll sleep well tonight without any ‘quils. The ‘quils are still causing havoc on my stomach.