liza

Watching Gulls Fly

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As I was sitting around this morning, working (I know, shock), Kate texted me, "Hiya." After my typical "Hi hi hi!", Kate told me that Liza was playing ultimate at the local middle school, did I want to swing by?

H to the F'ing YES. So many reasons YES. I think the least was that, geez, how many times did Liza sit around watching Kate and me play ultimate? MANY MANY TIMES. The most was because, omg, this person who first had a disc in her hand when she was 3 days old is playing ultimate omg yay! Besides, I hadn't seen her in a year, and wanted to say hello. I put away work and zipped over to the school.

I didn't recognize Liza.

She is 5'11" tall. Let's just think about that for a second: a year ago she was my height. Now she towers over me. And likely isn't fully grown.

O

M

G

Kiiii-iiiitt!

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Liza's been out of school for the last week or so, having had her tonsils out. Mike's been telling me his childhood horror stories with his tonsils, all of which made me alternate between laughing and being mortified at his experiences. I have my tonsils, but not a third of my teeth. I wonder if there's a correlation to that tradeoff.

Mike came down the mountain to pick up the tiller, and, much to both my surprise and delight, brought Liza with him. Mike and I were going to head over to the frozen yogurt place that Katie introduced me to, and holy moly, is it awesome. My favorite is the original with graham cracker crust: tastes like a light, cold keylime pie. Mmmmmm.....

So, we went off to the yogurt place. I kept trying to get Liza to talk, because I thought her voice had changed. Kiii-iiiitt! Sure enough, Mike confirmed that her voice had changed because of the tonsils.

On the way back home, I noticed Liza's homework on her lap. She had just pulled it out of her backpack, when "Kathleen" caught my eye. I asked her, "Why did you put 'Kathleen' on your homework?"

She turned to me and, in a way I thought you had to be at least a teenager to perfect, rolled her eyes at me. "That's my name, Kitt."

Well, aren't I put in my place?

Mike explained that she's been waffling between her first and middle names, not quite sure which name she wanted to use. Nothing like defining yourself young. I would, however, like to honor her choice: if she's going to be Kathleen, I'll switch what I call her, just give me some time to do it right. So, I asked her, "What should I call you then?"

"You can call you whatever you want," she answered.

I reached over, grabbed her in the biggest bear hug I could manage, and asked, "Does that mean I can call you 'the Awesome Daughter of My Good Friend?'"

"NooooOOOoo, Kiiiiii-iiiiiiitt!"

Ah, that's the Liza voice I love.

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Cookie dough parade

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If cookie dough is always this fabulous, I needs me some cookie dough. Stat!

The part of Kitt will be played by Liza today

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Since I wasn't feeling good yesterday, I didn't head into work. We have the sick policy that if you are starting to feel ill, stay home and work, rather than getting everyone in the office sick, too. So, I stayed home yesterday. Good thing, too, given how sick I was last night. Today isn't much better, not being able to do much more than sit around the house, drinking sugar water, and asking Kris, "Do I feel hot?"

Liza had been sick on Thursday, but was feverish on Wednesday afternoon, so she couldn't go into school on Friday. Instead, she spent the day with her mom at work, then with her dad at work. Apparently she managed to get as much work done on Friday afternoon as I did: