Nighttime Insanity

We were watching Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader last night. Don’t judge there was nothing else on; damned summer programming.

Anyway, the answer to one of the questions was chlorophyll and the adult playing the game gave chloroform as his answer. Yeah, poor sap. (Confession: When I first heard the question, my first response was also chloroform but I quickly corrected myself, saying that, duh, if you wanted to kidnap someone, then yes, chloroform was the way to go, but the stuff in plants is definitely chlorophyll.)

I was shouting at the television that the dude who was NOT smarter than a fifth grader was never, ever going to forget chlorophyll after being on that show. I wondered, aloud, if he had a cousin Phil, which might have helped him remember chlorophyll. Full disclosure: I do, in fact have a cousin Phil.

“Chlorophyll!” I shouted. “Chlorophyll…store a Phil. Store a Phil in your closet. Store a fork in Phil’s forehead.” Yes, I was suffering from momentary insanity. In my defense, I had a headache and was VERY tired. (I do not store my cousin Phil in a closet, nor do I store a fork in his forehead.)

The girls find me so very funny sometimes, especially when I’m tired and cranky. I guess it’s better that they find my crankiness hilarious than annoying or mean. At one point Olivia was laughing so hard she fell off her chair. It’s great fun to be silly and ridiculous with my kids.

Maybe it’s moments like the one last night that makes Alyssa want to come home after a day with a friend rather than spend the night. She was recently invited to go to a state park and then spend the night with her friend and her friend’s grandparents.

I think it was the grandparents part that put her off. She’s stayed with this friend several times and enjoyed herself but that was at her friend’s house with her friend’s parents. This would have been with grandparents who’d never been met and yeah, my girl is a bit of homebody.

She fretted about how not spending the night might hurt her friend’s feelings and I told her that I was sure her friend would be fine, I reminded her that the friend, N, really just wanted to spend time with her and time during the day was better than no time at all.

I was right, of course. N and her family completely understood and were happy to have Alyssa for the day.

I wonder what kind of antics we’ll get up to tonight while we watch Master Chef. Last week during the season premiere, there was a woman that I wondered aloud if the producers had asked to dress especially dumpy. She was wearing what looked like orthopedic shoes with bobby socks. Seriously.

Summer programming really does leave so much to be desired; though I am beyond excited about the season 3 premiere of Hannibal tomorrow night. Yeah, that’s one I draw the line on. Neither of my kids are allowed to watch it, even if they could stay up till eleven to see the entire episode. It’s just too dark, too gory, too psychologically creepy for them. But for me? It’s a thrill a minute.