Tales from the Steppes

2005-11-29

8:58 a.m.
Tuesday, November 29

Happiness is a full voicemail box.

Of course, four of those messages were from one citizen that wants to develop some property and needs answers. Now. I was pleased to note that none of the messages, besides those from the aforementioned citizen, were grumpy. It helps that my mailbox was full as of 9am yesterday, so perhaps I missed the late day rush.

Over the long weekend I had the mongols write out their Christmas lists. While I certainly do care what they want, I was more concerned with getting the younger two to sit and be quiet because I had a headache. The lists were truly a reflection of who the mongols are as individuals.

The only thing the EM really wants besides an iPod is peace and quiet away from her brothers. I asked her what she is expecting Santa to do about this and she said she would be happy with a hotel room. Yeah, that's going to happen.

The MM wrote a very practical and reasonable list. All items are commercially available. Nothing was too large or expensive. Well, ok, the door to his "crib" might not fit in his stocking but no big deal. (The male mongols have two large closets in their room and each use theirs as a clubhouse.) He isn't getting one anyway. The slamming of doors followed by the screaming of siblings is one of my least favorite aural effects.

The YM's list was ...... interesting. He asked for a pair of Shell Shockers, so he could share with his brother and other friends. Lovely thought. I had no idea what the thing was, other than some piece of plastic advertised on TV. I looked it up to discover that it was a $70 piece of plastic. So maybe just one of those. After all, it is the thought that counts. Also on his list was a bass drum. Because it is not enough to have an electric guitar, doumbek, bongos, and other assorted drums. I think we can safely say that this will happen over his father's dead body. One of the other things he wants is a machine that makes cookies. I am not sure what he is going to do with that - open his own Otis Spunkmeyer stand? I always thought he was more into candy than cookies.

The strangest thing he wanted was an extra head. A fake head to be sure, because we talked about the issues surrounding obtaining a real extra head. But he wants to be able to rearrange facial features and wear it next to his own. I asked him if he meant like one of the fake heads archaeologists use to build facial features on from schools and he said no. I then asked him if he meant like a Mr. Potato Head and he looked at me like I was total moron. So if anyone has any thoughts on where to get an extra head, I need the help.