My brother Ted visited us last night for a few hours. He’s never visited my home before, in all our adult years. I’ve always lived so far away that it’s hard for family to get to me, and also Ted is perpetually too busy. As for the latter bit, I have full-on empathy, because it’s exactly how I felt when I worked for a monetary living.

And still, I felt like my Prodigal Brother was coming to town, and I was very happy and excited. I went shopping Sunday and I planned a special meal and I cleaned the house. I marinated a flank steak and, in honor of Wisconsin, I made a cheesy potato gratin. I baked bread and a blueberry orange bundt cake. I interrupted my work Monday afternoon to text Ted, along the lines of “we can’t wait to see you tonight!” He wrote back promptly. “It’s tomorrow Tuesday that I’m arriving.”

Phhtttthhhpphh.

I hope he liked the leftovers, anyway.

We had a great visit, despite my calendar brain fart. The kids got all over Uncle Ted, and Madeline the 6-pound poodle got all territorial. She sat on Ted, climbed on Ted, followed him around, sniffed him, licked him, glared at him. She can get weird when we have visitors and start peeing and pooing in inappropriate places, but she seemed fine.

Jesse didn’t get to her homework, so we tried to do it this morning. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation and the excitement of a familial visit didn’t mix well with tough word problems. Jesse had a full-blown meltdown, and eventually I did too. It was ugly. That kind of tension can get to the dog too.

I took some time to snuggle with Madeline this afternoon, in case she was feeling off kilter. When the alarm went off to tell me it was time to pick up the kids from school, Madeline stood up on the sofa right next to me and gagged like an emperor penguin feeding its young, and then she vomited. Damn. I swooped her onto the hardwood while I ran for paper towels, but when I got back 1.5 seconds later she had moved over to the Tibetan wool rug for a second round of yack.

Grrrrrr. Stupid fussy dog. Stupid stupid dog vomit.

Hurray for the spotbot!

What would I do without my family and my power tools?