Michael's Journal

Here are a couple of funny (to me, at least) anecdotes from tonight:

We watched The Tailor of Panama on Swedish TV this evening. We had seen this film before; I liked it, Anna-Lena didn't. The same held true tonight. Toward the end of the film, Pierce Brosnan's character, Osnard, is talking to the British ambassador. The shot is similar to the end of Casablanca. Osnard walks with the ambassador and says "I guess this is the start of a beautiful friendship" (I'm paraphrasing that). I had Alex—recently awake and not too pleased about it—on my lap and I started to laugh. And I laughed some more.

Alex wasn't amused, however, and started to cry. Since he had missed the end of Casablanca when we watched it last month, he didn't get the reference. It took a few minutes to calm him down, all while I continued to laugh at the joke. (For the record, Anna-Lena wasn't amused, either.)

Then, it was Pelle's turn. He's done this quite a bit: He will run toward me and smell something along the way. However, it takes a few seconds for his brain to register the smell. By that point, he's quite a bit away from the smell and has to stop, pull a U-Turn, and reverse back to his altered destination.

It's at that point when he stops and reverses course that you can practically see his brain working. He's a pretty intelligent dog, but he's much faster on his feet than in his brain. I still love him, however.

Two questions with the same answer:

1. Guess who decided to stay up a little late, so he could work in peace and quiet on some pictures he had taken during the day?

2. Guess who was awakened about two hours earlier than he was supposed to have, to take care of a baby who woke up two hours early?

You get one guess.

This morning's escape with early awakening was doubled with a delay in my daily constitutional (in my case, a nice three-hour nap) since Anna-Lena had an appointment this afternoon. For some mysterious reason, Margit didn't come over to take care of Alex; I was stuck at home with both of my boys, plus Selene (Anna-Lena's older dog that lives with her parents).

That had a potential for extreme crankiness on my part, but Alex seemed to understand what was happening and didn't revert into Le Bête, which was A Very Good Thing. Not ten minutes after Anna-Lena came home, I was asleep and just woke up twenty minutes ago.

When I can take a three-hour nap, all is right in the world. Especially when I am awakened by my wife, bearing a glass of Coke and a peanut butter cookie. Pelle hopped up into bed to say hello and play a little, and Alex smiled when he saw me.

Lennart is here now, hanging out with Alex on the sofa while watching TV with Anna-Lena. This has given me the chance to wake up at my own leisure, which is for the best of all involved.

So, in this year of indecision, I stick my neck out to stand behind and endorse napping. One a day keeps the doctor away!