Hold the front page!

My spies tell me that after years of ever more desperate and extravagant efforts to get on the front page of Linton News, a member of my family has finally made it - but only after we've packed up and left the village. *Sigh*

I'm struggling with what I'm forced to admit must be tonsillitis. This is a particularly annoying time to get ill since we haven't yet signed up with a doctor (we still don't have those elusive existence-affirming social security numbers) and now it's a bank holiday weekend to boot. I'll just have to keep gargling with aspirin - British aspirin, made not so much with passion (see Aug 30) as with indifference bordering on resentment.


Today's challenge was to buy school stationery. Kids provide their own here, and we have been presented with a page-long list of required items. A very mystifying list. Is a twin pocket portfolio with fasteners the same as a poly-portfolio with prongs? And if so, is that also the same thing as a folder with pockets, or a pocket folder with tabs? How big is a composition notebook, and why will the Boy be needing an index card box? It's all very baffling. We were not alone on our mission in Walmart, and it seemed to me that the other parents jostling down the aisles with their puzzling lists and whining children were having just as much fun as we were.