Grandma had just sat down to read the local paper when Everett and I arrived on Thursday evening. She set it aside so she could visit with us instead.

Email to Cathy on Friday:
Dear Martha Ritchie,
I bought Emil a new duvet and duvet cover, both twin size. Unfortunately although I fix it every day, the next morning I find once again the duvet has slid down inside and he has been sleeping with only a light layer of covering on him throughout the night. Aside from pinning them together with safety pins, which I fear might tear the fabric if it gets pulled on, or stitching the corners of the duvet to the inside of the cover (then how do you wash the cover without having to rip out the stitching and re-stitching every time? don't want to have to do that), what is your solution? For it seems to me that the duvet at your house always seems to be in place. How do you do it?
I could stitch ribbons to the inside corners of the cover and the corners of the duvet, and then tie them together. That's one idea. But I wondered if you have any others.
Love,
Clueless Kate
ps boys'll be home from school shortly and i hope everett will go for a walk with me. we didn't go yesterday, as he had his piano lesson in town and then a meeting with a youth counsellor. he gave her his sad tale of being overworked at home ... but scott and i don't believe he is, at all. still, he needs to be able to vent to someone without fear of reprisals from mom, so i'll take him to see her again in two weeks or so
pps no plans for the weekend except a 'princess house' party at karen's on sunday afternoon. a friend of hers had her house burn down about a week ago and karen is donating the profits from sales.

Sat 15 Nov 2008
10:53 a.m.

Everett's one daily chore, aside from feeding the dogs and cats, which is a labour of love, is to do the supper dishes. I usually help him, but last night we ate late and neither of us felt like cleaning up. So here he is, still in his nightwear, running water into the kitchen sink.

I buy Red Rose tea because that is the kind Grandma always made, and it was at her home that I fell in love with a cup of hot tea. But it is Orange Pekoe tea whose name sounds exotic and delicious to me.

I dreamed that I was on my hands and knees, with Emil behind me on his, making our way to the end of a dock jutting out into a lake. I began to feel nervous and turned to go back, as the dock seemed wobbly and narrow and I was afraid of falling into the water. I could not safely, without risking falling into the water, get around Emil so that I could lead, and he seemed hardly able to move. He put his face down into water on the dock as if he was weak or passing out. This upset me enough to wake me up.

This year, many days after school unless it’s particularly nice out and he goes walking around the yard, Emil lies down for a nap. It’s something he’s rarely done before unless he had a cold coming on, and I wonder if it’s anything to worry about. I assumed not— that he’s getting up when his alarm goes at 6 and thus it’s a long day for him— and he’s having to get used to being kept busy at school all day, after a summer of laziness. But why is his behaviour different from every other year? Is there something I need to be looking more closely at?
Most years when school starts he gets a nasty cold within the first few weeks. This year I advised him to start taking a ColdFX capsule once a day, to build his immune system. It seems to have made a difference, because it’s the first time in my memory that he hasn’t spent a week or two at home in the fall with a river of snot running out of his nose.

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Suggestions for that duvet and cover are welcome. Please use email link in the list on the right, particularly if you are one of those folks for whom commenting on this webpage is a huge pain in the derriere.