Miser family update in hats

Life continues to be rich and full in the Miser Family, in our various households.  This week, we celebrated a Family Fun Friday Foto, in hats.  And here is my family -- they're the tops!

I-daughter, in her highly fashionable summer bonnet, has put away her sweaters for the summer, storing them in the cedar chest my father made for me when I was in high school.   One of her sisters asked if she was going to wear a particular animal-themed hat she had knitted herself, which led to the following  text convo:

I-daughter: I'm wearing a garden party hat...

K-daughter: Bummer! Not your elephant hat!

I-daughter: No, it's the wrong season for that 😆🐘

L-daughter: Yeah I checked my fashion calendar too and it said "not elephant season". . . 

  . . .   I'm dead 😂 what does that mean?

I-daughter: It's a warm hat... For winter wear

K-daughter: 😂😂😂😂,

L-daughter: However I do kind of like the idea that late spring is not elephant hat season.    Like it's something everyone just knows,

I-daughter: You should spread the word

Word.  So now you know: not elephant hat season. 

J-son (not dressed as Aladdin; the only "hat" he could find was a bowl) is contemplating getting a job as a box tagger that a friend might be able to set him up with.  The pandemic and a couple of other choices he's made so far have left him with a lot of time on his hands and a lot of questions about his life, which isn't always a great place for him to be.  So I'm kinda hoping this job comes through and works him into the ground for a little while.  

Y, our host daughter, has finished her third year of med school. Yay, Y!  Her picture comes with a tiny title saying, "Day 5 of Summer break and already I'm Bordeaux".  She sent me an email this morning with the subject line, "Did you ever think about chickens?"  I love that question (and I'll respond soon, I promise, Y!).

L-daughter, the elder, has put her prodigious artistic talents to good use making a bunch of posters for protest to improve working conditions at her VA hospital during this pandemic.   Man, it sure would be nice if we could properly equip the people we were asking to take care of other people, don't you think?  Here's a nice story about the protest. 

L-daughter, the younger, is wearing what she describes as "the only hat I could find", but I bet if she looked hard, she could find a bowl.  I do like the hat she found, though!

My guy, wearing his Iraq desert hat, has gotten a bionic brace for his arm.  He is very happy to be able to walk all over, and he does so, logging 9 or so miles in a day. He's doing more physical therapy than his trainers want him to (which is normal for him -- when he had his knee replaced last year, his physical therapist told him, "Listen to your body . . . um, I mean, *don't* ever do this to the point of pain!!"). He's getting his staples removed later this week.

N-son was practicing his "Honey, if you love me, would you please, please smile" face.  (That's a game all my kids tried to play with me as a kid, and N-son was the only one who could make it through without cracking up).  He is enjoying living on his own but comes over for laundry, dinner, movies (this week:  Thelma and Louise and Fight Club), and general catching up.

Even though it's summer, I'm doing a bunch of academic advising and thinking ahead to my fall classes, because teaching is so crazy these days!  I also happened to get an email from an engineer who has questions related to the kind of math I do, which is like, totally, weird for me, because I've spent my entire career thinking of myself as a theoretical -- not applied -- mathematician.  But we've started working together, and it's a lot of fun!

K-daughter and family have been learning first-hand the value of exercise for highly active 5-year-old kids.  They've been getting outside to do hiking, and A-child gets a couple of opportunities to run up and down a hill with a parent as a way to enhance discipline.  I love that creative and healthy approach!

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures (getting ahead, you might say).  May you and yours stay safe.