We got Beauty and the Beast from Netflix a couple days ago, but the DVD wouldn’t play at all so I reported it and they sent out another one.  It arrived today.  Amanda and I were looking forward to watching it with Milly, but Amanda took a phone call at about the part where they sing about Gaston and was gone until Beast rescued Belle from the wolves.  Since she hadn’t seen it in years, she wanted to rewind it.  Milly was only half paying attention even when she was gone, preferring to draw on some paper with a pen.  She wasn’t totally disengaged, but she wasn’t totally engaged either, which is fine.

Speaking of pens, Amanda bought Milly some colored pencils today.  She had played with Kirsten’s one time over at Anna and B’s and she’s been really into drawing lately, so Amanda thought she’d enjoy them.

Part of Milly being into drawing includes her making specific requests for us to draw things.  I heard her ask Amanda to draw a yellow strawberry for her today, which she took to be a heart until Amanda told her that a strawberry is kind of shaped like a hear, which fact Milly then proceeded to repeat back to her.  She’s had me drawing Mater and Lightning McQueen the last couple days.  Sometimes together, sometimes separately.  I’ve got to say that I’m getting pretty decent at it.  I started off pulling up images from the internet to go by, but I’ve got the basics down.  I drew one on a drawing app on the iPad that Amanda said looked really good.  I tried to take a screenshot but accidentally exited the program, so I lost it.

Amanda and I watched the third episode of Game of Thrones together tonight.  She played with her iPad half the time, frustrated that Jenny Cain took a chance Amanda had to double letter a Q with a triple word score, or some such outrageous go on Words with Friends.  She did eventually put it down though, and she was asking questions about some of the characters.  She said something offhanded about Joffrey not even being a real prince and being the son of Cersei and Jaime Lannister, to which I replied, “He doesn’t know that.”  I didn’t realize she’d been speaking hypothetically and that it hadn’t been revealed on the show yet, so I gave that away.

I should be done with A Dance with Dragons soon, which makes me sad.  This time, instead of having to wait a couple weeks I’ll have to wait who-knows-how-long to read the next book, just like everyone else.  There are said to be two books left, but I don’t know how George R.R. Martin can wrap everything up in just two books.

Peggy, Amanda’s grandmother, is doing much better now.  Apparently two-thirds of her lungs were filled with blood clots and it was exacerbated by some cancer medicine she’s been on and the fact that she’s been tired so she’s been sitting more.  She’ll be on oxygen for a while, but she’s okay to go home and she’ll be able to go to Topsail for Labor Day weekend.  She might have to have an oxygen tank there, but she was told they (whoever they are) would set it up for her in the rental house if she’s still on it then.

Zach Dotsey

Zach Dotsey