rumpus room

I finished the Katharine Graham autobio, Personal History. It was interesting. Her public story revolves around the fact that she took over the Washington Post after her husband committed suicide at their farmhouse, a very sad story. He was bipolar and saw a doctor who thought medication was evil, so he struggled to deal with his illness without this kind of crucial help. After he killed himself Mrs. Graham ( a single mother to four ) took over the paper and during her years as its publisher she walked it through an amazing series of events. The chapters on Watergate were fascinating, the reveals on Nixon's handling of the Washington Post were scary, what a secretive and manipulative man he was. Katharine Graham is interesting personally, how much she struggled with bias against women and her own low self-esteem and constant feeling of failure. Her reflections on her family and her own person were especially interesting, she spent a kind of strange and nannied childhood feeling lonely. At one point her parents left her and her siblings to be raised by their nannies for a few years while they lived in DC! She persevered through an enormous amount of both personal and public struggle and stress to accomplish so much. It's strange reading an autobio around reading so many biographies. I prefer biographies, with exception.

My son is back from his trip to DC with his grandma, to visit my Uncle R and family. He came back with all the requisite pictures ( Vietnam memorial, WH ) and a stuffed 'space' monkey modeled after the real monkey who went to space, for his sister.

Lola wants to take ballet and tap. I want to find a class for her where they don't have to wear three layers of makeup ( cheek lip and eye ) every time they put on a show. There is something just gross about putting all that makeup on little girls that is different from when she plays with makeup at home and slathers it on.

Ian got a horrible contraption wired into his mouth that widens his jaw, which is too small.
It's better now but at first he was pretty unhappy.

Harry Potter killed a mouse in the sunroom. Lola cried. We carried him out and Harry stood, all shiny black and yellow eyes, panting that red tongued pant of the hunter. Hermione peed on the couch. Hagrid did a complete flip in the air when startled. Kagome peed on the couch.
Did I mention I had just had the couch professionally cleaned?

Four cats, Two dogs, Three children, the math is clear.