From the Trenches...

We're in the thick of Spring Break now, and things are going pretty well.  My biggest pet peeve is all the jinxing.  It started several weeks ago (I lay the blame squarely at the feet of PFB's fellow third graders...GFB is just along for the fun).  Any semi-simultaneous uttering of the same word--they were certainly not sticklers--would result in the chant, "Pinch, poke, you owe me a Coke."  Then, just when that was getting particularly irritating, they shook things up a bit, switching out the poke for any old thing to rhyme with something they wanted:  "Pinch, thwickers, you owe me a Snickers."  This went on for DAYS!  Maybe I should have been applauding their creativity--I wasn't.

I had to pull the plug, and I did.  So we were without jinxing for a week or so.  Now it's back, without the chant.  Now it's just 'JINX!'  But if they both say jinx at the same time, they have to keep going until one of them calls Uncle.  Last night I heard them upstairs and nearly spit out the orange slice I was eating.  Two happy-go-lucky voices chirping, "Jinx!  Jinx!  Jinx!..."  It must have been fifteen times.  I could picture them skipping down the road, holding hands, continuing the chant far, far away from me....  No such luck.

So far, today is a virgin day.  No jinxes yet.  And I desperately hope we keep it that way.