Way too many Dunkin' Donuts

Maybe it's because I don't drink coffee but it seems there is a ridiculous amount of Dunkin' Donuts around here and today I confirmed that. I was reviewing the Boston Business Journal's Book of Lists and came across the list for Area's Largest Franchises. Dunkin' Donuts took the lead with 1,335 stores. There are only 351 towns in the entire state of Massachusetts! That's an average of what, almost 4 Dunkin' Donuts per town? Holy crap.

The next closest was Subway with 313. Interestingly enough Subway leads worldwide with 25,988 stores while Dunkin' Donuts has only 7,440 stores worldwide.

And those are my random thoughts for today....

The longest 1 1/2 miles of my life

Yesterday we got a bunch of snow again. We didn't get too much accumulation but it was steady throughout the day. Our office closed at 4 p.m. so that people could head home before dark for fear that the roads would be pretty bad. My drive home on the Mass Pike was pretty good but you could tell that side roads weren't in the greatest condition. When I get off the interstate it's only about 3 miles of side roads until I'm home. The first mile and a half is a fairly busy road (especially at rush hour) and therefore was in pretty good condition. The last mile and a half was horrible. The roads hadn't really been plowed or sanded. It was slushy and slick and even worse than the day I had my near accident on that very same stretch of road.

That last mile and a half, with my hands clenching the steering wheel and tears streaming down my face, all I could think of was "Did Linus know he was going to die?" and "Did it hurt?"

God I really hope the answer was "no" to both. Whenever I think of how quickly Linus was taken from this Earth my heart is gripped in fear. I hate sending Lincoln out to work and I hate having the kids with me (or out with Lincoln) on even remotely icy days. I hate this fear but I appreciate how much it makes me value every moment I have with my family even more than I did before.

My mother

My Mom is one of the funniest people I have ever met as evidenced here. Click here for reference if you're still not in on the joke.

I love you Mom. Thank you for making me laugh so hard I almost wet my pants.

Obviously pay back for last night

Last night at dinner I made a crack about Hannah's parentage. Lincoln got a good laugh out of it but with his usual dry wit, and perfect patience for retaliation, he delivered this little nugget at dinner tonight.

Hannah: Daddy, these are good.

Me: Yeah Honey, these paninis are delicious.

Lincoln: Such high praises for my sandwiches...I'm sorry I put poison in them.

Lost in Translation

Jake: I like Dr. Two Brains.

Me (looking at Lincoln): Huh? Who is that?

He shrugs "I don't know".

Hannah: It's from Word Girl.

Me (to Lincoln): Aren't you glad we have her to translate?

Jake: And Captain Huggy Face.

Hannah: He's a monkey.

Jake: Captain Huggy Face flew into a light post.

Hannah: A tall pole with lights on it.

Me: Thanks. I got that one.

Obviously my hearing is going

Lincoln is using his new Christmas present, a panini grill, for the first time tonight and it's sizzling away. To set the situation: Hannah was sitting at the table (halfway between the kitchen and the living room), Lincoln was at the counter (facing the back of the house) and I was at the other side of the kitchen (by the side door / opposite side of the kitchen from Hannah).

Lincoln: My pants!

Me: You have no pants?

Lincoln: My pants!

Me: We have live ants? What?

Hannah: MY PANTS! He said MY PANTS! M-Y-P-A-N-T-S! MY PANTS! MY PANTS! Can't you hear him?

I really don't understand math anymore

Hannah just got a very high score on her math "end-of-unit assessment". As I've explained before, Massachusetts teaches a very interesting version of math. You can no longer just say 2+2=4. You now have to explain why 2+2=4.

So here is how Hannah scored a 4 on her assessment (A 4 is the highest you can get and is very rarely given out):

QUESTION: On Monday there was a bicycle race in the park. There were 25 children and 18 adults in the race. How many people were in the race? Solve the problem. Show your work.

HANNAH'S ANSWER:

25-5=20
18-8=10
20+10=30
8+5=13
13+30=43
(therefore)
25+18=43

The rest of the answer I couldn't even follow at all so I can't even write it here for you but needless to say it received a "Very Organized!", "Great!", and a "Wow!" from her teacher.