Today was a typical Saturday at home with the family.

8:30am: We got up in time to take Toby to the dog park to meet up with 5 of his doggy friends and walk two miles while throwing balls and sticks and whatever else our canine friends thought would make for a good chase.

10:00am: Mom started cooking pancakes and simmering blueberries. I sat watching her (a very important job, I assure you), making conversation, and sipping coffee. The rest of the family did whatever they felt like doing. (We do that a lot.)

10:30am: Yummmmm. Pancakes with yogurt and blueberries (if you were smart) or with syrup or cinnamon sugar (if you were boring or afraid of blue teeth or something). It was at this point that the Question of the Day arose. Looking back, it seems that the Question of the Day (which always involves a dictionary or one of our two encyclopedia sets) always comes up over brunch. Today, the Question was: does the action in a book, play, or movie start “in media res” or “in medias res“? I knew it was “in medias res” but everyone else reasoned that it really should be “in media res” because “media” is the ablative case, and “in” takes the ablative case. It took me a second to remember back to my high school Latin and decline the noun to the accusative “medias.” Then it took me a second longer to remember that “in” can also take the accusative case if the meaning is “into” rather than “in.” Still, everyone argued that “into the middle of things” couldn’t possibly the the correct translation of that phrase because everyone knows that the action starts “in the middle of things.” Well… Everyone was wrong. The dictionary said so. And now we all know the correct translation of “in medias res” is that the audience gets dropped “into the middle of things.”

noon-ish: Mom and Sis and I play the piano. Typically, Mom plays the base clef notes, I play the treble, and Sis plays either the supplemental instrument or the vocal part… or any other notes that need playing. This arrangement works best if all three of us counts in the same rhythm, and if we all agree on the key signature. Just sayin’…

2pm: We decide to watch “Animals are Beautiful People” while Mom bakes a cake and some cookies for Lil Bro to take back with him to college.

4pm: Sis, Lil Bro, and I play online for a while, primarily catching up on scrabble games (even with each other). Meanwhile Dad and Lil Bro get hair cuts.

7pm: I write while others read, do homework, or watch TV. Mom mixes dough, cuts veggies, and puts pizza in the oven.

8pm: Yummm…. Made-from-scratch-pizza. Why do I ever leave this place?

The rest of the night: Maybe we’ll watch a movie. We’ll probably play Liver Pool Rum (a card game having 7 increasingly difficult hands) which has been our game of choice since I was a very young girl.

You can see why I hated to move away from this.