Best meals, best blankets

Somehow it's October, apparently. 

It's been quite the week at our house with a few work deadlines for Andrew and my regular homework load along with compiling a (23-page) family newsletter. Dinners were scanty: nachos, pancakes, frozen pizza, that sort of thing—which is the very reason I've always said that both of us couldn't do grad school at the same time. Thank goodness neither one of us is actually in school full time or we'd never remember to feed the kids!

We ordered pizza on Friday night and when the delivery guy dropped them off he asked if we were having a party. "No," Andrew told him. "We just have a lot of kids."

The guy looked a little shocked but, like, it's the truth. 

*****

Anyway, last night I was so cold and could not warm up, which lead to a discussion about fleece because I wrapped up in a fleece blanket to get warm. He thought this was silly because the blanket had been on the bed already, but I explained that I would warm up faster in the fleece blanket than in the sheets because the fleece blanket has so many little air pockets. It would collect and hold my body heat next to me, nice and snuggly. Unlike the sheets, which let body heat go pretty fast.

"That's not a thing," Andrew said. "Surely that can't be a thing. Air pockets?! That's ridiculous."

"It's not ridiculous," I told him. "And it's definitely a thing. It's the same principle behind why wearing layers keeps you warm—because it traps warm air next to your body. Look at all these tiny pockets of potential warmth," I said, rubbing the blanket.

He still didn't believe me and had to look it up to see for himself. Turns out...

"Why do emergency blankets work, then?" he challenged. "They don't have tiny air pockets. They're slick and shiny."

"That's easy," I said. "Instead of trapping your body heat and holding it close to you, an emergency blanket reflects your body heat back to you."

"What if it's dark?" he challenged.

"They...still...work...?" I guess. "I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what my cousin Eric and his friends used to survive when they were trapped in that cave and caves, as we know, are generally rather dark."

"But how?" he asked. "Why would they work in the dark if they're reflective."

"Last I checked, I don't...glow. The blankets reflect energy, not light. Kind of like how tinfoil keeps hot things hot...and cold things cold..."

Here we had to stop for a good laugh because (a) Andrew realized how ridiculous he was being and (b) we like to joke about thermoses keeping hot things hot and cold things cold (a story for another time). When we recovered from laughing, Andrew asked how I knew so much about textiles. 

"I grew up cold," I told him. "Never cross a Canadian when cold is on the line!"

Anyway, it doesn't get so horribly cold here that we have to worry about keeping warm all that often, so it isn't really a huge issue. I was just freezing yesterday though!

*****

In other completely unrelated news, Miriam knocked over Alexander's cup at the dinner table this evening (and what was for dinner? Sandwiches because we're on a roll with lame dinners). I quickly put his napkin over the spill to stop as much of it as I could and sent her scampering off to find a towel. She came back and wiped off the table and the bench and then started to walk away.

"Floor!" I reminded her. 

So Miriam came back and started wiping up the water that had spilled on the floor. While she was wiping, Alexander noticed that there was still a little bit of water on the table, so he leaned over to wipe it up with his (new) napkin, fell out of his chair, and landed right on top of Miriam. 

No one knew this, however! All we knew was that Alexander suddenly dove off his chair. Only when we had Miriam and Alexander both calmed down from their little collision did we get the story out of Alexander. It was rather funny, except for the part where they both got a little hurt. Alexander, honestly, is probably better off than he would have been had Miriam not been there (because she broke his fall, which hurt her), but on the other hand, he wouldn't have been reaching so far across the table if she hadn't have spilled his water in the first place (so I guess she deserved to play the role of crash pad).