Dear Kid,

Do you know what tomorrow is? Do you KNOW?

It’s possibly the most amazing day in the history of days. Not really. But it might very well be the most amazing day this week. If we’re not including last Sunday which was Father’s Day. Because that’s a pretty amazing day.

Let’s start again.

Tomorrow is possibly the most amazing Friday of the week!

And – wait for it – it’s Take Your Dog To Work Day! How wonder-fur is that?

TYDTWD (that’s how you say it if you’re cool and in the know) started in 1996 in the UK. We adopted it on this side of the pond in 1999. And somehow, I’ve gone All This Time without knowing it existed. I have no words.

The point of TYDTWD (just for the record, that is not an easy acronym to type) is not to get your pooch to shed all over the office couch. That’s just an added benefit. The point is that pups are an important part of our lives and we should have an opportunity to let them all get together and prevent us from getting any work done.

No. The official point (as defined by the official inventors of the day, Pet Sitters International) is that dog-less co-workers will be encouraged to race out and adopt a dog when they see how wonderful the bond is between human and puppy.

I’m not sure exactly how this is supposed to work. “Oh, look at that adorable dog sniffing that other dog’s butt. Let me race out and get one.” Seems unlikely.

Or perhaps, “Sorry boss, I couldn’t get the report done because the dog ate my report. I mean ate my computer. I mean I have to go walk the dog.”

Despite my skepticism, Take Your Dog to Work Day continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Which is pretty dang cool.

Unfortunately, my Place of Employment is insufficiently enlightened, so the Puppy will stay at home and nap rather than joining me at work and napping.

Still, I’m pretty excited to know that Take Your Dog To Work Day exists. Hope you’re planning a great celebration.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

So now that we know it’s summer (as proven by the emergence of lovely lightening bugs), it seems like a good time to talk about them.

First of all, I should clarify my position on fireflies. They are bugs, and as such have far more than the appropriate number of legs. But they have LIGHTS! So as long as none of them land on me and use my arms as walking paths, we should be OK.

Here’s what you need to know about lightening bugs.

Fireflies’ lights can be yellow, green, or orange. They can’t actually change colors; different varieties of fireflies have different color lights. This isn’t really surprising because there over 2,000 kinds of fireflies.

Fireflies in the western US are energy conscious and don’t light up.

Which is unfortunate because lightening bugs are really pretty (read about that here) and their light is – wait for it – the most efficient light in the world. Nearly 100% of the energy in the chemical reaction that makes them light up is converted to light. (Incandescent bulbs only emit 10% of their energy as light; fluorescent bulbs emit 90% of their energy as light.)

Each species has their own flashing pattern designed specifically to attract females for a little nooky.

Mating is important because adult fireflies only live long enough to mate and lay eggs (no time for cuddling). The larvae live about a year (until mating season). Rinse and repeat.

Lightening bug larvae are carnivorous. When they have a choice, they generally order snails from room service.

Fireflies are disappearing due to pharmaceutical harvesting, light pollution, and habitat destruction. If there is a field or area where fireflies live and it gets destroyed or paved, lightening bugs don’t migrate, they just disappear – poof! – forever.

Which is sad. Because how will we know it’s summer?

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Now it’s officially summer.

You may have thought summer started when school ended (wrong). You may have thought we needed to wait for the summer solstice on June 20 (wrong). You may have thought that summer started on the first day Dad chose to put vegetable seeds in the ground (not even close).

Summer started two nights ago.

Two nights ago I went to the gym after work. I was little later leaving work than general and I had an errand or two to run, so I was a bit later getting to the gym. Then there was the whole sports bra thing. The point is that by the time I got home and made dinner and Dad and I sat down to eat it was about 9pm or so.

We ate out on the porch and were in the midst of a fascinating conversation about which day we’d tackle the weeding when something caught my attention.

Fireflies.

Yes, the fireflies were out and flashing around and it was awesome.

Just in case you were curious, yes, the fireflies flashed in unison and lined up forming the letters SUMMER IS HERE. That’s how I know it’s summer.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

In my over-exuberance, I jumped the gun (as we sports experts say) and said yesterday was Best Friend Day. It wasn’t. It was Best Friend Day Eve (OK, I just made that part up to make myself feel better about messing up).

Today (really, I double checked) is Best Friend Day.

There are those (and this is as good a time as any to be one of Those) who believe every day should be Best Friend Day. There are those who act like every day is Best Friend Day (check it out here). And there are those (moi) who just get confused looking at the calendar.

Here are 5 Ways to Celebrate Best Friend Day.

Get together. Play a game of hoops, have a glass of wine or a beer, watch paint dry. It doesn’t matter as long as you’re together—you’re BFFs.

Don’t get together. Sometimes BFFs find themselves separated by vast distances. Actually, this happens often. So call, Facetime, Skype, send a carrier pigeon. However you do it, talk.

Regenerate a friendship. Sometimes we lose touch with someone who was a great friend. Seeing their occasional update on Facebook doesn’t really count as being in touch. Let your friend know he or she is in your thoughts.

Make a new friend. Once upon a time, your best friend wasn’t yet your best friend. Perhaps you hadn’t met yet. Perhaps you hadn’t gotten to know each other yet. Perhaps you were too absorbed in something else to make room in your life for a bestie. Perhaps a small misunderstanding had caused you to loathe the very oxygen the other breathed. Whatever. You got over it, and see where you are now. So perhaps it’s time to meet another new friend.

Pat a friend. Don’t forget the furry friends among us. Spend some snuggle time with the four-legged among us.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Memorial Day | To those who serve…thank you.

Today is Memorial Day.

Ostensibly, it is a day to honor those who died while serving our country in the military. I think it needs to be much more than that.

Yes, we need to remember and thank those who died in service to our country. We also need to thank those who served and did not die. Very few return from war the way they left. For many, the scars run deep.

We need to remember and thank those who sent family to serve in the military. The loneliness, the uncertainty, the fear. For many, the scars run deep.

We need to remember and thank those who support our military. The medical professionals, the journalists, the counselors. For many, the scars run deep.

We need to remember and thank those in our country who value the freedoms our military fights for. Those who argue and persuade and celebrate the diversity and differences of opinion that make us a great country. Those who work to help heal the scars of divisiveness and horror. Those who work to bring us closer to the world that We, The People, know can be created.

In remembering, we look forward. In honoring the past, we make room for the future.

Let us never forget so that we will never repeat.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Some things are too ridiculous to ignore.

Allow me to be the first to wish you Happy Paper Clip Day!

For it is, in fact, National Paper Clip Day.

I decided to celebrate by pulling out one lucky paper clip and wearing it around my finger. Only it turns out that some at some point a child (who shall remain nameless) was sufficiently creative to occupy the time by stringing all my paperclips together.

Extra points for self-entertainment. Zero points for office supply management.

There are many well-known facts about paper clips that you don’t know.

For example, the paper clip was a Norwegian invention. Unless it wasn’t. Don’t get into an argument with a Norwegian about it because they will beat you bloody. With a paper clip.

During World War II, Norwegians were prohibited from wearing any buttons with the likeness or initials of their king on them. In protest they started wearing paperclips, because paperclips were a Norwegian invention whose original function was to bind together. This was a protest against the Nazi occupation and wearing a paperclip could have gotten you arrested.

The real invention of the paper clip came when Stanley (last name lost in history) was standing in his office one day holding a stack of sloppy papers. His “secretary” (and by secretary I mean the lady that ran the office while Stanley stood around being useless) took the papers and realized that she needed a paper clip to hold them together so she invented one. In Stanley’s version of the story, he yelled, “A clip! A clip! My stack of papers for a paper clip!” and one fell from the ceiling.

Back in the olden days (and by “olden days” in this case I mean Microsoft Office 97), there was an animated paper clip (cleverly named “Clippy”) who would pop up to help you write letters and things.

Even earlier (and by “even earlier” I mean after WWII) Project Paper Clip was an American operation to fly German scientists including Wernher von Braun (who became famous as a rocket scientist in Tom Lehrer’s tribute) out of Germany and over to the US (the better to keep the scientists away from the Germans and the Russians).

Perhaps the best use of a paper clip was Kyle MacDonald who managed (over a series of only 14 trades) to trade one red paper clip for a house. Yep, a house. A two-story farmhouse in Saskatchewan. You can read about it here.

I have never managed to trade a paper clip for anything of value, although in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never tried.

Maybe I’d better go lock up the paper clips.

Love, Mom