Cute 3 yr old daughters = innate manipulative abilities

It is midnight. I've come home from working at the hospital. Eleanor is still awake, so I talk to her and hold her for a few minutes and then send her back to bed. I sit down at the dining room table to work on the backlog of homework I have due on Monday for an upcoming summer short course. Ele comes back into the dining room..."Daddy, I'm not tired. Can I sit here?" She is referring to a once-tried method of compliance I used on a past sleepless night. Because she kept getting out of bed, I had her sit in the middle of the floor while I worked on my laptop. She had to be quiet and be still until she was ready to go back to bed and back to sleep. Tonight, she was just using the ploy as a stay-awake tactic. "No, Ele... go back to bed." "Oh, alright!" she pouted. Minutes later, she's back with a new strategy: "I forgot to give you kisses." Come on! What is Daddy supposed to do? "Ok, give me kisses and go back to your bed." *smooch* "Daddy, I'm not tired." Me: "Baby, I'm sorry you're not tired... but you'll be in trouble if you get out of bed again. You don't have to go to sleep yet, but you have to stay in your bed." Minutes pass then...."Daddy..."

In exasperation, I sharply tell her, "Eleanor Layne, you are going to get a spanking if you can't obey. Get back in your bed!"

She hands me a balloon creature she got at the mall earlier tonight, "This is for you, Daddy. It is for happy Father's Day. Good night."
With that, she turns and goes back to bed. I just checked... she's asleep. Sheesh.

-dormi bene
jeff

Who is The Mole?

Last week, on June 2nd, ABC network launched a new season of The Mole. For the record, The Mole is my favorite reality TV show. I loved the first season and was upset when the show was dropped three episodes into the second season. I somehow missed subsequent seasons and would love to see them on DVD (hint, hint). At any rate, I think that as far as reality TV shows go, this show has the right mix of physical challenges, mental challenges and intrigue that the others shows have to manufacture by casting polar opposite personality types and fostering dissention. The Mole's concept is that there is a saboteur in the mix and so it incorporates by design what the other shows have to get via overly dramatic personalities.

With that brief introduction, here are my initial thoughts on this season's game:

1) John Kelley is a dud. Boy, do I miss Anderson Cooper.
2) For all my (above) talk about not needing any drama amongst the contestant's personality types... this season has it in spades... c'mon, casting officer... why stoop to this low?
3) I can't wait for Bobby to get eliminated.
4) I also don't like Mark... but as he is a good player, he'll probably be here for a while.
5) So far, their teamwork stinks... it will probably take a few more episodes to eliminate a few of the more vitriolic players before they can gel and get to work actually adding some money to the pot.
6) My guess for the Mole so far.... Alex. Why? In episode one, at the dinner before the elimination the following exchange occurs:
Mark: "...leading up to the quiz, everybody is going to be miserable."
John Kelley: "And that is music to the Mole's ears."
Mark: "Of course it is."

Ok, I may be reading too much into it, but the producers have a penchant for slipping in clues where they remain hidden in plain sight (or plain speech). For instance, in season one, they had Anderson Cooper munching on an apple during one scene. The apple was the state fruit of Washington, the home state of that season's mole. So.... Alex is a musician... I think John Kelley was given that phrase to slip into conversation... That and Alex acted pretty suspiciously in this last episode... I guess we will have to wait to see if my intuition is true.

-jeff