Little Sisters of No Mercy

We were outside shovelling snow (snovelling show) on Monday. There was about six inches. We sent the kids over to Geri Suzuki's and Norma Noyes' house to do their driveway and walk. (Norma just turned 90 this month.) When they were done they came back over and were helping me and Laney. (No, Laney is not much help at all.) Ailsa worked her way down the walk toward the new neighbors to the west of us. One of their boys was doing their driveway. I could hear them chatting first tentative words of introduction. As soon as Laney noticed she started yelling, "Ailsa has a boyfriend" repeatedly. I couldn't help but think, Great! the first time a boy says anything to Ailsa besides "go up, little girl!"* and Laney is there to make it uncomfortable.

*This refers to an old story from at least 10-12 years ago. We took the kids to Liberty park one Saturday and afterwards we asked Ailsa if she made any friends. She said on the commando netting one boy told her "go up, little girl!" So since then this has been a family joke about the extent of Ailsa's interaction with boys.