We're all cracked

David and his family were over for dinner last night; David is travelling this week, which means I'm dog sitting, so they had to bring Tucker and all his stuff over. It made for a reasonably loud, raucous, crazy evening: 7 people, 5 of them kids; one XBox; two computers; multiple cell phones (with their text messages); a TV; two cats and a dog.

Now, all of the kids are pretty OCD and anal retentive in their own little ways (yeah, and the grownups too -- the kids have to get it from SOMEWHERE). It makes for amusing situations at times, when there may be as many as 4 or 5 separate conversations at dinner, each led by a different child who is absolutely convinced that his or her story is of the utmost importance.

So last night after dinner, David and I were playing Rummy with Kirsten (his eldest) while Peter was watching the Steelers game. Now, sports happens to be what brings out Peter's compulsive genes more than anything; one of the best gifts he ever got was a magnetic board that allows him to track, week by week, the various standings of all NFL teams, with a separate section for the playoffs. He was very excited last night when Pittsburgh won, and came running into the kitchen all breathless, and announced "Pittsburgh WON!!!! Oh, and I've already updated my board!"

Amused at my son ('cause, yeah, we were all wondering when he was going to update his board), I looked at David and (rhetorically and jokingly) asked, "Does anal retentive have a hyphen?"

At which point Kirsten looked up and said, "No, it doesn't, but I really think it should!"




(NOTE: Yes, I went to dictionary.com to confirm that anal retentive, indeed, does NOT have a hyphen before actually typing it in this post!)
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