We went to the library this morning. Normal people make a trip to the library, find a few books and go home. We never seem to manage this.

We left home at 11 and returned at 1:30. Lunch was not eaten in the interim.

On the way there, I experienced true cacophony. One child hummed "Joyful, Joyful" at full volume. Another, inspired by the loudness, started singing REM's "I am Superman" and the third joined in with Queen's "We Will Rock You." I wondered how long it would take my head to explode.

Things quieted down after we got to the library. We watched the Friday morning marionette show, where the older two sat quietly and the youngest gave me a running narration of everything on stage. "OH PWINCESS! FROGGIE! PWINCESS GO BYE-BYE. BE RIGHT BACK!" Every time the princess marionette left stage, The Toddler Girl speculated rather loudly that maybe she had gone to the potty.

The puppet show lasted about twenty minutes. Afterwards, The Boy suggested to the puppeteers, who know us pretty well fortunately, that they should consider writing a puppet show about Michelangelo. Especially about The Boy's favorite statue -- Moses. One thing is for sure -- no one is going to mistake them for normal children.

We spent over an hour gathering up books. We wound up with so many that I had to break out all four library cards that I had on me. And one can check out up to twenty-five items per card, so that should give you some idea of the number of books I had to tote to the car.

When I was checking out books, I noticed that a movie I had returned after closing on its due date but before the library opened the following day had been placed as a fine on my card. Considering that videos accrue a $2 per day fine, I didn't want to pay the money. I usually have no difficulties when I point this out the people at the desk, but in this case, the lady working called in her supervisor who then treated me as being a highly suspicious character and told me that she really found it hard to believe that it had been turned in on time, because the video hadn't been checked in until afternoon. My suggestion that perhaps they were slow about checking things in from the book drop was treated as crazy talk, but in the end they did remove the fine. I hate being treated like a criminal or liar.

Naturally, towards the end of the library trip, The Toddler Girl fell asleep. Now she thinks she's had her nap for the day. This means I don't get a nap. I hope I don't get too cranky.