There's Rude Dudes In London, Amen.

"I'll take Tobacco," I said, pulling the wool muff over my ears. The wind had picked up considerably since we had left the house, and as we stood on the side of the road perched atop our bikes, I suppressed a shiver.

We'd ridden two and a half miles when the chilly January temperatures had whipped through our thick hoodies and frozen our fingers to the bone. Sure it had been cold, but it felt like the temperatures were suddenly taking a nose-dive. In a last ditch effort of distraction, I called out to creativity, begging for something to make the cold seem less ... cold, yes.

And that's how it came to be that three minutes later, as cars passed by engulfing us in bursts of ridiculously cold air and gusts of wind, I proposed we each take something to count along the way. The ditches were littered with every little thing imaginable; it looked like the ABC store had dumped half it's contents along our road in big bottles, little bottles, odd bottles and more. Not to mention tobacco cans | coffee cans | Gum wrappers | Vitamin Water & Cigarettes.

I let the girls pick first, Mckenna counted Alcohol bottles because it was obvious she would come out on top of this game when our little 12 mile ride was over. Next came the Cigarette cartons, Laura didn't think she'd have any trouble wracking up a handful of points with these. Laney chose Water Bottles, Vitamin Water and any other kind of water we happened to pass. And me, well that's where I volunteered to take Tobacco.

The girls were running on maybe two solid hours of sleep, while I had fallen asleep on the couch in fifteen minutes flat. So they laughed a great deal over almost anything that came out of my mouth. It had all started last night when Laura walked into our house a few minutes after six ...

"This is gonna be a good night, let me tell you." Sammy grinned, bouncing from one foot to the next. He wore blue flannel pants, a tee shirt and went barefoot. His nine year old hair tusseled from spending the afternoon out in the backyard playing spies with Josh, and running in and out of the house since breakfast.

We ate supper { our usual Friday Night Pizza with a little pizzaz of Mushrooms, Chicken, Onions, Etc } in record time, then hung around the table laughing and talking, not really worried about getting anywhere anytime soon.

Next ... Northanger Abbey. Hot Vanilla Chai. Pajamas in an assortment of styles and colors. Lots of getting comfy, and giggles, and shoving around getting settled. When everyone had found somewhere comfy to sit | lay | etc, we cut the lights and watched as the story unfolded before our eyes.

Two gentlemen eyed a pair of ladies as they passed by, not bothering to hide the fact that they were indeed interested. "Why?" one of the girls sat staighter on the couch in disgust. "Why do they have to do that?! That's so rude."

"Because they didn't care," I offered, my fingers deftly weaving in and out of the yarn I held in my hands. Joshy was forever asking me if his four-gray scarf was going to be done soon. With every intention of finishing it FINALLY, I had brought it into the family room with me.

"But," Lana was aghast."You don't do that. It's like ... old London. They're supposed to be gentlemen, right?"

"There's rude dudes in London, Lana!" This came from Laura suddenly, accompanied by a handful of laughter and mimics of the comment. True enough, there's rude dudes everywhere but you hardly expect to see them in something so ... classic.

Regardless of the rude dudes, etc the movie was great. As were the moments leading up to the one where I fell asleep watching Ratatouille, and woke up to half a dozen pieces of Spy gear littering the family room floor.

I still can't believe this sister of mine is Fifteen, it seems far too early for her to have another birthday. But I love her, old or young. She's still my funny, adorable Lana no matter how many birthdays she has. * smiles *