"I think being a woman is like being Irish." — Iris Murdoch

Last night I was out talking with a woman down the street, and suddenly she looked up and said Oh my God!  She was looking at the roof of a four-story building.  Well, I'm a little nearsighted, so I was only able to make out, um, a flashlight beam playing around some muscular animal.  It looked pretty big, like the size of big dog (lab, shepherd, for examples).  My friend explained that a raccoon was living in the penthouse of the building (in the wall, that is).

I don't usually have trouble seeing stuff, but she started saying, "Oh, look, there are babies!  Can you see their little heads?  There are FIVE of them!"  If I didn't know her better, I would think she was putting me on, because I didn't see anything that even remotely resembled five little heads, raccoon or otherwise.  But I did see the big one.

When I got back home I told Nelson and Emma about it, and Emma scurried over to sit tightly next to Nelson.  "It can't come over here, can it?" she asked, all big-eyed (like anime eyes).

"No," I said.  "It can't.  It's impossible."  Nelson was smart enough to not contradict. After all, this is the girl who wouldn't sleep in her own bed because a bug had flown into her room earlier that day.