Let me begin by saying that I've never been a fan of soap operas.

Daytime television in general has always struck me as somewhat depressing.  The low-budget commercials, the gimmicky game shows, and of course, the soaps.  But when we first moved here and were staying in a holiday bungalow way out in the sticks (what came to be known as the Rented House) I came to see it differently.

Spencer started work almost immediately after our arrival and I was at the Rented House with the boys.  No friends, no Internet, no phone, no car, no books (except the magazine I'd brought with me on the plane and read through several times).  The house had a television that got one channel.  I was surprised how isolated I felt.  I would take the boys across the street to the grocery store every day I could just to say hi to the check-out lady.  During the boys' afternoon nap I'd turn on the television to hear the sound of another adult voice and get a sense of this new country I'd landed in.  You can learn a lot about a place from the commercials that are shown.  For example, it seemed to me that there were an awful lot of ads for insurance and pest control.  While I washed dishes or prep'd supper, I'd watch Ellen, then the View, and then this American soap opera would come on, I can't even remember its name.  I began to see the appeal of these shows.  I could see that, silly though I found them, they filled a need.

I'm still not a fan of soap operas, but every now and then I'll turn on our television when the boys are having their nap and I'm folding laundry or making yogurt (like I did today).  They're hilarious.  My two favourite lines from today:

"I can't tell the truth yet, it would hurt my grandmother...because she was the one who switched the paternity test."

and,

"I'm not a perfect man but I look out for those I love.  That's why I had to shut Vivian up in that sarcophagus."

And you know, there's something there that you have to admire.  Whether it's the writers, boldly challenging the maxim that truth is stranger than fiction, or the actors, delivering the lines without so much as a twitch of the lip.  It's pretty entertaining in its way, but I don't think I'll be going out of my way to see if EJ will let Sammie see her children again before she dies.  At the end of the day, I'm soooooo glad the boat with my books eventually arrived.

Anyway, here are a couple cute pictures of the boys:

Eliot loves Yellow Bear.

Peter loves watermelon.