What You Find Under the Couch

In preparation for having Thanksgiving dinner at our house, Adam and I spent the day cleaning up and washing dishes while his parents took our daughter out for an adventure on the play equipment at the mall. One of the areas that really needed weeding out (no, not literally. It wasn't quite that bad) was under the couch. I found cracker crumbs, four pieces of a beading toy, three books, a CD case, cracker crumbs, two spoons, a juice tumbler, a plastic bag, cracker crumbs, the computer cord for my digital camera, a rubber funnel, two DVDs, and cracker crumbs. Lots of cracker crumbs. Have I mentioned that my daughter's favorite game lately has been to finagle an almost-empty box of crackers from her mother's hands and dump the remaining snacks and all the crumbs all over the couch, the floor, or wherever she happens to be when the mood strikes?

But the really exciting find was the cord for my camera. You see, earlier this afternoon, I had found the CD-ROM with the software for downloading photos from the camera on to the computer. I'd been looking for that since we first set our computer up about four months ago. And today I finally found it, sitting inconspicuously on a bookshelf.

After a small dance of joy at the treasure I'd unearthed, I quickly began digging through the mess of papers and books underneath the computer table. I was sure that was were I'd last seen the cord to connect the camera to the computer. But it was nowhere to be found. Instead, all I got for my trouble was three telephone DSL filters, an AV cable, and some computer cord I can't identify, but I'm sure came with the CPU.

I had been all ready to download (upload?) the photos from my camera to the computer because our memory card was full and I wanted to clear it before Thanksgiving tomorrow so I could get some nice family holiday photos.

Numerous sighs and groans followed my fruitless search. Adam suggested, "You'll probably find it under the couch." If I really thought he'd turn out to be right, I'd have looked under the couch first thing. But I didn't actually expect anything to turn up there, so I went about my cleaning from one end of the room to the other, finishing with the couch.

Yet there, in the last place I was planning to look today, I found precisely the item I needed. Sigh. But now I have the wonderful opportunity to share with you these lovely photos of my daughter. And the camera is all ready for the Thanksgiving family portrait that will surely grace the mantle. If we had a mantle.