The Return of Earl

Well, autumn is around the corner, and Earl has made an earlier than usual appearance in the Rowe household.  This grim reaper commences his third year of appearing in unexpected places around the house, like Madeleine's laundry basket, Ethan's exercise bike, and various clothing drawers.  Madeleine especially loves hiding Earl, but simply can't keep from blurting out obvious clues about where we might find him.  For example:

ME: (coming indoors from a run yesterday) Hi honey.
MADELEINE: Mommy.  You have to take your shower in the UPSTAIRS bathroom, okay?  Got it.  The UPSTAIRS one.
ME: I always take showers in the upstairs bathroom. 
MADELEINE: Okay.  So, go on!  Go take your shower.
ME: Well, I have to stretch and drink some water before I'm ready to shower.
MADELEINE: Okay.  But Mommy.  REMEMBER.  Use the UPSTAIRS shower.

Needless to say, I was utterly SHOCKED to open the shower curtain and discover this:

(It's probably good that she was so obvious, because my habit is to turn on the shower without getting in to give the water a minute to warm up.  So Earl would have gotten a good old soaking if I hadn't known to look behind the curtain first.)

Julia, on the other hand, has learned the satisfaction of delayed gratification.  She knows how to pull a prank without giving away her hand in the slightest.  This morning, I arrived at work and had just shut the driver's side door of my car when I decided I didn't need my fleece, since it was warming up. I opened up the door to throw my fleece back in the car, glimpsed towards the back seat, and discovered I had a hitch-hiker!:

This one literally took me by surprise and I found it so funny that I called my director, who had just then pulled into the parking lot, over to the car to see Earl and learn about our family tradition of hiding him.  Well played, Julia, well played.

I can't wait to discover where he's hiding next!