Litany of the lost

As most of you know, there is always a teetering pile of books on my bedside table. It's usually quite tall and usually on the verge of collapse (thus crushing me in my sleep and robbing the world of my genius, or not). And you'd think, that with so many books, there would also be an absolute plethora of bookmarks. But there isn't. No matter how many I buy or am given, when I need a bookmark there is never one to be had and I end up using an old bus ticket, grocery shopping receipt, post-it note or gum wrapper.

And it's not just bookmarks that seem to disappear. Bobby pins and lip balm are the other regular trouble makers in our house with biros and water bottles listed as repeat offenders. I would include socks on the list, but for some reason only one sock ever disappears. And now that we have Squirmy McBaby and all of his accoutrements, the number of things that can never be found has literally doubled - bibs, baby wipes, the little bits that stop the bottles from leaking, dummy covers - the list is quite extraordinary.

Teaspoons are another odd item that seem to vanish into the ether. We started with twelve teaspoons and now have nine. Where did those other three go? Teaspoons usually go from drawer to usage to dishwasher and back to the drawer so how do they vanish?

The worst part is that I'm certain that these few things are just the tip of the iceberg.