The weekend

I can't for the life of me remember what we did on Friday night. Relaxed at home, maybe. Saturday morning, we got up on time and got out of the house pretty much on time to make it to G's first basketball class, which was up on the Naval base. The info they sent out said not to wear black-soled shoes, but what kids' shoes don't have black soles, esp. boy-type ones? G's brand-new Spiderman ones have black soles but the box says they're non-marking. So I brought the box (just in case) and a pair of light-soled boots (just in case). It was a non-issue, of course.

I also didn't bring any food, but did bring my insulated cup of coffee--which joined countless other insulated cups of coffee at the front desk, as nothing but water is allowed in the gym. It would have been great to let us know (but the mass of coffee cups did make me chuckle). Next time, I'm bringing hot water in my insulated cup. I did bring my knitting and was so content to sit and knit during the class. (On the cold aluminum bleachers--next time, I'm bringing a stadium pillow for my cold ass, too.)

G was worried that he wouldn't know anyone, but I assured him we'd run into some kid we knew. We ran into 3: one from tumbling class, one from his preschool, and one from our church. It was great to see all these kids, growing up and having fun. The class went really well. G clung to me a bit but I pointed out that all the parents were on the bleachers and the kids were on the floor, and he let me go. The kid we knew from tumbling, A, clung to his mom for at least 5 minutes before he could stand, deer in the headlights, near his group. Poor lamb. When he warmed up to the group, and started participating, he did well.

The last thing they did was to form two lines at the two baskets and shoot baskets. I had been sure they'd lower the baskets for these kids, as many of them are barely over 3 feet, but no; they looked like regulation height. They did use smaller basketballs--one parent said they were women's size. They looked quite a bit smaller than usual. Anyway, G didn't make a single basket, which he noticed, as other kids sunk it quite a bit. Well, we'll have to work on that.

During the day, we got some errands done and I also stopped in to work, to fix a bug that a coworker who's in the U.K. needed for a demo Tuesday (today, in fact). G loves to go to my work, so it was no big deal. Then we did another errand and went home to eat one of our favorite dinners: cold cracked Dungeness crab with fresh bread (Il Fornaio ciabatta, crisped 10 mins in the oven). I also cooked some brussels sprouts, which we both love, but I did it in the bag instead of on the stove, and boy did they smell bad. Tasted fine, though, so that's good.

Then we went to The Wizard of Oz by Kids Take the Stage, in which our friend was playing Auntie Em/Glinda the Good Witch of the North. She was amazing. I knew she could dance and was poised in front of groups from seeing her perform at church functions. But this girl can sing, in a different voice (she nailed the bubbly Glinda voice), dance, and act like no one's business. I was blown away. G, having been warned not to wave when she took the stage, nevertheless blurted out, "That's A!" when she came on. sigh Got to work on that.

Sunday, I did some more work from home, then rushed to church with a veggie tray for the fellowship hour I was doing with a friend. Renie preached and kept startling me by turning to preach toward the choir, something no other minister at our church has done. When she was done, I still wanted more... as sometimes happens.

After church, I had to dash to work to do one last thing. A friend offered to take G for a playdate with his friend K too, and the parents all decided to go out to lunch first. So I handed G off and dashed to lunch, to meet everyone there after. It didn't take that long, but they were already eating when I arrived (fast service!). The friend took G after lunch to her house so the 3 could play, so I got in my car, then got out and went to Beverly's for a little shopping. I bought longer double-pointed needles to try two socks on two circular needles, the latest in sock knitting, and a skein of a soft black yarn to make another 'magic' scarf. By this time, I realized my mistake: wearing these shoes too long. I had gotten blisters!

Which wouldn't be so bad, but I had hockey that night! Priorities, you know. I got home, changed, did some cleaning and some knitting. Picked G up, picked up some Wienerschnitzel for dinner, and Karen came over for dinner and to watch G while I played hockey.

And then sneakily whisked him out the door after I'd left and brought him to hockey for a surprise birthday treat! So cool. It was a great game, too. Exciting and fast. I didn't score and only shot once, I think, but managed to catch a lot of pucks, which is always nice (and often startles me--I put my stick out and am surprised to see that the puck actually did stop there). One of my teammates managed to get a hat trick--and someone dutifully threw his hat onto the ice to commemorate it. 5-4, as Andrea's team made a serious comeback at the end, but we managed to toe the line. Great fun.