Good weekend

Just told a coworker that I was fuzzy today, just tired, and he said, "Well, glad you had a good weekend." Ha!

And I did. Friday night, we went over to Dharma and Karen's with Chinese food from our great local restaurant. My friend ari, in from upstate NY, had taken her family in to SF to have dinner with a friend. It was their last night here before going home, so we had dinner and waited for them to return. We had brought our suits and towels, so when they got back we spent some quality time in the hot tub (me, ari, her 2 boys and my one). I got some knitting done and we had some good conversations. We didn't leave until midnight!

Saturday, the only thing we had going was a birthday party for a friend of G's. They had asked me to bring along my canopy (the one that saved G's party) so they would have two, and I had planned to be there early. Well, they decided they wanted to pick it up early, and also, did I have an ice chest to loan? I am the Queen of Ice Chests. I have them in 38-quart size (with comfy handle and rolly wheels) down to single-six-pack size (lid flips over to be a drink holder; great travel chest).

So of course we were late to the party (only a few minutes), but we did have a great time. True to form, Renie took a million photos with her new camera, and Allison had it all planned down to the minute. I volunteered to be a Bug Olympics Official, which meant setting up the games and helping the kids to all 'win' (no first place at this tournament!). G had a good time when he finally realized he was always going to be a winner (boy, that kid is competitive; just like his mom--competitive but not that athletic).

Then we went home and, despite all my best intentions, my tiredness overcame me and I didn't mow the lawn/jungle. I sat and knit while watching CheapoTivo, while G vegged out with SpongeBob. I got stuff ready for Sunday. A pretty relaxing day.

Sunday, we were late to church (ugh) but I managed to rehearse the anthem for that day. We sang a folksy song about a shepherd (it being 23rd Psalm Sunday), accompanied by a choir member on his banjo (wow!). At coffee hour, we enjoyed a lovely spread by Renie & Allison, and G got a blue balloon to take home. I tied the slipknot and tightened it enough. We drove home and got ready for G's soccer and my hockey. Got him to soccer, 5 mins late (argh! we could only stay 30 mins anyway!) but they were starting late, so we didn't miss much. He worked hard and is really doing well. I sat and knit, and then at 1:30, called him off the field and we left. Had to go to Hockey X-Sport, because at the end of our last game, I discovered that I was missing a screw on my helmet. They were sweet not to charge me, and even gave me an extra screw, but took like 10 mins putting it on. Oh, and I had taken the time to stop by the house on the way out of town to grab our Great America passes. So we arrived at hockey like 5 mins before it was to start, and I still had to get myself dressed, get G changed into warmer clothes, and set up next to the hockey rink with is snacks, book, and DVD player.

I got changed pretty fast and hockey was great. We even had time to scrimmage. Great drills, including (finally!) the breakout drill.

Went to get G and he showed me the DVD player that was stuck. I thought that was odd until he told me he'd knocked it down twice. (sigh) Oh, well, glad I bought it at Costco. As we get in the car to leave, I put the windows down and the balloon G has worked so hard not to lose goes flying out the window, entirely my fault.

And here's the great part: G gets really mad, really sad, crying loudly, but never, not once, tries to hit me. OMG. My kid is getting so big.

We went to City Beach for dinner. Not bad, but I ate too much (and realized in retrospect that I probably could have asked for a side of veggies instead of the huge load of steak fries). We headed out to Great America and got there at 6, 1 hour before closing. (Glad we have passes.) I decided to go ahead & get the photo passes made, and we set out for the log ride, which G had decided he was willing to go on. We walked past Kidzville and got in the very short line. Got up to the top in our log, and... stopped. For quite a while. Then, finally, we got released into the little winding river way up high, got to the top of the 'falls,' and... stopped again. For a while, again. One log behind us. The operator was very sweet and apologetic, but had no information other than that the problem required a mechanic! Finally, they let our log go down the falls--wow, that was really scary. G said, "I'm never going on that ride again, in my life!" They got a photo of us--I'm screaming like crazy and G looks so scared, poor lamb. Then we get down to the end, one log with two boys ahead of us, and... stopped. We can't even get out. The boys ahead of us are nearly at the platform, but the operator tells them they can't get out till their log gets to the red arrow. We wait forever and the boys finally hop out when the operator's back is turned. We are blocked by a plexiglass wall and have no choice but to wait. I finally ask for my bag of knitting (straight, metal needles; they really don't check bags well there!) and voila, before I can even get started, the engineer is there and they help us off the side way. We've been there an hour and done one ride.

Well, I had promised to buy G a stuffed animal at GA while we were there, as an apology to the balloon incident (because the first thing he wanted was a blue balloon exactly like it and I had a feeling that would not be easy to find). We ended up at their version of Build-A-Bear and he chose a darling bear and the cutest footie pajamas for it. He helped stuff it by pressing on a footpedal while it was pumped up. Then I helped him dress it in the pjs. Great bear.

He fell asleep on the way home and I sleep-walked him into bed (I just cannot carry him any more, not as dead weight). He went right to sleep. Great weekend.