Food, glorious food

We went down to SJ to have Thanksgiving dinner with K's brother and a total of 15 guests. (Fifteen!) It was great but, as you can imagine, a little nuts. Made even more nuts by a ball, launched by their oldest son, blowing in one of the kitchen windows, showering much of the Thanksgiving food with shattered glass. The turkey was pretty much out of range (and free of shards); the juices were strained through cheesecloth just in case; but the potatoes to be mashed and the cauldron of green beans were just tossed. Everything else was either safely in the oven or in the other room already. It was the most amazing noise. K and I both thought something glass had been hot and then put in very cold water or vice versa; that's what it sounded like.

Dinner was fine, if different. I am a bit specific about what makes up Thanksgiving dinner. The sweet potatoes were roasted with other root vegetables and rosemary and were just amazing. There were popovers instead of rolls and scalloped potatoes. But the turkey and gravy were excellent, as was the stuffing. G behaved himself SO beautifully. I was really proud of him, and told him so. We brought 4 pies, made fresh Wednesday night: pecan and pumpkin (from Cook's Illustrated, and very good), apple crumb (recipe off the web, excellent!), and my family's traditional sour-cream mincemeat. People were quite complimentary.

We came home without leftovers (as I'd suspected), and I made preparations to cook my turkey the next day. We invited one friend who we knew had spent Thanksgiving day alone, but she had plans; then I called some Alameda friends who I'd been wanting to have over, and hurrah!, they could make it.

The turkey went in a smidge late, and we, uh, dallied a bit in the afternoon, so the end of the preparations were a little frantic. But dinner was on time and turned out terrific (OMG I made the best gravy), and we all finished in plenty of time to get to the local theater to see "Happy Feet" (3 out of 5 stars IMHO).

And...I have leftovers!

Got to get some air

I've been having a tough time with allergies lately, I think. My breathing is suddenly a challenge--needing to use my albuterol inhaler a lot more lately. This is in line with colds that I get, which always make it harder on my lungs, but it feels more like an allergy, like I've stirred up a lot of dust lately (which could be the culprit). But it's frustrating. I'm so out of touch with my breathing that I'll be climbing the back stairs, or reading my son a story, or just standing still to make a decision, and realize that I'm wheezing and it's a bit of a struggle to pull in a breath.

I've heard it's rather common, this denial thing around asthma. I was diagnosed at 25, with the doctor saying I've probably had it all my life (I remember having a lot of colds as a youngster). And I was in serious denial of the asthma for at least 10 yrs. I think it was after staying up all night, listening to my breathing, feeling very alarmed, and waiting for my doctor's office to open, when I realized this was serious stuff. After taking antibiotics and a tapering dose of prednisone (everybody and nobody's friend), I started to get serious. I got an asthma management plan and started to follow it.

Since denial is quite powerful, I backslid a bit. And I'm still not aware when I'm wheezing. Sweet K is quite gentle about asking if my breathing feels OK rather than snapping, "You're wheezing," at me. I do try to keep up on my maintenance meds, which really do keep me from having a severe asthma attack these days.

But I still hate asthma.

Oops, stumbled again

It's amazing how easily I forget this daily blogging thing. Anyway...

Today being Thanksgiving, I thought I'd blog about gratitude.

A few years ago, in October, my sister (the Fee-Only Financial Planner) was helping me get ready for my taxes and had me check my pay stubs. The previous year, she had determined that I had already had enough taxes taken out and told me to ask our accounting person to stop taking taxes out. Well, the switch never got put back on, so that October, I found that no taxes had been taken out all year! (You'd think I'd have noticed the abundant flow of cash, wouldn't you?)

So for the next 6 pay periods, we had 1/6 of my estimated taxes due taken out. Can you say "Ouch?" I knew you could.

I'm sure you can imagine how challenging this made that Christmas season. I couldn't afford most of the Christmas gifts I'd planned to get. A very, very kind friend from Florida, who was at that time running an eBay business out of her home, gathered up an amazing box of things for me to give as gifts. She refused even to be paid for the postage.

In November, my church had its annual Thanksgiving dinner together. Toward the end, folks were asked to speak about what they were grateful for. I stood up and explained the tax situation. People gasped and seemed on the verge of offering financial help. I rushed on, explaining that we were going to be OK, and went on to explain my epiphany:

I had realized that we were fine. Unlike so many others, we still had a roof over our heads.We had enough to eat. I still had a job that brought in enough money for the mortgage. We had clothes to wear. We were going to be OK. And that is something for which to be grateful.

The mind wanders

As I was driving home from hockey tonight, and was crossing the San Mateo bridge, I looked over at the towers with cables strung between them and thought of an incident years ago.

A friend of my sister's MIL lost her husband in a helicopter accident. "Laurent" (let's say) was in a helicopter with 2 others tracing a river in the Pacific Northwest. The helicopter ran into some cables spanning the river and crashed. All three were declared dead, but... "Laurent"'s body was never found.

I felt very sorry for this friend's loss. She was quite devoted to "Laurent."

But I always wondered, having read too many spy novels, if he is actually alive somewhere. yk?

I don't care; just make it stop!

I've been dealing with random itchy spots on my body for about 3 weeks now. It is driving me nuts. Yesterday, I found one spot on my belly that would actually make me twitch, the waves of itchiness were so strong.

The doc today thought it was perhaps an allergy I've developed to Tide powder. I have bought TJ's laundry detergent to use for a while and see if it helps. Agh! Just thinking about this has made it all itchy all over again.

So I'll be on constant Benadryl (which, thankfully, does not make me sleepy) and using a powerful steroid cream on the spots. I'm about to plunge into an Aveeno oatmeal bath. Anything to make it stop. I woke up at 4AM itching madly. It's driving me insane.

Just remember how susceptible I am when you entrust me with a state secret; torturing me will produce answers quite easily.

scratch scratch scratch...

O Osento, my Osento

Found out recently that my Osento tub card is dated 1999. Clearly, I don't go nearly often enough. There was that time when Dharma and my first gf went there for my birthday. When Nancy arrived, we went down to Mission for a wonderful Peruvian meal at Fina Estampa, me having my favorite chicken-smothered-in-green-rice dish.

Well, K and I went there tonight and I was astonished to find it had moved! Far away! No green rice for me tonight. (new address is under the link)

Well, we found a nice Mexican restaurant on the other corner of the block and I had some delicious grilled fish and K had really good (so she said; I didn't get to taste them) cheese enchiladas. And we were serenaded by a mariachi guy. K said it was a love song. O'course, it could have been a peanut butter jingle for all I knew (but I trust K; her Spanish is wicked good).

Then with full bellies, we headed to Osento. The place was practically deserted! The gal at the front desk, after I expressed my astonishment, said it had actually been the busiest she'd ever seen--but that everyone had filed out of there moments before! So we nearly had the place all to ourselves.

Aah, it was wonderful and so relaxing, as always. We did epsom-salt rubs in the wet sauna (and the other sauna is now dry or wet, according to what the occupants want!) and relaxed on the private deck. Soaked again in the tub and it was time to go already.

Such a nice evening. Contented smile on my face, that's for sure.

Great times coming up

Tomorrow night, K and I are going to Osento. I'm so excited to introduce her to that place! I got out my tub card and it's dated 1999. 5 punches in 7 years. I'm ready to go more often!

Then, on Saturday night, we're going to go to "Jesus Camp" at the Parkway. Should be interesting and will likely be chilling also.

And next Wednesday, we'll be baking pies for Thanksgiving at K's brother's house in SJ. I love baking pies and I adore Thanksgiving.Will probably buy a turkey to roast myself on Friday in order to have leftovers. YUM. The whole deal.

And for Christmas, we're flying up to my Mom's for more than a week. I am so looking forward to it! K is joining us halfway through, and we'll spend New Year's Eve with my mom, playing card games. Yeah!

and I didn't even mention the upcoming Jury duty!

Dinner party vs. cleaning the house

Just hosted a dinner party for a gal coming in from out of town. She's on a lesbian-and-bi moms email list that I'm on and a few of us Bay Area gals got together to meet her.

Fully admitting my control-freak instincts, I bought everything we would need for the dinner. I had gotten the lasagne from a silent auction at my church ("romantic dinner for two"), but K doesn't eat pork and it contained sausage, so I decided to use it for this and buy a veggie lasagne to go with. Bought my favorite salad-in-a-bag, two loaves of par-baked Italian bread, one baguette for bruschetta with TJ's bruschetta sauce, and got out a bottle of wine I'd had around. (Turned out to be a fairly mediocre but not awful Zin.) I also bought a lemon tart and then more folks RSVPd and I thought, whoops, that's not enough dessert. Friends offered and I accepted their offer to bring more dessert (over-the-top banana split fixings!).

When the party was over, K said, boy, you are quite the hostess! I love, love, love having dinner parties.

If it weren't for having to clean the house, I swear, I'd have theme every weekend, if not twice a weekend.

On the other hand, sounds like a good tradeoff... I get to host a party and have a clean house. Hmmm!

Mememememe!

From the lovely Rabbitch of the North:

(forgot this part before:)

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

1. Yourself: tired
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): sweet
3. Your hair: ok
4. Your mother: *sigh*
5. Your Father: absent
6. Your Favorite Item: bed
7. Your dream last night: fun
8. Your Favorite drink: freddo
9. Your Dream Car: Z3
10. The room you are in: living
11. Your Ex: good
12. Your fear: wheezing
13. What you want to be in 10 years? content
14. Who you hung out with last night? everyone
15. What You're Not? clear
16. Muffins: cranberry
17. One of Your Wish List Items: book
18. Time: now
19. The Last Thing You Did: talked
20. What You Are Wearing: sweater
21. Your Favorite Weather: rain
22. Your Favorite Book: Whangdoodles
23. The Last Thing You Ate: candy
24. Your Life: good
25. Your Mood: impatient
26. Your best friend: many
27. What are you thinking about right now? sleep
28. Your car: full
29. What are you doing at the moment? computer
30. Your summer: short
31. Your relationship status: steady
32. What is on your TV? DVDs
33. What is the weather like? changing
34. When is the last time you laughed? tonight

Oops.

Forgot to blog for 2 days. My excuse is that I have a cold. Or rather, I hab a code. I guess it started Sunday, when we showed up to church totally late, me whipping out a Kleenex for my fast-dripping nose. We soon decided just to skip church that day. It wasn't a church attendance day, apparently. I did pray a bit as we left, thanking God for the beautiful day.

We went home and putzed around the house till I finally got my stuff together and we headed out to my office for me to get a few hours in. This was because my sister was in town for a whirlwind visit, ostensibly for her bf to see his son in SF. The original plan was to meet for breakfast in the East Bay Monday morning, but then she changed it, late Sunday night, to lunch in SF. For some reason, she expected me to be furious. I tried to be, but failed.

Lunch was a comedy of errors--the directions were "The hunan place on Columbus." Uh, WHICH Hunan place? Turned out it is really called Hunan (something) and it is NOT, after all, on Columbus--it's several blocks off Columbus, on Sansome. As we went in, K murmured, "He's right--this is the best Hunan restaurant in San Francisco." She knew the place! The food was hot, hot, hot but tasty. It was good to see my sister, if only for about an hour. Then they took off to drive back to Ashland.

We joked about them lessening the visiting time next time, till they spend more time driving than visiting.

I want to meet them at the Italian restaurant in North Beach. You know, the one with the garlic bread. Yeah.

Thank God for rain

G's team was to have their last soccer game today, after having the end-of-season party last night, complete with trophies and hooded sweatshirts handed out by the coach. We were to bring snacks and I had planned to bring donuts as well, they being such a hit at a previous game (then brought by the coach).

But after a late evening and me staying up working on the Anniversary socks (and then today, finding out all 34 rows were wrong--perhaps some day I'll learn to listen to my instincts when they say, "Hey, that doesn't seem right"), I really dragged my butt out of bed at 7. It had rained softly but steadily all night. No email from the coach. Found the soccer website and lo and behold, yep, we are rained out. I creep into G's room and whisper into his ear that his game is rained out (in case he's about to wake up with a start and worry that we've missed it). I crawl back into bed and set the alarm for 2 hrs later. Aaaah. I love sleeping.

G wakes up, has remembered me whispering into his ear, and is happy there is no game. Asks me to watch a video with him. I agree, he crawls in my bed with me after starting it, and I drift off. I wake up in the middle of video #2. At some point, we have breakfast--he with cereal and too much milk (screaming for a napkin as he catches excess milk with his hands, oy vey), and me with leftover Thai food.

Then I got an IM from K, that she's not feeling well, and I get us into gear: I make my so-good applesauce (just water and good eating apples and a sprinkle of my expensive cinnamon from The Food Mill) and pack that up, along with homemade chicken soup, ginger ale, and Frescas. We tote them over to K's and hang out for a while, talking and looking at her beads and more talking. Very relaxing afternoon.

G and I had a snuggly mom-and-kid evening, complete with Ben & Jerry's straight from the container, and he's asleep in my bed (special dispensation), where I'll join him forthwith.

G'night, y'all.

Things you never thought you'd do #386

386. Send the link to the Poopsmith song to your general manager. By her request.

So get this: we have two sets of women's bathrooms in our fairly small office. One is the standard room with 4 stalls. The other one is a one-roomer, with the shower at the back. I use the latter one the most, as it is most convenient to my office, and, as you may have picked up already, I am as lazy as anything.

Over the past, hm, year and a half?, I have noticed poop on the floor. Twice. Little tiny poop. Once, one piece, actually kind of smushed onto the floor. The other time, a little ball. Both times, the thoughts running through my head were something like

"Hm, what is that? Mud?"
"OMG, I think it's poop. EEEWWWWW!"
"Fuck, it is poop."
"I can't leave that on the floor, for someone else to step in. Gag, I'm going to have to clean it."
It hadn't actually occurred to me till just now that if I'd left it, I might have been accused as the pooper herself.
(gathers lots of tp, gets the poop up, drops in toilet, flushes, shudders)

Then I'd go tell a coworker, if nothing else but to vent the ickiness.

Well, last week, she saw two small balls of poop in the open garbage can next to the toilet--the one for used tampons, etc. I might have left them there, as they were out of stepping-on range. She carefully tipped the otherwise-empty can over the toilet but was massively grossed out. WTF is happening? (and then she shared with me, of course, as I'd shared with her before. She also told our GM, who is female but uses the other bathroom, as it is more convenient to her.)

We have no answers. An email was sent out before. Now the GM is going to have a meeting. I have no idea how she is going to handle this. She hopes the above song will lighten the mood. She just wrote back that she is laughing so hard at the song. Oh, man!

Interesting times...

Multiply life by the power of two

Went to the Indigo Girls concert tonight. The opening act, Bitch and the Surprising Conclusion, joked that it was now Indigo Womyn. Well, I thought it was funny...

I didn't know even half the songs they sang (and was kicking myself for not having more of their albums, even though I love Nomads, Indians, Saints), but they really were great. And the songs I loved, they encouraged singing on. I ended up singing "Power of Two" at the top of my lungs with K gazing on lovingly. Man, what a romantic moment. What a great concert.

I had a moment of panic partway through the concert, thinking I should call to see how G was doing. I said something to K, who said exactly the right things: that he is in very capable hands, she can resolve anything, and has the cell phone number. It really helped, despite my lightheadedness after a day of mild stomach flu. Work will probably not recognize me tomorrow. Ah, to win the lottery...!

And yes, he was just fine.

so we're okay we're fine baby i'm here to stop your crying chase all the ghosts from your head i'm stronger than the monster beneath your bed smarter than the tricks played on your heart we'll look at them together then we'll take them apart adding up the total of a love that's true multiply life by the power of two

Baptism, in all its versions

We have been discussing baptism for a little while in our house, and G has decided he wants to be baptised. So I mentioned it to our minister, who was rather enthused. We talked with her about it last night. It is amazing the variations one can do with baptism.

But G has gone hot and cold with it. His latest fear, which comes up often these days, is that folks will laugh at him. With younger kids, the minister asks, in the service, the parent(s) whether to have the child baptised. With older kids, the minister asks the child him/herself. G is worried that if he speaks, folks will laugh at him. So I told him they wouldn't, and had him ask Rev. Laura herself. She assured him they wouldn't--that a baptism is a time when the congregation shows their love for him.

I think it's going to be great. He is unfazed by the possibility of the dripping water, and that seems like that last hurdle, to me. :) I hope to have many friends and family there. The tentative date is January 14, 2007.

I'm not even from Boston!

Evil Heather has once again caused me to blog. Twice in one day! NaBloPoMo says not to backdate posts, but it doesn't say anything about post-dating posts. I'm tempted, but will toe the line. This time.

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

What Donut Are You?

Generous of heart

Very often, I put my kid on the "early bus" to school in the mornings. It leaves at 7:30 sharp and allows him to eat breakfast there, which he finds to be a treat. It is a challenge to get us both out of the house and ready to go by 7:20 or so and we have run for that bus plenty of times (they always hold it; very kind of them).

Today, we were ready to leave the house at 7:28. No go. I hopped in the shower and did my thing and got him to school by, oops, 8:10. The woman in the cafeteria frowned at the clock and let us have a breakfast anyway. It was tiny pancakes, 4 of them, and syrup, plus milk. My kid adores pancakes, so it turns out, breakfast was a treat anyway. I stayed with him while he ate, at his request. He dipped his pancakes in the tiny tub of syrup and I showed him how to scrape off the extra drips of syrup. From then on, with each dip, he muttered under his breath, "Stroke, stroke, stroke."

Then, with his last pancake out, he looked at me in alarm, and started to rip it in half to offer to me. What a sweetheart. "No, sweetie, I'll get breakfast at work." Another look of concern. "Really." And he ate his last pancake.

He is one of the kindest people I know.

Nearly forgot

K just called me and asked if I'd blogged already. Oops! Day 6 and I nearly missed it.

I'll document G's weekend this time. Karen picked him up at Y-Kids with his booster seat and took him to their place. I'm sure he watched lots of cartoons (they have cable!) and ate a good dinner. Dharma says he didn't end up sleeping on their floor but rather in his sleeping bag on the twin bed in her office. They got him to school on time (no mean feat from their house through morning-commute traffic!) and his booster to Y-Kids, and the dog (and suitcase, I guess!) to our house.

Friday, my ex's spouse picked him up from Y-Kids and retrieved the dog from our house. G went with her to their new house that has so much roooooooom and an even better view (and the view from the old house is not too shabby). Both of them--heck, all three!--thought I'd been there before till I finally remembered they were watching G once and had an errand to run at the new house, so brought him along with. It is lovely and light and the kitchen is wonderful, with polished granite counters.

We smushed kid, dog, and all related stuff into K's car (barely!) and carted all back to my house. K helped us unload and then we said our goodbyes.

Sunday, I felt an awful but familiar pain in my gut and visiting the bathroom confirmed my fear: definite signs of a UTI. I stayed home from church and G and I didn't get out of our pjs all day. K came over after an exhausting day, got my Kaiser card, and sweetly drove to Oakland to pick up my phoned-in prescription from, God bless them, the phone nurse.

Then we knit together while watching CSI and snuggled off to sleep. The End.

Sad

Rather than blithely post another What I Did Last Weekend post, I just want to share that I'm feeling sad tonight. It is hard to feel what you're feeling and know it's valid for you and at the same time know that that hurts someone... and you can't change it. Changing it would mean that you are putting forth inauthentic sentiments and being less real overall.

But that you'd pay good money to make things different. Better. Easier. Happier.

Sad.

Weekend of Oct 27

Thursday
K played with our Bell Choir at church that night (thank goodness for childcare at choir practice) and it was so great! She got to share music with the gal I used to share music with, who is a great musician and very kind and helpful. Then she took G home to put him to bed and I stayed to practice with the choir, as I was playing a flute part to Amazing Grace that Sunday.

Friday
We had a movie date! I called all around for babysitters last-minute and got no one, but then remembered finding a parents' night out thing at a gym in Emeryville. Hunted around, and found it! Called to sign up and then scurried to get all of us there by check-in time.

Then we practically strolled over to the Parkway for pizza, snacks, and a movie, "Man of the Year." I thought it was OK, but that some good parts had ended up on the cutting-room floor. If you watch it, let me know what you think!

Saturday, K went to work and I took G to his soccer game. It went fairly poorly, with our level-headed coach kind of losing his cool, unfortunately. A loss is not unusual for this team, but lots of players weren't playing their usual level of play. shrug. So it was a little discouraging. Then we went to the fabric store (for black cloth) and a local toy store for a toy sword for my costume as The Man In Black. G brought his purse and bought himself a cute ladybug clip toy for about a buck, handling the whole transaction by himself.

We spent the afternoon lazing around a bit and with me getting my costume together--black pants, black satin shirt (borrowed from K), large cloth tied around my head, another strip for a mask (They're quite comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.), and my black boots with just the tops turned down.

At 3PM, I reported to the church's kitchen to help cook the food. The head cook was incredibly organized and had several copies of a spreadsheet of who was to do what, and when.

(aside: Maddy the dog is asleep near me and just had a series of sleepy-barks in her sleep, and is now wagging her tail endlessly. So cute!)

We got started and then one helper had to leave on an unexpected errand. The other helpers arrived, though, and we got things together smoothly, ready just in time for folks to arrive and eat. K arrived in a wild black wig and terrific Dracula cape and really disturbing teeth! She almost didn't recognize me (I'd also added a small mustache with a black makeup pencil), so points for me! I served dinner and then joined her. The chicken was terrific! (It has traditionally been quite dry, no matter whether you're early or not.) K had one of the portabello mushrooms and declared them terrific. I didn't taste it, as I am not a mushroom fan.

I dashed back into the kitchen to serve our "witch's hat" desserts (pumpkin ice cream from our fantastic local ice cream store, Tucker's, and a chocolate-iced cookie with a caramel Kiss affixed with orange spray icing), then rejoined K for the fun of the talent show, silent auction, and haunted house (yes, I did scream once). A great night.

Sunday, I was really nervous, as I was playing handbells at the beginning of the service, and then flute with the anthem. G came with me to the rehearsal and made so much noise, agh. A fellow handbell player so sweetly and kindly asked me if, possibly, he could go sit with a friend while we played, as she did find him distracting. Light bulb! It actually hadn't occurred to me but was a necessity!! He sat with a friend for that and for me playing flute. What a relief. The handbell piece went well (I made two small mistakes) and Amazing Grace went perfectly, after me completely losing my place in a solo part at the end during rehearsal. The power of prayer, folks, I'm telling you. phew.

After church, I got ready for hockey and packed up plenty of stuff for G, as he had to sit through a game (subbed in Red--and they tied, again!) and a practice (Green--not bad but maybe could have been tougher). He did great and I got sufficiently sweaty. :)

There ya go. More tomorrow. Night, all.

Good vacation = tired vacation

I'm sitting in a living-room area of a timeshare resort, surrounded by other people using laptops as well. There are four of us and four laptops, but not because I suddenly own one: one of the others has brought two. (I have no idea why.)

I'm bogarting K's laptop to get my daily blog in. I think I have one more previous weekend to blog but I'm going to go ahead and document today and yesterday's exploits, a.k.a. How We Got Here.

A friend of K's secured a timeshare slot for several of us and I jumped at the chance. I needed to do a night or two away from G to start him being able to be away from me so that I can go to France for 2 or 3 weeks (still not sure) in April. In order to have this time, I talked to Nancy, my ex, weeks ago. Just recently, though, she called back and said she'd realized she has a nighttime work thing Thurs, so I needed to call Dharma and Wyatt's Mom for pinch hitting. They kindly agreed (thank you!) and I sent out the long, all info email.

I have done pretty well, really. Only had a moment of panic once, when K asked me if they all had keys. I thought so but couldn't remember in recent memory getting one to Dharma. K pointed out they had her cell phone number and would have called if there had been trouble.

G set out his own parameters: he didn't want to sleep at home. He wanted to sleep on their floors in two blankets (later revised to a sleeping bag). He wanted Maddy to come along (which meant packing up food and a freshly washed bed as well). He wanted to bring along Beary, his Build-A-Bear-ish bear.

I'm hoping things are going swimmingly. Right now, he should have been picked up by my ex's spouse and is presumably eating dinner. We are going to grill salmon (and trout for me!) in a little while. First, though, a trip to the spa with champagne in a bit. Yay!

Oh man, now I'm thinking about my little guy. Must... concentrate... on... adult... things!

(Oh, and we went to the local yarn store for a bit and I got out of there for only $20. I'm making Odessa for K! Yeah, I know, knitting content, boringforsome.)

Weekend of Oct 20

Cheating again. This is hard work! :)

Friday:
I had invited my ex and her gf over to dinner, after we had both said, upon exchanging dogs or the kid, "Let's have dinner some time." Finally set a date and this was it.

I marinated chicken breasts (in some balsamic salad dressing from Trader Joe's, yum) and broiled them. They burnt (they always do) but we peeled off the skin and honestly, they were very tasty. I heated up some peas and baked some crescent rolls and threw together one of those all-in-the-bag salads. It was great! Because I do like to entertain, I got down my china and silverplate and iittala glasses.

They had brought dessert--wonderful, huge cream puffs from Beard Papa in San Francisco.

The next day, G had a soccer game and played well. After the game, we got together with K and went to the SF Zoo. There was a place where you could actually feed birds. I wasn't keen on birds flying around my head just then, so I ponied up the $2 each and sent the two of them in. K got a bird right away and so did G. Someone was taking digital pics and we got a great one of him smiling so huge as the bird sat on his popsicle stick, eating peanut butter and seeds off it. Wonderful! We also saw the Big Cats being fed, one of my favorite things about the SF Zoo. One cat was given a huge roll of paper towels or toilet paper with ground meat smushed into its core. It was licking and tearing at it and SO looked like a cute, cuddly, tiny cat, when you ignored its huge claws. Made me want to go in and pet its mane. Fortunately, a zookeeper and large iron bars prevented me.

We had an expensive, not terribly great meal and packed up and left.

That evening, Liz and Andrea had arranged for an ice slot at Belmont and invited dozens of their closest friends, and terrific Heather to do childcare. It was so fun! I finally got to play with Viv and lots of other folks. And toward the very end, I scored! When I took my gear off, my clothes were absolutely soaked through with sweat. A great workout and way fun.

Sunday:
Sunday was nuts. I went to church and sang an anthem I didn't particularly care for (so of course we'll be singing it again later), then we went to a toy store and I bought a sword to complete my Halloween costume. G brought his purse and carefully selected a little red thing that was sort of like a ladybug and paid for it with $1.04 of his own money. We got dressed and loaded up my hockey gear and headed out to a college friends' kid-centered Halloween party. We both had a great time! There was a game where Hostess donettes were tied to strings and you had to eat the donut, no hands. G enjoyed it, and then it was the parents' turn! It was much harder than I had thought. I had a long conversation with a friend I see only at these friends' gatherings, then had to collect my kid after the balloon-tied-on-one-leg-try-to-stomp-everyone-else's game and head down for hockey practice. (A few years ago, I came to this game as a Hockey Player, then headed to practice. Creative, huh?)

Practice went fine and G hung out in the penalty box, eating apple slices and making paper airplanes.

A cheater from the beginning

I have discovered NaBloPoMo and decided to do it in part because that other acronym thingy is about writing, like novels, and that is so not my thing. Anyway, why not? Find out if you are truly sick of me after a month. And try not to write about what I had for lunch.

So, here's my cheat: I owe you guys an update on the last two weekends. Oops, three.

See? Totally cheating, from the get-go. Weekend of Oct. 13. Here we go! (anyone else hear Mickey Mouse?)

Friday:
We had made reservations to go see "The Truth About Cinderella" from Alameda Children's Theater. Every job was done by a child--running lights, sound, accompaniment on the piano, sets, and all acting roles. It was, well, OK... rather a creative script, and several quite skilled actors. One of them played the guy Cinderella really should have fallen in love with and married. He was really quite incredible--good presence, great singing voice, good acting. Cute smile. Amusingly, I ran into him at our church's Hometown Halloween party last Friday--just darting in with other friends from our local boy's chorus. I grabbed him and said how delighted we were with his performance. To his credit, he dipped his head, said thanks, and did not blush. I look forward to seeing him in a future Alameda production.

G asked questions fairly loudly during the show but didn't get too wiggly. I was glad we went. I would like him to see more live theater. What an opportunity, really.

Oh, also, that day, he had no school because of Veteran's Day the following Monday. (I know, as if that makes sense, huh?) So he got to spend the day at Y-Kids and really enjoyed it, as he always does.

Saturday:
He had a soccer game. This may have been the one they managed to tie, bringing their record up to 0-1-Lots. He played well, as he always does, especially in defense. Proud of my boy. Then we did... something that day, and then our babysitter came.

And K and I went out to a party! Friends of hers were having a 5th anniversary party. It was lovely and I had such a nice time talking to everyone. I didn't know what to wear and finally chose my fancy blue dress that's off the shoulders. Apparently, I looked good, because I actually got wolf-whistled while we were walking to Good Vibes as a side trip before the party. Email me if you want to see a photo of us at the party.

It was great fun and we left before becoming pumpkins.

Sunday:
We went to church at K's church. It was great. I sang with her choir and it really turned out well! G made a zillion paper airplanes with the gal doing childcare. Then we came back to the East Bay and I played in my Green game (tie, even after overtime!), and was asked to sub in the Red game. I told Andrea to ask Kyle, as she gets very cold at the rink. Kyle said yes, and I enjoyed that game SO much! Got nice and sweaty and learned a bit.

OK, there's my first NaBloPoMo post. Enjoy.