The weekend

Friday night, I had the bright idea of sending the child away, away, away! to Parents Night Out so I could just get down and CLEAN in anticipation of his slumber party. And clean I did! I decided to do FlyLady's Marathon Cleaning, which has always worked for me in the past: you clean hard for 15 mins, then relax (eat, knit, watch TV) for 15 minutes. Repeat till you're done.

Well, I underestimated the time necessary for G's room + the front room, but by the time folks arrived at TEN TILL FOUR (what is it with people being early?), things were pretty much ready. The early parent was pressed into service helping me take the leaves out of the table and pushing it back together, something I, as a single parent, try to do by myself every year, and fail.

I had gone into G's room with a laundry basket, garbage can, donation bag, recycle container, and bin for papers. I'd emptied the plastic bin (thanks Sue!) of pillows (most of which were Freecycled to a local shelter) and put his papers from the cabinet in the dining room into it. Those were his papers from K and preschool that I'd decided to keep. No time for going through them, so I put them in without even looking at them. Oh, I did dump a bag of Valentine's Day candy from like 2004.

So I went through G's room, picking up stuff off the floor, recycling tons of paper and throwing away tons of garbage, and finding places for the rest. I had most of his floor cleared out by the time I brought him home from the gym and finished it the next morning. I had him go through the bag of toys I'd collected and decide which ones he wanted to donate; he donated about half of them, so that was good (not that there aren't 50 times that many downstairs). Then, we vacuumed the front room, the floor in the dining room, and his room. He really enjoyed vacuuming, so I let him go at it. I wandered around on his rug, scuffing at it with my Crocs to get the doghairs that had embedded themselves. Really worked well!

I also got the slipcover for the loveseat washed and put back on, and was able to maneuver the new chair & ottoman and loveseat into a good place. It's great to have comfortable seating for watching TV and movies. I also managed to put the poky things back on the couch & loveseat to deter Maddy from getting up there. The two pillows on the new chair seem to discourage her from there so far (really nice down pillows with silk covers from IKEA!--colors are a little more rich than in the photo).

G's other friend arrived by 4:30, with no clothes. Huh? I said, does he have pajamas? And she said, Oh, he's not staying over. He turned to her and they had a quick conversation in Chinese, where he decided he would. And he did! She brought clothes by about 8:00 for him to put on. By then, they'd played games, watched the beginning of "Mighty Joe Young," played on the Nintendo a bit, had pizza (a Family Size Papa's Perfect Pizza--1/2 pepperoni and 1/2 Hawaiian), and watched "Everyone's Hero" (not a great movie, but directed by Christopher Reeve!). I brought out the cake halfway through the movie. Very cute skateboarder cake from Costco. I just cut a few slices from one edge to save the rest for church on Sunday.

I got out the air mattress, sternly informed them that it was not to be jumped on (guess who was the only kid to jump on it?), topped it with the eggcrate pad, and put a fitted sheet over it. I had one kid lie down, and found that they fit perfectly widthwise! I draped G's comforter over all of them... and had to come in twice more to tell G he could NOT take it all to himself. Finally told him to sleep in his bed if he couldn't share. Silence by 11PM and I sighed happily, thinking I'd have a quiet morning all to myself.

Was woken at 6:50AM by loud talking and laughing. Argh!

Kids went home by 9, thank God, and we nearly skipped church except that we had the rest of the sheet cake to share. Meant to take a nap but never managed to, and finally, by 3:00, set out for SF to meet up with my friend Sharon...

Me: We're meeting my friend Sharon in San Francisco. Do you know who that is?
G: Your mother.
Me: Well, yes, my mother's name is Sharon, but this is not my mother.

He is too funny. Sharon loaned me several warm and comfy things for my trip to Bennington, VT this coming weekend, where the highs will be in the 50s. She and I shared a chuckle as we were sitting outside at a playground and the temps were low 60s, with both of us in jackets, finding it a tad chilly.

From Sharon's, we set off for Pier 39. I managed to score a free and legal parking space 1 block from Pier 39 (in front of a red car with a woman in it, who made wild gestures as I carefully parallel parked. I am absolutely certain my car never touched her car. No idea what was going on with her, but she was still in the car over an hour later when we returned. ??). We headed over to the Pier, and G insisted we go up the steps, as it said "Pier 39" on them. I explained that this entire thing was Pier 39. Well, there we were in front of the Aquarium, already closed, but its gift shop was open. We looked around a bit, after I quickly determined the mug I was seeking was not there. G found a seahorse book he liked and I made that a carrot: for good behavior, we could get it on the way out. $2.99 well spent.

The first gift shop we found had exactly the mug I was looking for! Thank God. It had seemed like a needle in a haystack sort of search, after my Albany friend described a favorite SF mug that had just broken. They were cheap, so I got her one more as a backup! We looked around some more and were about to head out when G found this crazy ball. It's interlocking plastic pieces of pink and yellow. When you throw it up in the air, the parts interchange, and what was pink circles and yellow swooshes becomes yellow circles and pink swooshes. Hard to explain--it's a little like one of those interlocking plastic things that you pull apart and it goes from a 7" ball to a 3' ball. Sort of. Anyway, this one was broken and I managed to understand from the checker that their other store, downstairs, had more. I bought the mugs and a little Ghirardelli chocolate and we headed downstairs. Uh, right downstairs? I think not. Finally, as we left Pier 39, we saw the store's other storefront. They pointed out balls that flashed colors as you bounced them, but no funky pink/yellow plastic balls. Too bad.

Predictably, the little dude fell fast asleep on the way home. We had managed, from bringing cheese sticks and granola bars, not to buy any junk food on the Pier (although those bags of mini donuts sure smelled good!).

Upon arriving home, I opened the email from my friend as to what her sons like, and one son loves snow globes. Argh. I was in the land o'snow globes! But I went to our local Books Inc. yesterday at noon and found some great SciFi paperbacks I think he'll like, and a great book for the younger son that we've enjoyed a lot. Went across the street to get a pound of beans from Peet's, and am considering the hostess-gift-buying festivities done. Phew.