Weekend update

Friday
Friday was a little rushed at first, marred by a little sadness, ended with mild panic, but overall very good.

Some friends (well, two exes and a former roommate) and their spouses and I had decided to make a recurring dinner date recently. I offered to host the October date (well, my first gf nominated me, as she is wont to do), and we set it for the 24th. I pointed out that I was only going to bake a frozen lasagna, so it wouldn't be anything fancy, really.

But as the day got closer, I decided to serve on my china. I don't get it out that often and I'm very fond of it. I got a phone call as I was getting things out, and rather than wait until the phone call was over, I continued to pull plates and bowls out of the cupboard. The plates came out ok, but the bowls were a little slippery due to my using coffee-basket filters between each to prevent scratching, and I dropped a stack of them, breaking three in a row. My caller, a senior lady from church, said, "Oh dear, that's my fault," and when I insisted I'm just clumsy, she demurred, "Oh no, dear, I'm sure not." Well, she's wrong, but I was still so sad to have broken three bowls in all. I sifted through the wreckage and saved pieces to one that can be glued. Ugh.

But I had managed to get off work a little early, turn the oven on and throw the lasagna in (115-125 minutes baking time, wow!), pick up G, get his cape on him ("Halloween dress-up night" at the Parents Night Out that nght), and get him to the PNO fairly well on time. Raced back home, arriving just 15 minutes before friends were to arrive, with a sink full of dirty dishes (I am hoping to have the dishwasher fixed this week), and the floors not swept. Well, the dishes got done but the floors not, and the "7 sharp" start of the dinner slipped a little, but it all went just fine. We had a good time and I got them out the door at 10 so that I could get going to pick up G by 10:30, no problem. Got in my car, turned the key, and...

Problem. Car didn't turn over. And as I tried again and again, the lights on the display got dimmer and dimmer. I leapt out of my car and waved at my friend--who waved back as she drove off. AGH! You are not supposed to be late for PNO, $1 per minute late, etc.

I went back inside, thought and thought, and called my boss who lives about 1 mile away. He was up, willing, and showed up in his Exp!orer with his delightful, funny wife along for the ride. I was waiting with the booster so we didn't have to install/reinstall a carseat. We rushed off and were only 10 minutes late, and the kind program directors, having been notified ahead of time, didn't charge me for being late. Phew.

My boss said he was busy in the morning but that he'd show up at 9 to take me to buy a new battery. I kept wondering if it was the battery after all. But I went to bed instead of dealing with it then. Too tired.

Saturday
I got up at 7 and called my insurance company's Roadside Assistance right away, thinking they'd be less busy first thing in the morning. The guy showed up less than the predicted 20 minutes later, carried a little handheld battery-with-gauge over, and jumped my car, no problem. Showed me on the gauge that it definitely was the battery and not the starter or other problem. I locked the car with my extra key and left it running till G woke up. I explained what I was going to do and he was comfortable with my leaving him for the time it took to buy and install a battery. I brought rubber gloves and my ratchet set and ended up borrowing a crescent wrench, but was quite pleased to manage to install the battery myself. The woman at Kragen was mildly surprised, saying that most women buy a battery and take it away to be installed. (One benefit to installing it in their parking lot is how easy it is to take the spent battery back for your $10 refund, and not have to worry about disposing of it elsewhere.) Started it up with a little trepidation, and zoom. No problems. Even the weird off-tempo turn signals started clicking in good rhythm.

I got back home and called my boss. Left a message, hanging up as the doorbell rang. It was my boss, a little earlier than he had thought. He seemed a little disappointed that I'd been able to completely handle it!

G and I had some breakfast and headed out to my office to print out bid sheets for the silent auction at our church's Halloween party that night. After being a little later than I thought, I showed up at church to lay out the auction items and distribute the sheets. I was told in confidence that my senior ladies of the Auction Committee were a little nervous that I wasn't there. (I had figured they'd start laying things out without me, as I'd called ahead to let them know.) We got everything laid out and arranged in about an hour, and I was quite pleased. We ended up making about $1500 on the auction items. (My knit things were both bid on, but didn't even make the amount of the cost of the yarn. I think I'm done knitting for that auction. I'll make $25 pumpkin breads next year. Sigh.)

Went home to curl my hair, which I'd dyed "Cinnaberry" Red on Thursday night, in preparation for my role as Mrs. Weasley, which a full third of the people had not even heard of. One person did guess it right away, which was very cool. I used the rest of the can of spray orange hair color on G and made him a wand that had flickering sparks coming out of the end (he tired of that in about 15 minutes). He did make a cute Ron Weasley.

We had a great time at the Halloween party, even with losing his friend W for about 15 minutes (he was dueling with another boy in the hallway). I won two great things (a beautiful framed mirror and a set of lamps) for hardly anything, and my methods for getting folks' auction items paid for and out the door went smoothly, despite my inability to add under pressure (must bring a calculator next year).

We were home by 10, even with cleaning up.

Sunday
In a disturbing culmination of events, I had early handbell-choir practice at church, was teaching Sunday School, and G was an acolyte that morning. Fortunately, we were actually early and remembered everything we needed, including G's cross that he's supposed to wear as an acolyte. The practice was good; long enough to actually get the music together, and the performance went well because of it. I was very lax about the Sunday-school lesson this time, but we had some good discussions (the answer to "what do you love about our church/what would you change" largely revolved around the food, so I pointed out that everyone could encourage his/her parent(s) to sign up for Fellowship hour to get good food there).

We went home, and relaxed while we watched Spongebob until it was time to leave for our church's Bay Association meeting. Our minister bailed that afternoon, as her partner wasn't well and she felt she should stay home with their baby. We carpooled with the other delegate from our church, getting lost no fewer than 7 times on the way to the dinner. We were slightly later than I'd hoped (5:15 instead of 5), but the dinner was later (some folks got served at 7; G was a grouchy monster by the time he finally got his food). Fortunately, our moderator started the business meeting before all the food was served so we could get that out of the way.

It turned out that our Association is looking for a new corresponding secretary. I had been thinking, through the meeting, that I'd love to have a larger role in the Association, especially after finding out how much fun it is to have responsibility as the Auction Coordinator at the Halloween party. Fortunately for me, the ex-corresponding secretary is a good friend (Hi R!) and was very excited at my interest in the position. It looks like it'll turn out well.

We headed out after the dessert, and not a minute too soon for my little one: I had to get him up early on Monday to drop him off at Y-Kids so I could go to a workshop in Pleasanton on School Safety. The workshop was so-so, but spending a day with his teacher (and some others from his school) was great. I adore her.

A very good weekend.