Very busy weekend

...but at least G didn't wake up sobbing like the last 3 Mondays ("I need one more day!").

Friday
Nothing planned for Friday, so I plopped G into the tub for a well-needed scrub and I watched "Made of Honor," which was almost really good. The commentary was really interesting--they actually used a computer program to erase Patrick Dempsey's wrinkles for the "college days" segment. Fascinating!

Saturday
I had bid on, and won, a "hike and picnic for 4 kids" at my son's school's auction. He only wanted to take one friend, so I sent a note home to the friend's parents on Monday. Well, Saturday at 10AM, we were at the school on time, but no W. Waited a while, tried her home phone ("not in service"??), I finally drove over to their house; no one home.

The teachers kindly invited me to come along, but I had been looking forward to my child-free time! I sent a somewhat despondent G off with them, a little worried that he'd be unhappy and/or act up. The dropped off an elated G hours later, having climbed a steep peak in Tilden Park and spotted 14 turtles! I, meanwhile, set to work at our horrid quackgrass in the back and worked at it until the string in my string trimmer gave out. I then washed enormous numbers of dishes (this is getting old and I think I'll call my appliance repair guy soon for the dishwasher) and settled in to watch a DVD. The time went way faster than I'd thought, and I wished I'd gotten off my heinie and made an appointment to use up my 1/2-hour massage gift certificate I had never used.

Just before G came back, his friend D called and basically invited himself over for a playdate. He is a great kid, so I said yes. Turns out he was at the Spring Festival with his dad at the time, so I greeted him at the door and turned around and went back to the Festival. He and G went in the bounce house and had a terrific time, and we walked around the booths to see what was there. I brought Lucy with us, to work on her social skills, and after 2 blocks, I ducked into our local pet-supply shop to pick up a new Halti, Lucy's having disappeared during our ibuprofen episode. Turns out they had 2 left, both 75% off. The sizes were 0 and 4, so we took a Mastiff-sized one and cinched it down and it honestly worked pretty darn well.

Then the kids discovered the Kashi booth and the promise of a "free" tote bag, in exchange for jumping through hoops (visiting 3 booths, then answering some questions). We got to sample 3 Kashi cereals and some cereal bars, and then there were more samples in the bag. Happy kids.

We headed back to our house, where they started to play Wii, but G got really nasty and I think was tired, so I ended the playdate. I've seen it before and it just never ends well. Done!

I put him to bed early, as I knew he'd need to get up and be off and running in the morning.

Sunday
...because I had to be at church at 9:15AM on Sunday. We were to play a handbell song that day and after Thursday, we all knew it needed more work. The first runthrough was disturbing--just sounded awful. We had one guy who stepped in to play on set of bells because the usual player's son is in hospice. :( The guy who stepped in to sightread and play that morning did better than anyone, of course! And it turned out he knew the words to the song we were playing (several of us didn't even know it had words!).

By the last runthrough, we really sounded good, but I just wanted to stop! It's a very lively song and I have to play all 6 of my bells. What's funny is that it's a lovely, relaxed piece... but my part isn't relaxed at all! I had to play 4 bells in a row several times, which is tough and I sometimes end up tossing them or clanking them together.

The good news is that when we played it in the service, it totally came together and sounded wonderful, and ended with a sigh of delight from the congregation. High praise. (Also, one of our Chancel Choir members said she was watching me and noticed how much I had to juggle bells. It's so nice to be appreciated!)

After church, we had a small snack (which was good, as I was starving; G wanted to serve me breakfast in bed, but was undecided as to what that would be until Sunday morning, so I ended up with a small bowl of cereal and milk), and then took off for Kincaid's in Jack London Square. I had contacted some of my SMC friends to see if anyone wanted to meet for breakfast, and one responded that she was interested. I had called Horatio's in the San Leandro Marina and they were a tad incredulous that I would expect, on Friday before Mother's Day, to get a reservation for lunchtime. I tried OpenTable.com next, and was incredulous myself to get the 12:30 reservation I'd wanted. But when we arrived on Sunday, yep, there it was, our reservation for 4. We even got the window table I'd requested--and the meal ended with small champagne bottles for each of us, with two recipes attached and a gauze bag of fancy chocolates! Lovely.

After that, we headed to the Lawrence Hall of Science, where we spent most of the time in the Grossology exhibit (much of which was truly gross--fact about tapeworms deleted). G had fun but started getting crabby and suddenly wanted to leave, which was all the prompting I needed. We said our good-byes and then he had second thoughts; um, no, we're not suddenly now staying. We paused in the gift shop, where he couldn't find anything he wanted for the $4 he had, and left.

By this time, I started worrying about the SMC I'd set up a meeting-time with. I had neglected A) to bring her phone number or any info, and B) to watch the time. We'd emailed about meeting up after 4, and when we got to the car, I realized that it was 4 right then! We headed back to Alameda and I checked my email. Got one that said "After 5 is good; my son just went down for a late nap" and called her before I read the next one that said, "I'm going to have a nap, too" and woke the poor woman!

It worked out well, in the end; we went back to the Festival for G to have another crack at the jump house and to go down the long inflatable slide twice, and then set out for the woman's place. She was getting rid of a bunch of clothes and shoes in my size and I was happy to pick them up. She was lovely and her son terribly cute. G was great at carrying 2 of the 5 bags to the car and we got home just in time...

....to meet my babysitter, so I could go out on a brief date! I had gotten a message from a guy on O.K.Cup.id.com, and found his profile interesting. So we met at a restaurant on the Estuary for a beer. It was really very fun--he's a hockey player (big points!!) and a parent who is not interest in having more kids. 2 or 3 years younger, very sweet and engaging. I hope we get to meet up again.

Came home to G and babysitter having played Wii practically nonstop while I was gone. G got me to play a few more games (a funny cow-riding game, pool, and a shooting-baloons game) before bed.

An absolutely packed weekend, but a very good one. (Clothes-trying-on is tonight!)