Sunday, May 6, 2007

Day 74 - 05/05/2007

So even though it's Saturday, I still had to set the alarm and rouse the kids from their beds. M had practice at 830a, after which she was going to her friend's house for the morning. She got dressed and had breakfast without fussing (shocker!) and at 8a I awoke N from his slumber. He wasn't happy to get up, but he finally came around. After dropping M off at practice, he and I rode our bikes over to Bare Island Drive to see what the noise was that was coming from that direction. As it turns out, there was a tree crew taking down some trees from a homeowner's yard and turning them into mulch via the chipper. N was very interested in seeing them take the tree down and I was pretty impressed as well. The took three 30' trees down (and turned them into mulch) in less than 10 minutes. Wow.

After growing tired of watching the tree folk do their thing (and our ears being assaulted by the the noise), we rode down to the house that caught on fire a few weeks back (I had originally thought the sound was coming from this house and it was the sound of them tearing it down). It's currently covered in a number of blue tarps in order to keep the elements out, although from the looks of it, you've got to wonder whether they'll end up tearing the frame down and just keeping the brick front in place.

We then rode home and got ready for N's pictures.

It was because of M's practice and N's pictures and game that we had to postpone our yard sale. We've got quite a bit of stuff in the basement we've been meaning to get rid of as we either a) not longer use it; b) no longer need it; or c) both (a) and (b). Oh well, maybe in a few weeks. It probably worked out for the best anyway as with D out of town, it would've been a bit much to try and cram into one morning.

After pictures and N's game (which was another exercise in chaos and frustration at kids who don't want to be there), we went to pick M up from Riley's house. On our way over, she called and said she was at Riley's brother's game at the school, so we altered our course and went up to the school. The weather had turned unseasonably cold over the course of the morning and, with me only wearing a t-shirt and shorts, I was quite uncomfortable (especially once the rain started). N was wearing his uniform and M was wearing a sweatshirt (fortunately she asked for a sweatshirt on the way to practice), so both of them were somewhat oblivious to the weather. Not so much, though, when I made them walk home from school -- I wasn't about to let the two of them get in the van w/ them being as muddy and as dirty as they were!

Once we got home, I took a long, hot shower to warm up and got dressed in clothes that I'd normally wear in March (jeans, long sleeve shirt and wool socks). I was seriously contemplating turning on the fireplace, but my sanity prevailed and I didn't; I decided to suffer instead, while I sat on the couch watching the playoffs in HD. Since the kids were also dirty, I made them take a bath in the middle of the afternoon, which they balked at until I said they could take on in my tub. They relented and while I watched the game, they washed themselves up. Yay, now that that's out of the way, we could relax the rest of th afternoon.

Not too much, though, as D was due home and I had to get dinner ready. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want to come home to either pot-pie or take out. So we headed out the door to Whole Foods to peruse what they had to offer (I was also looking for a reason to shop there as I'd never been to it since it opened). On the way, though, we stopped by Target and Toys'R'Us for a kickstand for N. (Ever since we took his training wheels off his old bike, he's been wanting one.) Since we were in no rush to get back, we took our time looking at bikes, as well as Lego.

We finally made it to Whole Foods and I decided to forego cooking dinner and instead seek out pre-prepared meals. Well, that thought was quickly put to rest when I saw the sesame seed encrusted tuna with wasabi. Yum. I love that stuff and had been craving it for the past few weeks (not sure why, though, but I have). I picked up some baby carrots, some lettuce mix and some sides from the hot food bar before checking out and heading home. (It really wasn't that quick, though, as the kids were with me and we sort of made a side detour upstairs to the bathrooms.)

Returning to the car, I discovered that D had called, wondering where we were. (I didn't leave a note and had forgotten my cell in the car.) I called her, but got her voice mail, so left a message and then headed home, where I unloaded the groceries and started dinner while we waited for her return from her trip to the store.

I got dinner going and then planted myself in front of the TV to check out the Kentucky Derby. I decided not to attempt any mint juleps this year as it just didn't seem right what with the cold weather and all. While we were waiting for the race to start, D came home and joined us.

After dinner (which wasn't all that great due to my lacking skills in the tuna searing department), we all headed upstairs and got ready for bed. Once the kids were in bed, D and I watched Heroes and then called it a night to get ready for the long day ahead of us in Richmond on Sunday.

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