Zoey said, “I want to get dressed” and ran off into the bedroom. A minute later she came out with a new diaper, a skirt and a matching shirt! I started laughing and said to Mike, “Honey, she picks out clothes better than you do!” He was not amused. But for everybody out there with a baby daddy that has ever dressed the kid, you know what I’m saying!
Monthly Archive for June, 2009
Nick has been in Zoo Preschool every morning this week. Hypothetically this morning I may or may not have blatently run a stop light right in front of a police station. If I did, hypothetically, I succeeded in getting him there on time. Zoo Preschool waits for no one.
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Last night around midnight I shook Mike awake, urgently saying, “Honey! Honey! There are 27 couches.” I don’t know what I was dreaming about but it sure does sound comfortable.
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Yesterday I drove 65 miles in the car running errands all over this city. This reminds me how very little I usually drive, and how much I like it that way.
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Mike won tickets to “The Grand Tasting” this Saturday in Columbia, Missouri. This was terribly exciting for us until we realized that our children need people to care for them… you know, make sure they don’t play with knives or eat cat litter. Alas this weekend those people will be us. Who wants to fly to Kansas City for a few days while we go galavanting about drinking wine? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I have a “No Soliciting” sign on my door. I don’t like it but it became necessary because of the copious numbers of sleezebags trying to sell magazines that cruise our neighborhood. There were only so many times I was willing to be insulted, sexually harassed and bullied by these scumbags before the sign went up.
A couple days ago a man came to the door looking for work. He had a story about unemployment, kids and hard times. I’ve seen him around mowing yards and he seemed genuine so I told him to come back and we would discuss if we could give him some work. He came back the next day and we hired him to do some painting up on the roof that we are quite frankly too chickenshit to do ourselves. Mike can get up there if there is something like a leaky roof that is an immediate situation, but we both really like to be on solid ground.
After we made the deal he asked for some money to feed his kids that night. I gave him $20. I really like to believe that most people are good and honest, at least the ones I feel I can trust enough to open my front door for. I hoped he would feed his kids, or at the very least feed his addiction and still come back to do the work.
He was supposed to get started Saturday morning at 9am. We waited. 10am and still no show, I was beginning to doubt my trustworthy nature. Then something very surprising happened. At 10:40am he showed up and brought a friend to split the work with. The guys got to work scraping and priming. After that was done they asked for some lunch money, which Mike gave to them. They came back and did the painting. And guess what? They did a good job and were very respectful and thankful for the work.
At one point Mike overheard the one guy we originally hired talking to his friend, telling him that there is always work to be had. You just have to get out there and find it. I really appreciate someone who is willing to do the work, willing to put in the effort needed to find the work and leave the job so that all parties are satisfied.
Today they painted part of our house, but they also restored my faith in humanity. It doesn’t take much but sometimes we all need to be reminded of the good in people. It is so easy to assume people are going to stiff you, which sadly I think many of them would. It’s too bad that those are the cases that stand out — the people that will cheat you, murder you, that kind of thing. I’m just glad that none of those things happened todday!
I’ve been putting off writing about the Fabulous Child-Free Weekend we had a couple weeks ago because, honestly, is there anything sadder than reading about someone else’s fantastic vacation from the comfort of your very own couch? Is it just me? Well I’m going to write about it anyway because I’ve been asked to but feel free to skip this post if you’re bitterly in need of a vacation like I am most of the time.
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I’ll start with Friday evening, the official start of our Fabulous Child-Free Weekend (thanks mom, Bob and Karsen!)
First off we checked into our hotel, the Intercontinental on the Plaza. From the sixth floor we had a lovely view of a parking lot, unless I angled the camera like this:
The room was very nice and comfortable, very modern. And I was so impressed to find our little friend, the elusive African Towel Elephant.
Next it was Happy Hour at the Melting Pot! Super yum. Especially the chocolate fondue. Afterwords you should really fast for a week but it’s worth it.
Later we saw They Might Be Giants at the Beaumont because I WON tickets from KTBG! Can I just plug them for a moment because they totally rock. Seriously awesome music and they do great concert tickets as well. You! Turn your radio to 90.9 right now! Okay, now drive to Kansas City so you can listen to this station, you won’t regret it. And bring me a sandwich while you’re at it.
One dude on accordion, the other on bass drum. So cool.
So here’s something weird. The VIP area where we were is called the Capitol Federal Top Spot. Capitol Federal is my BANK. MY BANK sponsors part of a bar. Does anyone else think that’s weird?
Saturday morning we slept in then lazed around reading our complimentary copy of the KC star and drinking coffee maker coffee until we couldn’t take it any more. We showered and headed out to breakfast at the Classic Cup where I finished the crossword AND the sudoku puzzle because I am a dork, a dork with some time on her hands. Afterwords we had a bona fide Celebrity Sighting!
Hey, it’s Gary Lezak and Breezy! Yes I went all paparazzi and snapped pictures of him out of the car window. What, it’s not like I see him EVERY DAY or anything.
After Mike died of embarassment I slid over to the driver’s seat and took us to the movies. Star Trek to be exact, which we found to be awesome.
Later we stopped into Latte Land, Land of All That is Right and Good in the World, for some spro. Out the window there were some ridiculous shenannigans going on. Mike, having just been revived, died again of embarassment as I openly pointed and laughed at Syssiphus across the street.
See him there, on the left? You know, the one pulling the huge tire on the chain?
I was like, dudes, I can give you some REAL work to do over at my house. Something a little more productive than swinging a ball on a rope at the side of a brick wall. How about instead of flipping over some huge tire over and over again you can come and paint my damn house?
Anyhoo, later we swam in the hotel’s lovely pool, ate dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill which was pretty tasty, then took advantage of the hotel’s limited cable. Cesar Millan, you rock my world.
Sunday morning we slept in, showered, and picked up our kiddos. It was good to see them, I actually missed the little pains-in-the-patoot. Now who’s keeping them next weekend?
WOW have I been busy lately! Mike’s dad came into town on Friday so I spent a good chunk of time preparing the house. Mostly by completely trashing it and filling our dining room with massive amounts of crap for the garage sale we had on Saturday. It was a neighborhood thang so we thought we’d join the fun. Yes… fun.
The sale was actually pretty slow but we made a few bucks. Good thing too because it paid for our air conditioning to be fixed on Sunday. Old houses, gotta love ‘em. Right? Just say yes and we’ll move on.
I have to say though that I am kind of in love with our HVAC guy. Not romantically, I just want to have him around because he is so handy and I’ve never seen anyone quite like him. Seriously such a hard worker and SO polite. Like so polite that he saw we were having a sale so he parked his van a few houses down so as to not be in the way. Craziness. If you ever need some work done this is your guy.
Okay I’m done with the shameless fawning over Scott Bartmess now. I have every intention of keeping my word and telling y’all about our magical weekend… just not today. So… tired… snore.
(New pictures up at Karrmedia. Go!)
