Monday, May 12, 2008

Rainy Days and Sundays

Sometimes you get the double whammy over with in one long go, and the rain comes on Sunday, which then puts you in a soft and down-low kind of mood and overall life approach.

It was like that yesterday, when it seemed like I couldn't stop getting in my own way while trying to figure out where the day was going to. For the life of me, I can't now remember what it was I DID all day long, except that late in the afternoon the power went out due to a storm a-blowin' through, and, as curious humans will do, Thing 1 and I took a little walk to see who else was similarly affected while Thing 2 took a nap in the big chair in the living room. It was a slow-moving walk to end a slow-moving day, during which time I took a look at Thing 1 and realized he'd done one of those "sudden change" deals that kids will do when you're not looking and they're busy turning into someone else.

To make matters worse, I snuck a look at Thing 2's sleeping face when we got back from the slo-mo perambulation, and noticed he'd done the same damn thing.

I must begin to really LOOK at my kids more often, for fear that one day they'll change completely and I'll have forgotten to notice what they looked like "before."

Ah yes - Mother's Day....I got chocolate, and chocolate, and more chocolate, some good smelling exotic soap, cards, and hugs. I got two boys who behaved reasonably well all day long, hardly complained about the green beans I served with dinner, and did their homework when asked.

Oh, that's right - I did go grocery shopping with Thing 2, during which time he said "what kind of foods grow in South America?" and I took pause for a moment and asked back "I don't know, why do you ask?" to which the reply was "I need to bring in some South American food for a school project," the only proper parental reply (which I nailed on the first try) was "when IS this project due?" by which time I'm sure you could see the answer coming a mile off as being "tomorrow," because you, dear reader, are smart like that.

Which is why the grocery shopping trip took twice as long to get done and over with as it normally does, because once one starts perusing the 'weird foods' portion of the produce section, one does tend to get a little wrapped up in discovering the origins of papayas and mangoes and coconuts and jalapeno peppers and bananas and plantains, only one of which does not grow in South America. Also coffee and chocolate (or cacao, from which cocoa is made, which then of course turns INTO chocolate through the admixture of the duplicate sins of FAT and SUGAR, bless us!).

Papayas are an abnormally large fruit.

Anywho, once the trip was over I went one better on the 'project' and suggested that Thing 2, in all his 5th grade wisdom, might like to look UP where all those exotic foods are grown in actual-factual South America, and so I spent a good hour with him Googling and Wikipedia-ing the cultivation regions for that aforementioned list of wonderful edibles, typing up the list, and finding a cool map of SoAm to assist in the co-location efforts of his classmates, should they choose to give a good goddam.

Hey - at least I now know where Brazil is.

Saturday was mostly eaten in half by a tae kwon do testing iteration, the result of which is that the Things are now yellow belts, which means that they need NEW SAFETY GEAR, which costs about a million dollars a kid to purchase. Sigh. This TKD stuff I'm SURE is good for them, but it does sting a little when you realize that the new Headquarters the TKD people have built is 50,000 square feet of air-conditioned comfort, complete with marble floors in the lobby, a fountain out front, and a new PAGODA made of redwood stumps out near the parking lot.

A pagoda. A farking HUUUUGE pagoda, no doubt built off the proceeds of several safety gear sales to parents of eager students, like me. At 30 bucks a pop just for shin and armguards, I'm afraid to ask how much the chest and headgear's going to run...but Papa-san needs a new pagoda, and I'm the sucker buying the lumber.

Also? I woke up at 3:30 this morning in a full-on panic about work. Nothing to do for it but fire up the 'puter and get stuff done, right? Right. Oh, and let the puppy out, then spend ten minutes trying to convince him to come back IN (fenced yards rock, except when it's time to go back indoors), only to realize that by standing IN the doorway (read: in the kitchen hallway, where it was warm) while holding the door open is perceived as a righteous threat by the wee canine, but standing aside the door (read: out on the porch, where it was raining) while holding it open is perfectly fine and a very safe thing to do as far as puppies are concerned.

He's not even 4 months old, and already he's training me. I suspect he's far smarter than he looks.

Hope y'all had a lovely lovely weekend full of good things, and are ready and rarin' to come on out into the world and conquer whatever portion of this life you have assigned to you. Hey, it's Monday, might as well come out swingin'.

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