Weekend Report

This has been one of the fullest weekends I've had in a long time, and I thought I'd share.

Friday night found me at home playing with BooBoo.  Irish Woman and Girlie Bear had gone out for the evening to attend a program at her school.  It was fun to play with Boo and watch a new-to-him Disney movie, A Bugs Life.

Saturday morning we got up and out the door early so that Girlie Bear could attend a fitness class at the Y while Irish Woman and I worked out.  BooBoo went to the Y's play area for the first time, and seemed to enjoy himself.  I repeated my workout of the other night by doing an upper body weight circuit and walking on the treadmill for 40 minutes.  Irish Woman did a quick warm up and did a much longer walk.   Girlie Bear enjoyed her class, and we all agreed that that was a great way to start the weekend.

After getting home, having a late breakfast, and cleaning up, BooBoo went down for a nap, Girlie Bear stayed home to monitor him and read a book, Irish Woman went over to a friend's house to help her prepare for a party, and I ran over to pick up Little Bear from his mom's house.  I was pleasantly surprised when he said he wanted to stay the night instead of just visit until the late evening.  It's been a very long time since he stayed over, so I was overjoyed to think that we would get even more time than normal with him.

Upon getting home, it was time to do a bit of housework and laundry.  Just the normal stuff that doesn't get taken care of during the week.  I must say, though, that the third time in an hour that I pick the same toy up in the living room and transport it to the toy box in Boo's room I start to consider whether or not the toys are actually alive.

We got ourselves cleaned up and headed over to the pool house at our friend's development for their party.  Imagine my surprise when I ran into my shooting buddy in the parking lot of the pool house.  I assumed that he knew our friends from some other association, and we walked in.  I was then shocked to see 30 to 40 of our closest friends and family there, all of them yelling "Surprise!".  Irish Woman, being the devious woman that she is, had put my birthday party off from January to March so that I would suspect nothing, and her plan worked perfectly.  A good time was had by all, and I received many good wishes on my birthday, even if it was in January.  It was touching to see all of the people who turned out to celebrate with us.  A good feed was also had by all, and if anyone left that party hungry, it was their own fault.  Irish Woman, as usual, made enough to feed an army.  Even after sending a huge amount of food home with family and friends, I'll be eating leftovers for days.

Side note - several incriminating pictures of me were taken wearing a viking helmet at this shindig, and re-publication of them will be considered an invitation for mayhem.  Also, I have several years to plan Irish Woman's 50th birthday party, and it's going to be a doozy.  Think hairy Lebanese belly dancers.  More on that later.

This morning, I got up and made a breakfast casserole using for the most part leftovers from the party (recipe to follow in another post).  We got ourselves together, and took the kids to the park so that BooBoo could work off some energy and the older kids could get some sun and fresh air.  Boo got his mother's heart rate up by repeatedly attempting to go down the fire-pole type conveyance on the play set, but once I taught him to wrap both his hands and legs around it and kept one hand on him at all times, her blood pressure returned to normal.  We then went down to the lake/pond in the park to feed the ducks.  The geese, for the most part, were disinterested, but the ducks were more than happy to eat their share too.  Either the ducks at our park are overfed, or they're getting ready to lay a few clutches of eggs.  I haven't seen ducks that wide in quite some time.

After returning from the park, it was time to take Little Bear home.  He and I talked on the way, and we decided that the next time he came over we would take his sister to go see Rango.

Upon my return, BooBoo was down for his nap and Girlie Bear was nose deep in a book.  Irish Woman went out to start digging holes for our new fruit trees.  We're putting in an additional two cherries, two peaches, and an apple.  We love our fresh fruit around here, and nothing tastes better than fruit that hasn't had time to realize it's not attached to the plant or tree again. In no time, Gopher Girl had used her mystic powers of earth moving to dig the holes for the two peach trees and the apple tree next to our driveway and the little trees seem to like their new homes.

While Gopher Girl, aka Irish Woman, did her digging, I got out a new air intake control valve that I bought a few weeks ago for the truck and installed it.  For once, Chrysler engineering didn't make it as difficult as possible to remove and replace a component, and the work took less than 30 minutes.  No longer will I have to simultaneously hold down the brake, clutch, and gas when I come to a stop in the truck.  The old valve was stuck in the closed position and covered in carbon build up, which kept the engine from getting the correct amount of air.

The rest of the day and evening was spent doing the stuff we always do to get ready for the week.  Irish Woman is coming off of her latest primary support rotation at work, and I roll onto mine tomorrow.  At the moment, everyone but me is either in bed or preparing for bed.  The dogs are snoring in their crates, the cats are snoring on the couch, Boo should be asleep, but by the sounds coming from his room he doesn't appear to be, and Girlie Bear is either reading or sleeping.

I hope everyone had as good a weekend as I did, and many thanks to everyone who came out to remind me that I do indeed have friends in Louisville!