Of course, I'm having to sit here and eat it at my desk, and continue typing so that it looks like I'm working on my newest fun project--the ongoing PowerPoint presentation that now has fully one hundred slides! To make matters less comfortable, the guy who's feeding me the text to put in hasn't really gotten the idea about bullet points, and so each point is more like a dissertation. Thank heaven for cut-n-paste.
ANYWAY, the weekend--the rest of Saturday was uneventful, although I did take several opportunities to walk around in the decluttered areas of the house and look at the stuff I hadn't seen in so long. It was very exciting, almost like finding the Northwest Passage or something. Saturday night was spent...typing. Something for Rebecca, who now knows all of her keyboard keys except for the T and the O. Started on my meeting minutes. Decided I'd had enough and went to bed.
Sunday was unremarkable as well, so I won't, other than to say I spent the evening...typing. Something for Reba for her class last night--it's almost over with, because her last day of class is October 3. That's very good. Almost as good as when all the kids simultaneously stopped playing soccer.
UP EARLY yesterday, got the kids ready and took them to school, and then took Oldest for her fitting of wildly expensive bits of wire and rubber bands. About twice what Boy's cost. No, I have no idea why. Just is. Took her on to school and checked her in, then it was across town to go deposit a check. Oddest thing--we actually got a refund check from our doctor. Overpaid for the kids' flu shots. LAST YEAR. But at least we did get some cash back from that--and I hope they (the doctors, not the kids) enjoyed the interest-free use of our money in the mean time.
And then? TO THE JUNKYARD! One of the reasons I took a whole day of vacation was to be able to have some uninterrupted time just to myself when I could go and wander around in the hot sun and explore stinky old Volvos. I had made out a list a few weeks ago of stuff I thought I might see if I could find, but since I'd left that list at work, I just plundered around. Found a license plate bracket for the front of the car--I don't know what I'll put on there, but it might give me an excuse for purchasing one of my own silly Revolvoblog license plate frames from CafePress. Or not. Also decided in an odd moment of stupidity to purchase some tiny bits of shiny things--the little triangular shaped pieces that Volvos have to cover up the roof seam on the rear pillar. The new(er) ones are painted body color and are plain, but the older ones are sparkly, and have a nifty little black detail in the center. As near as I can tell, the cashier threw them in for free.
Anyway, that took up nearly two hours worth of looking and plundering, then I went home and put my prizes onto the car, then went upstairs and typed a bit (on my minutes) and in no time at all, it was time to go get the kids. The in-laws are on a trip, so someone has to be at the house to gather up the kids--another ostensible reason why I had to take time off yesterday.
Got there and watered the plants and got the mail and brought in the trash can, greeted Cat as she came in, then the other three when their bus came by, and then it was to home with all of them, where they were shackled to the table and forced to do their homework while I started supper.
Fajitas!
Kinda. I cut up some steak in thin bits and skilleted it, but it wasn't the same as what they give you at the various white-hot-iron places. It was still really good, though.
Funniest thing?
I was deep in concentration trying to get things done, and I had gotten the cheese grater out to, well, to grate some cheese. Catherine came up to me to ask a question about her homework, paused and watched me for a moment and then said, "HEY, Daddy! You know, you could be one of those people who grate cheese!"
Best I can tell, she was thinking of someone like Mr. Kraft or Mr. Sargento or Mr. Land o' Lakes who not only grate it up, but also package it in handy plastic bags and sell it at the grocery store. No matter, though, because it struck me as highly comical and I had to stop what I was doing and laugh for a bit. To her immense credit, she recognized why what she had said was funny, and DIDN'T CONTINUALLY KEEP REPEATING IT! It's one of those comedy pointers that I try to stress to the children--something's usually lost its comedic effect after about the third or fourth time. Unless it's something like Congress.
ANYwho, it's been a long weekend, and now lunchtime is over.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 20, 2005 01:11 PM