Saturday nights just aren't the same...

It's just me and the kids this weekend, while Dean is finishing up his Woodbadge thing for scouts.  We had a lazy day today, since there were no karate classes this morning.  Jordan's friend, Abbi, came over for several hours to hang out with us.  (I realize that if I say 'play', as in 'Abbi came over to play', that just sounds weird, now that the kids are getting older...). We watched 'Megamind', then we went out to Pizza Hut for lunch.  Colin stuffed his pizza AND his toy car into his (half-full) water glass and threw everything ELSE he could get his hands on, within a ten foot radius of the table.  I am certain I looked as outnumbered as I felt, since I so clearly had it under control...  When we finally got home we rode bikes around the neighborhood, and Rylan and Owen screamed at each other the whole time because they are both just so damned competitive - neither one is willing to be last at anything.  Abbi went on her way shortly after that and then it was nap time for me and the little kids.

Unfortunately, Owen evidently drank waaaaaay too much root beer at lunch, because he wandered downstairs after an hour or so, looking panicked and stressed as he hobbled around the corner, clutching himself.  He didn't make it.  To make matters worse, there was also diarrhea involved.  *Super*  Never mind that there is a bathroom two feet away from his bedroom.  He just HAD to come all the way downstairs to go.  Probably because he knew what was about to happen.  I just wish I had known...

So our evening was off to a fantastic start.  After starting the third load of laundry for the day, it dawned on me that I had yet to pick up Owen's prescription.  Owen does a nightly nebulizer treatment of Pulmicort (for asthma maintenance), and we had to miss it yesterday because I forgot it then, too.

Don't judge!

In my defense, the little bugger hasn't missed a nightly dose since he started on it in April.  Secondly, Walgreens sucks.  They are supposed to be open 24 hours.  I keep forgetting that the one we use went a  lame-ass route several months ago, and started having 'hours of operation' in the pharmacy - of which I never remember what they are, and the forgotten pharmacy trip always dawns on me AFTER closing time.


(In a totally unrelated thought - have you ever considered how many different number combinations for commonly used things you have floating around in your brain?   It's no wonder I have no idea where my mother lives, or that it took me two full years to memorize my husband's cell phone number.  But I can tell you that my favorite track on MyloXyloto is '5'.)

So back to my fascinating story about soggy pizza, diarrhea and closed pharmacies....

I could not very well skip two nights in a row of treatment, so we headed off to the only Walgreens left in town that has its pharmacy open 24/7.  It was 7:00 p.m., and I had to wait 20 minutes for them to fill the prescription.  The kids were watching a movie in the van, so I killed time wandering up and down the aisles.  This particular pharmacy used to be familiar ground to me - it is located next to the neighborhood I grew up in.  I can remember purchasing my first makeup there, candy and soda and whatnot.  It's amazing all of the different kinds of stuff you can find at a Walgreens.

And then I had an imaginary conversation between my 21 year-old self and my 41 year-old self.   

"You are so lame!  It's Saturday night....and you are at a drugstore?  Comparing prices?"

"Shut up."

"At least buy something...  How about nail polish?  You used to be cool and buy stuff like that..."

"Be quiet.  Jordan has these wart-thingies on some of his fingers- let's look for a remedy for that.  Oh look!  Bandaids!  Have you ever seen such a wide variety to choose from?"





"Who the hell are you, and how did I turn into such a...a..."

Mobile me....

The stars were aligned for this recent birthday, in the gifts department:

* a most generous husband
* the good fortune of a well-timed bonus at work
* it satisfied both the wish for caffeine AND techno-gadgetry!

I became the proud owner of an iPad, and co-owner of an espresso machine! I have to share the espresso machine with my husband because our birthdays are 20 days apart, so it really was a gift "to us".   (Although he picked it out and ordered it as a surprise,  using our combined birthday $$$ from his folks - thanks Pat and Van!)  I've been practicing using it over the past week (after getting over my fear of using the loudly-hissing steam thingy), and I think I'm getting the hang of it.  If anything, I'm just padding my ever-growing resume...



'BARISTA'

(yeah, I totally did not make that...but it's pretty tho', isn't it?)

Dean arrived home with my new iPad on Wednesday night, so I've spent a couple days getting acquainted with it.  I haven't synced it with iTunes yet - I'll tackle that item today.  You see... I have no idea how to do that.  (shhhhhh!)  Every time I've attempted to use iTunes, I've failed.  It is NOT intuitive, dammit!  It's the whole computer data overwriting the iPod/iPhone data thing.  My contacts are an absolute mess.  I don't even know where my mother lives.  I can drive there, I just can't *tell you* her street address.  Pathetic, I know.

It wasn't until this very moment that I realized how much I've missed my laptop.  No, that wasn't a slam on the iPad - I certainly don't miss the hefty weight or the hot underside of a laptop... I've missed the freedom of portability!  It is a rare moment for me, when sitting in front of the computer, for the true and genuine thoughts to come tumbling out.  It's typically noisy, and a messy desk isn't exactly inspiring.  The best stuff.. the raw, uncensored stuff, usually crosses my mind when we are on the go.  A good turn of a phrase, a candid observation... So many of these gems have been lost to me because I had no way to write or remember, other than an occasional snippet entered into the Notes app on the iPhone.  Pen and paper you say?  pppfft.