Congratulations to Zophia and her groom! The little man and I had a grand old time celebrating their big day…by jumping in and out of a beautiful lake repeatedly. I’m so glad I brought our swimming stuff along. And Maria was a most excellent co-pilot on the drive there and back.

There are so many old friends in town right now, and general happenings happening, despite the heat. We’re having dinner with Shannon tonight, before she heads back to Belize, and Maria will be joining us. Wednesday night we’ll see Pom Poko. Thursday is Game Night/going to the Harry Potter movie. Something is happening on Friday but I can’t recall what. Saturday we have another wedding reception to attend, followed by the free Low show. And Sunday it’s YardFest II.

Five good things:

• Spending time with friends, old and new
• Rainier cherries
• My new bed
• The little man’s continued creativity. He’s made an Open and a Closed sign, as we now have a “store” downstairs. I’m not sure what we’re selling, but I am definitely not open for business at the moment. I’m still in my pajamas.
• The little window a/c unit in my room

Bonus: The octosquid discovered in Hawaii is my tattoo come to life. Seriously.
Plus: I’ve been on a Justice kick. I particularly like the videos for We Are Your Friends and D.A.N.C.E.
And: The longer I live here the smaller this scene seems. Sometimes it’s a good thing. Other times? It can be hella awkward. Just sayin’

I’m currently in my new bedroom, which was my old bedroom (the walls are a different color since the last time this was my bedroom), with the window a/c unit cranked while I lay about on most of my new bed (the headboard is large and heavy and still downstairs). The room that was more recently my bedroom will become my office. Again. When I have the energy to move the desk and computer back into it. And all of this furniture and junk is just going to have to be moved, yet again, when the hardwood floors are refinished. Life just seems like a bunch of busy work sometimes.

So yesterday I went to a birthday party. Yes, for someone who was born on the Fourth of July. Before that I’d attended a family function and after that I walked out on The Transformers movie. It was so very dreadful. Ebert must’ve been high on pain meds when he reviewed it. It was definitely an eventful 4th of July for me, but not necessarily one of my best.

Tomorrow will also be eventful, but hopefully better. The little man’s childcare program is still closed. Thankfully a friend is available to watch him so I can go to work. And after work we’ll get to hang out with other friends, Monica and Wuy, who are visiting from San Francisco. I mentioned this to the lad. He started talking about another time they came to visit a couple of years ago. And about how Monica is vegan but Wuy isn’t, and how, when we went out to breakfast with them, Wuy had eggs, but he didn’t eat the garbage. Took me a minute to puzzle it out but the garbage he was talking about = egg shells. Funny coming from a lifelong vegan. Talking about non-vegan foodstuffs, it’s like a foreign language for him.

Sometimes when I go look at my contacts page on flickr there’s a strange synchronicity, an unspoken theme that all the photogs seem to be grooving on. It could be cupcakes or kitty cats, concert shots or…breasts. Yeah, often there are a lot of boobs involved. But not always in the way you might think. One day there was a nude (taken during a class on lighting) next to a shot of a mom nursing her newborn right alongside another contact who was showing off a new shirt next to a woman showing off a new tattoo next to another shot taken of some GLBT folks at Pride. It’s all random, but not. Kind of like this post.

Bonus: Patrick Stewart on Extras. So so funny.
Plus: I can’t win. It’s all killing me softly: “Researchers in the United Kingdom have found that increased exposure to cat allergen is associated with greater bronchial responsiveness (BR) in people with certain common allergies, even if they are not specifically allergic to cats. This suggests that reduced exposure to cats may be beneficial for allergic individuals, regardless of their specific allergies.”
And: Also? The Dark Side of Soy. Sigh.

Thanks to a potent combination of hormones and a summer cold, I am a weepy sniffling feverish mess. Have had to cancel all of our weekend plans - the getting-things-done plans as well as the fun ones - and force myself to stay in bed instead. Even confining myself to bed, the damned room won’t stop spinning. The little man seems to be on the mend (from an ongoing viral infection) but his barking cough lingers. Before we were so stricken I had been all set to post something more upbeat, about how the good of late has been pure awesomeness, while the bad has just been moderately annoying but not mission critical.

Good things:

• After a stretch of oppressive heat the weather broke. The day that it was especially dry and cool I was so very happy. If only it could be like that year-round. Oh, it is. In Berkeley.
• Our childcare program re-assessed the little man’s needs and is moving him from the 1:4 ratio to 1:10. Which means the rates will drop from the new $80/day high to a more reasonable $48/day. Phew.
• Free flowing traffic. I worked from home one morning last week to avoid construction-related rush hour woes, and then we stayed overnight at J’s one night, again to decrease our commute time.
• Calvin Johnson and Julie Doiron. So glad I was able to see them Thursday night.
• Assorted music I received for my birthday. Who woulda thunk that I’d enjoy a little Jay-z?
• I have the best ex ever. And not just because he came over here yesterday, to take care of the lad and I. But it was pretty awesome that he brought food and The Bourne Identity. And washed my dirty dishes. And took the kid down to the playground, gave him a bath, read him his bedtime story and put him to bed. All while I was flat on my back in my bed.
• Posted some more photos taken by the little man, including the unflattering shots of me.

Not-so-stellar:

• Being sick sucks. Being sick while your kid is also sick sucks even more.
• The little man’s childcare program is closed all this coming week. So far I don’t have a Plan B.
• We haven’t purchased Veggie Booty in a while, but we do eat a lot of Tings, made by the same company.
• Olive has some neurotic cat litter box issues. For some reason she shreds the plastic liner and pulls on it so that it covers the litter box completely. When this happened the other day she opted to use my favorite comfy chair as an alternate litter box. Grrrr.
• Another cat, Oliver (who originally came from my backyard but was adopted by friends) had to stay at the vet overnight, for a biopsy. The results won’t come back for another week or so. My fingers are crossed that he’ll be all right.
• The last week was chock full of miscommunications and frustrations.
• I’m way behind on laundry and too lethargic to do anything about it.
• We missed the birthday party of one of the little man’s classmates and my co-worker friend’s housewarming party. That equals total suck.
• We haven’t been to the gym in weeks.

Going to try to salvage this weekend, just a little bit, by taking the lad to see Ratatouille. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to handle sitting on my ass in an air-conditioned theater. But it’s been a while since I’ve been upright for that long.