weapons of massdistraction

Lately it feels like my life is stuck in fast forward mode, but I think I may have found the key to balancing work and play…I must eliminate sleep altogether (like Lorne did this, the last, season of Angel…except, oh yeah, he went crazy at the Halloween party). Anywho, it was another fun-filled action-packed weekend, balanced by a brick load of work.
Friday night: Had our favorite neighbor-friends over for dinner. In preparation for this event, however, the house needed to be thoroughly cleaned. Naturally I left this off until Thursday night, as the last week was particularly brutal…and I am a born procrastinator. Being that my motivation for such things is generally flagging, when the mood strikes, it does so in manic fits and starts. So Thursday night the mood struck…but not for your general house cleaning, oh no. For some reason I was compelled to spend two+ hours cleaning and organizing the front porch. You see, being a garageless family, our front porch is like the land of the lost. Things are often sucked into a black hole of sorts when moved between the car and the house. I hope to put an end to this by keeping the porch clean(er). Recycling day can’t come fast enough. I broke down boxes that had accumulated over the past two years, and threw out multiple bags of trash. And I did manage to recover all sorts of treasure. Multiple miniature soccer and footballs for the little man, an inflatable orca, a hopscotch play rug, my favorite sweater (and a bra, what the heck was my bra doing on the porch?!), a pair of my flip-flops, the little man’s waterproof mittens (that I’d been looking for all winter) and lovely yellow rubber rain boots that may or may not still fit him. Somehow I did pull it together enough to get the rest of the house in decent shape, with the husband’s assistance, and I whipped up a double batch of my famous bbq tofu and cornbread, and acquired corn on the cob, salad, fruit and lemonade. Phew. The neighbors spoiled us, as usual, by arriving with a beautiful vegan strawberry creme cake from the Whole Foods Bakery. Thanks again neighbors! The kids were already having a good time, but the husband came up with another brilliant idea. As daylight faded he busted out multiple glowstick bracelets. I let out my inner raver by taking far too many trippy photos.

Saturday morning: The next day was to be another busy one. My Dad was involved in a dedication ceremony at the new SPPD headquarters (he was even quoted in the paper). Efforts to get the little man to say “sesquicentennial” weren’t entirely successful, but certainly were amusing.

Saturday afternoon: We raced back to the house just in time to scarf down lunch, then rendevous with the fave neighbors again. We piled the kids into the car to head to the Art-a-Whirl Festival in NE Minneapolis. Unfortunately the kids were in bickering mode. The little man had brought along his hippo hand puppet (recently recovered from the front porch) and wasn’t going to share it with anyone for anything. The neighbor girl even offered her recently acquired tooth fairy money ($4/tooth! Talk about inflation…I think I got a quarter per tooth if I was lucky)…but the little man announced “I don’t like money. I like the hippo”. Well, allrighty then. Off to a fabulous start. The mood improved once we picked up Zophia, who had to wedge herself in between two very large booster seats, which managed to amuse and placate the kids. After some initial confusion we located the Anderson Building at just the right time and got ourselves front row seats at the Xelias Theater. We were treated to an amusing juggling performance (replete with balls, balancing, clubs, rings, fire, a unicycle, etc.) followed by the most amazing aerial arts performance. Afterwards we strolled through the Northrup King Building for a bit, where we bumped into my pal Cathy Camper. But the kids (and us moms) were obviously getting burned out so we headed home before long.

Sunday: The party’s over and it was back to business. The entire day (and night) was devoted to a labor of love…a project I’m working on for a non-profit that’s near and dear to my heart. The redesign needed to be rushed because of time sensitive materials…so we went live with the revamped site last night, even though it isn’t finished yet…and I know of at least one item that is broken…and I haven’t gotten to test it on a Mac yet. If any of you care to do so, you can click through it here, and lemme know if you find anything wonky.

Some silliness this morning, because I didn’t get enough sleep (stayed up too late watching Starsky & Hutch with the husband…when I’d intended to stay up late doing something more productive). So here’s the deal. Use bands (ones you love, hate or are indifferent to) to spell out your name. It’s simple and fun.

You’d think we’d learn, but you’d be wrong. Two weekends in a row we’ve had incidents with over-priced and short-lived balloons…each at parades. At May Day it was Zophia who purchased said item for the little man. He was so over-excited he couldn’t stop beating people with it. That is, until it popped on a friend’s belt buckle about fifteen minutes after he got his grubby mitts on it. Yesterday one of our favorite neighbors bought him another balloon, at the Cinco de Mayo parade. I thought “hmmm, foil…should be more durable” but the little man’s strength is not to be underestimated. Instead of popping the balloon he yanked its chain, so to speak…so roughly and quickly that he busted it loose from its mooring (tied to the radio flyer wagon). There was a collective “awwwww” from the crowd as his Finding Nemo balloon floated up up and away. The rest of the weekend was busy but pleasant. Too much unexpected sunshine has fried my brain (and other more exterior areas) so I’ll let my eclectic collection of photos do the talking. That is, except for this tidbit…one look at my unpedicured hobbit feet and you’ll know I have no future as a foot model. If that didn’t scare you away, I don’t know what will. Forge ahead, if you dare, by clicking here, or on the bouncing girl below to launch the gallery.

Yesterday’s weather was erratic, as it often is here. When it was time to leave for work it was raining, so I took the bus there. When it was time to leave work it was gorgeous out, all sunshine and in the seventies. But, having donned inappropriate footwear for a walk home, I found myself waiting at the bus stop…when a man approached me. He looked familiar, but only in the sense that I’d seen him at the bus stop before, always wearing his headphones. So I was surprised when he crossed that invisibile line we commuters have…you know, the one where we ignore each other entirely, pretending we’re in our own isolated little pods, jettisoned from the mothership at regular intervals. But I digress. He approached me and uttered an unexpected phrase. It wasn’t a question like “do you have the time?” or “can you spare a quarter?” Nope. It was a statement. He simply said “I found your blog”. This could have been cause for alarm. But the line wasn’t delivered in a creepy way. Just then the bus arrived and we boarded, while continuing to talk. At some point he told me his name and something clicked. This town is just too small, in general, and our side of it in particular. He’d found my blog, which mentions my name…but never mentions the husband’s, so he had no way of knowing who I am married to. But I realized, from stories the husband has told me, who this guy was. An old friend of his who had been in local band February. Now how’s that for a coinkidink?

Some things never change. The little man’s paternal grandmother decided to take him Friday night, giving the husband and I the night off. So what did we do with our impromptu date night? Dinner and a movie (though my first choice would have been this movie). Saturday morning the house was eerily quiet in my boy’s absence. You’d think it would have helped me to focus on my freelance project, but you would be wrong. I am the queen of procrastinators and easily distracted. The silence distracted me. I had to don headphones, cycling through half a dozen CDs (the Monsoon Wedding soundtrack, Judge, Bikini Kill, Elliott Smith, et al.) before diving in. And then I had to fight upstream against my lazier urges. I’d like to say I’m riding the wave of the future…and that table-based layouts are dead to me, but I can’t…not entirely. Table tags are like my first language. Using CSS is sometimes like speaking French (eight years of French classes = toddler level French). I can speak in both (so to speak) but it requires more effort. But I’m getting the hang of it. The site I’m redesigning will be entirely table-less (though not in French).

Today found me reunited with the little man, and quite busy. I planned it that way, to keep myself distracted from the day’s significance (it would have been the baby’s due date) and it mostly worked. Zophia invited us to brunch at the home of one of her co-workers, who I’d never met. But if it’s a friend of hers, hey, they couldn’t be all bad, right? In fact, they were awesome. The co-worker friend was great (he even whipped us up a special batch of vegan pancakes). And Zophia didn’t tell me there would be geeks there. Three cool librarians and some techies. It was awesome. Talking with adults. And adults with common interests, no less. After thoroughly gorging ourselves we headed to the May Day Festival. Unfortunately the day was a bit chilly, the little man and I a bit logey, and the parade was slow as molasses. Not that we munchkins could see much of it. I mostly stayed for the conversation. Met more new folks…including yet another librarian, who is also a big comic book geek. Most excellent. And now it’s time for some more distraction before bed…in the form of book nine of the Vlad Taltos series.