Surprise: the Man is still away

I wasted a couple of good hours on a movie last night. When I could have been doing something more productive... like sleeping.

It was "The Last Kiss". Don't ask me why I picked it out; perhaps it's because I usually like Zach Braff. I don't watch Scrubs, but I did like his quirky movie "Garden State". Unfortunately I was drawn in by some of the cast of this movie, which included Blythe Danner, Tom Wilkinson, Casey Affleck and the luminous Jacinda Barrett (don't know what it is about this girl, I think she's just so refreshingly pretty and likeable). Not a big fan of Rachel Bilson, but she did all right in this flick.

What was this supposed to be? A coming of age story? Well, the characters are turning 30 so it's friggin' about time that these boys grow up. And I think a couple of them do. A comedy? I could not STAND Zach's character. For such a seemingly "upstanding guy", he screwed up so royally, messing around with both his pregnant girlfriend's and a young college girl's emotions all while trying to prove that he really was just a mixed up but super nice guy.

My time was so much better spent watching "Away from Her" the night before. Very sad, but the portrayal of a love story that seemed so touchingly real.

Wow, that's a lot of movies in a couple of days, I know. Amazing what a difference an extra couple of hours makes once you get the kids to bed at a decent hour. Seems that the kids take full advantage of their Dad when he's home and puts them to bed. No messing around with Mom.

So, thirteen things I have either done or SHOULD have done in the last 24 hours:

1/ Did negotiate and bring the son to his swimming lesson whereupon he did swim.

2/ Did NOT sleep the extra two hours.

3/ Did NOT do any work.

4/ Tried again but again, did NOT do any work.

5/ Did make banana bread*.

6/ Did vacuum before 9 AM this morning.* Nothing like having a friend/colleague come over for coffee to make you notice all sorts of crap on the floor that you've been ignoring all week.

* Let's make note, shall we, that these items are NOT the natural order. Remember folks, the Anti-Martha here. This will come into play a little later down the list...


7/ Did bring the girl to preschool where she had tantrum number one.

8/ Did negotiate and bring the daughter to her swimming lesson after lunch, whereupon she threw a huge tear-soaked tantrum (#2) and only put her toes in the water. What a negative difference a week makes (grrrr!!!).

9/ Did take the girlie to the library to get more DVD's and for fun puzzle time before picking up her brother from school.

10/**Did sit in my van with my 7th coffee of the day, while my daughter slept. Watched as my son laughed with his friends on the playground, got on the swings, fell off onto his back, not get up, the crowd of kids and some parents gathered around him as his best friend ran to get me.

11/After making sure the friend's mom could watch the sleeping girl in the van, did tear up the path, heart in my throat, to see my screaming boy.

12/Did bring the boy to his doctor, got an Xray. Nothing broken, muscles bruised ... keep observing the next few days in case more bruising may indicate injury to the collarbone.

13/ Did get the kids to bed early again tonight.

I'm ready for bed too, but guess what? It's an Eli Stone night, so I'll let him take me away for the hour.

** This is what happens when I mess with the natural order. Note to self: DO NOT do the Martha while the man's away.

Scrolling Saturdays

It's another snowstormy, cocooning day. And I have spent the majority of it in the kitchen, first pureeing cauliflower to put into scrambled eggs and banana bread (courtesy of Mrs. Seinfeld's controversial cookbook). Figures, the boy who eats everything loves it; the picky girl, nada. And just for the record, I am SO NOT Martha.

For today's Scrolling Saturday I thought I would go back to my archives and see what was happening around this time last year. And lo and behold, I was blogging away about hubs and his business travels ...again. Just what does he bring home to his fashion-obsessed wife from his trips?


The other day I said to Ian "Why do I feel like I'm always washing the dishes" to which he replied, "Maybe because you are." And I realized that yes, I do spend a lot of my day washing dishes. We do, of course, have a dishwasher, but I always feel the need to do a pre-wash before anything goes in, and of course, pots and pans always take up so much room and leave very little space for efficient dish stacking. And no, I cannot put that precious Zyliss Salad spinner in there either. Afraid of it melting. For some reason I hate washing that thing the most of all. Maybe it's all the nooks and crannies, and how it just never seems to dry...

There's a story to that Salad Spinner. It made its way into our household all the way from Barcelona, Spain. Yes, that's right, my husband found that lovely kitchen item during a business trip there over a year ago, bought it for the amazing deal of about 35 Euros (gasp!). Couldn't pack it so of course took it through customs, had to declare it ... his work buddies thought it was quite amusing, to say the least. I suppose I should be proud of my husband that he's so confident in his own skin (he may have been the first metrosexual in his day, but you'd never know it) that he could take all the barbs and the teasing about this kitchen gadget without a second thought. And that spinner does do wonders with our greens. Who would have thought Spain should be famous for their spinners?

Oh well, at least he got me a beautiful silk pashmina the last time he was in Italy. I guess there are some fringe benefits to his work travel, if not just to keep our kitchen well- equipped.