With days off like this, I should go to work and rest

Seriously. I had a 10 am conference call which went very well and confirmed a sponsor's willingness to provide scholarships for our conference (play the invincible song, please). I wanted to take the girls out for breakfast so prior to taking the call, I had to corral them all and get the morning chores taken care of, find matching pairs of shoes for all three, brush the hair of millions and make sure my own personal hygiene was in order.

Then it was off to breakfast out which sounded like a better idea than it was. Its just not a lot of fun to be cutting up pancakes for three kids on a crowded table and it tends to let your omelet grow cold. Next stop Office Depot for school supplies. The store was so disorganized it took almost an hour working from the list I had. And apparently OD feels like A/C is optional so I was sweaty and my foot was really sore. Total Damage: $72 and I didn't really buy anything that wasn't on the required supplies list. In fact, some things, like paper towel and tissues I'm leaving for the next Sam's Club run.

At noon, we were finished there and heading to the grocery. I quit shopping when the cart was full and my foot could take no more. Thank gosh the girls were all three very well behaved. Total Damage for incomplete trip: $228

It was then a mad dash home to unload the foodstuffs, put away the perishables before running out the door to get Noodle to the vet. That trip was 1.5 hours long and cost $256.

I feel tired and poor. If I'd gone to work instead I'm sure I'd be less tired and have more money. This isn't going the way I hoped.

Big Weekend
My Mom and Dad are winding down there trip across America. This weekend they're in Indy and Martinsville, IN visiting people we all love. I'm envious. Also joining them are Beth's kids which makes me want to cry since I haven't seen the boys since Christmas and spent only a few hours with the girls in May.

But for me and my adorable little family, I have most of the chores finished and we can just cruise together. It feels very nice for us all to be together for a weekend without a big agenda. I need to put Mary's computer in the mail, start the rotation of pc's here at home so that our lowest-end machine comes out of the loop. I don't know what to do with it. I'd like to optimize it and give it to someone who would like to have one. Any takers? I don't think it has an ethernet card at this time but there's a slot for one. Its a Dell, about five years old and we've always bought fairly high end home machines. I guess I'll nail down the specs in case anyone is interested.

Anniversary approaches
I booked a lovely room at the Ritz-Carlton in Georgetown for a couple of nights around our 10th anniversary. I can't wait for the mini-getaway. I had hoped to book a room in the Inn where we married but the location of the Ritz is so much better, I just had to do it. I've patched together some child care, the room is paid for. All we need now is for Rob to pick the amazing piece of symbolic jewelry he'll give to me.... diamonds ARE a girl's best friend, after all.