Friday, October 22, 2010

M's Weekend

The calendar for this weekend is filled with M's activities, for a change. He is off at a birthday party sleepover right now. Tomorrow morning, we pick him up at 9:00, and have to have him up in Hercules by 10:00 for a piano studio class. He'll be back from that a little after noon, then we leave just before 1:00 to pick up his carpool and go to fencing class. Sunday is an in-school fencing tournament, and Monday is the first tech dress rehearsal for the school play (he's running the light board for one of the casts).

B's weekend, on the other hand, looks very relaxed. She'll be gone Saturday night and all day Sunday, at a beach house with L and her family.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Win-Win Deal

Every year, it seems there's one of "those days," where getting everyone where they need to be at the right time is a challenge. In previous years it's been Mondays, but this year it's Thursdays. DH and I carpool to work, so we can only have one car on campus at a time, but we need two cars on Thursday evenings to pick up M from fencing and B from ballet, both at 7:30, in different cities. DH teaches from 2:00-5:00, so we usually end up coming home at lunch: I can work at home with one car while he takes the other back to work. Today was even worse--there was a Boy Scout parent meeting at 7:30. I worked from home (avoiding the protests and pickets on campus), DH went to the meeting, and I picked up M on time and B twenty minutes late.

While I was picking up M, his instructor introduced me to another parent from our town, who wants to carpool on Thursdays. This works out perfectly for both of us--it's easy for me to deliver the kids to fencing, but pickup is the cause of all this car juggling. It's easy for T's dad to pick up kids from fencing, but the timing is bad for getting them there. So, starting next Thursday, I'll be delivering B to ballet, then M & T to fencing, then head back to pick up both B and DH at 7:30, while M will magically be delivered to our house. Yay!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Be Prepared

Current mental soundtrack: "Be Prepared" by Tom Lehrer

M has been enjoying the Boy Scout meetings, and is headed out on his first camping trip this weekend. DH and I went shopping today to pick up some clothing and equipment for him. I'm very thankful that we already had a lot of backpacking stuff at home (sleeping bags, cooking gear, etc.), because we spent a small fortune at REI today (and a bit less at Target). Both of our backpacking tents bit the dust several years ago, so we had to buy a new one. And a good day pack (I think we have a dozen backpacks now, of all different sorts). Every piece of clothing M owns is made of cotton (jeans, T-shirts, and sweatshirts), so we bought a pair of convertible hiking pants, some synthetic T-shirts, and wool hiking socks. Plus a fleece jacket: we live in California, so he hasn't owned any sort of jacket for years.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Where Did the Weekend Go?

Yesterday was nice and relaxing. I slept in while DH took B to her ballet class, then had a leisurely lunch before heading out to take M to his afternoon fencing class. In the evening, B and I had dinner and saw Diablo Theater Company's production of Annie, with B's friend M, her brother, and mother. Dinner was at Eleve, a Vietnamese restaurant that was quite good. The show was fantastic, and we all had a good time.

Today was the Voci fall retreat: rehearsal from 9:00-4:30 (with ample snack breaks and lunch). I never cease to be amazed at what good cooks the members are!