So There We Were

Friday night, I got my Kindle. And little beams of light descended from the heavens and I heard an ethereal "AhhhOooooAhhh" sound (no, not like a dog whining, think angelic chorus) and I set it up and downloaded a book or four (really it's like 20 - but I only paid for 2 of them) and it was good. Of course, I had to go to a meeting Friday night as I've signed up to help with AWANA at church, so I didn't get a chance to actually read anything til much later in the evening.

The AWANA helper meeting was...about as useful as any of these meetings ever are. I guess if you don't know how to do anything more complicated than make sure you leave the house with clothes on every day, then a meeting like this would be useful. But for the rest of us, it really is just a waste of time. Please...just send an email! I want to volunteer, I do! But if you're going to make me sit through 3 hours of mind-numbing insanity, the likelihood of me signing up again diminishes dramatically. On the other hand, it was nice to realize that, despite all the other changes over the last 25 years, AWANA still has the same impossible to sing, tuneless theme song they had when I was in it. So there's one less thing to go memorize.

Saturday dawned clear and sunny and Tim was off to work. The doodle was less than excited with this eventuality as he looks forward to Saturday mornings with daddy. Still, we went out and ran errands (got the dog groomed, that kind of thing) and ended up with the relatively firm thought that we need an aquarium. I kinda sorta think I know where I'll put it - and I'm not thinking a crazy-big one, just something small with a few pretty tropical fish in it. Honestly, we're considering GloFish, cause they're super neat and bright. And really, what's not to love about a genetically engineered fish?

I read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake Saturday night while Tim played XBox. It is...a very odd book. The story is interesting, but you keep waiting for the author to get to the point. And she never really does. At the end of the day, it's like a drawn out vignette about a girl with a strange (and basically useless) special ability and an incredibly dysfunctional family. She starts the book with both and by the end, she's really not any different, other than being older. Honestly, I'm so boggled by the non-plot that I can't really decide if I liked it or not...because really, to decide that I did or didn't like it seems like an awful lot of unwarranted effort. The most notable thing, is that by the end of the book, my day-old Kindle had developed a rattle.

Apparently Kindles are not intended to rattle. So I shot an email off to Amazon about what to do and went to bed.

After church on Sunday, I got an email from Amazon saying that they only deal with Kindle concerns over the phone (this in direct contrast to the website that clearly states that you should contact them via email to save time) so I dialed them up and with amazing ease had a return label and a shipping tracking number for my replacement.

I also ended up making a Mary Kay delivery for my sister (since having no feet makes it tough to get out and about to do such things) while Tim went to her house to help my brother-in-law move all the furniture out of their dining and living rooms. Because, clearly, when you have someone break both their feet, this is the time to decide to get hardwood floors installed. (I do kind of see the decision making process, it just also seems like one more big pain in the midst of a whole bunch of other big pains currently going on.)

Monday was errands with the doodle. It's all kind of a blur - so that must mean nothing scintillating happened. Which I guess is good given yesterday.

Yesterday, at about 8:15 am, I arranged with my sister that I would drop the doodle at a friend's around 11:30 then go to her house and pick her up in her van and take her up to get her food surgery. Her hubby couldn't do it as he needed to be home for the floor installers. Who were coming at 10. Questioning the timing of this, specifically how one rolls a wheelchair out of the house when the floors have been ripped up, there was a hmmm, then a comment that since they hadn't called yet, they were probably going to be late anyway, so it would work out. I decided after we hung up that I should probably go get ready anyway.

As I was putting on my makeup (around 9:20) my sister called back. The floor people were there, could I come now? Sure. Why not? So I did a slap-dash job of my hair, threw clothes on the kiddo and we drove down to her house. She has a spare carseat for her car, so I transferred the kiddo to that, and we took her car up to drop him off at my friend's house for the day about 2 hours earlier than I'd planned. She was cool with this, thankfully. Then we toodled up to my mom's house to drop my sister's dog. And after sitting in the driveway chatting with mom (with the car running) for a bit, we took her to the hospital to get her all set. I hung out til my folks came (after my mom's doctor appointment) then headed home.

This was the most mini-van driving I've ever done (my sister's car is a mini-van.) Previous to this, I'd been thinking that our next car should probably be a mini-van. Now...not so sure. While I was more comfortable driving it than I have been in the past for little jaunts here and there it's still just awfully big...and it's hard to see all the various corners. And while there was only one near issue (that I didn't mention to my sister, so let's keep that on the down low, shall we?) It was an issue that wouldn't have been an issue in my VUE. Plus, let's be real...with just one kid (even if we do end up with one more) do we really need a minivan? Moot point, and all that, as for now my car is doing great. But it's something to mull.

I got back to my sister's house, switched cars, hit the post office and the library briefly and then zipped to pick up the doodle at the sprinkle park near my friend's house (she was there, obviously). He didn't even notice I existed for the first 30 minutes I was there. Mama can't compete with the sprinkle park, apparently. But it was good that he had fun. Then he needed to eat, so we came home and he had dinner and while Tim ordered pizza for us, I scooted upstairs to change the laundry I started before dashing out of the house in the morning.

Only to find the washer full of soapy water and soggy clothes. We fiddled a bit, then Tim added "call repairman" to his list of evening to-do items. They said they'd be here between 8 and noon today. He just called (it's 2:30) and said I'm next on his list, so he'll be here in about an hour.

At the end of the day, my sister's surgery went well. They were able to do the repair without any bone grafts. The hardwood got installed and my brother-in-law is pleased with how it looks (no one else has seen it). The washing machine man is, at least, still coming today. I got my new Kindle (yesterday evening). And other than being incredibly cranky all day so far, the doodle is no worse for wear. For these small things, may we be eternally grateful...but for now, I'm feeling wrung out and in need of a few days of peace.