Rough Weekend

On Wednesday afternoon, we had to have Jasper put to sleep. J was unable to get away from work until quite late, with the result being that we returned from the vet just as the boys were being dropped off. When J told them, they seemed unaffected, probably the result of having been at their dad's for the past 3 weeks & learning to turn off their emotions. J & I miss him, though.

We got some videos & let them rent a game apiece, then ordered pizza. They wanted to play their games, so J & I watched Constantine while they did that. It was a fun movie, intense & action-filled, with enough of an interesting theme to keep me hooked.

Thursday, J had to work. The boys had a pediatrician visit first thing in the morning. They are fine, aside from Boot's having gained 15 pounds over the course of his visitation. Dr. M was not pleased with that, but it happens every summer then he slims down once he's back with us.

After the doctor visit, I took the boys up to COSI for the day. We had a delightful time, playing with water, touring Progress (Pie did 5 hula hoops at once!), enjoying the echo-free room, pondering shrunken heads, doing a directed-building exercise (Boot organized all the blocks by shape & color), and watching rat basketball. They made their gift shop selections (Pie got $10 worth of polished rocks while Boot chose a magic wiggle worm and some goo that makes fart sounds...I got a couple of geodes for J, too) We had lunch at Charlie's Import Foods. I had a great reuben & an even better cabbage roll while Boot chose a ham & turkey club & Pie opted for a simple turkey sandwich.

After some downtime at home, we met my grands & my cousin Aaron for dinner at Los Mariachis & had a great time there. I tried the pork wth salsa verde for the first time & it is absolutely my favorite dish there now. Wow! Great stuff! After dinner, we watched The Bad News Bears, Boot's choice for family movie.

Friday, J took the day off work & we took the kids to Ohio Caverns. The cave tour was neat. Then, we let each boy buy a bag of dirt from the gift shop, to pan & see what kinds of treasures they could find. There's a "stream" set up outside the gift shop & we spent a long time there. Pie chose the gem bag (and, as he repeatedly pointed out, got lots of emeralds), Boot chose the arrowhead bag, and J did a fossil bag. They got lots of neat stuff & it was fun to hear them each exclaiming over their finds.

On the way home, we stopped to poke around an Amish farm market & get drinks. Then, J decided we should stop by the local bike shop to price Schwinns & see what styles the boys like. She told them that they are not getting Schwinns to replace their stolen bikes (their father had sent a nastygram along with the kids about how he expected us to pay at least $225 for replacements), but actually, we were considering surprising the kids with them when they returned from the next 2 weeks with their father. Well, Boot was unhappy with this edict & began to act out. Out of respect for J, I won't detail what happened here. Suffice it to say that it very closely mirrored what happened on the Friday of their Summer 2004 long weekend with us, only much more serious. 3 weeks straight with their father does not seem to be healthy for them. I am, frankly, rather dreading their return 2 weeks from now. It always takes a week or two to get them back to their usual pleasant & civilized selves after they've spent the summer with him.

Anyway, after the ruckus, we ordered Chinese food & J took Boot to the video store. We ate dinner & then watched the Godzilla movie Pie had chosen.

Saturday morning, we drove down to Cincinnati for J's mom's birthday party. We had reserved the family kitchen & dining room at the home & had picnic food (fried chicken, pasta salad, watermelon, pretzel salad) & a birthday cake. I had a ball chit-chatting about girly-girl things with J's cousin Diana. The boys played with their cousins.

After the party, we did some shopping. Boot sold some of his books to Half-Price Books & I picked up a couple travel books there, as well as running into former co-workers. We bought the boys a new video game & had drinks at Borders. We stopped for dinner at Tumbleweed & had great steaks & ribs. Then, we watched half of Are We There Yet?, another of Boot's movie picks.

We slept in Sunday, then started to go to the fair. Pie protested mightily...how many 10 year olds do you know who would be pouting over having to go to the fair??? Boot was excited. But, the rides didn't open until Monday & the boys said it would be no fun without the rides. So, we picked up some grill-out food (cheeseburgers, at the boys' request) & went home. We finished watching Are We There Yet? then Pie was allowed to play the new video game while the rest of us went outside. I watched J & Boot toss the football for awhile, then they fired up the grill & made lunch. We all ate together, then it was time for the countdown to the arrival of the father. When J gave him a letter about what happened, he was incredibly rude to her, and was griping about how he didn't have meds for Boot, how the prescription was expired (not til October, buddy), blah blah blah.

We figured that once Boot told him what happened Friday, he would call or come back to make a big stink (even though I was the victim, not Boot). So, we headed out to do some shopping for school supplies so that we wouldn't be home if he showed up pissed & crazy. We had a grand time & I even got an olive dish for less than $2. Then, we came home to eat leftover Chinese & hit the hay since J had to be up at early-thirty for work. I listened to the voice mails after she went to bed & surely enough, an irate message demanding that J call at 10:30 (how he manages to make a 6-hour drive in 4 and 1/2 is beyond me). So, I stayed up until then so I could at least let him know we weren't blowing off his call. He was incredibly rude to me, as always (I think he is the rudest person I've ever encountered) & ended up hanging up on me after saying "You and I have nothing to say to each other". Too many bad movies, fella!

So, I'm glad it's over but dreading the fallout.