Air Force Museum & Ice Cream

Today, after getting the kids off to school (and nearly having a panic attack when I couldn't reach J...she was eating breakfast with my aunt & uncle & her cell was in the bedroom...silly me), I took the opportunity to have a cat morning. I have been going & going & I spent the morning in bed reading Jennifer Weiner & napping with Pixie. I really needed that, I think.

I ate leftover Indian food for my brunch while I made out my grocery list. I mailed a letter to J & got groceries, then came home & got ready for our outing. Brendan had asked if the boys & I would like to go to the Air Force Museum with him. Not my favorite place, but J thought the kids would love it & so plans were made. Boot, who is coming down with a cold, begged off because he had a pile of homework & felt tired. So, Pie & I dropped off his friend at home & headed out. We actually had a good time. Brendan turns out to be terribly knowledgeable about WWII-era planes. We only had time to go through that one hangar. Seeing Bock's Car gives me the shivers every time. I hate that plane! Brendan kept apologizing for boring us, but we were enjoying it. After we finished our tour, Pie asked him if he could come over & play video games. I think there is just something so sweet about an 11 y.o. boy asking his pastor to come play video games. The thing is, I think that if Brendan had not had dinner plans with Laura, he would have played with Pie. He is so nice to the kids. I told Pie that maybe Brendan & Laura would come visit us in Cleveland & they could play video games then. Brendan & Pie both seemed to think it was a good idea.

On the way home, Pie & I stopped at Dairy Queen for ice cream. He got a cookie dough blizzard & I had a small hot fudge sundae. We sat outside & talked as we ate our ice cream. At one point, he asked me if the new apartment would have room service. I had to tell him no. How about maids? Again, no. Well, does the pool cost any money? Yay! A question I could answer with a no & have that be a good answer for him! He said, "I thought our new apartment sounded like a hotel." It does, but sadly, with no maid or room service. I'd happily plunk my butt in the hot tub right now! I feel achy & chilled. That is going to be a wonderful amenity!

Once home, I cleaned the free stuff out of the yard, took out trash (with an assist from the boys), and fixed dinner. I was disappointed with the pasta salad. It turned out to be quite bland. It was dressed with olive oil and herb vinegar and studded with asparagus, grape tomatoes, and garlic zucchini. But, it just didn't do it for me. The hot dog sauce was much better. But, the mandarin oranges tasted like some kind of cleaning fluid. Yuck! I should have gotten peaches instead.

J called during dinner. She is very pleased with her new job, says it's a very exciting place & it will be great. She was taken to lunch at a golf club & to dinner at Max & Erma's & the people there seem to really like her. Just after dinner, I got a worried call from Jazzbo, who was wondering where J was. Unaware of how late she tends to work, I guess they had expected her home from work long before 8:30. I hope she doesn't get back into the habit of extremely long hours. I know she'll need to be there a lot at first, but she shouldn't set a bad precedent for 14 hour days. I am supposed to call her at 5 just in case her travel alarm doesn't work. She wants to be in at 6 because they have an audit & she wants to make sure everything is top-notch for it.

I have gotten the kiddos to bed (on time, even!) and now am going to do some work editing my prof's book.