Friday, J went to pick up the boys while I was at work. I savored the quiet time in the house to catch up on "American Idol." Poor Pie was simply horrified to arrive and discover me watching it. He said, "Daria, why are you watching this? Don't tell me you actually watch this!" I told him it was my aunt's fault while J told him, "It's not true! She has free will!" Boot doesn't dig the show, but he sat down for a few minutes, then said, "This is awful." I said, "Yeah, disco week. Woohoo!" He & J went to the grocery while I finished watching and Pie went to his video cave. When they returned, we made spaghetti. Pie was so cute, asking about what the kind of pasta we used was called. He's not interested in culinary school anymore, but he still has some curiosity about different foods. Whew! Both boys want to be cops, this week. I think either one of them would be really good at it, the good guy cops, but I'm not sure Pie would enjoy it. I think either that or being an attorney would be a great choice for Boot. It'll be interesting to see which careers they do choose.
Anyway, while we were making dinner, I managed to burn the crap out of 3 fingers on my left hand. I didn't know one of the burners had been turned on and I grabbed it to get something that had fallen into the burner pan. Yow! Boot and J immediately went into action prepping a bag of ice for me. Boot was amazed that I wasn't all tough about it. He had thought I was impervious to pain or something. He was so sweet, offering to make the key lime pie I'd been planning to make. He hung out with me while I made it, ready to jump in on anything I couldn't manage one-handed. I did manage it, though, even separating eggs one-handed! Not an easy task! But it was fun to have him to chat with while I cooked. When I finished & went to join J in bed, Boot also turned in for the night. I think Pie stayed up all night playing video games.
Saturday, I arose bright & early to go to my Art Gang get-together while J and Pie headed out video game shopping and Boot slept in. I hadn't been to a meeting since our December tea, so I was excited about seeing everyone and doing some art. The drive there, an hour out in the country, was refreshing in itself. I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to do with one hand, but it turned out we were sketching. We visited around a table on the porch for awhile, then moved our chairs over by the potting shed to sketch some pots, a butterfly house, some big jugs, the shed itself. I have never really sketched anything before, aside from a few feeble attempts when I was dating an artist, who told me not to try and draw the object, but just the lines I saw. I really have no patience for serious sketching and so much less experience with any kind of art than the rest of the women there, who are mostly older than me and have breathed art for years. Some of them even do art for a living and are featured in magazines like Somerset Studio. So, I often feel like my efforts look like a kindergartener's. But, it's so much fun and they are nice about my attempts. We sat & chatted & drew while Jan's husband made a fire for our luncheon weenie roast. I'd finished my sketch by the time we moved back to the fire to roast our dogs. We had some great dishes: an orzo and sundried tomato pesto dish, potato salad, a bright, lemony couscous dish, a gorgeous trifle, fat-free "Polynesian" pudding with fruit, my key lime pie and a luscious strawberry pie. After lunch, we returned to our sketching posts. It was fun to see everyone's different takes on the same scene! Some had used watercolors or watercolor pencils, some charcoal, some regular drawing pencils. I used Crayola colored pencils! I ended up loving the bright, cheery spring colors of mine, even if the rendition wasn't so hot.
After the day in the sun, I found myself pretty dozy by the time I got home. J and Boot were watching "American Gangster" while Pie explored his new games. I didn't want to jump into the movie halfway through, so after visiting with J and Boot (and having Boot nearly burn the house down when he randomly lit a paper on the fridge, which turned out to be a poem my mom wrote, on fire---WTF??? You don't just randomly light stuff on fire, especially when it's hanging on the fridge with a bunch of other papers! I was furious! And there was NO consequence at all-ugh!), I headed upstairs for a little nap under the swiftly-turning fan. It was a nice nap, after I got over the nasty appearance of dip in the toilet on my way to bed. Boot is not supposed to even bring dip with him to our house. Of course, he swears it wasn't his, but who else's would it be? Neither of us dip and I'm almost positive Pie doesn't. Plus, Pie only uses the downstairs bathroom. Personally, I think we should do a bag check to make sure they're not bringing anything we don't allow while we're still in the driveway at their house, but that will never happen.
Kitties joined me and I dozed until J woke me when it was time to start grilling dinner. She & Boot (now in responsible mode again-what a roller coaster) made burgers, hot dogs, baked beans & mac & cheese for dinner. It was some interesting dinner conversation. Pie talked to us about his new game and whether he should be a blacksmith or a craftsman in it. He also told us about how the Nazis' victims weren't just Jewish people, but also gypsies, artists, gay people and others the government didn't like. Meanwhile, Boot was doing a running monologue about peeing on a bonfire and getting paid $22 to roll down a hill and all kinds of stuff like that. Oy. It's like he has deliberately decided to be as anti-intellectual as possible. Probably because allowing his smarts to show also makes him vulnerable. He was giving us advice about being invulnerable, telling us just to stuff our emotions until we found someone to take them out on. Just keep them inside all the time, he recommended. Pie told him that if he keeps doing that, his internal injury is going to cause him to bleed out. Interesting insight from Pie. All we can do is try to steer him in the right direction by word and example. I hate feeling so helpless. We tell him that decisions he makes now will affect him far into the future, but I don't think he believes it. Or he simply doesn't care. Sigh. After those conversations, the talk moved on to Pie's new girlfriend, with Boot trying really hard to annoy or embarrass his brother, while Pie simply put on his selective deafness. She sounds like a nice girl and I think Pie will talk more to us about her when his brother isn't around to ask inane questions. She's his first girlfriend.
Sunday, I went to church while J immersed herself in "Elvenbane" and the boys slept in. Yes, Pie finally slept! After church, I went to the sloppy joe luncheon and stayed for the talent show. That was great fun! It was MCed by one of the youth and he told great bad jokes between the acts. My favorite was "Why shouldn't you take a shower with Pokemon in the room? Because they'll Pikachu!" There were several acts: a small brother & sister doing "Yankee Doodle" on piano & recorder, a fiesty senior doing a series of jokes, a trio of sibs---one twin boy somersaulting, the other singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and the older sister singing a song about Peter Rabbit, the boyfriend of one of the college girls singing a Boyz 2 Men song and beat-boxing, a middle schooler playing Metallica quite well on his electric guitar, a dad doing magic tricks and a group of gals who call themselves "The Sisters" (who dressed up as nuns last year) getting all garbed out in 70s attire and singing "We Are Family." It was lots of fun and very funny and cute.
After church, I cleaned the kitchen and hung out with J watching Sci Fi while the boys slept (Boot had arisen to go to KFC with J, but Pie slept right through lunch). We roused the boys shortly before it was time to go. Since J was kind enough to do the driving, I read to her from "Elvenbane" and the boys didn't even complain once. Boot wanted me to listen to his newest favorite Enrique Iglesias song (he is always wanting me to taste his new soda flavors, listen to his music, etc...a lot of our tastes are the same) and Pie wanted to tell us about some of the stuff in his video game. It was fun. It was not so fun when Boot got bored and started trying to aggravate Pie. Lots of "Mom, Brother's touching me"s from the backseat. Poor Pie. He finally pulled his shirt over his face, put his feet on my armrest for petting & went to sleep. It must be exhausting for him to be around Boot's high energy prodding all the time. On the way home, J started to feel bad, so I made a quick breakfast for dinner and we went to bed. She'd hoped to sleep off the beginnings of a migraine, but ended up having to call in sick today. Poor baby. I am lucky I don't get them!
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