Jen and Brian came over for dinner, so the kids were pretty well acclimated to them by the time Matt and I left at 6:30 (Alex, watching the last of Sesame Street, barely blinked when we hugged him goodbye). We picked Elizabeth up, and headed up to Richmond. We got to the venue at about 7:30 and found Braz and Vicki, who'd staked out a pretty good spot for us on the floor, and we chatted while we waited for the show to start.
I was pretty punchy and happy. Matt and I realized, in the car on the way up, that we hadn't been out for an evening together without the kids since before Alex was born. It felt awesome.
Jonathan Coulton came on at 8, and played for about half an hour. I wish it'd been longer! He said something about coming back to the area on his own tour, though, which would be awesome. He didn't do my favorite songs ("Code Monkey" and "Mandelbrot Set"), but at least I knew all the songs he did play, and he made them lots of fun. He wrapped it up with "Re: Your Brains," which was hysterical, since he got the audience to participate on the zombie chorus. Matt and Braz, of course, had way too much fun with that.
Then the house lights came back up while they finished setting up, and we bounced and danced to the background music and generally had a good time until about 9, when They Might Be Giants came on. They did a seven-song opener before starting in on the Flood album (it being a Flood tour) and then they got down to business by doing Flood... backwards.
There were sock puppets. And confetti. Lots and lots of confetti. The confetti got so thick -- and refused to completely settle -- that they actually got distracted and flubbed "Lucky Ball and Chain." Twice. After the second time, they gave up and moved on to the next (or rather, previous) song.
Once they'd finished Flood, they came back for two more encores. We danced and jumped and sang along and cheered and screamed the whole time. I stepped on a guy, and when I turned around to apologize, he gave me a huge grin and a double thumbs-up.
The show finally ended around 11:15. I'd been worried about my feet -- they usually start hurting quite a lot after only an hour or so -- but by the time the show was over, they were achey, but still ready to dance. My back and legs and hips were more sore, but not horribly so. I was almost as thrilled by that as the show itself.
We got home around 12:30 or so, chatted with Jen and Brian a bit and were reassured that the kids had been good -- Penny, in fact, had both insisted on doing her homework reading and monitored her own bedtime. We got to bed around 1.
Friday morning we got up, got the kids dressed and taken to school, and then crawled back into bed for a couple of hours. We met Vicki and Elizabeth for lunch, then went home and were vegetables until it was time to pick Penny up from school. Vicki came over for dinner, and that was fun, too.
The weekend itself was calmer, and spent mostly at home. We went out for dinner Saturday, and of course Penny had pizza, so we spent some time chasing her blood sugars around, and her mood and behavior varied right along with it. She and Ray wound up getting in trouble for throwing things at the house (I have no idea, honestly, what prompted that) and at some point she lost her med-alert bracelet, which... grr. So she's stuck in the "emergency" velcro one until it turns up or I order another plate. But on the other hand, Matt took her to the library, and she came home with twenty-two books! I'm so glad she's finally gotten hooked on reading!
Alex, likewise, vacillated between feeling "delicate" and breaking down sobbing over absolutely nothing, and being the cutest, silliest, cuddliest little boy in the history of forever. Maybe there was something in the air.
So all in all, two thumbs up for the extended weekend! Yay, social activity and relaxation!
This is promising to be a fairly social week for me, actually. I'm considering taking a turn at Rock Band Night tonight, and then Saturday I'm going down to visit KT and Kevin and Jess to see the Pirate exhibit at Nauticus with them. And Sunday, Vicki and I are going to see Alice in Wonderland together, since most of our other friends don't seem to be interested.
Let the fun commence! Or continue! Something!
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