Crazytown

Whoops, missed a couple of days again.

Wednesday was my "day off" for the pay period. I spent the morning cleaning Penny's room, because even when she was trying to clean it up, there was this crusty build-up of crap and horribleness around the edges that I'm not sure she could even see. I started around 9AM, and didn't finish until nearly noon, but I managed to dig everything out, sort it, put things away again, and get rid of the trash and cruft. I paused a couple of times to post to twitter. I had to share the naked bondage dolls, after all, and point out that having yanked all the crap and clutter out of the corners into the middle of the room was actually an improvement.

But I did manage to finish in time to scoot over to the Movie Tavern for lunch with Spider-Man. Despite a couple of "wait, but what about..." plot holes, I enjoyed it. Andrew Garfield certainly made for a sexier Peter Parker than Tobey McGuire, though I still think Tobey captured the doofy nerdiness of the character better. I liked Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben a lot, and I can appreciate the subtle shift in the theme message (it changed from "with great power comes great responsibility" to "if you can help someone, you should", which is less catchy but brings it closer to home) but was kind of cheesed that they took it away from Uncle Ben and made it a thing Peter's father had said instead.

Which might be picking nits. For a summer action superhero movie, it was fun.

I tried to do some writing that night -- and again last night -- but I just couldn't sink into it. I'm too distracted with the planning for Penny's birthday party and the planning and preparation for going to Cancun next week. (I spent the best portion of last night, for instance, trying to get a bunch of kids' movies loaded onto my old iPod for Penny and loading books and more movies on the iPad for me and Alex, in between baking and icing the cake for Penny's party.)

Things are going to be crazy for the next few days, I expect. Tonight, Elizabeth is coming over to help me craft/decorate for Penny's party. We've got streamers to put up, signs to hang, potions to create, the cake to finish decorating (it's got a base layer of icing, but no decorations), wands to paint, gifts to wrap,and goodie bags to make. I'm actually really looking forward to it -- it'll be fun to do all this without having to scramble to get it all done after Penny goes to bed.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to pick Penny up at Matt's and take her to get a birthday pedicure. (And while we're gone, Matt will take Alex to get a haircut.) Also, while we're on that side of town, if I don't get to it today, I'll need to drop by the bank to collect our passports from the safe deposit box. After I drop her back off at Matt's for lunch, I'll head home and put up the last couple of decorations and streamers (the stuff that goes outside, that I don't want to put up until close to party time lest it get wet or blow away) and start preparing the party food.

Matt and Penny and Alex will come over around 2:30 or so, and we'll give her the birthday presents that are Harry Potter themed before her party starts at 3 so she can have a little time to enjoy them. Then the party will run up until dinner time.

Sunday, Matt and the kids will come over again around mid-morning so Penny can open her non-Harry Potter presents and also so Matt can mow the lawn. When he's done with that and has showered and changed, we'll all go out for lunch together, Penny's choice, for the family birthday party.

And then after Matt and the kids are back at his place, I'll do my laundry and start gathering stuff together to pack for Cancun. (And continue to debate with myself about whether I should buy a new suitcase.)

Monday I'm at work, wrapping up all the last-minute stuff that needs to be wrapped up before I go on vacation, and then picking the kids up from daycare and bringing them home for the last-minute packing and trying to keep them from dragging everything they own along.

Tuesday morning we're up a smidge earlier than usual, eating breakfast, and then Matt is going to come over around 6:45 to load up the car and take us to the airport! Vacation, here we come!