weekend mashup, memorial day edition

Dear friends, how was your weekend? I can't say a word until I thank you for all of the lovely comments you left on my Fear post. Ultimately, it wasn't all that scary to post all those things. for the most part. Did you go read some of the others? So moving. What I found the most moving as I read all those wonderful blog posts is that I never thought, I can't believe she shared THAT. More often than not, I thought, oh! Me too. I'll go back and leave some comments to your comments, but mostly I wanted to say thank you so much, for your understanding and sharing. It only serves to remind me that we're all more connected and alike than we're not.

We had a really lovely weekend, for the most part. People, I feel SO much better. Those antibiotics are doing the trick. Friday night I went for Chinese with some of my favorite neighborhood girlfriends, and that was just lovely. We grabbed cupcakes on our way home and sat in the front yard for ages, snacking on dessert and chatting. Just about the best way to spend an evening in my opinion. Saturday was full. Lunch and the beach with some friends. It was the first time Cal and I got our toes in the surf, and was nice. The ocean and the bay are such a part of us (we're just about totally surrounded by water here), that it never occurred to me that some of you newer readers wouldn't even realize. I expect some beach-themed posts will be forthcoming. After that delicious afternoon, we dropped Cal at a friends house for a sleepover and ended up staying for dinner. That river view in the top middle was our view at dinner. Not too shabby, eh?

Sunday without Cal was errand day. A trip to the hardware store, a trip to the grocery store and the garden center (I did point out that Neel never comes make-up shopping with me even though I always go to the garden center with him...). All errands Callum hates, but it was such fun to do them just the two of us. Picked up Cal mid-day and headed to a celebratory pool party that evening. Once we got home, Neel and Cal got their annual Memorial Day war movie marathon on, while I read cookbooks. Fair compromise.

Monday, oh Monday. How lovely to have the day off. Neel painted the fence and worked in the garden while I set about restoring our house after what feels like months of neglect. But here's the kicker. We think Cal has Fifth Disease. How crazy is that? I think I mentioned that he had a fever a bit over a week ago. On Thursday, when I picked him up from school, he showed me a rash on his forearms, and he had bright pink cheeks. We assumed that it came from digging in a bush for a baseball, or the fact that I'd recently changed lanudry detergent (of course), but the rash didn't go away. It's not terribly itchy, but it is uncomfortable, and he's past being contagious, but it caused a lot of consternation over the weekend. The rash should go away in a couple weeks. Wait, what? Weeks? Good grief. Kid can't catch a break.

Today we get back at it. Less than two weeks of school (and a lot of early dismissals coming down the pike), and there's much to do. What have you guys been up to? Feels like we haven't chatted in ages!

monday mash up, May 21

Well, for starters, I'm sick. Again. I felt it coming on Friday afternoon, that little tickle that signals the begnining of something not good. By early afternoon, when I went to Sephora for a gift for a friend, I felt crummy enough that I didn't get anything for myself (now that's sick!). (But Marianne, I can't remember the name of that lipstick you showed me, so we really do need to go back!) By early Friday evening I had a fever. Now. This was an alarming development because a dear friend of mine was kicking off an amazing birthday weekend, and Friday's festivities were the only part I could join in on. I rallied, and it was so worth it. You can see the amazing birthday girl in the upper right hand corner (and those are empty Fireball shots in the upper left). 

On Saturday Neel had graduation at the medical school where he teaches while I ran Cal to his baseball game. I wanted to throw that photo of Neel in because I've never actually see him all robed up in his PhD garb with his mortar board and whatnot. Pretty cool huh? They had the graduation at the same place where our local hockey team plays, and our hockey team is in the playoffs this year...that means they had to build a floor and stage on top of the ice for graduation! Neel said it wasn't bad at first, but after two hours, the cold started to seep in a bit.

Callum went to a baseball game for our local minor league team with a friend on Saturday, and Neel and I went out to dinner. Nice. Let me tell you about Callum first. For those of you who don't know baseball, the minors are like off-Broadway. It's where you go before you become a star. It's also where you go when you've maybe been injured and need to get back to fighting form. So Cal and his buddy go to the game (it was also fireworks night), and turns out that the team our guys are playing has a big-league star playing with them while he rehabs from an injury. Kevin Youkilis. So not just a big-league player, but third baseman (Cal's position) for the Boston Red Sox (Cal plays for the Red Sox). A big-league star. I tried to think about an analogy for you non-baseball folk (I know you are legion.), and seeing Kevin Youkilis play third base in our sweet little ball park would be similar to having your community theatre put on Out of Africa for a month and having Robert Redford come in to play the lead for a weekend. Pretty cool.

Neel and I went to dinner where I had another Negroni, and we ordered too many tapas to eat (we managed) including, but not limited to tempura asparagus. Also cool.

Sunday was misty and cool. I worked and Cal studied for exams (three down, two to go) and Neel moved our raised beds for vegetables. I can watch the sun while I work, and they needed to be some place else. I think we'll all be happier. For the second year we have robins nesting in the eave of a balcony right outside our family room, and for the first time on Sunday we saw the babies. As Neel was digging, he'd find worms and leave them on the step under the nest for the birds and the papa robin would swoop down to snatch them up. We're trying to help out anyway we can. It takes a village.

We went to a rainy picnic at a colleague of Neel's and the kids always manage to have fun in the mist. It's Sunday night now as I write this, and another week is upon is. Cal has his sports physical at school tomorrow. Driving home the fact that he'll be in Middle School. Good for him. I've been thinking all weekend, in the back of my mind, about Theresa's post on Friday. I'm in, are you? Writing about what we fear...how hard can it be?!