Beautiful Day!

We spent all day outside today, and I am super-tired.

Actually, last night I had a terrible night’s sleep due to over-caffeination.   I am such a freakin’ lightweight.  I rarely drink coffee and I try not to drink much soda, but now that I’m getting to be an old hag, even chocolate can put me over the edge.  Last night I thought that since I was unbelievably exhausted, surely a deliciously yummy chocolate crepe made by my delightful husband couldn’t hurt me, right?  Wrong!  I couldn’t fall asleep for hours, and just when I was perhaps going to sleep, little J woke up and remained wakeful and fretful for hours (exiled, as she was, on the pink princess sofa).  She had a yummy crepe, too.

For reasons too complicated to bother explaining, I ended up biking to nursery school with J on the trail-gator and her car booster strapped onto my back while actually taking a call (my friend, reminding me to bring the booster–uh, thanks!).  On the way home, I stopped at Stewart’s for milk, where a gaggle of adolescents were already consuming 50-cent ice cream cones at 9:30 am.  It was just one of those mornings.

Because we had a half day at school, I ended up with three extra children at my house at various times.  I couldn’t bring myself to stay inside–instead, I raked up my neglected perennial garden and unearthed lovely shoots of something-coming-soon.

Alas, I can’t be more specific because I never know what anything is until I see the flowers, and even then I’m sometimes not sure.  I inherited this garden from a previous owner and I am constantly struggling with my complete lack of skills.  Although it won’t surprise you to know that Mary compliments me as if I engineered all of the floral fabulousness.

We also headed to the playground again and–but of course!–trekked over to Stewart’s, where we waited in line for $2.50 worth of ice cream.  J had not taken 5 steps out of the front door before her scoop of Fireworks had hit the pavement, and for some crazy reason I picked it up and stared at it, as if to will away the muck and germs.  And then, knowing that even my impossibly low standards would not permit me to slap it back onto her cone–especially with passersby watching!–I walked back into the store with the ice cream dripping through my splayed fingers and begged for a pity scoop.  The poor weary Stewart’s guy kindly obliged.  He put it in a cup this time.  I must have seemed particularly pathetic, because some teenage boy clerk kept handing me wads of napkins.

With all of this activity, I spent the entire day outside until about 4:30 pm.  At which point I was forced to confront the disgusting stacks of dishes and discarded food that had accumulated since breakfast.

And now, I’ve spent much of the evening dealing with a variety of irritating technical issues.  Which is my long-winded way of saying, ummm, sorry.  I’ve got nothing particularly informative to pass on for you today.  And when I tried to come up with something creative I just couldn’t.  I’m headed to bed, and not a minute too soon.  Of course, I’m realizing now that perhaps I shouldn’t have chosen Death By Chocolate at Stewart’s.  But that was hours ago, right?  And I’m so exhausted.  Surely I won’t have a problem tonight.  Or it might actually kill me.