bah!

Once again, too many blog entries rolling around in my head, and too few of them here 'on paper.'
Not that you've missed much. Just the usual crapola. A newlywed pratfall or two here, a little Lizzy puke there, mixed with a pinch of angst and a dash of humor. Stir well. Half-bake, let cool, and enjoy!

We headed to The Great Beyond one evening last week, looking for a panini maker. (hey. we've gotta do SOMETHING with the excellent gift cards we received! Why not something fun?) We ended up getting a sandwich maker instead that was considerably cheaper. It is AWESOME. Bread plus leftover mystery meat from fridge plus cheese equals a meal! I overstuffed my first attempt, though -- a tuna/spicy brown mustard/sweet relish concoction. The smells of singed tuna and mustard were not terribly appetizing as I waited for the little 'it's done' light to turn green. It'll take some practice. And Matt's idea of putting chunky beef soup into a pocket didn't go so well, either. We were going to try eggs in it this weekend, but ...

Lizzy got sick. (and when Lizzy's sick, no one gets to eat.)
My weekend started an hour early with a call from day care, saying, "Lizzy's got a temperature of 100-point-something, so you don't really HAVE to come get her, technically, but she's just kind of been lying around. So, are you going to come get her?" Uh, yeah. I guess I will.

Matt couldn't leave early, so I wasn't sure how to kill an hour with a sick kid. We ended up driving into D.C. during a rainy Friday rush hour to get Matt. One of those ideas that you know is foolish. And yet ... why not? Why not. WHY NOT sit on New York Ave. between 14th and 12th streets for 25 minutes... WHY NOT. I'll give it this -- it killed any extra time we had, and then some. I did get the very special opportunity to meet, in the flesh, one of Matt's favorite street beggars -- a lady who has been claiming to be pregnant and hungry for handouts for the past three or four years, and who then cusses out anyone who dares question the veracity of her statement so loudly and vigorously that she chases away any potential handouts within earshot. I was pleased to make her acquaintance.

Someone -- me? -- then had the bright idea to stop at C&B in our ongoing quest for "affordable" drapes for the sliding glass door in the dining room. The trouble is, Matt and I have a difference of opinion regarding "affordable." One of us thinks that, say, $270 is an outlandish amount to spend on drapes. Another of us supposes that that one of us should go to a fabric store and check out how much bare material costs, before assuming the finished product can be found cheaper. The suggestion that we not buy anything before traveling to the Salvation Army to see if they have cheaper drapes did not go over well. But the deal was called off in any case when Lizzy decided to upchuck as we were pulling into the parking lot. Brilliant! And then she HAD to go to the bathroom as we were inching down Hwy. 66 on our way home. So, we stopped at the rest area. Which is closed for renovations. Settled for the porta-potty in the back. The sick child was not amused, but was desperate enough to comply.

Nine bouts of puking -- and six or seven children's movies -- later, she's better. We, and the washing machine, are grateful. What is up with kids and the stomach flu? The real weirdness is (as I knock on wood), I usually seem to get her colds, but not her stomach flu viruses. Are we adults more resilient to the stomach flu virus? Or maybe I personally have some special skill at repelling the barfing germs? Regardless, I'm grateful.

One last random note: I find myself inexplicably sad that Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe are getting a divorce. Am I alone in this? Can NO ONE in Hollywood sustain a marriage, at least on paper? Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, my hopes now rest squarely on you. Don't let me down, kids!