Friday Fun
2004-08-27, 9:05 a.m.

Today's fortune:

You are never dull. It is part of your charm to tease and play while at work.

Utto. Now Hubby will know what I do all day. Hey y'all, pass the bonbons.

With a houseful of twittering tweens looming for this evening, I have some serious housework to do. Namely, the floors. What I am about to tell you is so frightening, so spine-chilling, it may be too much for you more delicate readers.

My house is completely floored in white tile.

1 Hubby, 2 Kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat...white floor...you get the picture. One very filthy picture.

In our old house, when we replaced the basement carpet, I entered the carpet store and requested the color closest to dirt. The salesman quickly ushered me to the speckled-brown Industrial Strength Berber section, the kind that can have straight bleach poured on it to clean stubborn stains. He made an immediate sale.

On to the new house, with the floor not of my choosing. I mop this floor with bleach. And mop. And mop. And mop. And mop. (You get the general idea.) It would be much more efficient if I could get rid of the mop and use a Zamboni instead, as a wet tile floor is about as tread-friendly as an ice rink. My throbbing right arm bares a huge purple testimony to that, courtesy of the bathroom doorway. But the floors must be readied for a gaggle of girls armed with sleeping bags, so mop again I shall. Hopefully I won't end up in a body cast.

Son has a splint on his thumb today, after shutting it in the car door yesterday afternoon. I did the unpanicky-mom bit of putting ice on it, telling him it will be all better soon, etc. After 2 hours it was definitely NOT getting better, so we headed to the After Hours Clinic at 5:30pm. We got out of there at nearly 9pm with the following definitive diagnosis: It may or may not be broken.

&*#$%^@!

Some views looked fine, one view showed what may be a tiny hairline fracture towards the tip of his thumb. Either way, the treatment is to wear a splint for a week. The treatment for Mom, having been shut in a very small room with a very bored boy for hours, is a good quantity of chocolate to be spread throughout the weekend. Pass the Motrin.

We left the clinic and met Hubby, Daughter, and The Family Guru in the soccer field across from the clinic. They were doing some boomerang quality control. Hubby was happily chukking them towards the street, having to occasionally plod into the busy intersection to retrieve one. Thank God he didn't take out somebody's windshield. Forget the Motrin, hand me something for ulcers.

I have an awakened-too-early headache. Normally I rouse Daughter at 6:45 to dress and eat, and we head for school at 7:25. I have to haul her feet-first out of bed and prod her into the bathroom. However, she is a *wee bit* excited about her birthday. She pranced into our room, fully dressed, at 5:45am to announce it was time to get up so she wouldn't be late for school. She obviously doesn't want to make it to her thirteenth birthday.

Hubby is coming home early to mow the back yard so the kids can find the trampoline. At 6:00 he will head to our church to park cars for the first high school football game. We live a couple of blocks from church, which is across the street from the high school. As a fund raiser, for a couple of bucks game-goers can park in the church parking lot. All proceeds go to local charities. They do a great job and have raised a ton of money in years past. After that, he'll probably go work some more on Boat #2. He works so very hard during the week AND helps around the house most every day, so his little evening breaks are very well-deserved. Sorry ladies, he's taken. And he's MINE.

I now owe Together Friend big time. She's bringing over a box of already-frozen freezer pops to supplement my partial box, saving me a frantic trip to the grocery store within the next hour. Daughter's school allows birthday treats, but you can't give it to just one class. You have to have something for the entire team (5th grade is split into 3 teams). Therefore, I have to supply goodies for 130 children. The teachers strongly suggest freezer pops, the ones that you have to push up to eat, and cost $3 for a box of 100. We have some, but I did not realize the serious depletion in recent weeks. So, I could buy another box, stick it in the 5th grade workroom freezer, and pray they're solidified by 1:30pm, or once again grovel to Together Friend for saving the day. I'm getting good at grovelling.

One big thing off the to-do list. That leaves: vacuum; mop; shampoo nasty rug; laundry; dishes; scrub bathrooms; eat lunch with Daughter; carpool Girl Scouts to first meeting after school; pick up cupcakes for GS meeting; pay car insurance bill; finish making ice cream cake; order pizza; collapse in recliner to watch "Stargate SG-1". I'd better get busy, ya think?

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