Friday Night Leftovers

 

Remember the Friday Night Leftovers carnival hosted by Danifred at Sippy Cups Are Not for Starbucks?   You just write a bunch of random bits of information, none of which would constitute an actual post in and of itself. 

You know, leftovers. 

First off, meet my new bike, same as my old bike:

For those just joining us, the saga of my old bike is as follows: On April 29, I got a bike.  On May 28, the bike got stolen, from my garage, during the day, while I was home.  I hesitated to go and spend more money on another bike, but I reasoned that bike season is short in Chicago and I'd better hurry up and get a new bike. 

I really liked my old bike, so I just got the same one again at Target.  Except this time I didn't have the 10% off coupon, and the bike was not on sale.  So I kind of lost out all-around on this bike's purchase.  Which I guess is usually the case when you're a victim of theft. 

I'm pretty sure the bike thief is going to come by my house and say, "Wait ... I thought I stole that bike already." 

I took my bike out this morning for its inaugural spin.  The culmination of the ride was at a garage sale, where I bought Nathan a Storm Trooper costume for a quarter. 

Oh and speaking of yard sales, I forgot to show you these really cool glasses I got at the sale at the Jewish temple Tuesday:

 In case you can't tell, there's a line at the halfway point, with arrows indicating the way the optimist and the pessimist would view the glass.  

I don't know, I just thought they were cute.  Remember the sale was "All you can cram in a bag for $5," so there was no harm throwing those in (gently).  

In other news, here's how camp is going: 

So, you know my whole dilemma about whether to have a summer of structured activities or an unstructured "see where the day takes us" summer?  Or maybe it's not so much a dilemma as it is an attempt to strike the perfect balance between structured and unstructured time.  Anyway, I thought we had struck a good balance with camp in the morning and an unstructured afternoon.  Sure, it's a little bit of a hassle to get Nathan out of bed, slather him with sunscreen, and pack all the required supplies for camp, but the upshot is that we're forced to get out of the house and I'm forced to be productive during the camp hours.  (Shut up, writing my blog counts as "productive.")  Then in the afternoons after camp, Nathan plays with his toys, makes his potions, watches TV, builds a trap to catch "bad guys" (no doubt ones who steal bikes), tinkers with random junk to build inventions, and does other such wholesome activities associated with a good old-fashioned childhood summer.  We sometimes go to the pool or library in the afternoon; you know, low-key stuff.  

So, I thought it was working out well.  Then yesterday on the way to camp, Nathan said, "Mom, how come you keep signing me up for stuff, like school, camp, and Little Vikings?"  URGH.  I wanted to be like, "Well, Nathan, as I've been blogging about, I believe we need some amount of structure in our lives."  But instead I just said something like, "It's good to have things to do."  He said, "But I just want to play with my toys all day."  

And I want him to have unstructured playtime.  Everybody knows it's good for kids to have some time where they're forced to entertain themselves, and besides they learn through play and all that.  He has many hours of unstructured playtime at home.  But.  While unstructured playtime is good for his development, it also leads to a big fat mess.  The traps consist of various rope-like items tied to furniture, plus every small item we own piled up.  He makes the potions in his old baby bottles, which means that even though he is four, I am still pulling bottles and lids and nipples out of the dishwasher every morning.  Every day we clean up the living room, and just as soon as we clean it, a pile of train tracks and little vehicles seems to grow.  

Sometimes it's just easier to shove your kid out the door and send him to camp.  

We're gonna stick with camp for at least another week, even though today he was showing signs of wear when it was time to go.  He has all weekend to recover.  

We have to get going to the pool now.  I have rehearsal tonight for the Beatles tribute show.  Tomorrow is swim lessons and then a birthday party.  And I'm gonna go see one of my fellow castmates perform a one-woman show at the local art fair.  (I guess it's more of a one-girl show, because she is only 13.  And by the way, when I was 13, I would not have been brave enough to sing by myself onstage.  Actually I'm not brave enough to do that now.)  

Tomorrow night Bill and I have a babysitter, so we're going out to dinner and to see X-Men.  I know we saw a superhero movie last time, but it's Bill's birthday and Father's Day, so I let him pick.  On Father's Day I think we are just hanging out at home, because Bill says all he wants to do is play board games.  I'll probably make enchiladas (his favorite) and/or we might grill something.  

In closing, here is what I want to do all the time: (1) read, (2) write in my blog, (3) sit in some sort of body of water.  

Besides the activities listed in this post, here is what I do most of the time: (1) laundry, (2) that's it. 

Oh, and since I'm showing blurry cell phone pics, here are some strawberries I ate while writing this:

I prefer to think of it as not so much blurry, but Impressionist.  Nobody called it blurry when Monet did it.