Yesterday

I forgot to post yesterday.  I'm just gonna write about some stuff that I did yesterday and call it good.

The most pressing task when I got up yesterday was to haul out three large items from my garage for trash pickup.  Wednesday is trash day, and I wanted to get rid of as much as possible from the garage before cleaning it out. 

Here were the three items: a broken TV, a large plastic toy that represents a roof-less house, and a broken trash compactor that weighed approximately 5,000 pounds (give or take) and contained a 6-month-old bag of garbage that we couldn't get out. 

I figured somebody would come and get the toy, so I didn't feel all that bad about throwing it out.  (Also it was a hand-me-down from the neighbors, and we were at least the third or fourth owners of it, so it wasn't in really great shape.) 

I thought maybe somebody might want the TV to try to repair or take the parts. 

But I didn't expect anybody to want that dang compactor, which was so heavy that I was sweating and almost injured trying to even get it out to the curb. 

So damn if I wasn't shocked when, not 30 minutes later, the compactor was the only item that had been scavenged.  And that's why I will never understand people. 

Next, Nathan's Monday/Wednesday babysitter came.  I had her take Nathan to the library.  He told her he didn't want to check out any books, so now we have no library books to read at bedtime.  Which is fine, we have plenty of books that we own, but sometimes I like to mix it up. 

I told the babysitter that she could taken Nathan to Dunkin' Donuts, so then when I got home he wasn't hungry for lunch. 

So I ate my delicious new egg salad made with Greek yogurt, as well as a bowl of the awesome shrimp dumpling soup I buy frozen at Costco.  Then we went on errands. 

We had to go to Joann, and at that point Nathan said he was hungry, so I took him to the McD's drive-thru.  I swore I wasn't going to have anything myself, but then I fell victim to the peppermint mocha. 

This was our first experience with the new Happy Meal that comes with a tiny fries and a bag of apple slices.  I kind of liked the idea of not having to wrestle with the "apples vs. fries?" question, as well as not having to specify the side dish we wanted.  (I know, I'm lazy.)  Plus, that teeny little fry container?  SO ADORABLE.  And I have to say, on this particular occasion, the side dish combo was a total win.  Nathan ate all the fries, plus the apples, and then asked me to cut up another large apple when he got home.  Normally he doesn't eat the side dish, no matter what it is, and now not only did he eat the whole thing, but it encouraged him to eat further healthful foods!  (Hire me as your spokes-blogger, McDonald's!)  Now, it could have just been a fluke.  Yeah, it was probably a fluke. 

Of course we had to stop off at Petco to look at the shelter kitties and the fish. At first I thought, wow, it must be fun to be a kid and get excited about something as simple as a pet supply store.  Except, then it occurred to me that I'm equally excited to look at kitties, and in fact I always stop in there when I'm doing some shopping at adjacent stores without Nathan. 

They had an orange kitty!  I've always wanted an orange kitty!

After the Petco/Joann adventure, we went over to Office Max.  See, I had caved awhile back and purchased Nathan a phonics workbook, and it's the kind where you can photocopy the pages and assemble them to make little books.  I told Nathan we could make copies, so I sat there and copied and used the paper cutter and the long-arm stapler, and it was really just an unpleasant flashback to my teaching years.  Then I told Nathan that the only thing we would be buying at Office Max for him would be a new set of markers to color the little books.  And that's when my bad parenting moment started. 

He wanted something else, of course.  I said no, we were only getting markers, and somehow the whole thing devolved into me putting the markers back and him yelling, I hate you!  Markers are stupid! 

Oh Lordy. 

After we got home and took the appropriate disciplinary/calming down actions, we passed the rest of the afternoon playing computer games and watching DVDs.  Oh, and he completely ignored the phonics books that I spent $2.59 and part of my sanity copying at Office Max.

For dinner I spent two hours simmering a new lentil soup recipe.  I was pretty sure it would be a total win.  First of all, I love recipes where the base is a $1 bag of dried things (beans, peas, lentils).  Second, it was cholesterol-free and low-fat, and it was the perfect day for soup yesterday. 

Bill didn't like it, though. 

Later, after Nathan's bedtime, I watched the first three hours of The Kennedys, which was a DVD I got at the library.  I had recently read the new Jacqueline Kennedy interview book, so I felt all smart understanding what was going on.  But I can see why the History Channel yanked it at the last minute.  JFK's womanizing tendencies are really played up, and the dad is portrayed as a bossy selfish jerk just out for his own power.  Also, Katie Holmes playing a wife who stays in an unhappy marriage just for the sake of her husband's career success?  Ironic. 

And that was yesterday.