Beautiful day for a birthday party

What a reprieve we got today! It's supposed to snow tomorrow night but this afternoon was glorious- warm, blue sky, sun a' shining, birthday party fun in the backyard! Ol was thrilled. I was Princess Leia, my dad was Han Solo, Jack was a general Jedi, Mom was Padme...Fun, fun.

Touché Thursday

Oh boy do I feel bad. Surely this is from staying up late and basically sleeping in intertwined fashion with little Ol for four nights, but I don't think I have what he had/has. He had a horrible fever and a croupy cough -apparently this is a respiratory virus going around- and yesterday skidded cheekbone first down the sidewalk at school (I told him he would really look like a Jedi warrior for his birthday), while I seem to have my same old, same old sinus-based gradu + some lovely chest congestion. I cannot smell or breathe and I sound like a man. Literally, a friend just called my cell, sounded totally taken aback when I answered and said, "Is this Tom? Screw you, Punxsutawney Phil. It was nearly 70 here yesterday and now "feels like" 8. Jack, who is sweetly obsessed with the inside/outside thermostat screeched out in alarm this morning after checking things three times, "MOM, the temperature is going DOWN!" As we walked to the car, I noticed that all my rhododendron buds that were so perky and hopeful yesterday are now flaccid and glum. Apparently it's to "warm up" again a bit until Monday at which point it might snow again. The one thing it seems Oliver doesn't want for his birthday is more snow. You win, Phil, you win, even though I would like to wring your neck and through you in a canyon.

Yesterday was epic: cooking with the second graders; school meeting; session with trainer (sheer will, people); Ol to pediatrician; fetching J from playdate; building two light saber night lights that are awesome, each about 2.5 feet long with light and sound effects (gifts!); school meeting until 9p. It is with gratitude that I reviewed my schedule today and found not a thing on it except for another event tonight. Luckily I will be able to excuse myself early.

Crab died last week, and I finally got around to "burying" him in the garbage can today. I wonder if his passing was as sudden as it looks here. Like he just stopped. And the lights went out. He seems very peaceful, though I wonder why he decided to go in the buff. You know how you hear that some in the process of dying feel like they're crawling out of their skin? Was his de-shelling a response to this sort of thing? Or is that what most hermies do?

The first crab of ours that died did so in his shell; it was quite a shock to pick him up and watch a lifeless body fall out and to the floor. Then the second one was cannibalized. So actually, based on that buffet of deathly experiences, this guy's nudist proclivity could have been his own thing. I don't know.

Do you know what I do know? There is no excuse for shittily-made straws in this day and age. I am all about everything being as eco-friendly as possible, but Sweetgreen, your straws are the pits. They crack in half, lengthwise, if you do the old, "pump, pump on the counter to get the paper off" trick. If you treat them with kid gloves, depapering as gently as you'd conduct brain surgery, they then crack when pushed through the top of the cup lid. Or, if they make it through that gauntlet, they flatten into a paper-thin thing that resembles a coffee stirrer, too weak to withstand the force of the cross-shaped entry point. Then, you can't suck any liquid from your cup, no matter how hard you try.

So by then, Sweetgreen and whoever produces your crappy straws, I've wasted at least three straws and am irritated. I urge you to reconsider.

Puzzle o' cards, pretzel light sabers, quiet

That's how I felt yesterday- bent to the point of breaking, and I dare say I shed as many tears as would have suggested that. Thank you to the shoulder on which I wept, to the dear friend who brought my oldest home and for those who asked, nodded and kept going. Y'all are pals. There is a reason sleep deprivation is torture. It really is, and while I can handle it for a while, a few days off no sleep-all parenting is enough to slay the heartiest of us. As such, it was an absolute joy to A) take a full Ambien at 8:30p last night, and B) bring both children to school this morning. Yee-howdy!

Since then I've been on a major spring cleaning purge even though I do see some seriously low temps forecasted for the week ahead. I'm ignoring you "low of 25" on Thursday night and "lows in the 20s" next week. We're going to CA soon enough and you'd best be gone when we return. Anyway, interior spring cleaning has commenced. Not least because yesterday I wrapped up Playing Cards:

This was a good one- hard enough to keep things interesting and draw it all out for a while but not so difficult (hello, body of Hedwig in one of J's Harry Potter puzzles) that you want to scream and run out of the room.

After I finish just a few more tasks, I am going to temper some chocolate and then dip pretzel rods into it for the start of my pretzel Light Sabers for Ol's birthday. White sugar pearls will have to suffice for the buttons because where are all the silver candy balls of my childhood? Were those found to be just too toxic? It's possible. I am fully aware that no one needs pretzel light sabers and that in all actuality I should go read a book or something. Oh well, not me.