5/3/08 Just you and me

This doesn't happen often, but the kids had another sleepover last night, two Fridays in a row. This meant that today would be limited by overtired children, so we made a point of not going anywhere.

But this had an odd side-effect: the boys played indoors on our computers all day! Usually counting screen-time isn't a factor in our lives, but if there someone monitoring our permissiveness, we'd have failed the test. Gabriel could not be wrested from the Mac chess again, despite his crummy endgame that results in frequent draws when he has 8 pieces left to his opponent's one.

Then Dave set him up to play chess against someone on the Internet! It was a close game until the very end when Gabriel's opponent disconnected before finishing the game. Probably for the same reason Gabriel would have also had to bail in a few minutes: Mom says time to go wash hands for dinner.

Dave picked up the bunch and minded them this morning while I went to a ballet class. He described Katrina as "bipolar," flipping out and staying angry for a long time after every diaper change. Other times, she was darling and delightful and full of energy. She was better after a nap, and after a snack, it was really time to get her and Gabriel out, even for a short trip, so I took first & last-born for a quick shopping.


Julian didn't need to get out as much as they did, and he wasn't interested anyway....until we were leaving. He was all sad about me not taking him, so I made it up to him by making chocolate-chip cookies with him, "just you and me."

Both boys really like it when we do things "just you and me," so I use the term carefully and only when I can fully commit to it (thankfully Dave said he could watch Katrina outside while he tackled our weed jungle).

I just got the spring 2008 edition of Fine Homebuilding's Great Kitchens. The cover kitchen is absolutely stunning, and bears some resemblance to what mine will look like. Operative word there is some, because mine will be lacking major elements of this beautiful cover kitchen: numerous windows with green views, tons of space, really unusual cabinets. But the white cabinets with some glass, the wood island with legs and seating for 4, some open shelves, the floors -- all reminiscent of what I hope mine will look like.

Of all the complaints I have about my current kitchen, one of my biggest complaints lately is that photos taken in it are horrible! Bad lighting, awful backgrounds, tight quarters...cookie-mixing photos are tough anyway, but anything will be an improvement. Then we'll do lots of "just you and me"...and lots of all of us.

5/3/08