of books and lattes...

So I seriously wonder what's going to happen tomorrow -- what's going to go wrong because today was such a spectacular day. And when this happens, I can be sure that the next one will be a doozie. But I will think happy thoughts to make sure this doesn't happen...

I woke up to more grey skies. I had to find something appropriate to wear on my "date!" I wanted to look good as I was actually stepping foot out in public, but wanted to be comfortable and dress appropriately for the cool, overcast weather. I settled on a black long-sleeved T shirt from Banana Republic. (I've you've never bought Tshirts from Banana before do. They are wonderful!) A long black cashmere cardigan and soft white jeans. I tossed my not-so-clean hair in a pony tail, threw on some pearl earrings and my favorite shoes, a pair of leopard print mules worn and loved so much they are starting to wear a little too thin. I need to find a good cobbler. I simply cannot toss a good pair of shoes aside. Not my favorites. I am too sentimentally attached to them. They will come to my grave... and I digress...

As I was getting the kids' breakfast ready (warm oatmeal, not instant) the sun started to poke through. I could tell it was going to be a glorious day after all. After I got the kids to school I headed to meet KK at Starbucks. I got there about 5 minutes earlier to scout out the good real estate (aka the good, comfy seats) placed my bag there and proceeded to order my grande cappuccino.

She walked in and it was like looking at an older version of Pinkie and Miss Priss. Wow! We hit it off immediately and did not stop gibberjabbering until about 2 hours later when I head to head off to pick up Alexander from preschool. We talked about everything under the sun. We talked about New England and Connecticut and The South. We talked about our kids and our spouses and our homes and we talked about our blogs and our blogging friends, at yes, we talked about you Semi-Slacker! We talked and we talked and we talked and we learned that we had so much in common. It was so neat to meet KK and I'm sure we'll get together again in the very near future and talk about y'all again. (Look, her accent has worn off on me!)

I brought my camera as I always do. I am SUCH a dork and asked a lovely young lady if she would mind taking our picture...


It's cute, isn't it!!!




I was a little late in getting to school to pick up Alexander. But I wasn't the only one. We went to Target to pick up some jelly beans for his class, and I picked up a few non-exciting items for home... hand soaps for downstairs bathrooms and kitchen, bubble bath, dishwasher detergent, sugar, 3 dozen eggs (for .99 a dozen!) and a a bag of Dove chocolate eggs. I really wanted to pick up another dozen or so plastic eggs since most of ours have mysteriously disappeared but there were none. NONE. How crazy is that? How ridiculous is that? There were Star Wars eggs and Bionicle Eggs and these eggs and those eggs but I didn't want them. All I wanted were the regular plain ol' plastic eggs. Arghhh... and I still have nothing for my Easter Baskets save the for bag of Dove eggs because Daddy said I had to have some chocolate in their baskets... So we'll have an egg hunt but instead of the plastic eggs I'll use the real eggs that we colored and we won't find them all and then we'll attract even more wildlife as they smell the wonderful aroma of rotting ova... lovely... Just lovely...

Somehow while at Target I was suckered into buying Alexander a Tonka fire truck. A plastic $5 doodad that makes noise and rolls. No biggie but he does this all the time! When we got back he played with his new truck and then he had a bath. Because he needed one and wanted one and what else do you do smack dab in the middle of the day? This was followed by lunch which was followed by a trip back to school to get the other two, which was side-tracked by Rebecca's girl scout meeting that I had completely forgotten about so I let the boys play in the playground after school and at that point the sun had left and nothing was left but clouds and grey sky and I was not dressed appropriately and I was cursing myself for forgetting both the meeting and my coat!

Finally we got back home and I got the kids settled with their homework and dinner and pajamas and cleaned the dining room and living room. I even had time for a bath with my tea and my book. Dinner was coming to me! My book club was coming to me! How lovely... like a catered affair!

My friend Susan came with her green leCreuset pot filled with French Onion soup and a baguette of crusty bread and shredded Gruyere and a mache salad with cranberries and goat cheese and these wonderful little French patisseries!

We talked a good bit about the book and all agreed that this was by far the best book we had all read in a year, maybe even two. We talked about the author and the characters and the illness at length -- for us! We then talked about all the other stuff that we love to talk about... marriage and friends and children and life and food and aging and pregnancy and our children growing up and how it happens so quickly and how boys are vastly different from girls and and which child is the peacemaker and which is the comedian and which one is the drama star... we talked about friends and acquaintances and restaurants and food and about other books and both those we want to read and those we read in the past and we talked about broken computers and we talked about our parents and our siblings and time off and father parenting versus mother parenting and as usual our conversation was fluid and seamless and fascinating. We ate and talked and drank and ate and talked and drank. We never even made it in to the dining room. We were all seated around the coffee table, Japanese style and I thought it would be more fun to eat dinner that way, on the floor, casually. And everyone agreed. It was fun and cozy. And only something you can do with your close girlfriends.

The kids were good, very good, I have to admit. The older two took turns between watching television and playing on the computer. Alexander hung out with us and ate French food. At 9:00 I sent the troops upstairs and they did not argue or bat an eye. They got ready for bed as they were told. Rebecca even out Alexander to bed and by the time I came up to tuck them all in and kiss them all goodnight he was fast asleep!