Belly O'Lead

Miss Six returned to school today. She was greeted with much adulation, so I guess the Mean Girls deal doesn’t happen every day. Unless she’s just so good at it that they don’t even know she’s working them. Wait. Did I just say that? About my eldest and kindest (at least so far and as far as we know☺)? My how things change. But I did hurry over to pick her up post-dentist appointment. (Yes, I have yet another filling to look forward to. They told me it’s genetics. Thanks a lot family. Deep grooves means a hotbed for decay. Yum. At least my teeth are getting some action.) So, anyway, I pick her up for some mommy-Miss Six time. She was less-than-thrilled, but perked up when I mentioned there was ice cream involved. Isn’t it great how I bribe my children with food and TV? I’m probably on some Boulder hit list just for writing this. I’m making my child bulimic and stupid all for my own sanity. Oh boy.

We had a nice afternoon just chatting, getting some jeans hemmed, and eating ORGANIC ice cream from Bliss. I had burnt sugar and she had banana chocolate chip. It was something like Bliss. We sat there with our tiny spoons (who knows why they’re so small. Miss Six was mystified until I told it meant that the ice cream lasted longer) and watched an afternoon thunderstorm rage outside. It was really, really great. We didn’t get home until almost five and the hubby looked something like a train wreck sitting on the living room floor with the room barricaded around him. He’d put electrical tape on the fireplace door, moved furniture and used stools to create a non-escape area for Bean so he could work. Poor guy.

But life returns a bit I guess. I’m almost afraid to even say that. I know how my luck usually runs. So let me re-phrase: We had a normal-ish day. That’s it. Just a day. No more. No less. (Got it, Universe?)

Bean is crazy baby. She is all over the place, taking things off shelves, grabbing fistfuls of cat and dog, eating everything that’s on the floor and some, reaching for outlets, untying shoes, chewing on books/tables/stones/arms/legs/shoes — truly nothing is safe. She also seems to have developed a little temper. When she gets really pissed, she ‘yells’ at me and acts like she’s going in for a chomp. Damn that sweetness ends fast. She’s a little pistol. Until she isn’t. Then she becomes “sweetest-baby-on-the-planet.” A true love bug. That’s how she works it, I guess. Miss Six isn’t buying it, but Bean usually goes after her first.

I really can’t believe how much that baby loves her sister. She gets the biggest grin on her face every time Miss Six walks into the room. Then she squeals and has even started shouting, “Tee-Ta.” Which just has to be Sister, right? It so makes you melt. But probably only if you’re the parent of the said kids. I can own that. Can you?

We are loving the new room arrangement. I even found myself telling the hubby that, “I’m off the clock,” and retreating to our newly configured master suite. He gave me the look, but I chose to ignore him and went anyway. I folded laundry, for god’s sake, so it wasn’t like I was heading off for a massage session or something. It is heavenly though. Everyone should have a room of their own. The sanity slowly seeps back in every time I retreat. Ahhh.
Nothing to report for work. Slow. Slow. Good (for now). I’ve been doing bookkeeping stuff and waiting for those checks to come in. Now that we just got notice of our mortgage increase ($900/month no less!), let’s hope they get here soon. That news did make us plan meals from the cupboard this week. (I think there’s a cookbook name — Meals from the Cupboard — in there somewhere.) Tonight we had falafel that we’ve had as mix for five or six years. Tomorrow it’s bean soup using every dried bean we’ve had on hand for ten years. Of course these are all things that you could keep in your bunker for Armageddon, so it’s perfectly safe…☺

Only two more things: One, my friend, David, from Aspen Eyewear passed away on Aug. 28th. I don’t know what happened to him — he’s just gone. The paper ran his obit. It hit me hard. He’s helped Miss Six and me with our frames for years and we’ve always been oh-so-stylish because of him. He was the kind of guy who remembered everything about you even if you hadn’t been in for over a year. One-in-a-million. He’ll truly be missed. He left a loving wife and dogs behind at only 47.

And the Skyview is gone too. That bastion of fried-food-ness in Flotown. One of the few remaining drive-ins in the U.S. (PBS did a special on it not too long ago.) Our visits weren’t complete without a stop for a shake or onion rings. I grew up on Trumpets and Suicides (their version of Shirley Temple-style kid beverages). And, Jerome, the faithful employee all but kept us alive by delivering food to my dad’s house when we were with him on the weekends. He’d be all tied up with work or something and I’d call Jerome for myself and my brother, “Hamburger steak box!” And he’d drive it right to our front door. That’s real curb service. There were also the times when money was super tight and he’d hold a check for my mom so we could eat. And who can forget when the Skyview was the scene for the movie Shag? It was the biggest thing for weeks. And, and…my mother and father met there. The rest is history. And now the Skyview is too. Lost to flames from electrical. The hubby pondered whether the massive build up of grease on the high chairs had simply combusted. It could be. It really could be…

TODAY’S THEME SONG: Me Love. Sean Kingston. It’s really just getting the Led out, but why not go with the current… the updated…the fresh…oh hell. Two songs it is: D’yer Mak’er. Led Zeppelin. “Why’d you have to go-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh?”

I ALMOST FORGOT!!!! Here's a big shout out to the insane runners, East End and Purse Girl, who think a fun weekend entails running 17 miles up a mountain pass at 13,000 feet - GO KICK SOME IMOGENE A**! You can do it! And I so can't...☺ Love you guys!