Friday
Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004, 6:25 AM

Well, the whole Grand Rapids thing tanked. Failed to happen. The persistent heavy rain on Friday gave Spouse second thoughts about traveling. We did go down to Schaumburg, though. We went to the mall, for one thing. I don't like Woodfield, because it is laid out awkwardly, there aren't enough of my type of shops, and it is all about the clothes. As I am not.

However, they do have a Body Shop, which enabled me to get my Sesame Body Butter, and a Yankee Candle store, with its lovely clean cotton and balsam fir scents to make life better.

And they have a store that carries breweriana, so Spouse was happy.

We stopped by JR's place of work, so Spouse could talk to him and give him a DVD we'd gotten for him, and we went to Sal and Carvao for lunch. I'd been angling for rodezio since he got home, and I thought he was going to take me to Fogo de Chao on Thursday when we went to the museum, but he didn't. I kept hinting, though, and I got my churrasco birthday meal, just one day late. It isn't like I have to twist his arm, anyway. He loves it like I do.

We headed home after lunch. Having given in on lunch, he of course had to re-assert control afterwards, and skip the trip to the bead store he'd promised.

My torture wasn't over yet, though; apparently I'd been very bad. Bad enough that denying me my trip to Michigan AND my beads wasn't quite enough.

He called their mom and got the kids for overnight. Without consulting me. While I was sitting next to him in the car.

I love them, and they are good kids, but I really didn't want to spend my birthday weekend babysitting. But their mom dropped them off about 5 on Friday. Hungry, of course. We ordered them food from our local pizza place. Spouse and I were still so full from lunch we didn't want supper. Then we all hung out around the place; Nephew played on the computer and watched DVDs with his uncle,in the back of the house, and Niece and I took the living room, and went through my beads to see what I could spare for her. I gave her some of the leftovers from recent projects, and a baggie full of mixed odds & ends that was in my birthday bounty from D.

And we watched Mean Girls, which to me was a little simplistic. It also owes a hell of a lot to Heathers. The school bus scene was contrived, smacking of Deus ex machina, and the ending was extremely unrealistic. All the girls get along. Yeah. Right.

At least they were both tired enough to go to bed reasonably early. Unfortunately, they got up early, too. On Saturday morning, we got up and went to the diner for breakfast (their favorite), and then ran up to the Milwaukee 'burbs so they could see their grandpa, and their aunt and uncle. Then we had to get them back to town so Niece could go shopping for a new coat. I breathed a sigh of relief when their mom picked them up, but that relief turned out to be short-lived. Spouse wanted to go to Circuit City for some DVDs, and on the way there, announced he wanted lasagna for dinner. I agreed, even though it is a lot of work. Then he asked if I would make JR one, too. I agreed, because I've always loved to cook for JR. He's been my best customer since he was a kid, and he adores my lasagna. So--I've agreed to make TWO lasagnas. Spouse proceeds to begin angling for cookies. Homemade chocolate chip-cashew cookies.

Why, yes...I did spend my entire afternoon in the kitchen yesterday. But dinner was damn good, anyway. JR is stopping by today to pick up his lasagna and garlic bread and cookies.

I did inform Spouse that today was going to be MY day, and I had every intention of relaxing and puttering around the house. So he got up early, walked the dog, and then ran to the bakery for rolls. We just ran out for what had better be the ONly trip of the day--a quick run the the harware store. Now he's out doing yard work, the dog is out in her kennel, and I am settling down to some puttering. I'll probably just do a little laundry, play on the PC, and maybe do some beading. Watch a movie. Something easy.