a true weekend off
January 22, 2006, 11:00 P.M.

On Friday, I had almost talked myself out of all my good intentions, and abandoned the thought of doing housework, when Spouse called me on his lunch hour. To tell me that he would be off all weekend.

Well, that lit a fire under me. I figured I�d better get my fanny in gear, because he�d have tons of plans for us. I tidied, scrubbed, swept, vacuumed, dusted, did all the laundry, made the beds up fresh, and took out the trash. Oh, just pretty much everything.

When he came home, it was a bit anticlimactic to discover that he �noticed I�d picked up a little�, and that he had absolutely no intention of doing a damn thing all weekend.

And we mostly didn�t. On Saturday, I had all the housework done, so I was free to play and laze about. I slept in while Spouse dealt with the removal of the deep and heavy snowfall, then we ran to the store for a few fill-in items, came home, and vegged. I whipped up a quick cake, and after it was out of the oven, Raji and I took a long afternoon nap together. Spouse made dinner while we snoozed�a big batch of his Chop Suey recipe, which is always so perfect and hot and rich on a cold winter evening. We spent the evening reading and watching TV. Ever so nice.

Today, Spouse actually walked the dog while I got cleaned up and dressed, then we went out to breakfast at the Diner with our friends, T & J. They�re getting married next month, and we�re invited to the wedding, which we have decided to attend. So we held a bit of a planning session over plates of pancakes, French toast, and eggs.

This is a slightly larger than normal deal, since they are getting married in Las Vegas. But Spouse and I are more than ready for a real vacation, and this gives us a lovely excuse to take one. He�s busily pursuing hotels, flights and car rentals, which warms my heart. I love to see him so engaged. (Could it be the Zoloft already, or is it just the Vegas Factor, she wondered?)

We�ve both gotten our time off approved, and now it is time for me to settle down to about a month of Spouse driving me pleasantly batshit with his enthusiasm. Bless his little old heart.

After breakfast, we went up to Racine and poked around in the Barnes and Noble for a while. Spouse didn�t find anything, but I got the first season of �The Muppet Show�, renewed my membership to their discount club�and finally broke down and bought my own copy of the �Wicked� OCR. I got tired of waiting for Niece to loan me hers.

I�m vaguely �meh� on this musical, although it is worth listening to for the performances as much as the music. I love Idina Menzel, especially.

Once we got home, it was more of the same from Saturday, except we didn�t have to cook and bake, having a generous supply of leftovers. I stretched out on the couch for the afternoon, alternating between naps and disc 1 of The Muppets.

Spouse, having walked Raji in the morning, was 'The Chosen One' all day long, receiving much in the way of nap snuggles and lap snuggles and dogly affection. I, far from being offended or jealous, felt a certain sense of relief at being able to move about the house free of a FuzzNose wedged up my backside.

So that was my weekend, for what it was worth. To me, the great American house mouse, it was grand.

And did you notice that Spouse actually took it upon himself to do a couple of things? Things that I�ve been taking 100% of the responsibility for lately? Yeah�that rocked.