We had company for the weekend, Mike and Jen, and as hard as I might try, I can't come up with a single gripe or complaint about them. They arrived when they said they were going to arrive, and left when they said they were going to leave. They played with our kids - and not only that, but they seemed to enjoy it rather than appearing to suffer through these short people on their way to something "fun." Then when the kids were in bed, we all played cards and talked and acted like grown-ups (okay, like grown-ups who make fart jokes and argue over song lyrics... close enough!) and generally had a fantastic time. It really takes the wind out of my sarcastic rants, ya know.

Never fear, my mother-in-law is coming to visit in 3 weeks, I'm sure she'll pick up the slack in the houseguests-as-hemmorhoids category.

On Saturday, the Men went golfing and the Women (and Jacob, since walking is apparently a major prerequisite for golf and he's just not there yet) went shopping. We spent a while at this little playground type thing for kids 5 and under at the mall, and made the delightful discovery that Jacob's roly-poly-ness and basic sweetness and lack of aggression make him absolutely irresistible to the 2-3-year-old age group. A veritable parade of wobbly toddlers had to come over, poke briefly at Jacob, and then push him right on over backwards. It was on a soft padded floor, so he didn't get hurt, and he does do a backward roll in a charmingly floppy way - but still, give the kid a break, okay? Geez.

Saturday night I went on an ice cream run, and brought home 5 sundaes from Friendly's - one for everyone except Jacob. He remedied that situation with ease, by doing constant circuits around the room, mooching off anyone and everyone. He probably burned off more calories in the crawling than he consumed in the ice cream. He also took the opportunity to get quite affectionate with me, which was horrible because I was wearing a new white shirt and he was eating hot fudge... but how could I possibly refuse a baby kiss or 12?

Then on Sunday I had lunch out with my friend Carolyn, WITHOUT CHILDREN. We went through an entire meal without a single pause due to interruption, spills, poking, whining, drool, questions, begging for dessert, counting how many bites left to take, wiping someone else's mouth, or discipline. It was amazing. Of course, we spent the vast majority of the time talking about our kids, and then we went shopping for our kids, but it was still a bit of a break from being Mommy all day long.

Spent yesterday doing hundreds of mundane but important errands, just clearing out paperwork and seeing to all of these little things that have been festering on my to-do list for long past the time when it became embarrassing. Among those, I called a contractor to come look at our house, for an estimate on putting in a 2nd bathroom and getting a window in my father's bedroom. He gave me a plumber's number to start things going on the bathroom, and quotes me $1000 for the window.

$1000?!?

For a WINDOW?

Yikes.

So, I'll be doing some more calling today, to find out if that guy is planning to install gold-plated diamonds or if he's on crack or if he's playing a practical joke or if, God forbid, he's about average in that estimate. The fun never stops!