Busy - In theory today was a vacation day. In actuality it was hardly restful. I had to drop the car off for its 30K scheduled maintenance. I had to take the girls to the dentist and drop them off at school afterwards. The twins testing results were discussed at their school. Timothy had a speech therapy. I had to go back to the mechanic with the special widget that they needed to remove the wheel locks. I took the four older kids to Jakes Ice Cream. Timbo and I went to pick my car up. I took Michelle out to dinner at Black Forest Cafe. Somewhere in there I spent on hour online doing quick work email responses and half an hour on a conference call with India. Phew!
School - Today was the girls' last day of school. Claire got a certificate: Cleanest Desk. She *IS* her mother's daughter. In this house "michelle" is a verb. "To Michelle" is to put something away before the person who took it out is even done with it. For example, say I take out a glass and a carton of orange juice. Then just as I'm about to pour it, a kidlet at the table asks for a napkin and I turn to get one. I turn back and can't find my glass and orange juice. I say, "sweetheart, did you just michelle my orange juice?" *grin* And she knows exactly what I mean.
During one of the errands today, Michelle worked with the girls to throw out a bunch of accumulated school paperwork. For Claire, it's no big deal. For Abby, it's completely the other way. All is valuable and might be needed in the future.
Dinner - After a bit of the usual pushback from Claire about baby-sitting, Michelle and I went to Black Forest Cafe tonight for dinner. It's a quiet place, a major contrast from life under this roof. I have to wonder what the couple adjacent to us must have been thinking. For example, in the middle of dinner I start discussing step aerobic sequences I saw at my gym this past week. Michelle likes to hear what other classes do in case she can find nuggets of originality she can incorporate in her class. What must that couple have thought hearing me say, "from there we did a mambo, cha-cha-cha, with a step touch around the bench to a ..." Meanwhile I'm sketching the moves out with two fingers on the tabletop. This is besides the silly stuff about the kids, a bit of work related technical stuff, etc.