All kinds of random

Hey, let's blindfold the kids and hand them a bat!

I lost a follower after that last post. I guess the dead bunnies pushed someone over the edge. I'll try to keep my posts in the realm of sunshine and rainbows and (blissfully unabused) puppy dogs henceforth. I know you are on the edge of your seat wondering how my weekend went, so here goes.

I took the kid to Weight Watchers with me yesterday morning. I chickened out and did not weigh in (I am a Lifetime member so technically I only have to weigh in once a month). Between the state fair and a bit of a medical issue I am battling . . . let's just say I did the scale a favor by not getting up there. After the meeting we grabbed some breakfast, then purchased our county fair tickets (to be used on Thursday), and then headed to a pet expo. Normally I would be working at a pet expo but our rescue opted not to participate in this one.

We spent quite a bit of time watching an agility demonstration. It reminded me how much I miss competing since Lucy died. I'm hoping to get Gretchen into agility, but she needs a solid foundation of obedience under her belt first (if she wore a belt, I mean). We'll get there. A lot of the rescues have "spin the wheel" games for a buck, so the kid spun every wheel she could find. She won a totebag, a popcorn ball (why is it that a popcorn ball sounds like it would be the yummiest thing ever and then you get it home and it tastes like a wad of dryer lint?), and some play-doh (thanks, Basset Hound rescue!)

The event organizers had a couple of rides set up outside in the parking lot, so I indulged the kid. One of the ride operators told me he had been standing there since 8 a.m. and that we were his first customers (it was around 11:30 a.m.). I told him that it seemed like there were a lot of kids inside the expo and he replied that he thought parents were scooting their kids out the side door so that they couldn't see the rides. I am sure I had other uses for the $7 I spent but I'm of the "they're only young once" school of thought. They also had one of those tall slides where you climb up and then fly down on a burlap sack. Since they had no other customers, they gave the kid a freebie after her first trip down.

"You know, they had one of these at the state fair and they wouldn't let my daughter ride because she's too short," I told the tattooed, text-messaging kid who was overseeing the slide.

He shrugged. "Oh yeah, we don't care here." Good to know. Seriously though, it does bug me when my daughter is deemed too short for stuff where it's hard to see how that one inch will somehow result in certain death if she does climb aboard. Meanwhile, some freakishly tall two-year-old might come along and be able to ride, but won't know not to stand up, flail his arms outside the car, etc.

After we left the pet expo, we grabbed some lunch and a birthday card for one of A's friends. On the way home, A mentioned that one of her toys is "expensive." I wasn't sure if she knew what the word meant, so I asked her. "What does expensive mean, sweetie?"

She replied, "Expensive means that when you break it, you have to tell your mom."

"You're right!" I responded.

Later in the afternoon, we attended her friend's fifth birthday party. We knew most of the kids there, as they are A's friends from church. The party was held in a park so that the kids could wear themselves out at the playground. As parents that is, of course, the goal.

Sunday was pretty uneventful. We went to church and then I came home and made lunch. After lunch, P said that he would take the kid somewhere so that I could have some time to myself. After checking his forehead to ensure that he did not have a fever, I took him up on the offer. I packed up my bike and drove to a local trail. Say what you will about my Craigslist bike, but it gets the job done. The weather was a little iffy and it seemed I was riding into the wind no matter what direction I was going, but it was a good ride nonetheless.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've received an invitation to play Hullabaloo and I'm feeling lucky.