Lately...

This weekend started off pretty well. We drove up to Seattle for the Mizz's cousin J's 1st birthday party. There were maybe 6 kids and 20-some adults. Lots of food and drinks and birthday cake, although J was not impressed. He especially didn't understand when the whole room started singing the same song at him. I can see how that might be weird.

We stayed overnight in the city and toured the Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park Sunday morning with J and the Mizz. They were mainly interested in throwing rocks into the water. Dad and I had fun throwing rocks too, but we were also aware of some art. It's actually pretty cool. They've built it up so it bridges over a street and a set of railroad tracks and runs along Puget Sound for quite a way.

We enjoyed the time we got spend with my sister and her husband (and J) since we rarely get to see them when it's not at a huge gathering with lots going on or when one of us is in a hurry to get somewhere. And Mizz got to play with his cousin, and more importantly, all of his cousin's toys, many of which are different than his own. Which is way cool.

The ride home became quite a bummer. All three of us had started feeling a little crappy through the weekend, but Franny got pretty sick on the ride home. We had to stop several times while she desecrated the various trees of the great state of Washington with what was left of dinner. I felt pretty bad for her, but in the middle of nowhere, what can you do?

Monday, we all took a sick day. Franny was down for the count, and Mizz had a miserable cold. I wasn't exactly in top form, and although if it was just me, I probably would have gone to work anyway feeling terrible, I was happy to take the day off to babysit. Franny was careful to note that it's not babysitting when it's your own kid, but when both of you aren't doing well, it can feel that way.

Franny still wasn't feeling so well today, but she was improved, so I did make it back to work. Judging by the state of the house this evening, it wasn't such a good day -- not for her at least. It looks like Mizz had the run of the place. He even stuffed the first wrong thing in the VCR this morning. Luckily it was a CD and not a PBJ sandwich. The VCR survived just fine, but the CD is pretty scratched.

It was a good one too. Shishskabob by Fighting Gravity, which has the background music from the underground hit video, Sweeper of Skaville. Luckily, I had already ripped (or per the RIAA, "pirated") it, so I still have the music. Which is cool, as this is one of the local bands from when I was in college, so there're some memories there, and unlike The Dave Matthews Band (maybe the biggest thing to come out of Charlottesville since me), I don't run across Fighting Gravity very often.