Girls' weekend

As of this writing (10:30 PM-ish), my wife has been out of the house for about seven hours and both boys are fed, entertained, and in bed sleeping soundly.

Amy will be away until some time on Sunday, and I've had to use the backspace key at least two dozen times to write these first two sentences.  God help us all.

She's in Calgary, reuniting with three other gals who made up most of the female half of the participants in the trip to Cuba this past November.  (The other three gals are single, and Amy got invited because she's the sister of one of the other three; perhaps the others don't know what a bad influence my wife can be??  God help them all.)  They were going out to dinner at Red Lobster when she called to check in at about 8 PM or so, and I have no idea what the rest of their weekend entails.  Whenever Amy or I have a weekend away, alone, that's normally for the best.  Our marriage is stronger because, in part, of the "go away so I can miss you" aspect that should be a feature of every successful relationship.

Me, I'm flying solo this weekend.  Fed the boys full of a hearty dinner and we three chased each other around the basement for a good hour before I forced them into their pyjamas (post tickle-fest), read them a story, and tucked them into bed.  The run around the basement must have tired them out because Tavish only got out of bed twice before he stayed down for good.  Little bugger has been getting out at least a half dozen times most nights lately before he goes to sleep.  Amy and I have taken turns being the one to get him back into bed.  The standard caveat issued by the one NOT tucking him into bed for the Nth time has been, "Be nice..."  He's earned a couple swats on the back side.  So unlike his more docile, people-pleasing, older brother.

So, weekend plans:

Saturday morning, I think I'll call my co-worker, Dave, and wish him a happy 47th birthday, then take the boys grocery shopping.  Perhaps out for a coffee and bagel after that.  It snowed today, so my erstwhile plans to clean some of the freshly exposed dog crap out of the backyard may have been put on the back burner for now.  Instead, somehow, I'll just keep the boys entertained, finish the laundry that Amy started this morning, get the dishes done, and whatever else it takes to make it to the end of Saturday.  Sunday will take care of itself.

Friday is ending with a bit of a geek-out.  The boys and I went to Blockbuster right after we finished supper and rented a few movies.  They got to watch a Spider-Man cartoon after we got home, and I just finished watching The Bourne Ultimatum.  Let me say that, in a fit of slightly drunken exuberance, the Bourne movies all pretty much rock the casbah.  Even though I've never actually been in one.  A casbah, that is.  And now, after I hit the POST button, I'm going to watch Afro Samurai.  Some animated flick I heard a little about, whose main voice talents are provided by Samuel L. Mutherf@*kin' Jackson.  So that's bound to be a kick ass movie by default.

I'll get to bed by about 1 AM and Tavish will wake me up before 6 AM when he patters into the master bedroom and starts kicking me in the the soft places until I get up with him.

Ah yes... it will be a grand weekend indeed!  Especially after the third fairly stiff Ryan Coke I'm about to go pour myself...

Comments

[Terri]

Enjoy your weekend. Corey and I have very few weekends like that, but we both work shiftwork and enjoy the bed to ourselves every so often.

Working in Emerg tonight and honestly, I'd say half my clientelle are on a first name basis with Ryan Coke.

[Mark]

Dude, sounds like a pretty good guys' weekend you have cooking there at the Flying Simian Ranch.

Myself, I sometimes stay up late to watch a manly movie, too. I'm about halfway through Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai right now. Haven't seen it in years, and so far it's definitely been worth the second viewing.

Oh, and I caught Blow for the first time last night. Not bad, but I've always had a hard time with movies that try to make me feel sorry for a guy who chose a path so risky, illegal, and harmful to society. Still, it spoke to me as a father.

Drinking alone, eh?

Enjoy.

[Simon]

Terri,

Being on a first name basis with Ryan Coke ain't such a bad thing... so long as it doesn't bring you into emerg. Silly people.

Mark,

It's like George says: You know when I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself!

I quite liked Ghost Dog the first (and only) time I saw it. Forest Whitaker as a samurai is definitely OUT THERE a little, but those quirky movies can have a lot of appeal if done right. Never seen Blow, though. Or done any.

[Émilie B]

Ahhh, I can entirely relate to "kid watch". There were a good many weeks in November/December where we would also take turns putting Xavier back to bed. Frank would sometimes count how many times he'd get up Robinson-Crusoe-like on the white board, and it ended up a sort of contest between us: which parent could complain about the worst kid watch. I don't remember who put Xavier back to bed 52 times, but there were some tough evenings then. It got better when we moved him from the transition bed to the twin bed, so I have my doubts about the toddler bed's efficiency now.

I'm impressed with your plans of laundry and dishes throughout all the babysitting. If I went away a whole weekend and left Frank alone with the kids, I'd just be glad if there was space enough to walk on the floor - I'd expect all the surfaces to be full of dishes, toys, etc.

The Bourne movies are tight. Favourites of mine - not just because of Matt Damon, either.

I like how you titled that post Girls' Weekend.

[Simon]

Émilie, I'm happy to report, after the fact, that when my wife arrived home Sunday afternoon, all the dishes were done and the laundry was folded and put away. The floors were mostly tidy, even. It was a busy, busy time!