elfs | The weekend was shattered, busy, and stressy...

Omaha had to fly down to Florida Thursday evening for a funeral, which left me with the unappealing responsibility of making sure everything happened on time. Friday was supposed to be the day I started in on my new contract with my new client, and I was supposed to give about eight hours; I managed a little over six. After getting Kouryou-chan out the door at 8:30, I worked straight through until noon. I had lunch, and then 1:30pm, at which point Storm called and said that the school's promised "activities bus" had not materialized, she didn't have enough cash on her for the Metro, and could I please come get her?

So, 75 minutes after lunch, I had to go pick up Storm, 75 minutes after we got home from that errand, I had to get Kouryou-chan from school. 45 minutes after that, Kouryou-chan had to be at dance class. 45 minutes after that, Storm had dance class. 60 minutes after that, I had to pick them both up from dance class. Usually my family is wonderful, but Friday night it was little more than an interruption machine. We had leftovers for dinner. My day, and my concentration, were shattered.

Saturday, we were up and out the door at 9:45am, after a quick breakfast of pancakes, because I had to get new dance tights for Kouryou-chan, and Storm needed a top and camisole for her own dance event. Lisakit went with us, and was incredibly helpful in finding a decent set of white tops fro Storm. As we were pulling out of the dance store parking lot, Omaha called; she was back from her funeral. We hurtled to the airport.

Omaha was so happy to see us, her sane family she said. Well, it was an insane schedule, as we got home just in time to rope the kids back to the John Knox church to do the annual dance troupe presentations there. There was one very competent Irish group, one really competent tap dancer, a few ballet demos (including Kouryou-chan's, where she looked super-strong compared to her classmates), and the hip-hop, which was startlingly short-- less than a minute! We can only hope the other routine is longer.

We ate lunch at the church-- they had a lovely Irish stew (or hot dogs, which the girls ate) as part of their Christmas Faire. And then, an hour after that, it was time for Kouryou-chan to go to her Saturday rehearsals.

Or so we thought. I had just dropped her off and was pulling out of the parking lot when a woman standing on the corner waved to me and pointed back at the dance school. Kouryou-chan was waiting for me. "It's not rehearsal for me, daddy! It's rehearsal for you!"

Oh yeah, Omaha and I had promised to be props again this year in the Nutcracker. So I went and dropped Kouryou-chan off, and picked up Omaha, and we did our rehearsal thing.

It was actually fun. There are other parents there, and we get to socialize. I tried to do the waltz, but was told that "Maybe you two should just stand over there and look pretty." Sounded good to me.

After that, we headed home, and had about an hour and a half to relax before, again, Omaha, Kouryou-chan and LisaKit headed out to spend the evening at D20 Games, watching Dorkness Rising and JourneyQuest, the latter an incredibly silly series in the spirit of Order of the Stick, only done as live-action. There is much madness to be had.

Yamaraashi-chan and I stayed home. I made turkey noodle soup and finished reading Bujold's Cryoburn, which was kinda stunning. I might do a full review, but I'll just say this: the book is sloppy and uninspired. For seven years fans have asked "And what happened next to Miles and Ekaterin?" and Lois's response was this book: "What do you think happens next? What was inevitably going to happen next." Yamaraashi-chan spent the entire evening on the phone. Gad, teenagers.

After the other party got home and we got the kids into bed, Omaha and I played one round of cards and went straight to sleep. We were both exhausted.