Kick My Own Butt

Yeah, so it's been almost a week since I've updated... so you might want to settle in for the long haul.

Saturday started itself off with shoe shopping and Wimbledon and finished itself out with a birthday party for at The Palamino. It's a restaurant with a nice bar in Westwood. We stopped at a Ralphs and picked up a small cheesecake and strawberry shortcake for the party. We were still early so we ordered drinks. We told the waitress that the food should go on one bill, and the drinks should be picked up by the individuals as they went.

I had a great time watching the football game, chatting and Ken-watching... which I think is a sport in itself. He delighted in shouting "Bush!!!" as often as possible, encouraging Liz to do the same. Ken likes the thought of a female Democrat yelling Bush whether it's USC football's Reggie Bush or otherwise.

I finally met the ice skater and company and saw some people I hadn't seen since Liz's last party. When the bills arrived... there were two... one for food and one for everyone else... and of course, most people had cards. The others were rather upset that she didn't farm it out to separate checks, so the manager spent about 20 minutes straightening out the mess.

There was an 18% gratuity added to everything, and others were grumpy about paying it, as the waitress had been ignoring them. The waitress lost out on any extra I would have put it when I paid separately. I guessed about $15 but it was only $11 and change. Still, everyone managed to get untangled and be upbeat about it.

On Sunday we went to Ikea for meatballs and furniture. I bought a dresser for Lizzie, a narrow Billy, a wide Billy, and the pieces to make a bookshelf for school. We unloaded with no injury, managing to cart them upstairs, then headed back to Mom's to deliver the truck. I could tell she wanted to go out to dinner so we headed off to a quaint little Mexican place around the corner. I had fajitas that could have served three. The takeout box was completely full when I left.

So we get home and I decided to start putting the dresser together while watching Jane Eyre. Lizzie promptly begins to doze. Now it's not hard to put together IKEA furniture. They have rather clear wordless directions... but I managed to put the plastic floor guards of one piece on the top, rather than the bottom. So when I tried to put the top on, there was a little plasticky thingy blocking the holes. Of course the left side stuck when I tried to lift it and smack, the desktop fell on top of my foot, and cracked one of the support boards. Undaunted I iced it and then went back to work, cursing little plastic doohickies. I promptly backed up onto a hammer and took a centimeter of skin off the bottom of my foot. I stopped to bleed for a moment but DAMNIT I WAS GOING TO FINISH!

And I did. Lizzie and I dragged it into the back bedroom and stuck the drawers in. Spiffy.

Monday was reserved for Bookcase I - Narrow. It went together with no personal injuries. Watched Brother Bear then headed off to Nikki's house for dinner and organizational meeting. I'm so not the perfectionist. I hope we pull this off without getting down each other's throats, but it was quite civil.

On Tuesday I took the train out to Downtown and met Lizzie on the way. We went to our favorite Happy Hour spot and had 3 drinks each and lovely appetizer type food and dessert. Analisse met us and then we headed off to see Little Shop of Horrors. It was great! I had a serious problem repressing my lip movements. The puppetry was uber cool. I love that musical.

Lizzie took my car on Weds. because hers is doing a weird fishtailing thing. Upon her return we headed over to Mom's to watch the season finale of Amazing Race. SOOOO glad that Chip and Kim won. Just wish idiot head and annoying mouth hadn't come in second.

Thursday was marked with my first class of Beginning Your Novel. Yeah, it sounds a little cheezy but it includes info on format, marketing, and submitting... so hopefully it will be useful.

Then there's today. Woke up with just enough time to leave the house. Tired.