Playing with the boys

Last week, I hung out in Orlando with Nic and Zac. Laurie and Chris are preparing for a shuttle launch and had a scheduling conflict Wednesday, plus the boys were off Friday, so they needed someone to keep the little critters.

Somewhat fortunately, I'm out of work now so I got to go. I left with Laurie the same afternoon as my party and got there at a reasonable hour, but after the boys had gone to bed. (And to sleep, which is two totally different things, I've learned.)

Anyway, I got to be on Kid Duty parts of the week -- like drop off or pickup -- for some of the week, then both on Wednesday and I had them all to myself on Friday.

In between, I bought a car. Nothing special, justa bland FSU garnet 2006 Corolla. I'm familiar enough with Toyotas and had researched enough about the the model and asked enough questions prior to meeting the owner that basically the only thing that would have turned me off would have been a Gator sticker or something.

Instead, it had a gold pinstripe, so I knew it was an all right deal. I got it for the KBB "good" third-party price, which is what it is. The dealers really want to hose you, so unless this thing falls apart soon -- and it's got 98k miles on it -- I did all right. (Chris checked it out and said it appears fine, too.) I will be needing new tires soon, but that's not horribly bad if I do them two at a time.

Anyway, it's complicated getting money from Tallahassee out in Havana when all you have is a debit card but hamdullah it worked. I even managed to do the tax/tag/title thing, although my temporary tag flew off somewhere between Perry and Havana. Ah well, li fat mat, as we'd say in Morocco. It's gone. I'll get a real tag soon enough.

So back to the boys. Nic is my buddy, and Zac tolerated me this time. None of that "Who are you?" stuff this time, although I get get called "Aunt Wendy" and "Aunt Lee" here and there.

We played baseball and kickball, Monopoly and Wii Resort and spent time at the park. They gave Lucy -- my car -- their stamp of approval from the back seat, and then we went to some kind of horribly overpriced putt putt. Nic got wet. Twice. Really, really wet.

People told me twice I resemble Laurie -- one "You sound just like her!" and one "Oh, I knew you were her sister - you look alike!) I just don't see it, and neither does she.

I've tested my Morocco limits by eating out successfully, including not flipping out with that little buzzer thing at Outback.

And I got a lot of work on this free-lance gig done, although I am not sure I am doing it the way I'm supposed to be. I have a meeting on that tomorrow.

Now, I am trying to get on the job hunt, but I don't know what's out there. I got a call that cheered me up about one, although it was more of "We're still planning to hire but I'm leaving the country for a while, so don't hold your breath." I also got a "thanks for playing, please try again" from another, but I hope to at least find some part-time work fairly soon.

In the meantime, I'm still cleaning and paring down like a madwoman. I'm also on call for nephew sitting during the next shuttle launch and might wind up being a driver to Zippy's softball this weekend in Tampa.

And I started French classes at the senior center (extremely funny, IMO) and am looking into the Red Cross disaster training, too. I certainly don't lack options, which is really nice!