mini-vaca

Velo-dude, Pinky, Curly & I went to the beautiful resort destination of the Quad Cities (southern IA-IL border) for Memorial Day. Big series of bike races, a pretty fun event that we used to hit just about every year. (before kids, that is)

Plan was to leave Friday evening right after work. Well, Friday morning I took a short but violent spill on the stairs at my house, full cup of coffee in hand, and hit the back of my head hard on the stairs. Pretty sure I had a minor concussion, finally felt mostly back to normal on Sunday.

Saturday in Burlington IA, the Snake Alley criterium, my favorite to watch. Velo-dude had a pretty good day, although he wasn't entirely satisfied with it. Spent some time with my boys down by the Mississippi River in the afternoon, here's a pic of them with my favorite Mississippi bridge behind them (truth be told, I haven't seen that many of them, but I still think this would be one of my favorites if I had). Curly is soaking wet due to a romp in the fountain that didn't make it into the picture.

Sunday race was at a truly beautiful park in Muscatine IA. Got to spend some good outdoor time with the boys, if only the city pool in the middle of the park hadn't been tempting us on the hot sunny day, only to be closed. Velo-dude had a migraine, but managed to finish his race, a small victory of sorts. Decided to take a break from fast food on Sunday night, so we sat ourselves down to a decent meal at a well-known chain I'll call...BananaBees. Velo-dude had been eyeing a table tent with a picture of a "mile high pie" on it, and we decided without much thought to order one for the table, with 4 forks. Velo-dude, Pinky, and Curly all dug in, and then I took a bite and immediately froze, recognizing the taste of peanut butter in my mouth. Stopped Curly, who suffers from a significant peanut allergy, from taking any more, and immediately confirmed with server that yes, it contained peanut butter, then talked Curly through it, making sure he was not feeling any danger signs. His eyes were as wide as can be, the poor little guy was FREAKED, as well he should have been. We completely lucked out...the pie truly was a mile high, and his fork never made it to the lower levels where the pb was found. Once we were certain he was not having a reaction, we ordered him a pb-free dessert of his own, and he calmed down. I am still appalled with myself for not having checked first. It is SO rare for us to go out to a sit-down meal, and rarer yet for us to order a dessert. But I am confident that this will put me back on my toes. Was also appalled to note that the epi-pen I had so carefully packed was back in the hotel room, not in my purse, at the time. It must suck to be my kid.

Monday's race venue was not great for the boys. Would have enjoyed watching more racing myself, but we ended up putting up some chairs and reading (or video-gaming if you're Curly) for a few hours. Drove home through lots of rain, got home around 10 pm, not too bad. I'm glad we went, but probably won't do that again for a while. Velo-dude would have more fun with his racer friends anyway, I tell myself.

Reading...I am getting into the habit of reading some of the same things Pinky is reading. It started with the Lightning Thief series earlier this spring, and I actually got into them, I always did have a thing for Greek mythology. But this weekend I couldn't find the book I had started, so I picked up another book Pinky had, and I must say it sucked. "Found". Terrible ending, only sucks you into the next in the series, really cheesy plot at the end, ugh. I read the whole thing Monday at the race and in the car. At least it's a quick read. I have the 4th in the mythology series waiting for me upstairs though, think I'd better go do that before I start studying in earnest again. Also started My Sister's Keeper, but I may have to put that one on hold for a while. I wish I could read guilt-free, instead of feeling like I should be studying all the time.

Way better than raindrops on roses...

THESE are a few of my favorite things...and oddly enough, even the clipboard that snuck into the picture is one of my favorite things...I love the two-toned wood. So, the reason for the pic is that after a too-eventful day, a cosmo was in order. Why was it too eventful, you ask? For starters, took a professional exam thingy this morning (4 hours of the morning, anyway), and it did not go well. I knew I was not well-prepared going in, since I had started serious studying way too late in the game, but I was frustrated at how poorly things went even on the topics I thought I did know well. Checked a discussion board tonight and found I was not alone...even the well-prepared peeps were extremely unhappy about the exam. Even though the bar has apparently been lowered, I am certain I'll be back at it in 6 months. Ugh. But, at least I feel like I know where to go when I start back up, so hopefully I'll get 'er next time.

I got to take the rest of the day off (the company knows you'll be worthless if you go back to work after that), so the afternoon actually was uneventful. Did a little shopping and a half-hearted attempt at picking up the house (not cleaning mind you, just picking up). When velo-dude got home we decided he should mow the lawn while Curly and I went to pick up some dinner, and that's when the excitement really picked up. We got the food, and were almost home (within feet of the house) when I stopped at a stop sign, waiting to turn left and another quick left into my driveway. As I waited, I saw the car facing me pull out into the intersection, and right into the path of a large pickup truck. I wanted to tell him to stop, but I couldn't figure out how, so I just had to watch the whole thing in slow-mo, as the truck t-boned him HARD on the passenger side and his car spinned a bit and slid sideways, closer and closer to me, thankfully stopping about 2 feet from my front end. Yikes. Since we were essentially in front of our house, Velo-dude and Pinky came running out after hearing the big crunch sound, as did a whole lot of our neighbors. The ensuing helping out of those involved, submitting statements, chatting with the neighbors we never see, and the boys wanting to watch till both cars got towed away, lasted over an hour. Luckily it was the ONE night of the week when we had no activities or other commitments. Scary stuff. The passenger was the only one hurt, but I think it was not too serious, a hit to the head which is hopefully not a big one, and banged up a bit. The driver at fault was a high school kid, and I wanted to hug him, he was so shaken up. When his dad finally got there he was all matter of fact and let's get this business taken care of , and I felt like screaming "for the love of Pete, just give your kid a hug!" He finally did get hugs from the mom of the kid that got hurt, once she was done in the ambulance with hers.

So, now that the intense studying is over (for a while), I'm going to try to get back into writing every once in a while. I've had plenty of stories to tell, but I've been hesitant to write about my trivialities when I've got good friends dealing with some really serious shit right now. But I know that's not right, and I also know that if I were dealing with things half as serious as they are right now, I'd probably want some diversions. So, divert I will, when I can carve out the time.

And now, I think I hear the second half of that beautiful steel shaker calling my name.