So

Did I mention we had a busy weekend?We had a busy weekend. But first, here's just a "silly"; Missy with Mojo's rear bike reflector that she decided would make a GREAT pacifier even though she doesn't really use pacifiers. Of ANY kind.

We called it the "blinky binky".

Here she is again, the little minx. It's not that she's cute. It's that she KNOWS she's cute.

So. Saturday started with an early trip down to St. John's Poekoelan dojo "One With Heart" for the morning "Little Monkeys" class. Our little monkey was a one-Peeper Kung Fu Panda (which, of course, we had to watch the night before just to get in the mood); he scrambled like a monkey, lept like a crane...

...slithered like a snake and sprang like a tiger. He was such good little student, listening to the instructor and doing his best at all the moves. He said he liked the "monkey" best because the kids got to leap and scuttle around. We're goingback next Saturday.

After that we went to the St. John's Community Center park for climbing, swinging and running, all with his friend J from daycare (who was also in the poekoelan class). I had to run to work at that point, but Mojo said later that the Peep and Missy had a lovely time on a sunny Saturday in the park...Next up was everyone's favorite, drywalling Missy's bedroom.

Little Miss decided that she would lend a hand, or, in this case, a hand trowel.

We applied drywall compound to the joints and filled the screw holes, slapped wood filler on the nasty horizontal roof joists, and tried to even out the areas where the closet walls once stood. Missy helped by dipping her little trowel into the small cup I gave her and dappling the drywall goop on the wall. She was very proud of her efforts.We played a little in the afternoon and tried to clean up the place a bit, and then at five our beloved Nanny Jen came by and Mojo and I went out to dinner and a movie with our friends M & W. We tried a place down on SE 21st and Clinton called "Vindalho", which turned out to be an interesting and pricey variation on the Mughal and classic South Indian menu. I've never had pear samosas, but they are a rather nice surprise.

The film was the Coen Brother's "Burn After Reading" which was also a nice surprise (if any Coen product can be called nice - it rather characteristically featured various idiots and maniacs doing unpleasant things with and to each other, rescued by the fact that a) it was viciously funny, and b) you didn't really care about or for any of the characters which made the viciousness funny.) in that it did not contain a single character which was either animated or juvenile. I hear you other parents chuckling ruefully.

Mmmm.

Early the next morning our little Missy woe up chanting "Lucy! Lucy! Lucy!", who is her little two-year-old friend next door. So. We got all dressed up and got on out little tricycle to ride the twenty feet next door and see if our friends were home (they travel a lot, so visits are often disappointing...). But they were! Oh joy! Oh rapture! Let the playing begin!

So. We played over at their house for an hour......and then......we came back over to our house and played some more. Popcorn and juice were partaken. Pumpkins and apples and potatoes were decorated with food (much of which was ALSO eaten). The little peeps played, decorated and ate...

...and ate some more. Oh, the picture at right is Missy showing off her handlebar streamers. Every trike needs handlebar streamers, neh? One has decided that it doesn't want to stay play, though, and Missy has been badgering me to re-epoxy it. Maybe in Springtime, sweetie, OK?

Here's the poppy feed in progress. So. While the little folks and Mom created and ate......Daddy went back out to Missy's, fired up the orbital sander......and sanded the drywall compound.

And.

The.

Textured.

Drywall.
Let me tell you. There is a special place in Hell reserved for textured drywall. Especially when you're trying to UN-texture it to match the nice, smooth drywall you've just hung.

Gaaah! as Sarah Palin would say.

But as you can see: Fall is really upon us, and it's time to finish up Little Miss' bedroom so she can have her own room come the spring!

It's late, and I have a couple of chapters of "Raven's Shadow" to read, and a warm wofe to cuddle, and sleep. So. G'night.