Crazy days

Yesterday was quite a day. Grace graciously agreed to come up here with us for the week to help me out with stuff -- I just sold a ton of stuff on eBay and had to get it all mailed yesterday, so the idea was that she would take care of Andrew for me while I did that. Also, since I'd be dropping Greg off at work and using the car, I'd also get all the food shopping done, and any other errands I could think of. Sooo....yesterday morning Andrew woke up with the worst case of whining that he's had for some time. I couldn't get ANYTHING done at all. We went outside to play, where he was marginally happy (unusual for him -- usually going outside is like entering the promised land for him!), but then an unfortunate thing happened. Some guy in BDU's (the uniform that Greg wears to work every day) came out of his apartment near us, and Andrew immediately started saying "Datty?! Datty?!" more and more frantically. I tried to explain that it was "just a guy", but he was convinced. The guy was white, had a buzz cut, and was wearing "Datty's" clothes, so that means that it must be him. Andrew ran towards him just as the guy got into his jeep, unaware of the drama that he was creating. As the guy drove away, Andrew had a total meltdown. His Datty had not noticed him, and had driving away in a cool, big car. This was all so terrible that he lay down in the parking lot and I had to carry him back to the house. The only think I could think of next was a good long walk, so I packed him into the stroller and we walked around our neighborhood. We didn't really go that far, but it took about a half-hour -- the baby has dropped so low now that It's hard for me to get anywhere very quickly. =0 We got home and after a Donut Man video and a very long bath, Andrew finally went down for his nap.

I took this opportunity to start printing out my eBay invoices, matching up payment receipts, etc. By the time I had almost finished, Grace, who was washing my dishes (isn't she great?!), starting shouting about water. I ran (wait -- walked with the intent of great speed) over to find water pouring out from under the sink. Our apartment Handy Man had installed a new garbage disposal over the weekend, and apparently hadn't finished the job properly. I went over to the landlady's office, and she said that the guy, Larry, was out for the day, and wouldn't be able to look at anything until nighttime. This was no good for me. I called my Dad, and after assessing the situation with him over the phone, Grace and I noticed that the garbage disposal unit under the sink was only partially screwed into the blade unit. I started to wiggle it a little, gave it a twist, and the whole thing came off in my hand! So here I am, legs aching with the circulation pretty much all stopped since they were folded up under me (pregnant people have %150 of the normal blood volume!), not able to bend forward very far because of The Huge Belly, holding this heavy unit attached to pipes that could break if I dropped it! Grace was right there and helped me stabilize it on a bucket and several phone books until we could decide what to do next. After much manipulation of everything involved, we were finally able to line things up, and while Grace strained to hold the garbage disposal in place, I successfully screwed the two units back together. Triumphantly I called my dad, then went to tell my landlady, who was relieved that the problem had been solved. (An old guy who was visiting her in the office commented "Hire the girl!") I was now walking on a cloud of "DoItMyselfNess", but I hadn't gotten anything done!! Or had I?

The next hour was spent going over recipes, creating a meal plan for the next two weeks, and then creating a grocery list to go along with that (the meals requiring highly perishable items are made the first week, the others the second week), and a mini-list for any super-perishables that had to be bought next week.

I was going to take a shower before leaving to finally complete my missions (it was 4:30 already!), but then Andrew woke up from his nap! I quickly ran out the door with all the merch that needed to be mailed and my grocery list, while Grace went to take care of the little guy.

The post office used to close at 6pm, but they've recently (unbenounced to me) begun closing at 5:30, so by the time that I had everything all packed up and addressed, I was closing them out, and left there at around 5:45. I felt so bad! Then I went food shopping, and by the time that I went to pick up Greg, it was around 7:00. Oh well.

I had to remind myself that I actually DID get a lot done...just not quite as I had planned it. And in the end, I finished everything that I needed to. At 10:00 though I was ready to drop, and fell asleep almost as soon as I hit the bed. Maybe I'll actually get to hang out with Greg sometime this week...

As it turns out, Andrew was coming down with something and now has a fever, poor guy. No wonder why he was whining.

In other news...Greg and I are in the market for another VW Passat, since I need a car badly and we can finally afford one. Does anyone know of one that's for sale? Our requirements: 2001 or newer, no more than $12,000, not dark green or dark blue, and it has to have a manual transmission.