Miscellaneous memories of a weekend past...and looking forward to the week that will be...

Rather than a themed idea today, I find my mind is a mish-mash of thoughts; why not write the same way?

Highlights of the weekend: the good and the bad...

- Accomplishment of some of the stuff on my "long-term" To Do List (yes, I have one). Yahoo! I cleaned out the coat closet in the foyer (okay, the husband helped a little), wherein we discovered jackets we hadn't worn since college and a WHOLE lot of dog hair on the previously unaccessible floor of the closet. bleagh. Also in the mix: vacuum bags from a vacuum long since deceased, now antiquated dial-up moden cables, very cute polo down vests that are too small for my boys now (first friend to read this blog and notice that they're now available for their smaller boys gets them!), and a tampon in a jacket I haven't worn in 10 years (darnit! Why couldn't it have been a $20 bill?) I also did my sewing after 6 months... took me awhile to find the clothes I had stuffed out of my sight that needed mending, but I did it! (Mom, your pants are ready).

- The Terps men's basketball team rode over the bubble to get a bid to the NCAA tournament! Good for the Terps! The season began quite dismally; however, they pulled themselves together to get a #10 seed and be one of 7 ACC teams to compete the in the big dance this month. Let March Madness begin!

- I started a new 1,000-piece puzzle on the card table in the family room; this makes me feel like a good mom even though I end up hogging all of the puzzle-doing... and ignoring the poor husband

- World War IV erupted in the basement last night between the boys. The husband and I were watching Hitch when I began to hear some rather unpleasant rumblings below. I paused the Tivo. "It's starting to sound nasty down there," I observantly remarked, as voices were reaching never-before decibels and clues that it had become physical were becoming obvious. The valiant husband proceeded downstairs, broke up the fight, and sent both boys to their rooms to bed (8:30 pm).... after which my almost-13-year old continued to make the "rational" argument that it wasn't fair to get sent to bed for fighting. (Just a note here... the parenting books all encourage us to allow siblings to manage conflict on their own unless/until it gets physical. Clearly these authors don't have boys. It's always physical, for crying out loud). Almost 13-year-old's argument was that it's our responsibility to settle the disputes rather than punish them... on what planet has he been living? I dunno... In the end, I went up to tuck them in around 10 and found them sleeping in the same bed, all buddied up. The secret to promoting sibling love is to punish them both, thereby allying them against the evil parents.

- A rousing game of Taboo was played with my brother and sister-in-law-to-be, us and the boys. Game blurtings are frequently funny, especially when wine is involved, and this evening was not an exception. For those of you who have never played, Taboo is a game in which one attempts to get his/her teammates to guess a certain word but is not allowed to say 5-6 related words. There is, of course, a timer. Here were some words:

"glasnost" - the husband picked that word and passed...

"strategy" - my sister-in-law-to-be won the prize for this one: "uh... this is an idea... about other ideas... within a framework of ideas...." hee hee.

- A new recipe I tried, Enchilada Casserole, got a thumbs' up by 5 out of 6 people. My 10-year-old thought it sucked and refused to eat it. When I encouraged him to try some of it, he appeared to be dying, choking on scum, unable to breathe, and mothered by the most evil woman in the universe. I'm happy to report he is alive and well and has had his Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast.

- I finally got my new neighbor out running with me! She was a cross-country runner in high school and currently runs on the treadmill since she has twin 5-year-olds and a 3-year-old. We did a very pleasant and fun 3.11 miles... I did a very nice 8.3 miles in the drizzle yesterday and, as I ran through a neighborhood next to mine, a man on the sidewalk yelled out to me: "hey - I just saw you running through town [3 miles from here]... shouldn't you be dead by now?" I love that stuff...

- My 16-year-old microwave died. God Bless it. It has heated up everything from midnight nachos during our early 20s to baby formula (but NOT breastmilk, of course! Microwaves kill the nutrients in breastmilk as I recall fuzzily from 10 years ago...). sigh. Goodbye, microwave.

As for this week... my boys are home from school for spring break. If I were techno-savvy, I would have a sanity meter displayed at all times on my blog; no doubt it would reflect the deteriorating state of my mind as the week progresses. Alas, I am not that techy... Just please wish me luck.