Birthday Party!

Today started off rather mundane. Or at least I intended it to be that way. I knew bruiser and genius had a b-day party to attend on Sunday, so I thought we'd all take it easy...

That is, until I checked the invitation (just to check the time, mind you) at 8:30am this morning, and discovered the party was TODAY at 9:30am. This discovery prompted lightning fast showering/bathing/dressing in about 20 minutes. Then a round of throwing the gifts in the car, a dessert for the boys (both are allergic to milk - and NO they are not just lactose intolerant) since they can't have cake, and also putting two of my sewing machines on the floor of the car, somewhere, anywhere, omg I have 5 minutes to get to this &*(^ party!!! More on the sewing machines later.

We make it to the party only slightly late, and that was due to the fact that although you can see the park from the street, the actual street you can park on to GO to the park is hidden inside a quaint neighborhood.

We manage to kill about two hours at the party. In the space of that time: bruiser was pushed and knocked heads with one kid, a puppy bit his finger, and he ate fistfuls of grapes, being one of two foods at the party the poor kid could eat.

Genius spent most of his time dodging the blonde 4 yr old girls who pathetically called his name over and over hoping he'd notice them. He didn't.

After the party, we headed over to the sewing machine store. If you figured out that I'm Indiscretion, you'll know that I sew clothing. Lots of clothing. Anyhoo...I had my trusty old Singer Touchtronic 2000 (given to me as a gift - used) that I was taking in for a second opinion, and my Pfaff 1469 (purchased used - it's from 1984 but I bought it over a year ago). The amount of money it would cost to tune up the Singer and fix the bobbin case on the Pfaff weren't worth fixing. While I mulled over the possibilities, the shop owner showed me some new machines (without any pressure, mind you) and let the kids play with one. Genius found the Brother machine with the push button sewing option (that's right, you don't need a foot pedal!) especially fascinating. The owner, Ryan, showed him how to pick a pattern, sew, and then cut the thread (all done automatically).

I was agonizing over these two machines - did I mention I also have an old Kenmore Ultra Stitch in great condition? - and that I just got a coverstitch machine last month; I decided to buy a Brother NX 450 Q. If this machine sucks, please don't tell me, because I might do myself bodily harm. I ended up trading in my two machines for a new one. During my life altering decision, genius invited bruiser over to the other very expensive machine, and started showing him how to use it. Normally genius hates sewing.

I somehow got myself, the new machine and the kids in the car. Here's my dilemma: I don't want my husband to see yet ANOTHER new machine!! Luckily, he's not that mobile, with the crutches and all, and you can hear him coming from a mile away. I also bribed the kids into not spilling the beans (cookies work best). While hubby worked on some papers, I discreetly put the box in my sewing room, quickly unpacked and stuffed the bags, etc. back in the box. Now to get the box casually into the garage...

I'm not sure what I was thinking. I mean, hubby was a bit far away, engrossed in whatever he was doing, but he had an excellent view of what I was doing. I decided to back out of the room with the box facing away from hubby. As I backed out of the room, I tripped over a pair of genius' sandals, and fell on my ass. Nothing like trying to be inconspicuous. However, hubby didn't bat an eyelash.

Because I like to avoid bodily harm, I decided to just go ahead and take the stupid box to the garage, like a normal person. It went unnoticed. By hubby. But. Suddenly, genius noticed the machine, and desperately (I'm not kidding!!!) wanted to SEW. Then bruiser, because his role in life is to imitate genius, jumped on the needlework bandwagon. One hour and two brand new Thomas the Tank Engine stuffed animal holders later, I finally got to turn the machine off. Oh, and just to give you an idea of how clueless my wonderful hubby is: he hobbled in at least 2x during the marathon sewing session, commented on how I should let the kids do something else (???) and see if I could get my own work done. He even looked directly at the machine. Maybe it's all those painkillers he's taking for his tendon.

Anyway, I decided to keep hubby busy by asking him to fix one of the Cars computer games for genius. He did this very quickly, and genius jumped at the chance to play. And play.....finally, I told him we had to turn off the computer and he needed to eat something, like food.

He replied,"Mom, woudn't you like to finish up some more laundry?"