Manic Monday

It was a busy day, but a good one. For starters, I'm much more on an even keel today. I got some babysitting bites from a Craigslist ad, and completed a real estate marketing piece (!) for a local magazine. Also went to the gym for the first time in weeks; got groceries; accomplished all school drop-offs and pick-ups singlehandedly (5 in all) and still had time to make faces behind a home improvement guy's back as he sat at our dining room table.

I didn't like this guy in the least. We need new siding on our house, and his "associate" interrupted one of my piano lessons last week because he was cruising the neighborhood and noticed we had old siding (and that's putting it mildly. I think the siding on our house dates from at least the Civil War, if not the Bronze Age.) I told him to come back Saturday, which he did, and Earl told him to come back today. He sent this other guy who smelled like at least 63 years of stale cigarette smoke; couldn't produce a business card, brochure, or siding sample; did not offer his name, nor that of the "company"; claimed he didn't need to take any measurements in order to come up with an estimate; and actually said to Earl, "What can I do to gain your business TODAY?" This, after we had repeatedly told the other guy (who referred to me as "the missus") that we were only looking for a quote and were not ready to have the work done yet.

So I did what any mature, responsible homeowner would do. I rolled my eyes practically out of my head and kept myself busy in other areas of the house until creepy smoky guy slithered out the front door. He won't be touching the venerable old siding on any house of mine.

In other news, poor Brian was beside himself this morning, facing his first day of his lunch/afternoon preschool program at a different preschool than his morning program. Tears, clinging; he was just a mess. Of course he did fine, and on the way home he told me his new preschool was really fun. He also told me he fed his broccoli to the guinea pig. I'm sure he'll want more in his lunch on Wednesday.

And we had an unexpected and welcome dinner guest: our dear friend Arnold, the kids' Pepe. We roasted a chicken and made brownie sundaes, laughed and talked and caught up. It was great to see him.

On tomorrow's agenda: find some way to work off at least a few bites of brownie sundae.