Day 2 of No Idiot Box: Going well. Wacky Boy had one major freak-out over no Saturday a.m. cartoons, but I distracted him by teaching him to burn CDs. We went out for breakfast and the kids were angels. Life, she is sweet. Huevos rancheros and fresh fruit for me, Greek omelet for Hockey God, ginormous pancakes for the kids with a pound of butter and a half-cup of syrup apiece. Hot cocoa for them because we were worried the syrup wasn’t giving them all the sugar they needed. Coffee for the grown-ups… hot damn. It was good.

Wacky Grandma is bringing over her favorite movie, The Apple Dumpling Gang, to watch with the kids so that kills making this an entire day of no TV.

But to go almost all day without it is something, I guess. Why does my mother love The Apple Dumpling Gang so much? I have no idea. We went to see a double feature when I was a kid, that and Swiss Family Robinson and I don’t know who had more fun, mom or my sister and me. Ha! Mom did! The kids adore the movie too, “cuz there’s a fat guy! And a skinny guy! Get it? And one gets stuck climbing out the window! And the fat guy is trying to climb a ladder, and he falls!” (Or something — they get so excited in the retelling they don’t make a whole lotta sense.) But anytime there’s a fat guy and a skinny guy? Hoo-ha — you know you’re in for a laugh riot.

While mom’s here, we’re off to celebrate our anniversary a few days early. Dinner out, maybe a walk along the river? Something simple. My anniversary gift from my husband is I don’t have to cook for the next week. Yay! (He’s a great cook — this makes me happy.) We’re going out for a family birthday dinner for WG, and he’s taking some time off work for Labor Day and our anniversary, back to school — this is an awesome week. It’s my favorite week of the whole year, next to little guy’s birthday, HG’s and mine. I. Love. Birthdays. All the intrigue, the gifts and cards in the mail (a lot of our family lives out of town), my kids’ growing ability to do things like memorize our home phone number and pour their own bowls of cereal. It makes me swell with pride and love, seeing them grow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WACKY GIRL! I adore you.

HG, you’re a dynamite guy. I adore you, and your clone of a son, and your pretty daughter who has grown about a foot this summer. Thanks for all the love. Thanks for the two cute kids. Wish I would have met you when I was 22 instead of 32, but que sera sera. Eight years is good — here’s to 80 more.

Love,

Me

PS — I have a huge stack of books waiting for review, but they’ll have to wait. Just started Ayun Halliday’s Mamalama Ding Dong and it is hilarious. Sorry, sorry, I know I’m late on this and missed the whole Virtual Book Tour, but you know. I space out. I mean well, though.