It's been a strange week here at the Jenistar household. Kirk was home Monday through Wednesday, part sick and part avoiding Wednesday's slushy mess of a commute, and Thursday I worked at Will's school as the second-in-command as the usual second-in-command was the big Chief this week, covering for the usual Big Chief, who is in Florida for two weeks (what--go away now and miss all this good weather?! I can't imagine). This all left me with very little space in my week for much of anything that resembled "me time." Which is fine--as long as it only lasts a week.
I was nervous about going into Will's school in a teacher capacity, especially since Wednesday night he told me, "Don't be a teacher at school; just stay and be my mommy." I had visions of spending the entire time walking around the playroom with Will clinging to my leg and moaning, "I want to get UP!" It was all worrying for nothing, though. We had one moment of "hands off my mother" when Morgan plunked herself down in my lap just ahead of Will, but, in his defense, she only sat there because she knew he was on his way to do the same thing. Overall, it was a far more successful morning than I'd feared it might be.
This busy week also means I haven't posted since Kirk and I went to dinner at The Fireplace. Dinner, I suppose, is a misnomer, since it was at 3:00 in the afternoon, and the emphasis was less on the food and more on the reading and the bourbon. The Fireplace does tastings every other Saturday from September to June; this one just happened to involve reenactors portraying John and Abigail Adams, reading their love letters back and forth to each other. I am amazed to report that John Adams was a pretty hot writer! Abigail was much more reserved, doing her best, I suppose, to keep him in line. She was, it would seem, a very Proper Woman. The reenactors were wonderful, warm with each other, completely knowledgeable about their subjects, and 100% in character. The food was ver tasty, although Kirk wanted to stop on the way home and get something else to eat--tasting portions are small! The bourbon...well, the presentation on the bourbon, done by a duo from the Jim Beam corporation was interesting, but Kirk doesn't drink at all and I generally stick with wine and things that came out of the blender, so the bourbon itself was a bit lost on us. We tasted four of their small batch bourbons, Basil Hayden, Knob Creek, Bakers, and Bookers. The last one, which I learned is poured straight from the barrel into the bottle without filtering or watering, has a proof that varies from batch to batch. This particular batch was about 140 proof. Good lord, did it burn going down!!! We took teensy sips, even after following the suggestion to water it down to make it more palatable.
Alcohol-wise, I think the pinot grigio or the summer cocktail tasting might be more my speed, but I'm still very glad we went.
The weirdest part of the day, though, was the huge evidence that our world is a very small place. Because the restaurant was so packed, they had people sharing tables. We sat with an older couple and two female friends, both schoolteachers. The older couple turned out to also be former teachers. Further discussion revealed that he used to be the superintendant of schools in Quincy and was Kirk's sixth grade principal! He didn't remember Kirk, who wisely refrained from enumerating the many reasons he'd been in this man's office over the course of that year.
On the way home, we agreed to find at least one day a month where we get out of the house without Will and do something that stretches us a little bit. Waking up the brain is a good thing.
Now I have between now and March 3rd to find the next thing to do.
In the meantime, I'm off to the grocery store. That busy week means we're down to peanut butter (no bread) and lettuce in the kitchen!
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