The Fish Market in Baxter

It was girls night out last night and we went to the Fish Market in Baxter. I'd never been there. But I can tell you, I'll go back again and again in a heartbeat. I thought about my sister a lot while I was there because she loves to go to good seafood restaurants.

Pricey, though. My salad was $6, my scallop dish was $19 and then we had creme brulee. With a tip, my own single meal ran me $40. And it would have been a lot more if I'd had to pay for my wine. But girlfriend Jennifer had a coupon for a free bottle of wine. I still feel guilty about paying that much out of our family's budget for a meal for just me. I won't do that very often. I think the guys ate sandwiches last night. Of course, they were probably as happy with that as I was with my scallops.

I have to tell you, I rarely order scallops because they have to be cooked exactly right. And these were. There was a delicious sauce on them, which I'll have to look up because I can't remember but it was some kind of fruit. They were served with lightly steamed whole green beans and nice bed of spaghetti sauce cushioned them on the plate. NIRVANA!

Gotta run.

Sock Drawer Wars

It wasn't really a war. More like an insurgency, if you think about it.

Mensa Boy was out of town. Some of his very nice SmartWool socks were in the wash. When they came through the process, they "ended up" in my drawer. They are very nice socks. Very comfy especially when one is wearing a special shoe on one's BROKEN FOOT.

But. I was busted. Yesterday I lost my attention and opened my drawer while MB was standing nearby. He spotted the migrant socks right away.

"Uh, those socks. Can I have them back? Or do you need them for your foot?" he asked.

Sure. I could have played the BROKEN FOOT card. But I didn't. I would have felt too guilty.

Why I Still Think of Him as Sweetie Boy

Taylor has been quite sick this past 10 days. No complaining. Takes after his father. Just moping around coughing, not being a bother. He went to school the first day because he wouldn't dream of NOT.

At 1:30 he appeared in my office. Red in the face, low-grade fever, coughing, eyes glassy. Said he felt light-headed. I took him home. He was sad that he hadn't been able to stay to have his first class of building construction with Mark Bonda. Before we left I asked if he needed any books. He said he'd left them in his English class. So I went down there, knocked on the door, and asked about them. "They are right there, " she said, pointing to a seat.

"Would you get them for me?" I asked. "I don't want his classmates to know his mommy came to get his books."

And so she did.

After consulting with another mom in the building, I decided to take him to the doctor on Tuesday. It turns out he has sinusitis. So we went to Target and, while we waited for his prescription, we picked up the rest of his school supplies. One of the items he needed was an agenda.

As we were looking at all the agenda/planner choices (and there are a staggering number), we happened upon one that had school year dates, boxes big enough to write in, and yet the entire book would fit in his cargo pocket. "This is it!" he exclaimed. "We (the agenda and him) were meant for each other!"

He's so cute.

So on the way home I told him that I had made a point of not going into his classroom to get his books. I didn't want to embarrass him in front of his classmates.

"You wouldn't embarrass me, Mom," he said. "Everyone knows who you are and they all think you are cool."

(((melt)))