Weekend Update

We are all home today for Presidents' Day. Now we face a drought. Until somebody suitably famous is either born, killed, or passes away in March or April, we must cling tenaciously to the hope of a long weekend at the end of May. Whoever plans this stuff needs to spread it out a bit more.

Let's see, what's happened here recently? Well, Friday night Katie attended a sleepover to celebrate a friend's birthday. I think she may return the favor next weekend. I need to plan to be away. Too much estrogen, too little house.

Saturday was Alex Day. We went to see the River Hill wrestling team in the semi-finals and finals. They won their division semi-finals but lost in the finals. At least we were there to support them. Katie really likes this guy, but he just wants to be a friend. I told her I endured much the same thing during high school. It sucks. Get over it.

Today we are cleaning up. A cleaning service is coming in this afternoon to give us an estimate on keeping our home more antiseptic. So we are cleaning for them. I can see the wisdom of this for the initial estimate. I really can be as cheap as the next guy. A good first impression could save us some loot. But I fear we are setting a nasty precedent in which we clean every day before they get here. It's been known to happen. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

Tomorrow it's back to work and school for this household. Katie is sleeping right now. A wise choice. She's avoiding the decision-making portion of the cleaning. Do I keep this? Do I throw this out? Do I tell myself I'm going to give this away and tuck it into the corner of a room from which it will never again see the light of day? Usually, the answer to these questions is yes, no, yes, respectively. We are looking for new leaves to turn over, though, so this could be the dawn of a new era in trash management at Chateau Coal Bear.

As you may have guessed, I'm avoiding the melee of discovery on the first level. Joan is braving the strata of paper that chronicle our piling prowess over the past several months. I think the thing that would make us neater would be shorter stature or taller cabinets. It seems that our accumulation of paper is addressed when it reaches eye level. Thus, Katie is the neatest of the three of us. It would be Coby, but he doesn't get much mail. Archeologists would love our countertops. So many stories to tell. Months worth of magazines, advertisements, statements, coupons, and even the occasional bill (so THAT'S where the was!).

To tell you the progress we've made, we're nearly ready to invite people over. We've been an Inner Circle Entertainment Establishment for far too long. If we wouldn't parade in front of you in our underclothes, you didn't stand a chance of crossing our threshold. Fortunately, for us and for them, not many people visited. If you weren't here to fix the furnace or leave a package, you were not about to gain admittance.

Now, however, the living room looks pretty darn good. The computers have made their semi-annual migration to another part of the house and are grazing peacefully in the room next to Katie's. They share the space with the television, DVD player and VCR. Even the two acknowledged bedrooms look pretty decent. If you noticed I didn't mention the basement, very good for you.

Within a few hours, we will either have an estimate to keep our abode tidy or we'll see a terrified woman driving erratically down the access road, leaving smoking trails of rubber as she turns onto the main road, and vowing never to return to this part of the county. If I'd thought of this earlier, I could have sold tickets. This could be good.