This week has just been weird.

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While I'm cleaning, I've got a box rapidly filling with size 2 and 3 girls' clothes. red_ervish has first dibs since she's the most recent recipient of past hand-me-downs. It fits nicely with the fact that a package from oxymoron02 arrived today and Laurel's thrilled by all the new-to-her clothes, especially the striped tee (I really liked the elephant shirt myself). Thanks!

Laurel's potty schedule and mine coincided yesterday and she giggled when I told her "You go to your bathroom, I'll go to mine, then I'll come back and help you finish." Good: she's finally peeing on the potty, although it's only about twice a day so far. Less good: she keeps saying it's too hard to flush the toilet and I'm not sure what to do about that. Suggestions welcome.

Had a strange evening Friday after a friend of the nerdsprout's came by in the late afternoon claiming she was there to pick up all of the nerdsprout's stuff. (This is laughable as the nerdsprout left a roughly 150ft²/14m² room knee-deep in stuff and I haven't done the closet or under the bed yet.) Later that night, we were woken up by a police officer knocking persistently that left by the time we opened the door. No matter the cause of the visit, it drove home that I should never answer the door unless I'm expecting someone and I've visually confirmed their identity through the peephole. (Bonus: our UPS delivery guy is cute. I want to put a pointy gnome hat on him and take pictures.)

Laurel and I went to Hancock Fabrics today in search of basting spray, a kind of temporary spray adhesive, called for in directions for a sewing project. I wasn't willing to pay $12 for a small can, so we purchased a few things (mostly sale finds) and Laurel had fun playing with another little girl that was there with her mom. The grocery store wasn't as satisfying. They finally stock the mandarin orange method dish soap I like, but their self-checkout was ridiculously non-responsive (I got "item not found" the first five times I swiped a box of cereal) and an item whose shelf tag indicated a card sale price rang up at full price and the clerk overseeing self-checkout didn't want to double-check the price, so I left it. I got the things I really needed anyway and picked up a bottle of Neutrogena Healthy Scalp shampoo on clearance while I was at it. Whee.

Before purchasing stuff from Wild Ginger (we're looking at PatternMaster Boutique, Child's Play and Stitch-N-Stash), Vogon downloaded Wild Things to get a feel for their software. I've printed and partly assembled a pattern for a tote bag to carry Laurel's playground toys that should be cheerful in bright yellow cotton with a polka-dot lining. It's got some cute hat and bag patterns for those of you interested in tweaking and printing patterns from your computer.

We never took our sushi from Central Market to the park, but eating it and talking to Zuggy inspired me to go in search of plastic bento boxes, which I've wanted since I was introduced to them when we lived in Goldsboro through the lunch specials at Hikari. Lacquerware ones are pretty but too expensive for now so I turned to Froogle, which brought up several Asian specialty stores carrying lidded bento boxes for around $20 each and the bigairplane eBay store, where I scored four bento boxes for $7 each plus shipping. There may still be a few available at that price, but the next lot I saw were $8 apiece.

Two of the nerdsprout's friends stopped by yesterday to pick up a few things she'd asked for. What they actually took was a bit more, but the important thing is that they let themselves in before I could get to the door, so we're going to start locking the door during the day and I'll have a housekey.

It's too early to predict whether the current potty reward (a sticker on the day's calendar square for each use, redeemable for five minutes per sticker at the pool, playground, etc.) is successful, but the midget's had at least three potty uses daily and no poop messes since we started.

Today is the last day for the buy 1, get 2 coupon for Albertson's store brand frozen waffles, so yours truly dropped $2 for thirty waffles (20 blueberry, 10 apple cinnamon). Laurel is thrilled and looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

There was more kicking around in my brain, but I'd like to keep packing up the nerdsprout's stuff while I'm motivated.

Friday kept me on my feet: ( between party preparation and Laurel being squirrelly... )

Several kids slept over post-party, but Vogon let me sleep in and I missed most of them. His nerdsprout spent the night with a friend Saturday night, so we had a very quiet and leisurely evening with the midget. Along the way, he fixed the leg on the table we'll be using for my computer, I cleaned one of the stretches of counter and organized the cabinets beneath it, and Laurel talked to Mom on the phone. The girls should be in soon, but for now it's all quiet on the western front. (:

Another thing I love about being here is doing laundry. I know that sounds goofy, but using a Maytag Neptune to do laundry is actually pleasurable.

Earlier this week, vogonpoet's nerdsprout put her sneakers in the washer. After hearing a couple rounds of thump-thump, thump-thump, he said "What does she have in there? Monkeys?!" and was moderately peeved to find the sneakers in there. He dropped them in her bathroom after telling her he could buy her new sneakers every month and it'd be far less than the cost of replacing the washer.

For reasons I'm trying to figure out, I'm consistently in a better mood at lunch if I've tidied the kitchen and either run the dishwasher or a load of laundry.

Speaking of lunch, we had all-you-can-eat sushi today. Unfortunately I didn't know this in advance, so Laurel had two pieces of whole-grain French toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast. (I already said she was going through a growth spurt, right?) The company was good -- three of Vogon's coworkers -- and she ate half a bowl of miso, some sushi ginger and a little salmon. Also was very put out that she couldn't take a box home with her after she declined to eat the California rolls (her favorite) and left most of the salmon and baked eel alone. It was funny when she dipped into my wasabi soy sauce, though. (:

Vogon's noticed her behavior (read: when she has tantrums and outbursts) seems to mirror hypoglycemia, so we'll be adjusting her diet and see if it helps.

In completely unrelated news, would anyone be interested if I made a phone post?