And the rain, rain, rain...

The sounds of the rain are coming through my half-open window. It's like a particularly good white-noise machine, and I love it. Alas, I am missing some key ingredients to make some good soup for dinner, so pizza will have to suffice (once the oven gets up to temperature). Once upon a time we made our own pizza, and when I can be sure of an hour without having to hold the baby, I suppose we can again: this one is from Costco.

It's gorgeous outside in that "I'm really glad I'm INside" kind of way. We did venture out today, to see a doctor (AGAIN) about Boyness' ear (which now obviously sports an infection, for which we now possess the necessary pharmaceuticals), and to do some grocery shopping. I got one of the main ingredients for my favorite soup but alas, forgot the other. One of the perils of shopping with children; even with your grocery list firmly in mind, by the time you've said "PLEASE stop poking your brother" for the 50billionth time, you've forgotten to buy both milk and sausages and the trip has gone almost* completely to hell (*"almost" rather than "entirely" simply because you've managed to acquire a six-pack of pumpkin spiced beer, a pint of ice cream, and several donuts; none of these things have anything to do with one another, but they're all awesome).

*breathe* the baby is asleep, the rain is lovely, and the children are playing messily and loudly but happily in the den.

Our Tuesday was awesome and horrible at the same time. I couldn't really post about it earlier because I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Tuesdays are usually "my" days, and Fran (true to form) got up and gathered the kids early to take them to his mom's despite the fact that he had some training-something (I try, as much as possible, not to pay attention to his work, just because I have enough to pay attention to already) and a lasik consult. They got about a mile down the road before the car just.stopped.going, though. I picked up the kids and he arranged towing; I had an appointment of my own, which I kept with all four kids in tow (which was quite the fiasco you're thinking it was), and then went and ran some highly important (like, we really shouldn't wait until the day the rent is due before paying it, right?) errands. By which time, of course, Fran was at a mechanic we've never gone to before (but the towing fee for our favorite one was prohibitive), so we went to get him. And then played with a friend who was fortuitously available to play at a park not terribly far away. And then, when we had to go eat and they had to go do their afternoon, we ran entirely by chance into another lovely friend-family, and had an absolutely lovely time playing with them.

Which would all be wonderful and happy-sunshine-kumbaya-warm-feeling-y, except that our car repairs totalled nearly $600. Astonished (and more than a little nauseated) by this sum, we called our usual mechanics (with whom we have a labor exchange deal, Fran's networking expertise for their fix-our-car-damnit skillz), only to find that the bulk of the charge was in fact the parts and they really couldn't do any better. Fuck. Fran cancelled the lasik consult, because that handily ate his eye-fixing money. We attempted to justify the expense in a way that made it feel better, but really couldn't given how freaking broke we are.

See? Mind-bending how much that day's awesome collided with it's crappy.