Book ‘em, Danno

On Friday, I spent the early part of the morning at The Boy’s school, where apparently I had volunteered to help out with their annual book fair.

I say apparently because I don’t have any recollection of ever indicating that I had any specific interest in the book fair. But I got a chirpy e-mail from one of the PTO moms thanking me for my interest and assigning me a time to come in. At that point, I figured I was pretty much drafted.

Last week wasn’t the best week for me to take two hours off of work to go hang out in an elementary school library, but what the heck? Supposedly this fulfills my two-hour service requirement for the year. Seeing as how I didn’t sign up for this one though, I’m not entirely sure about the PTO’s record-keeping skills.

I was supposed to help out from 7:30-9:30, but I never figured out exactly what I was supposed to be doing. When I got there, the library was jam-packed full of kids trying to burn money before the bell rang and the two ladies working the cash register seemed to have everything in hand. Well, relatively. It was kind of like a third world marketplace, except there were books instead of livestock and most everybody was hobbit-sized.

Anyway, I just kind of milled around and tidied things up as kids invariably knocked over displays and put books “back” where they didn’t belong. I also broke up a minor scuffle in the early reader non-fiction section. I guess that’s where all the rough kids hang out.

I didn’t recognize most of the books on sale. It looks like all of the stuff I read as a kid didn’t survive the transition to the 21st century. All the girls wanted Hannah Montana crap. All the boys wanted Star Wars (which actually warmed my heart a little). And apparently Pokémon is still a big deal, which kind of surprised me.

Of course, the most popular items bought weren’t the books, but the crappy little erasers and pencils sold right by the register. Who needs an eraser that looks like a twenty dollar bill, you might ask. EVERY CHILD AT MY SON’S SCHOOL. Also, most of them needed pens that smelled like fruit and pencil sharpeners that looked like noses (with the pencil being inserted into one of the nostrils, naturally).

There was one pair of boys that kept coming back with 26¢, which wasn’t enough to buy anything. Not even one of those fancy erasers. I told them that and sent them back to class at least four times. What kind of teacher lets the same kids out of class four times in the space of two hours to go shopping at the book fair? She must think those boys really looooove books.

The one kid I didn’t see at the book fair was my own – The Boy, along with the entire kindergarten, had a field trip that day. They went to some farm where he allegedly milked a cow and rode a horse. Having known The Boy for six years, I highly doubt that he willingly participated in either activity, but maybe peer pressure convinced him to give them a try.

Exhausting weekend of marginal activity

I don’t know if our weekend will go down in history as one of the most productive ever, but it certainly was tiring for some reason. We stayed pretty close to home all weekend long and just made a few quick trips to a handful of stores, but it still seemed pretty draining. I blame The Girl’s teething-related crankiness.

The big to-do on Saturday was a trip to the park, where The Girl once again exhibited her love of swinging. Her brother also spent some time on the swing, although his technique left a little to be desired. The kids also spent some time on the playground and The Girl decided that the slide was pretty fun as well. The weather was absolutely fantastic, so we stayed there for quite a while. It was nice to get out and play as a family – something we don’t do nearly often enough.

On Friday night, The Wife and I came to the conclusion that the toilet in our master bathroom had, ahem, crapped out, as it had pretty much just started continuously running. Because we’re too cheap to pay a plumber and I have delusions of grandeur in the home repair department, we went out and bought new tank hardware so I could switch everything out. I ran into an unexpected delay on Saturday, but I did get around to fixing it today. At one point I actually had to disassemble the toilet and The Wife confided to me later that she had some doubts about my ability to reassemble it, but I did. And it even works. Bonus.

While I was doing that, the kids did what they normally do on the weekends. The Girl ran around like a little crazy person and The Boy plunked himself down in front of a computer. I’m not sure what The Wife did. I know it didn’t involve helping with toilet repairs.

The Girl experimented with sippy cups again this weekend. She drank out of them a little, but then decided it was more fun to just pour the water out and play in it. There was one serious drawback to her plan though. When she poured the water on herself, she got wet and apparently that made her angry. Later on, she overcame her fear of cups and helped herself to some of my iced tea. It’s never too early to get your kids hooked on caffeine.

Fries at the bottom of the bag

• The Girl got a new car seat for The Wife’s car and it meets with her approval.
• The instructions for my toilet repair kit introduced me to a new word: beyound.
• What happens when you get to close to Daddy when he’s washing dishes? Crazy hair happens.
• Another great family photo ruined by The Dog’s butt.