One of my BFF’s, “T” came to visit this past weekend. Her store in Joplin was demolished by the tornado and just recently re-opened. Since, she has been working 50-60 hour weeks and this was her first weekend off. I warned her in advance that we had kid commitments lined up but with the need to simply get the heck outta town they asked if they could tag along.

Saturday Gen had a bowling tournament while Sydney was in Overland Park for a softball tournament. We watched Gen bowl the best scratch series she has ever had, got her a victory chocolate milkshake, a nachos bell-grande, and consequently a tummy ache and then hurriedly headed east to watch Syd play. Gen decided she wanted to go live with “T” so she became mommy #2 and mommy #2 had a hard time saying no; thus the tummy ache. I felt the timing was perfect for mommy #2 to take over since Gen has an orthodontic consult for braces this week Needless to say I still have the child. When it was mentioned mommy #2 would have to give up her Coach purse a month habit, she quickly reconsidered.

Saturday night was seafood, drinks, and ice cream on Mass. We witnessed our city’s finest standing on a street corner with a large sign that read, “Honk for Hemp.”  Apparently you HAVE to honk; it’s a political statement. Sunday I felt a head cold brewing and by that evening I was a couch sloth, catching up on old DVR’d programs, wrapped in my blankie drinking hot ginger tea to sooth my throat. Certainly not the speed bump I wanted going into a week without Daniel. When he is gone I put extra pressure on myself to get certain tasks accomplished. This week my initial goals were to build (at least) two raised garden beds, sell an oven taking up space in my garage, and assemble two dressers for the girls. I’m still working on the list with two days to go. 

Meanwhile I get a picture of what Daniel’s office looks like this week. 

Eighty degrees outside and he's off being paid to be a river rat. Soooo not fair!

Daniel doesn't even flinch when I say "Hey, let's walk down this dark alley. There's a picture I've been wanting to take." Some of the best pictures are in alleys or just walking down a moonlit sidewalk.

Industrial Rainbow

Just Out Driving on a Tuesday

Why Yes, I WILL Have Another

Daniel got us two of the last tickets to the 1st annual Craft Brewers Exposition held downtown this past weekend. (Check out the pics at their Facebook page). For four hours we and 718 others sampled some of the best craft beers on the market and a few that are still in the test phase. These types of events are quickly becoming what the wine tasting festivals have been for years. As the afternoon progressed and taps began to dry up I half expected people to start getting rowdy or belligerent from all the sampling. Quite the contrary; everyone we encountered was exceptionally polite and patient as we stood sometimes shoulder-to-shoulder in long lines waiting for our cups to be filled with some delicious liquid gold. Aaaaah…. 

Pic Courtesy of Mango3742

I’m a wheat drinker. I haven’t acquired a taste for the hoppy IPA’s and I doubt I will. I like what I like yet I was slightly embarrassed asking every vendor to sample their lightest beer. I have to say (aside from my local favorite, “Wave the Wheat” at 23^rd Street Brewery), my favorite was called “Wheachy” from O’Fallon’s Brewery in St. Louis. It had a hint of peach that was out of this world. I went back so many times the dude behind the table would reach for it as soon as he saw me. At least I wasn’t going up to vendors saying, “I only drink Miller Lite so what do you have that tastes like Miller Lite?” like a friend of ours was. Her party quickly told her to knock it off because she was embarrassing them.  

After four hours of drinking and a small plate of cheese and crackers I wanted a barrel sized glass of water and a trough of food, stat! The place we had in mind looked busy so we went to another place close by. We had no idea they didn’t serve food and because we talked to the owner as we walked in, we felt obligated to have one (more) beer. *ugh* Soon we were off again on our hunt to scare up some grub, but not until I inadvertently got into the wrong truck in the parking lot… with the owner standing close by laughing his ass off and Daniel repeating, “Umm.., this is not my truck. This is NOT my truck.”  

As Syd would say, "Public fail".  

A couple of weeks ago my cell phone glitched during an upgrade (and I use the term ‘upgrade’ loosely). I lost everything. For almost two days my phone was a very expensive paper weight.  I thought for sure my head would spin around and sparks would fly but finally it came back to life. I feel a little twinge of panic if I get to work and can’t find my phone. It’s this very dependence that frustrates the hell out of me. My kids would surely stop breathing if I took their phones away and my 10 year old is convinced she now must have an iPhone. What the hell for, games and taking pictures? That’s what the iPod is for. I don’t see her needing it to schedule any type of appointment or meeting, she never needs directions anywhere, and she doesn’t even use email. 

Dinner time use to be me trying to chat and ask questions about their day while listening to the frequent soft humming sound coming from under the table notifying them of an incoming message. Really?? Now, I threaten to take their food away if they bring their phones to the table. So flipping ridiculous. 

I’m so thankful I didn’t have a smartphone when my girls were little. They surely would have been neglected. I already feel like I missed so much by working full-time. Coupled with the texting revolution, I can’t help but think that all the good stuff like reading books, capturing firsts, or a good ol’ game of peek-a-boo would have fallen by the wayside. “Oooh, keep your diaper on. I’ll warm up your bottle as soon as I update my Facebook status!” I met a woman the other day who I needed to contact later and I offered to text her. She said she didn’t text and my first thought was “WTF is wrong with you?” (I also discovered she doesn’t watch KU basketball either and then I thought, “No seriously, WTF is your deal?”) 

We rely on technology so much and it’s only logical to expect that we will always be looking for the next cutting age gadget.  Sometimes though I wish it wasn’t such a prevalent distraction, especially with kids. My experience is that kids are braver typing than speaking in person. They don’t hesitate to take pictures of anything and everything and send it to all their friends. Kids are too connected and that isn’t a good thing. We look like a bunch of zombies walking around staring down at our phones like our lives depend on it. I get downright giddy when one of the girls loses their phone privileges because then I know they won’t have a choice but to interact with the family.  

How do you pedal backwards on the wheel of technology? Is there any way of severing that technology umbilical cord once you have fed on its plethora of modern conveniences? Maybe Apple makes an app for that…