Summer Weekend

My days have changed, and for the better. No more summer school - Alison finished her three-week PE course, finished her driving school session, so we are free. Free! No more shuttling kids.

Which doesn't mean my days are wide open - there is still plenty to do. Work, kids, house, planning. But my time is more flexible - I am not boxed in by pick-up times.

Gary was gone last week, returned Friday from Moscow. I was there in 1986, when it was the Soviet Union, and it was interesting to compare. The hotel where we stayed - Hotel Rossia - was an Intourist Hotel where they tried to put all foreign guests, in order to contain them. Gary stayed at the Marriott, only blocks away, but he saw the hotel where we stayed. Lenin's tomb was not open, so he didn't see that. But his general impression was that Moscow was much like any other European city, bustling with busy outdoor cafes, the streets full of billboards and western shops. The exact opposite of what I remember as a drab, colorless city, devoid of activity.

But that was 20 years ago. Things have changed.

And I digress. Thursday night we celebrated Alison's end of school by going out to eat and running to Academy sporting goods. New swimsuits for the girls, new workout clothes for me - now I have to exercise more ... Alison and I stayed up and watched Steve Martin's Shopgirl which was ... not the best movie I've ever seen. Sort of a downer. Friday morning was Alison's first day free of PE class. So? She and I got up and went for a run. (The new Nike gear is great, by the way :))

Came home and swam - have to jump in when the skies are clear these days, as we're getting more than our share of rain - cleaned up, puttered around, then took the girls bowling. After three years of league bowling, I've bowled exactly once since moving to Houston. And it showed - all three girls were beating me through the fifth frame. At about frame six I managed to get my act together, and my final score was 114 - bad considering what my average was, but impressive when you consider my score in the fifth.

Saturday was mostly a day of taking care of little details: Spray-painted a shelf for the kitchen to hold cookbooks, put up a new shelf in Alison's bathroom, cleared some clothes from the closet (including all of Gary's ugliest clothes), de-cluttered my kitchen desk. Not tasks of monumental importance, but essential, none the less. Swam late in the day.

And watched O Brother, Where Art Thou? with the girls. They quite liked it. Though if I'd remembered how much language there was, I might have reconsidered. No f-bombs, but GD this, that, and the other. Perfect parent I'm not, but I do try to set a good example.

Today was baseball: The Astros played the Rockies. I'm big on historic preservation, old architecture. Which includes old ball parks. But I have to say, I really like some of these new ball parks. Minute Maid is no exception. They are all designed so well - there are no bad seats, unlike old stadiums like the old Busch, where every seat was a bad one. I'm also not big on watching baseball indoors - it feels unnatural. But Minute Maid has a wall of windows, and the dome opens when the weather is right. And let's face it, Houston is awfully hot. Plus today was raining - it's nice to know there are no rain delays or cancellations.

We got the cheap seats and had a great time - saw two home runs, lots of great plays. But no Craig Biggio - he was off today. Houston beat the Rockies 10-0. And we got lots of good people watching in - my personal fave was the woman wearing a purple floral smock - it looked like something our cafeteria workers would have worn. Hmmm ... the blue heels with the capris made for a nice look.

So the weekend comes to an end. And this week is July 4 - fireworks. Let's hope there's no rain ...