Happy Independence Day!

The kids’ parade thing was cute. Not worth the drive down from Charlotte, but they were thrilled I was there. Because of traffic and needing to park so far away because ALL the parents came, I showed up RIGHT as CootieBoy’s class was at the “grandstand” and CootieGirl’s class followed moments later. After a few hugs I drove back to work. Took exactly one hour.

I ended up staying at work until 6 p.m. last night. Isn’t that amazing? It was ridiculous. By 5 p.m. 75% of the firm was gone, and HR knew it. And yet she opted to make all those who work until 5:30, 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. stay. By 5:30 p.m. the ONLY people on my floor were me, L-Train, and Nic. All attorneys were gone, and all other admins were gone.

We ended up gabbing for 20 minutes or so about the ridiculousness of the situation. I found out that apparently the HR rep feared her email was a bit harsh so she apologized. TO THE CLERKS. You know who our clerks are? Law school schmos who want to be lawyers someday and who may or may not eventually work at the Firm. THAT’S who she apologized to. Not to the people (like me) who thought that her email was a direct result of an inquiry. Unbelievable.

Anyway, by 6:00 p.m. the three of us decided we had had enough so we skedaddled. Besides our three there were only five other cars in the parking garage, and one of those has been there the whole week with a car cover over it.

Once home the day improved. We opted to go out to dinner and ended up at this cute little diner that we always drive by but never visited. It’s in a weird location in a strip mall and is basically the only store in there right now. There were a few cars out front, so we figured we’d give it a try. Walking in, the place was clean, and WOW – their menu was large and diverse. Gordon Ramsay would have been horrified (he hates restaurants that give too many choices to its patrons because it makes it harder on the chefs (not that this place has CHEFS – it’s a diner, after all)). We all placed our order and when the food arrived it was surprisingly delicious. I got the BBQ plate and the BBQ was perfectly cooked and had a great flavor. The cole slaw was the perfect amount of vinegar and sugar. The fries were crispy. CootieGirl got the calabash plate and hers tasted pretty good too. CootieBoy got a corndog plate and ate the whole thing (which means it was good because he NEVER finishes his food). Denis got the tuna melt and he said it was good but that he was disappointed that it had swiss cheese instead of cheddar (next time we go there he should ask for cheddar). Anyway, as we left I complimented the owner (I think she was the owner) and told her we’d be back.

I just chilled last night while Denis was the gym (I’m very sad that Matt got the boot on “So You Think You Can Dance” because this means I won’t get to see him dance in person on the tour and *shudder* I may see Thayne – which sucks). When Denis got home we watched “Last Comic Standing” and once the final group of 12 comedians was announced I turned to Denis and said, “Well, now is the time to tell you that I already got our tickets for the “Last Comic Standing” show when it comes to Charlotte in the fall. Second row center, baby!”

Lastly, I did turn on the Wii last night for a bit. I did 30 minutes on “Dance Dance Revolution.” Man, that game is TOUGH. But, in workout mode it said I burned over 200 calories in those 30 minutes, and they were fun minutes, so I’m happy about that. I’ve been going crazy downloading Miis recently. Amy at Permission to Peruse told me about the Check Mii Out channel in the Wii Shop Channel and I promptly downloaded Chicken Little, Harry Potter, and a few others. THEN Denis went online and found one of the most fun Wii-related websites EVER. Mii Characters where people post Miis they have created that look like famous people. My personal favorite? You tell me – he’s pictured here. Care to take a guess who that is?

So, to make this long post even longer, this morning I got up at 7 a.m. and started making s’mores. Then rice krispy treats. And now brownies. Meanwhile Denis finished off his patriotic ice cream cone cupcakes. I plan on taking them over to the children’s home we’re working with. I’m a bit bummed because our whole church lifegroup was supposed to make stuff. Couple #1 backed out because they were leaving Tuesday for vacation. Couple #2 said they were going on vacation on WEDNESDAY but that they could bring their stuff by Tuesday night or Wednesday. I promptly wrote back and said if it was more convenient for them I had NO PROBLEM driving to their house on Tuesday night to pick it up. I never heard back from them. A third couple said they’d make brownies and would drop them off Thursday night. So yesterday I emailed and told them that if they couldn’t bring them at night that they could drop by this morning, and that I’d be leaving for the home around 1 p.m. I also told them to call me to let me know when they’d be coming. It’s now 11:30 a.m. and I have yet to hear from her. I went online to get her phone number to call her (I don’t have it), and they are unlisted. So I can’t call her. And the woman that does have her number is on vacation (see couple #1). Fortunately, Couple #4 came through, but didn’t MAKE anything – they brought one of those giant chocolate chip cookies with red/white/blue frosting on it. So as of right now, I’m taking five things over, four of which were provided by Denis and me. JUST a LITTLE frustrating.

Our plans for the day are light. Once I’m back from the children’s home I plan on taking the kids to the pool for a couple hours (it’s a gorgeous day). We’re THINKING about crashing Couple #4’s house as a joke around dinner time (but we wouldn’t stay – it would be just to see the panicked look in their eyes when they see us at the door). Then once it’s dark we’ll go over to a neighbor’s house to watch his tremendous fireworks show.

So that has been the past 24 hours. Busy, right? Isn’t it great that a country like this allows us to have crazy days filled with the FREEDOM to do things like take vacations, or bake brownies for troubled boys, or hang out at the pool, or play videogames until 2 a.m., or even leave work 30 minutes early?

Happy birthday, America!