The Best Laid Plans

Today, I had planned to take advantage of my relative proximity to my morning's destination/activity (playgroup at Becky's house) and walk there. But fatigue, timing, the weather, and a to-do list a mile long conspired against me and I ended up driving the 1.3 miles to Albany Park. The Baby, The Girl and I had a good time with our friends, and we stayed until it was time to pick up The Boy from school.

On the way, I stopped back home to pick up the mail, although of course there was nothing there from Disney 2. The Girl fell asleep in the car on the way, and although I had volunteered to string fish from the ceiling, I bailed on that plan in favor of letting The Girl get a good sleep. She did, and by the time she woke up, it was too late to go back.

I made up for my gas guzzling of the morning by taking The Boy, The Girl, and The Baby to McDonald's on foot for dinner, since The Dad was working late. We then walked down the street to Athletic Field Park for the kids' Tee Ball game.

It was our first "game," which consisted of letting all of the kids on each team (we had to "give" four of our players to the other team to make two teams of eight) go up to bat and run the bases while the other team tried to catch and/or throw the ball to their teammates. Good thing they're not too serious about it. I can imagine a bunch of 3, 4, and 5-year-olds in hysterics over "losing." The Girl spent much of the game time in the bathroom at the fieldhouse, singing loudly and deliberating over whether or not she needed to pee. In fact, the game was over by the time we got back to the field.

After the kids went to bed, I left them all with The Dad and ran out to do a few errands that took no time at all in my childless state: The Book Cellar to pick up an order (Sears' The Vaccine Book). While I was there, I also grabbed our book club's selection for next month, my friend Jen's boyfriend's book, The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, Folksingers ... of the Great Lakes. And then I went to Trader Joe's. On the way home, I nearly got clocked by a fire engine screaming down Irving Park Road (on the wrong side of the divider) on its way to an emergency, and that was with paying close attention. I got over right away, but it was the second fire engine I saw, and about the fifth moving emergency vehicle with its sirens/lights on that had passed through the Irving Park Road/Lincoln Avenue/Damen Avenue intersection. About ten seconds later, a paddywagon passed by as well. I wonder what happened?