Gas Guzzler

Yet another reason to be thankful that The Boy can walk to school next year: the price of gas within the city is the highest in the country. I spent $73.10 to fill up The Great White Moose this morning, and it's only an 18-gallon tank. Between the price of gas and construction on the Edens, I don't want to drive anywhere ever again.*

It's a good thing that I've found more activities for the kids to do in and around the neighborhood. On Saturday, we spent nearly the whole day on foot. In the morning, The Boy, The Girl, The Baby and I headed to West Walker's annual community garage sale. It was a successful trip on two fronts -- we found a made-in-Illinois Radio Flyer wagon (for $15) and a 20" bicycle for The Boy (for $10) -- and we saw lots of our neighbors and friends on a beautiful spring morning.

My plan had been to walk directly over to ARCC for The Girl's ballet class, but our stroller was too laden with stuff to make that feasible, so we first headed back home to drop off our loot. We stopped to talk to a neighbor, which made us too late to walk.

Once she was decked out in head-to-toe ballet pink, The Girl joined her ballet class, and The Boy, The Baby and I joined our friends at Starbucks for some coffee (the moms!) and a snack (the boys -- both big and little). The Boy and Enver had a great time being utterly silly together, while The Baby alternately begged me for coffee or cried because I was drinking it. The Dad, who had been visiting a friend in Aurora, walked over to meet us after his Metra train arrived. Then we all trooped back to pick up The Girl.

We spent the afternoon hanging around outside, talking to and/or playing with neighbors and generally enjoying the day. Our former neighbors came to check up on their house, and stopped over to say hello. The Boy was thrilled to see them.




* Which is not to say that I won't. I do, after all, have lots of good friends and relatives in the 'burbs.