Where did the weekend go?

Something happened on Friday...or maybe nothing happened.

Got up, got the kids ready for school...got back home...made Liz breakfast. Complained about the heat. No baseball game...ahh. JE's after-school Golf Class finished up with a putting tournament. He shot a 22 over 8 holes, or was it 23? He was 1 shot behind 3 other kids who tied for 2nd place. When they announced the older kids' scores, being the kids 8 to 15 y/old, JE beat out most of them. The kid that won first place in JE's group shot a 15, and that was the lowest score of the day among all the kids.

There was a baseball game Friday but we told Coach that JE had his Golf Tournament, and because there was a game on Friday that meant Saturday's game was canceled which freed up our morning so we were able to attend my Bureau's Beach Party. The kids were excited to be going to the beach...so were we. It's been freakishly hot this past week, and the weekend was no exception, so it was good to hit the beach and cool off.

I did a bit of swimming and took the kids into the shallows where they messed around in the waves. The bunny spent half her time getting splashed and running back out to Liz, and half her time running back in to me. About 2pm we finally dragged them off to a birthday party where we had to bribe them with mention of a swimming pool, so that meant even more swimming. Despite a liberal application of sunscreen my shoulders and neck are pink. Not quite red, but definitely the beginning of a sun burn.

In the pool the bunny had on her vest so she was bobbing around and swimming/paddling and having a great time. She went under a couple of times and choked down some water and came up coughing and spluttering. She kept grabbing for me each time she went under, then she'd push away from me, bob around, go under and come right back to me. So the last time she ducked under she came up spluttering, grabbed for me, let out this big long burp, and then punctuated it with the remnants of her lunch. Lovely. Lucky most of it went down the front of her vest so I don't think anyone else saw what had happened and I decided discretion was the better part of valor. Irresponsible of me as a parent? Yeah, probably. But what's a little vomit compared to what else winds up in a swimming pool inhabited by a large number of young children? I'm sure that wasn't the only bodily fluid mixed in with the pool water. Eewww! Yup. That's swimming pools for you.

I dragged a crying bunny out of the pool, crying not because she'd thrown up but because she wanted to stay in and Dad was using the S-word, as in Shower. Inside the in-laws house we started up the stairs when we heard JE crying.

"Why's ge-ge crying?" asked the bunny (ge ge is Mandarin for older brother. Hard G, repeated, so probably G-G rather than Ge-Ge)

"I don't know why he's crying," I said.

"Daddy," wailed my son. "Help!"

"Where are you?" I called back.

"In the toilet," was his reply.

By this time the bunny and I were at the top of the stairs but I knew JE was in the downstairs toilet, so back down I went. I opened the toilet door and there was my son standing in a pool of water with his bathers around his knees, holding a tissue to his mouth, and blood in the toilet. He was standing in water, ok? Water. I know he was in the toilet but he'd just come from the pool and he was standing in a pool of clear water. Trying to do several things at once he'd been filling a water pistol while also relieving himself...he was filling the water pistol at the sink! Good Lord! What's wrong with you people? Oh yeah, I was thinking it too. Heh heh :)

He'd spilled water on the floor, slipped and fallen and smacked his face on the toilet bowl, cutting his lip with his teeth. Bloody lucky he never broke a tooth, especially as they're his adult teeth.

So I have one kid with a bloody lip, and one kid with vomit in her swimming vest. I yell for Liz, then run outside and call to her again. Back inside I help JE get his bathers back up and we come out of the bathroom where the in-laws are coming down the stairs to see what the yelling is about. The MIL has the bunny in her arms. I say she needs a shower but the bunny has convinced the MIL she wants to go back in the pool and that's where the MIL is planning to take her. I repeat that she needs a shower but I'm starting to raise my voice so I stop to let Liz take over. She convinces the MIL that the bunny needs a shower and the MIL and I end up switching kids. She takes JE to get some ice on his lip while I take a crying bunny back upstairs for a shower.

Once everyone is cleaned up the birthday girl's grandmother stops by to tell us to come and eat with them. They're Indian (Asian, not Native American) and they've prepared some yummy Indian food so with no dinner plans we end up sticking around for an hour or two longer than we'd planned.

One of the guys at the party was wearing a Green & Gold Australian Cricket polo, which is a very eye-catching shirt, but as I didn't know the fellow from Adam I decided to listen to him before introducing myself, and either he'd been Stateside a lot longer than I have, or he wasn't a True-Blue Aussie. Liz noticed his shirt as well and she caught my eye and gestured towards him. I put my hand to my ear but towards this fellow and I think Liz got the point because she made a definite attempt to listen to him talk as well. She agreed that he didn't sound like an Aussie. There wasn't even a hint of the Aussie drawl.

Then the FIL appeared to say goodbye (they had a Church function to go to) and I was waiting for him to notice this guy's shirt because I just knew he wouldn't be able to help himself. I knew that as soon as he saw the shirt he'd make a big deal out of me being Australian, then he'd try to push the two of us together despite that we have nothing in common other than (maybe) having come from the same country (and I wasn't sure we did). But the FIL never noticed this striking Green & Gold polo and he said his goodbyes and left without causing a scene. Thank heavens the FIL is color-blind and so an eye-catching Green & Gold polo became just another grey shirt.

After eating yummy Indian food and some delicious chocolate birthday cake we finally got away ourselves and returned home, to a very hot house. Although it was after 8pm the temperature (according to our A/C) was 82-degrees. It was close to midnight before the house was remotely cool enough to consider going to bed.

When I got up the next morning at 8am the A/C showed the inside temperature was still in the 80s. Insane!

And yet Xinh came by and the three of us headed out to the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Reserve to attend the local Renaissance Fair. We went to one out at Corona a year or two back and it wasn't too bad. It seems to have gone a lot more commercial this year, with a larger venue, a lot more vendors, and some more professionally put-on shows...and the Admission price has been jacked up now, too. It was $8 for parking just to get into the Recreation Reserve, then as we approached the parking area for the Ren Fair they advertised "Valet Parking" for an additional $10.

One of the cars in front of us stopped at the entrance to the Valet Parking area and appeared to be either asking the "attendant" about the Valet Parking, or perhaps people in the car were just debating whether or not to Valet Park. But they stayed there long enough that the driver behind him grew impatient and pulled out to drive down the Self Park road. We couldn't believe our eyes when the Attendant leaped in front of this car and stopped them. Seriously. When the driver of the first car is just sitting there and can't make up his mind if he wants to Valet Park or not, why not let the cars behind him go around?

Then in the very roughly marked parking area Liz started to pull in and park beside one car when another attendant tried to direct her in behind that same car. Uh no. We're driving an SUV. We're already committed to parking next to this car. To park behind that car we'd have to back up because our approach needs to be on an entirely different line. Liz just kept pulling forward and the attendant yielded. Smart lad. 200 lbs of flesh & bone stands no chance against 3,500 lbs of SUV.

But that wasn't the end of our parking attendant woes. On the way back out we exited the parking area right next to the Valet Parking entrance. We had a temporary Stop Sign in front of us, so Liz pulled up to a stop and was letting the oncoming traffic turn in front of us as they all headed for the Self-Parking entrance, but this wasn't good enough for the parking attendant. He literally ran out in front of us waving his flags, stopped in front of us then proceeded to wave every oncoming car through. The cars kept coming and the attendant just stood in front of us, blocking our way. Never mind that we were facing a Stop Sign; the attendant was determined to make sure we yielded the right of way. Finally he held his flags up and stopped the oncoming traffic then waved us through. I swear he was being sarcastic when he said "Thank you, Ma'am" to Liz as we drove passed. She was equally sarcastic when she replied "Whatever!"

So you may have noticed I didn't talk much about what happened between us parking, and leaving, and that's because not much happened. We got inside the Fair, walked around a bit and got very, very hot. We ate, drank, walked some more, decided we'd seen enough and were hot enough and it was time to leave. Poor Xinh had to pay full price to get in (and admission wasn't cheap) whereas before purchasing our tickets Liz and I were accosted by a woman trying to give us an internet ticket. For free. Was this for real? "Someone gave me several tickets in the parking lot," she said, "and this was an extra one." We looked at the ticket, it looked fair dinkum. What did we have to lose? Liz bought one ticket and we approached the gate. I noticed the buyer's name was on the internet ticket and quickly concocted a story about how I'd given my money to a coworker and he'd bought my tickets. This was also my backup story in case the ticket buyer had printed multiple copies and my ticket had already been used. Son of a bitch has ripped me off! Wait until I get to work on Monday! But none of that was necessary. Liz & Xinh showed their tickets, the lady scanned my e-ticket, and we were in.

We looked at some pendants but Liz wasn't too fussed over any of them. I saw quite a few men in kilts but no kilt vendors, and I was all ready to buy a kilt and fully prepared to strip down and don my newly acquired clothing, but nope, it didn't happen.

The Scottish Festival is next week, down in Orange County at the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds. It was supposed to be out at Pomona but the venue was changed at the last minute. I'm not sure if we'll go. It's cheaper than the Ren Fair, and Costa Mesa is going to be a lot cooler than Pomona would be. I don't know if the thought of me in a kilt is enough to convince Liz and Xinh to go...or perhaps it's more inclined to turn them off. We'll see ;)