where to begin?

Since my brain is a sieve, before going out tonight I made a list of things I need to write about. Here's the list:

dead steamer

open field sitting

one more day

potter

girly movie

cleaning for the sitter

toxic dog farts

Oh, where to start? I'll just take them in order.

dead steamer - The steamer is one of my favorite things in my favorite room in the house. It hasn't worked for two months. On his third trip here, the repair guy spent four hours trying to fix it. Then they decided to order yet another round of parts, only to find out some of them are unavailable. I started calling the Gaggenau people trying to find out what gives. After a few frustrating hours on the phone with them, they finally agreed to give me a new one. Little tip to the folks at Gaggenau...don't call me to say you have the problem figured out and then put me on hold when you discover you don't really have a handle on the issue at all. It's not nice.

open field sitting - Eleanor did it! Yesterday I said she would probably figure out how to go from crawling to sitting, without a wall for extra support, within a week. It took her less than 24 hours. Shows you what I know.

one more day - CD is still in California at one of his regularly scheduled geekfests. He will be back Saturday. And not a day too soon. I've had just about enough of this flying solo stuff. 

potter - Since I never sleep well when CD is away, I decided to add insult to injury and finally started reading the last Harry Potter book. It's hard to put down, as all of you know (since I am the last person on earth to read it). 

girly movie - CD is soooo lucky. He should probably send my friend Tara a thank you note for saving him from having to see 27 Dresses. It's one of the better girly movies I have seen in a very long time. And not just because I didn't have to go see anything blow up in exchange. The only thing that could have made it better would be a hot waiter with an Irish accent at the restaurant next door to the movie theater. Oh wait, we had that too. Yum.

cleaning for the sitter - Do you clean before the sitter comes? Last Sunday a friend came to watch Eleanor while I took Oliver to a class at the zoo. She was grossed out by my dining room table and cleaned it. So today I was frantically vacuuming the house and cleaning the bathrooms for a woman who cleans my son's butt when he poops. Clare, if you're reading, now you know how much I really, really appreciate you, especially that butt-wiping part. The list of people I'm willing to clean for is extremely short. It has grown in recent years, but is still short.

and last but not least,

toxic dog farts - I feel worse about this than I would have if I had not cleaned up the house before the sitter arrived. I forgot to warn her about Bubba, our foster dog, and his toxic farts. She said she figured it out eventually, but not before she went upstairs to see if the stench was coming from one of the kids' rooms. How could something that noxious come out of something this cute?

And while we're on the subject of gaseous eminations, Oliver told me he had "gas" today. It was so much cuter when he called it "a bit of wind". Alas, Bubba does not have bits of wind. It's just foul.