Arghh… I itch right now. And I want to scratch but I shouldn’t. I got almost no sleep last night because I itched so badly. I knew I had some bad bug bites last night, but it wasn’t until I took off my clothes to go to bed that I realized the extent. Julie was nice enough to put some sort of soothing lotion on my bites, and as I pointed them out I realized they were everywhere. Including one on the side of my leg that has developed into a rash of sorts.

And the big problem with me a scratching is that I tend to rip open my skin. Because it itches that badly. I generally scratch until I bleed. Then I can sometimes have enough self-control to wait until I scab over, and then I scratch until I bleed again. I have horrible scars. Generally the itching is so insistent that I don’t really feel that I’m scraping off skin. Arghh… I can feel it now. I need to stop blogging about it.

I just reread the above and I think I used itch and scratch properly. This is one of Julie’s pet peeves with me. It wasn’t until I met her that I learned that itch and scratch are not synonyms. It’s amazing the way we learn language. I, however, know how to use lay and lie properly. She doesn’t seem to think this matters, but I do. Now I know itch/scratch and lay/lie! My grammer skills amaze and confound!

Anyway… so on Sunday we went to church. We had to be greeters. There was no one there though, so Julie did most of the greeting while I walked Stella around. She’s been all about walking and standing this weekend.

We left church and went to Sears to try to find a new food processor. I had decided to make my steak with chimichurri sauce for movie night. Unfortunately, chimichurri requires a lot of blending and chopping of green things (specifically parsley and cilantro), and my old processor had bitten the dust a few weeks ago. Well actually it’s a “hand blender”. Basically, it’s a small food processor that works on the amount of food I normally want to process. I generally do not need to chop up 8 cups of tomatoes so I really have no need for a full blown Cuisinart. Sears had nothing. Williams-Sonoma had a hand chopper that cost the same as a electric chopper and seemed pre-broken. Julie had a blister. Penny’s had nothing. But Macy’s had one. It’s a Braun, and it seems somewhat flimsy, but it did the trick last night.

After our trip to the mall we decided to brave Kerby Lane. We waited for about thirty minutes for a table and Stella was a trooper. She attempted to eat dirt again, and a few cigarette butts, but being good parents we gave her crayons to chew on instead. Once inside Julie and I ordered food. Good food. We ordered Stella a kids cheese omelet and pancake. Which came back being enough food for an adult. It was a full two-egg omelet. I cut it up for Stella. Not fast enough. Never fast enough for that kid. I need to take a class on knife technique just so I can keep up with cutting her food. Although I don’t know if they teach you to techniques for cutting with dull dinner knives. Stella loved her food. Julie loved her blackberry pancakes, and I was happy with my fresh-fried potato chips.

We called my parents on the way home and let them know they could come over. They got into town at about 10pm on Saturday, and they’re officially here now. We hung out for a while before everyone came over. They went home to sleep and our friends arrived at 6pm for movie night. The kids really are old enough now to just be part of the scene rather than a constant distraction that grinds all conversation to a halt. Tara ate next to Stella, and Stella relayed her appreciation by putting some nice greasy hand prints all over Tara’s shirt. Then she and Daniel spent the next hour driving Stella’s push cart around the house and generally being extremely active.

We put Stella down at about 8:20pm and Anna, Sean and Daniel left at about the same time. We watched Solyent Green. Which would probably have been pretty suspenseful if you hadn’t known the secret the whole time. It also was really nihilistic. It completely focused on one character and his inability to save the world. He didn’t try to start a mass movement, there was no big over the top saving the world speech. It was pretty much one character who could have saved the world, but failed. Ahh well, the food was really good. We had a green thai curry from Jeff and Tara, and great pasta salad from Laurie and Justin, and a fruit salad from Anna and Sean. All in all, a good night. I went to bed and tried not to scratch.

Well, the hard part of Saturday is drawing to a close. Today Stella woke me up before 8am. I decided not to actually get her out of bed until 8:00. Because I’m mean like that. I got her up. Gave her some cereal and banana and we went running for 6 miles. We went down Dittmar almost to Congress, looped through the neighborhoods, came back up William Cannon, turned right on Manchaca, and zipped on home.

After Julie got up we started work on the bathrooms. We finally got rid of that horrible lavendar in our bathroom. I’m happy Julie got a bathroom that color (apparently something she’s always wanted). I on the other hand, hated it. The rooms seems bigger now. But it took us priming it and then repainting. It was a ton of work. I ended up doing a lot of the painting, because I get involved in a job and just don’t stop. Julie and I have been switching off. She does the low stuff, and I does the high stuff. Today there wasn’t much low stuff, so she cut in the low stuff, I cut in the high stuff, and then I rolled everything.

In between we took turns watching Stella. Today’s theme has been standing. She’s been standing up on her own a lot. For decent periods of time. It’s pretty cool. Now she’s crying randomly. Which is not cool. But it’s the witching hour. And she’s been zooming today. I wouldn’t be suprised if she passes out before 8.

I don’t know what we’re doing tonight. We’ll see I guess. We’ve got some birthday beer from Bill that I haven’t tasted yet. Maybe we’ll tuck into that. I know my life is fascinating.

I didn’t have a sidetrack today. So here’s a bonus one.