the tonedef blog

Monday I was off work for Memorial Day and Thing 1 also was home for the same reason. Gotta love 3 day weekends. The morning was pretty laid back there was no rush to do anything. We all gradually got ready and I played a little Rock Band to kill some time. We headed out and picked up Band Mom’s Mom around 2. Then we all headed to the mausoleum to see Band Mom’s Dad…After spending some time there we took Band Mom’s Mom home and headed home ourselves.

As soon as we got home Things 1 & 2 were outside playing. Band Mom and I sat down and ended up watching Spider Man 3. Our neighbors had invited us to a cookout so after the movie we wandered over there for some grub and chit chat.

After that it was back home and game two of the Pens – Red Wings Stanley Cup Finals. Alas another loss putting the ‘guins down 2-0…

Sunday I got up early and took Pooh to church. After dropping her off, I ran through a McDonald’s drive-through and picked up breakfast for the fam. When I got home everyone was up and waiting patiently for breakfast. We all ate then lazed around for a while. I killed some time by playing some Guitar Hero III which I haven’t played in forever.

Finally we all got motivated and headed out for some shopping. We headed to Ikea to exchange some stuff for Band Mom’s Mom. When I put one of her new dressers together I had all left sides for the drawers and needed the right sides. After we did that we stopped at a GameStop up there to see if they had SingStar Amped for Band Mom, who is now majorly addicted to the SingStar franchise. They didn’t so we decided to try the Best Buy. On the way we saw another GameStop and looked there. No luck. So on to Best Buy. I had a $40 dollar gift card so we ended up picking up Amped and SingStar 90s. And Thing 1 and 2 each got a case for there DSs. Except I didn’t really have the gift card. I forgot that I got one of Band Mom’s gifts using it. Oh well, Band Mom is a junkie so she got the games anyway.

We got home and Band Mom and after dinner, Band Mom and I played both games for a couple of hours before finally going to bed.

Saturday started bright and early. Thing 1 had a soccer game at 9AM and Thing 2 at 10:30. So we were all up around 8 and got ready and headed out. We actually got to watch both games for a change. Usually they play (if they don’t get rained out) at the same time and we only see bits and pieces of each game. On the way home from the games, we hit the McDonald’s drive-through for some lunch.

We got home ate and lazed around for a little bit. Then I dropped Pooh at work at 3 and swung through Wal Mart to pick up a masonry bit. Why did I get a masonry bit you ask? Or maybe you didn’t…but I’m gonna tell ya anyway.

When I got back Band Mom and I worked on installing a new railing for our front steps. We’ve never had one, but our new home owners insurance will only cover us if we have a railing. So we need to install the railing. How hard can it be? Well actually not that hard, just kinda tedious and time consuming. With a little help from our neighbors we did manage to get it up.

After that some dinner and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. The Penslost game 1, but its only 1 of 7 so there’s still hope. Right?

Band Mom brought Pooh home and she was ready for another round of SingStar. So we played that for oh a few hours…We finally went to bed well after midnight…

Friday Thing 1 didn’t have school so she and Thing 2 were home with Band Mom all day. When I got home from work we all headed out and grabbed some dinner at the Chinese buffet. Then we made a quick stop at Wal Mart for some stuff. While there Band Mom was bitching that we hadn’t received our copy of SingStar for the PS3 that I pre-ordered on Amazon.com. So we looked for it at Wal Mart. They didn’t have it in. So I dropped everyone at home after the store and headed to GameStop. They had it in stock so I picked it up.

When I got home I headed to Amazon.com to cancel my order. Of course now its being prepared for shipment so I can’t cancel the order and have to wait and return it. Oh well. We busted open the game and it was well worth it. The PS3 version has more songs on it in my range than the SingStar 80s version we already had.

Band Mom, Pooh and I rocked the new SingStar for a while. Then we decided it was time to check out the online store to see what other songs were available. We ended up downloading Bonnie Tylor’s Total Eclipse Of The Heart (Band Mom’s pick), Billy Joel’s Piano Man (Band Mom’s pick) and Faith No More’s Easy (my pick). Eventually Pooh headed to bed and Band Mom and I kept playing. We downloaded a couple of more songs, Mr. Big’s To Be With You (Band Mom) and DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s Summertime (me).

We finally realized we had to get up early for soccer and headed to bed…

Saturday morning is soccer time. Both Thing 1 & Thing 2 are supposed to have a game at 10:30. So we got up and got ready to go. My folks were meeting us at the field. Band Mom was going to drop me off and take Pooh to her Relay for Life event. On the way to the field I get a call from my mom. Apparently they are the only car in the parking lot. The games were obviously canceled. A call to our house would have been nice. We have 2 kids in 2 different age groups playing and nobody called us, but obviously called every other parent?!?

Oh well…so we just packed up and took Pooh to her thing. After that we headed to the mall to get Thing 2′s ears pierced. When she found out that Thing 1 might get Christmas or birthday presents that she couldn’t get (i.e. pretty earrings) she decided she would get her ears pierced. She didn’t do quite as well as Thing 1, but she did get it done and the crying only lasted a couple of minutes. While we were there Band Mom ended up getting her second holes done as well. Then we stopped at Garfield’s for some lunch. By the time lunch was over Thing 2 was completely cool with the new earrings.

Then it was home for a while. After some napping and house stuff, we decided to head out and do some shopping…

So we head to Wal Mart. The kids are whining about being hungry, so we start with a trip to the in store McDonald’s for some dinner. Then we do our shopping. While shopping, we pick up a dance pad for the kids to play DDR on the PS2.

When we got home, after putting the groceries away, I headed up stairs and disconnected the PS2 and brought it back downstairs. I set it up and got the new dance pad set up. The girls had a ball playing DDR 2 player. Band Mom wanted to play as well. Pooh had told her that a friend used DDR as her exercise routing and lost a bunch of weight.

After many hours of DDR we all finally went to bed.

Friday, after work, I came home and everyone was getting ready. I dropped Band Mom at the hotel for her meeting and then took the kids to my folks’ for the night. I then went back home and took care of the dogs. Around 7:30 I headed back to the hotel to meet up with Band Mom and friends for dinner.

As we were waiting for dinner, The Accountmaster was surprising Tidleywink with an engagement ring. She said yes so dinner was spent congratulating them. Which was a lot of congratulations since it took like 2 hours to get served…

After everyone ate, we moved into the bar to check out Tom Terling. Trav and Scooter showed up and we all hung out til close.

Crongrats again Accountmaster and Tidleywink!

Sunday was Mother’s Day. We woke up and started getting ready. Band Mom opened her earrings that I picked up on Friday and the card from Things 1 & 2. We had reservations at the hotel for their Mother’s Day brunch at 11:30. We left the house around 11:20 and headed to pick up Band Mom’s Mom…who was running late as usual. We did get to the hotel not long after 11:30 though.

Here we met up with my folks and had some brunch. We these plans since it was pretty good last year.

After brunch we decided to all head to the mall. My mom had promised Thing 2 to get her ears pierced for her birthday. So we all went to the mall to take care of this. Thing 2 was a trooper…No screaming, no tears, nothing. She got it done and was thrilled. We looked at some other stuff while we were there, but alas left empty handed.

We left the mall and took Band Mom’s Mom home and then headed home ourselves. There was some napping done later in the afternoon. Then I headed to Wal Mart to pick up supplies for the week. On the way home I picked up Arby’s for dinner.

While we ate we watched game 2 of the Penguins/Flyers Easter Conference finals. Got the girls ready for bed and watched some TV for the rest of the night.

Again Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there…

Saturday’s soccer games got canceled since the fields were underwater. So we all got to sleep in a little. Most of the day was spent kinda lazing around. Band Mom took her mom to the grocery. I did some client work. The kids played video games. Pooh went to work.

Other than that not too much going on…

Friday after work the fam all went shopping. Band Mom wanted to get a haircut. So the rest of us wandered around the mall while she got her haircut. First I stopped at King’s Jewelry and picked up a pair of earrings that I had ordered in a while ago for a Mother’s Day present for Band Mom. Then Thing 1 and I looked around Game Stop to kill some time. Then Pooh, Things 1 & 2 and I went to the card store to get Mother’s Day cards for Band Mom.

After Band Mom was done we looked around Borders so Band Mom could get a gag gift for a friend. We also got Things 1 & 2 a each a doodle pad and I picked up The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: A Pop Up Book on the clearance rack for $5. I’d never seen that before and it was too cool to pass up.

After that we dropped Pooh off to meet up with a friend and the rest of us went to get some dinner at T.G.I.Friday’s. That was cool because we sat in the bar and I got to watch part of the Penguins game.

After we ate we headed home and I watched the rest of the game. Then Band Mom and I played some Rock Band. And ended our evening playing SingStar ’80s.

Sunday, Pooh got up early and was picked up by her step mom to go to church. The rest of us slept in a bit. We all kinda kicked around for the majority of the day. Then we got ready to go. Pooh had a piano recital at 4. So we headed out a little early and picked up Band Mom’s Mom then headed to the library.

There was another recital in the room we were in that hadn’t ended yet. So a bunch of people just milled around until we could get in. After about an hour we finally got seated. And the room was about 200 degrees. We managed to make it through though. Well except Things 1 & 2 who fell asleep on me and Band Mom respectively.

Pooh has improved since last year and was actually recognized by her instructor as the most improved student for the year. After that we took Band Mom’s Mom home and headed home ourselves. Band Mom finally got to use her new “grill” and made hamburgers for dinner. After that it was more lazing around and watching some DVR.