Work, Date Night and Other Bits

Work was brutal this week. The good news is that over the last two days, I finished up several of my big pending projects. I finished December's books, the 2007 income tax estimate, rescheduled a liability insurance audit, did some prep work on our apportioned plate registration, and finished up IFTA (International Fuel Tax Agreement). IFTA is a task that takes me two hours every month, another hour every quarter, and two hours at the beginning of every year - it frustrates me and I complain about it often to my other admin friends. The phone rang non-stop today and kept me from setting a rhythm but I made it through the day and don't have to go back until Tuesday!

Rob had many projects this week and last. He's busier now than he was all of last month I think. I don't know how long it will stay this busy, but for now it's nice for him to be getting all of the hours especially since he doesn't start school until the 22nd.

After our long days at work all week long, I was ready to come home, lay on the couch and watch a movie. Half an hour after I got home, the hubby asked me what my plans for the evening were. I know that sounds unusual; most couples do things together, right? Well, Rob plays darts and on Sunday he had a banquet, a Captains meeting on Tuesday and played on Thursday - non of which I attended with him. I quite often make plans to spend a couple of hours on the phone with a friend in another state (or down the street), go over to a neighbor's house to chat, or have school work I must do.

Our children were heading off to do their own things. Jake went to see Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie. He's 17, but he's a goofball - he loves the Veggie Tales and wanted to take his girlfriend to see it. Matt was heading over to a friend's house to help fix a computer problem, and Lindsay was ready with plans of her own.

This night however, I was just thinking about taking off my shoes and being lazy. The hubby wanted to go to dinner. A Date Night, what a concept! Money is tight but we'd received a gift certificate to Macaroni Grill for Christmas and it was calling our name. We had a nice dinner without the kids, but I have to say - Friday just isn't the night for going out to a quiet dinner. The restaurant was packed; thankfully we'd made reservations so we only had to wait 10 minutes to be seated. We heard them quote the wait time as at least 45 minutes for people who came in at the same time as we did.

Tonight was fun, I'm glad we could take time away from the stress of work, relax, and do something of our own while our kids were out having lives.

Oh, something else I did today that I'm happy about... I signed Lindsay up for Spring Soccer! I'll find out in a month or so if she's gotten on the team at her school and then I'll have to go buy her jersey, soccer shorts, shin guards, socks, regulation size ball, and soccer shoes. Yeesh - the cost to sign up is $85 and it's $40 for everything else, plus the shoes. I'm just glad I got her in this season. This summer she's taking horseback riding lessons thanks to her grandmother, and piano lessons too - if I can swing it. She'll be a busy girl.

Jake just got home from his date and when I mentioned that he needed a haircut and I could do it this weekend, he said that he was booked. He's having a movie marathon with the girlfriend tomorrow; apparently she's never seen The Breakfast Club or The Wizard of Oz! I think she's deprived. On Sunday he's spending the day with his best friend of 7 years. They play X-Box 360, talk and generally act like foolish boys. He also told me that he and his best friend have decided that they are going to be team captains on the football team this year and they generally accomplish whatever they set their minds to. Except, thankfully, that time when they were 14 and decided they were going to take over the world.

I'm going to watch Stranger Than Fiction this weekend. I've been looking forward to it for a while now and while I'm not a big Will Farrell fan, this movie looks really good. We have Netflix, so we pretty much see whatever strikes us. I decided that I have to see the Die Hard movies again, so I'll be getting them over the next month. I also put Premonition, The Librarian: Quest for the Spear and Return to Mines, and The Lake House on my list. I've seen all of them except Premonition. I have a tendency to watch the same movies over and over and over again - it drives the hubby nuts. I like Tremors (I've got all four of the movies but like the first one best), Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, National Treasure, and You've Got Mail - a new VHS addition to my older movie collection (I picked it up for 99 cents at Goodwill!). I watch some combination of these oldies-but-goodies every weekend and sometimes to help me fall asleep at night when I'm experiencing insomnia - like tonight.