Curse Averted, Weekend (Mostly) Enjoyed

So the Vegas Curse really did not manifest itself this year after all... Ben was home sick from school Thursday and Friday, but it was one of those randomly-spiking-fevers-but-otherwise-seeming-fine sicknesses, for the most part. I could tell he didn't feel great, but he didn't feel awful either and didn't really have any other symptoms besides the general tiredness and aches and pains of having a virus. Joel too managed to fight off his illness and had a good time in Vegas. He flew home on a red-eye after the Super Bowl, and is supposed to go to work this afternoon, which sounds like a poor decision to me... He is taking a nap at the moment. He actually came home with almost as much money as he started his trip with, even after paying for his hotel, meals, etc. That was quite impressive and a departure from the experience of previous years ;)

My weekend consisted of schlepping the kids to dance class, basketball, and a birthday party, but I had company because my friend Anne, in town for a business trip, came over on Saturday and stayed with us until last night. She does not have kids of her own, so was not particularly used to the mauling she experienced at the hands of my kids (who always appear to visitors to be attention-starved- what's that about?). But she was quite a good sport about putting up with all the... how shall we put it mildly.... chaos that those of us who have kids don't bat an eyelash at anymore ;)

One highlight (or perhaps lowlight) of the weekend was a poor dinner choice on my part Saturday night... in trying to accomodate everyone's tastes for dinner I chose a restaurant that was too crowded, and screwed up Ben's order twice... he ordered salmon and they brought him steak, and he was so hungry by the time our food came that when they took it back to get the salmon, he started to cry. When the salmon finally came out it was undercooked, so I had to send it back again. Ben did end up with a free meal including a free cup of soup and a free piece of chocolate cake, but even so the experience permanently takes this particular restaurant off our list!

Besides that the weekend was pretty good, the weather was relatively nice yesterday and the kids played outside, Ben scored a basket at his basketball game, we introduced Anne to Pinkberry, and she made some fair progress on a pair of socks she was trying to knit, despite interference from Ulysses -- cats really do, as it turns out, like yarn! Here is a picture of Anne with her feline groupie: