After niece care on Friday I drove down to Providence to have dinner with Nancy. We watched the ballgame (Red Sox won) and I drove home because I had promised to get together with Rita and Joan on Saturday.
After a restless night, I woke up inexplicably early. I felt like I hadn't slept at all but I must have. I did the Saturday morning errands, bought a new battery for the camera in case I needed to photograph niece moments at the Muffy party on Sunday, dropped off the slides at Kenyon to see if they could do a better job of printing them than Dick did. Actually I suspect that despite my asking for and paying for handprinting at andover photo, one of the kids that work there did them on the machine. I know Fuji Velvia is more contrasty than the film I'm used to but the slides looked fine. The prints shouldn't have come out that dark. Anyway, Kenyon sent them to Kodak so we'll see how they come out this time. I wanted to send some of the pictures to Alex but I think I need better prints. Meanwhile, in Saturday's mail I got a pack of pictures from Alex. We look like such a motley crew! A fun team though. I really enjoyed working with Alex and his team. Anyway, after futzing around with the camera and the slides, I arrived at Rita's at exactly the same moment Joan did. What timing! We had a nice time over pizza and espresso.
Then I raced home and raced to Providence so Nancy and I could go to a movie. We got sucked into the ballgame which didn't end til 6:00 so we cut it close trying to get a sandwich before the 7:15 movie in Seekonk. We made it. Fly Away Home is a wonderful feel good movie. It even got to me through my extremely bad mood. The scenes where the geese hatch are magnificent.
After the movie I was way too tired to drive home yet insanely worried that I couldn't pull off getting the kids to the Muffy party unless I went home Saturday night. I finally fell asleep and Nancy woke me up at 8:00 with the TV Mass on Channel 6. Memories of a Catholic childhood swept thru my sleepy brain and I started reciting the prayers and singing the hymns along with the broadcast. Pretty funny actually. I'm amazingly humorous in the morning when I'm not awake. Likely to do anything.
I sped home up I495, fed Wilbur, changed clothes, and discovered that the dead mouse that has been next to my back steps since Wednesday is gone! I heard some crows and suspect they took it. I kept wondering why a tasty little morsel like that stayed around so long when all kinds of scavenging birds hang around here. Anyway, nature finally took its course much to my relief.
The kids were psyched for the party. They dressed their Muffies in their favorite outfits and even brought LuLu along. The party was crowded. That little tiny store crammed with 82 Muffy afficionados was a touch claustrophobic for me but I endured. The kids played the games, checked out the new Muffy outfits, had their pictures taken with Muffy (their favorite part - this Muffy actor was taller than I am), wished for luck at the prize drawings, ate Gummi Bears and marshmallows and pretzels, and picked out one outfit apiece. On the way home we stopped at my house for the kids to use the bathroom and the Muffies to change to their new outfits for the drive back to Groton.
All of this left me totally exhausted on Monday.