A Sunday with the Zombie Eater

I just put Maly down for bed. I don’t know if it’s the time of year, my subconscious is telling me to cherish these moments right now, the fact that we had a a great day together, or PMS.

The weekend started out on somewhat of a low note. I got up extra early on Friday and booked it to work. I was the first person in the office and I was ready to get everything done and get out by noon so I could do some Christmas shopping. Well, that never happened. I’d expected this to be a slow week at the office and it’s been anything but. I got home around 6 p.m. that evening and had to keep working until 11 p.m., after having dinner and casual conversation with the Zombie Eater.

On Saturday I’d planned on getting things done around the house, like finishing the Christmas lights, cleaning the cars, putting stuff on craigslist — just getting things done. Instead I went with the girls to run errands and have lunch. We went to the post office, Home Depot, Bed, Bath, Bird Feeders, Bark Mulch, Tire, Lube & Beyond, the toy store, Lowe’s, and probably a few other places. That pretty much took up the better part of the afternoon and evening. I put Maly to bed and then we watched “Terminator XXIVO5 – Rebuttal of the Automated Teller Machine”, you know, the one where it’s man versus machine, things blow up, Guns ‘n’ Roses playing in the background, grrrrr, motorcycle, “I’ll be back” and the fate of the world is yet to be determined. Awesome movie.

This morning Elise and Maly went to church. I stayed home and worked on Christmas lights. After the girls got home, Elise informed me that she needed to clean the house because the housekeeper is coming tomorrow. To clean the house.

So I talked Maly into going on a walk. We walked our usual walk to the mailbox, which is a few blocks away, but this time, we just kept walking. We went exploring in the woods south of Slaughter. We threw rocks into the “Turkey Bowl” rain reservoir/ad-hoc skate park and we discussed the dangers of snakes that hide under rocks and logs. At one point, Maly said, “Daddy, will you hold my hand?” I obliged and asked why. She told me she was a little scared.

We walked around for 20 minutes more and came across a concrete wall. Maly walked up on the wall and fell a good three feet, flat on her face. She fought back the urge to cry, picked herself up and brushed herself off. After that, I knew she was probably tired, so we started heading back toward the house. We came across a huge branch that had fallen out of a big oak tree. We stopped and had a riveting conversation about ball moss. Then we started our trek back to the house. About half-way there, Maly told me she was tired, so I gave her a piggy back ride all the way back home.

Once we got home, I washed the cars and Elise and Maly went back to church for a story reading. By the time they got back, both cars were cleaned and the Christmas lights on the house were done. Elise went back to cleaning the house, so Maly and I went for a couple rides on the PlasmaCars, and then for another walk, this time just to the mailboxes to get yesterday’s mail.

Whenever Maly and I go on walks, I test her on her house number, street address, city, state and her mom and dad’s names. Tonight we talked about how stranger equals danger. She even asked, “So Daddy, are strangerous dangerous?”

Tonight before bed I told Maly that I was only going to go into the office a few days this week. I then went on to tell her that Daddy was going to the movies with friends tomorrow night. She excitedly asked if she could go with us. I told her that this movie was about aliens. I had to tiptoe around explaining what aliens were just before putting my baby to bed.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day today, even if I had the all the power in the world to plan it myself.

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