AFK

This afternoon, my sibling and the family are coming for the weekend.

I've invited some friends over for the fourth, to grill and eat in good company. I'm an anxious host, alas, but I invited good people, most of whom are also good cooks, and I'm going to just trust that so long as I provide snacks, drinks and such, all will go well. One of my friends who's coming has two kids about the same age as my niece and nephew, so I'm hoping they'll all run around together and have fun.

My nephew is in a bunch of little league things this summer, so he pretty much has games every weekend and practices during the weeks. In this day and age, that means a parent has to be at all the practices and games, and that pretty much means that the kid sister has to be there, too. My niece is understandably bored.

So my niece is staying with me when the rest of the family goes back for little league practice. I figure we'll have a good time. I hope so, anyway. So far, I've planned by renting a couple kayaks; we're also going to go visit the site of a famous children's author's childhood home and the nearby bakery. There will almost certainly be crafts involved, and camping out in the back yard.

On Tuesday, my Mom will fly in. And next weekend, we'll go visit my sibling's family so she can also see her grandson. Then we'll leave my niece there, and my Mom will stay here until Thursday.

I'm guessing I'll be keeping busy.

I went and did the blood test thing this morning (before coffee, which is just plain wrong!) because while my niece would be pleasant and patient, I really can't see doing it while she has to wait around. And waiting to the next week would mean my Mom would be all up in my face about OMG are you sick and what's wrong and you should do this with your life and what is this or that blood number and you need to lose weight...

I didn't sleep well last night because I was fretting, which is stupid. I woke up from a dream in which I was wandering all over the big clinic building trying to find where things were and nothing was marked. But I could go do the test thing at either the big clinic or the little clinic office, so I went to the little one, and I found where I needed to go quite easily, and getting the blood drawn took about 38 seconds, so all that fretting was really just stupid. I'm shockingly good at fretting, though it never does any good; you'd think I'd have learned by now not to even bother.

I've been cleaning the house. Really. Today, I have to put out the towels I've been freshly laundering, and do another load or two of winter sheets, so I can fold them up and put them out of the way. (I never in my life imagined that people have winter and not-winter sheets, or that I would.)

Here's the list for now:

1) Do the blood test thing
2) Laundry
3) Vacuum
4) Groceries (kids eat cereal and stuff, and milk) and friends drink beer (ewww)
5) Re-clean kitchen (because I clutter badly)
6) Bike ride (since when will I get another chance?)
7) Mow
8) Finish weeding (back yard; the front actually looks pretty good)
9) Water trees
10) Water neighbor's potted plants
11) Sweep the garage
12) Nap

As you can see, blogging isn't on the list. But I'm still catching up on my morning coffee, so I have an excuse.

So if you don't see me for a couple days, try not to fret. It's just not at all helpful; I promise.