I hate Mondays

This post was originally titled "A wonderful weekend which turned terribly disappointing and tragic"

Sandy and I scrubbed and prepared the house for Mike, Anne, and Kadence's weekend visit. Sandy cooked up a storm and I managed not to burn the chickens too badly in the smoker. The visit was great. The kids played nicely in the backyard pool, and in the toy room. We were amazed that Kadence worked so diligently to clean up toys after he was done playing with them. In the evening, the boys and I stayed home while Annika and Sandy went down to the pool at the Hampton, where they stayed, to go smimming. That went great, too. That evening, Mike and I went to go see the DaVinci Code. It was a good movie, and though it was not as good as the book, I thought it was as close as you could get to a book adaptation. Later that day, Sunday, we headed over to the Cabral's house where the kids played together well, and Sandra and Sandy managed to find a common love of cooking. That night, Sandy got a call from Sue, who told her that she wondered if we had a computer that she could use. I spent about 5 hours that night prepping my old computer, installing software she needed, and even taped my USB drive to the side of the computer when I found that the floppy drive didn't work. I loaded the computer in the car, and even managed to arrange to pick up a monitor from my friend Alex that Sue could use.

I woke up the next Morning. It was Monday. We rousted the kids, quickly fed them breakfast (Rice cereal) and gave the boys a quick bath. Hopped in the car and started driving. It was a little after 8:15. We had told Sue we'd be there at 10 o'clock. We arrived at Sue's house at . . .10 o'clock. I had neglected to get directions to her house, but we kinda knew where it was and made it there at the appointed and agreed upon time.

Sue was not home.

Annika started reminding us that she needed to go to the bathroom, so I called my second cousin Phil, so lives a few blocks away. We drive there and Annika used the bathroom while the boys and I talked to Phil. We left the computer there and drove to the zoo. It was terribly hot, but we all had a fun time inside. Lunch was about $22, but as I told Sandy - it's our donation to the animals. No problem.

Everything was fine until we got home.

The cat had dumped over Leaf the Frog's tank. Leaf was dead and our teak writing desk, on which it sat, was scratched and water damaged. I know that this might have happened eventually, but this was the wrong day for this to happen. Sandy loved that frog, and cared for it everyday. We put Marcus away in the wash room.

I would write more, but I don't think that swearing and cursing will help at this point. A neighbor advised that I might be able to help the table with a bleach and water solution. That and something from Formbys perhaps.

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I take responsibility for the frog. Much like the squirrels in our backyard, which the kids also love, they cause damage. But I squirrel-proofed the garden cages and our plants are fine. In retrospect, as soon as Marcus showed an interest in Leaf, I should have attached his tank to a small aluminum plate (sold at Menards for about $5) and mounted this plate on a slip-proof pad so that it would not have moved. I spent hours on those garden cages, but I didn't take the time to protect Annika's small pet from the cat, whose natual curiosity led to Leaf's demise.

Oh one more thing, Sue called later in the day and asked me "How mad is Sandy?" I wonder. . .if she had talked to Sandy, would she have asked "How mad is Kurt?"

Because I am pissed off.