Prep for Johnnie's Party

With the Studers spending the morning at Lisa's I am otherwise freed up to do whatever I wanted this morning, without Johnnie. To me, that is simply to run around and get prepped for his birthday party tomorrow. I am on the hook for getting decorations (helium tank for balloons), getting entertainment (piñata) and a salad dish. That I won't get until tomorrow to make it as fresh as possible. But I was also going to make lumpia and I subtly hinted to Dexter this morning that maybe he could bring some (Mama Vangie could make some hint hint??). He was all good for that of course, because Dexter is Dexter. I was also thinking that I'm going to be pretty much occupied the entire day tomorrow so all I needed to do for a Sunday, I better get done by today. All that stuff for work I usually do before Monday hits, I better get done by today. That's timecards, that's dashboards, etc  I gotta do laundry, I gotta do my own grocery shopping, I gotta clean up the house blah blah blah. And so I chipped away at all these things and when I looked up it was already 11 AM! I hadn't left the house yet! I wasted some time purchasing stuff online, including designing and buying a T-shirt for Johnnie with the dinosaur logo on the left chest, which was one of his favorites. It had gotten way too small. So I got him a custom one, sort of for his birthday but really I would have gotten it for him regardless. Cost me $30 (for a T-shirt??) but I think he will like it. When I finally got up and about I figured I'd go to Target on Sepulveda first to do. And when I got there, I saw there was also a Party City right next door. A-ha! AND I went to Carter's first actually because of course I had to shop for Johnnie clothes. After all I spent the morning buying some for me. But then I got the piñata and helium tank at the Party City next door, and then got Johnnie's lunchables at Target and then I realized it was already nearly 1 PM. So I stopped at Burger King to get me a chicken sandwich and a couple of tacos. And have use the restroom. And afterwards I already felt much better. One more stop. I went to Baskin Robbins to check to see about Johnnie's ice cream cake. They already had one pre-made that was good for 12 people! Awesome. All I had to do was to have his name on the icing and I actually felt like I got everything accomplished. And then I had this great idea. I could drop everything off at Lisa's including the ice cream cake. After all she has a much bigger freezer than I do. And I could also drop off all the used clothes sitting in a couple of bags at the drop-off near her house at Clover Park. How smooth is all that! And no one was home so everything could be a surprise. I dropped off the piñata, the helium tank, the ice cream cake, and then the used clothes and I was home before 2 PM. And I felt like I got everything done. I was patting myself on the shoulder feeling good about myself :) UNTIL...  

I wanted to take a nap in the afternoon and then I realized the UCLA-Utah football game was on and lo and behold UCLA was winning! W-h-a-t? We hadn't beaten Utah in what feels like forever. And wouldn't you know UCLA won to get to 6-0 for the year! Last time they did this was 2005. Yeah I remember 2005. That was the year I went to a game at the Coliseum and got humiliated personally because UCLA got thrashed 66-19 by the Matt Leonard Reggie Bush team. I remember sitting in my car feeling so pissed off. Yeah, it's been a minute. This walk down the past got interrupted with a phone call from Lisa. Johnnie was inviting me to dinner. Wanted to use the new pasta maker to make our own pasta. BECAUSE he had discovered the ice cream cake after getting home, didn't know it was reserved for tomorrow, and started eating it. ARGGH!!! NOOO!!! I know I know. I should have told Lisa. Texted her. Something. The dinner invite was a peace offering I think LOL. Oh well, I went to Whole Food to pick up some Italian sausage. If we're going to eat fresh made pasta, might as well have it with some sausage. And so I grilled up a few of them and then went to Lisa's I was met with a scene of mom and son raking up the sand area, trying to clear it from poop. Cat poop. See the picture above. That's what Johnnie was doing, spraying vinegar to deodorize and clean up  the sand. Huh? Of course I would be roped into helping out. AND cleaning up. And the pasta making thing? That turned pretty disastrous really quick. We had to figure it out and you know how Lisa had to do everything exactly through directions. We finally started churning out pasta at 7:30 PM. We had already started eating leftovers from last night by this time. They still had some pad thai. And of course I had the sausage which I already started to eat. Johnnie still had leftover chicken satay.  And so it was that we had a pretty late dinner. Somehow I wasn't surprised. Lisa was almost on overwhelm already from having to clean up. And we made a much larger mess in the kitchen. But nothing compared to the mess left behind by the Studers, especially Johnnie's sleeping area. And so I pulled everything out from under the dining room table. And made Johnnie put every toy, every lego, every card, every book away. And then I had to tackle the kitchen and the pasta machine debacle. By the time I got done cleaning it was nearly 9 PM. Where was Lisa all this time? In the guest room whining about how she still had to do laundry. Hey that's all she had left to do. Johnnie actually did a pretty good job cleaning up, even if he had to grumble about doing it. Why Lisa lets it get to the out-of-hand state in the first place is beyond me. But I did my part. And I went on home. Big day tomorrow for all of us.