Sam and I went to lunch this afternoon and Lauren was our waitress. She did a great job, and when she brought Sam free dessert, he said, "Oh... My... Gosh. This is delicious."

I took him to the park afterward, and there were two weirdo kids there, one who kept chasing Sam, and one who kept hitting him. The chaser was wearing a blue sweatshirt, and when Sam woke from his nap later at home, the first thing he said was, "That blue guy was chasing me."

But lately Sam uses "actually," "seriously," and "precarious" correctly in sentences. We never really talked baby-talk to Sam, and it shows. Matt was commenting last night on how he made a giant leap of maturity from age 2.5 to age 3.

On the way to school Monday he said, "Daddy really wants me to go surfing with him, but I don't want to use his big white surfboard, I want my own surfboard." I agreed. Sometimes he's scary smart. He listens to NPR on the way to and from school (16 miles round trip), and he's started repeating, or, better yet, commenting on the commentary!

In other news:

Jason came in 335th in the Madison, WI Ironman. Angie and I both took walks that day.

I went to Chicago for the weekend and danced in really super-high heels. I was able to walk again today, for the first time.

I contributed to the Democratic Party yesterday, and again today, because I want my voice to be heard.

Matt is buying another old Mercedes. That will be two in our driveway. My family thinks he may need psychological evaluation.

Kate is in the hospital again, and we all hate that very much. : (

Matt and Sam are going surfing in November. I mean, how cute is that?!

All for now.

I'm all tingley

Sam went with me to my doctor's appointment yesterday for tennis elbow (caused not from playing tennis, but from landscaping every square-inch of our yard). My arm is so sore that it doesn't even seem like pain anymore, it just feels like a constant tingle. Not the kind of sense and sensibility that I'm used to.

Samuel has become a daredevil. Usually, when he is risking life and limb, either skateboarding or riding his Razor down the middle of the street (yeah, just turned 3 and has been really good on it for months!) -- oh, and now jumping on the trampoline -- we tell him to please be careful so we don't have to go to the hospital.

He started blending the words "doctor" and "hospital," and came up with the term "hot doctor," asking us if that was where he'd end up if he didn't wear a helmet.

We were the first ones at the doctor's office yesterday. People began filing in, the nursing staff busily preparing for their day, and Sam said with almost an echo, "Are we seeing your hot doctor, Mommy?"

There were plenty of snickers and chuckles, and I gasped out an "Oh, honey, yes, we're here to see the doctor, not the hospital doctor..." but the damage had been done.

I'm sure the staff told my doctor, who actually is a pretty handsome man. : )

We are still recouping from the birthday bash. Matt did a terrific job getting the trampoline up (after... 6 hours? haha), and every single beautiful Spiderman cupcake disappeared. Matt bought me my second original painting from a local artist that I love, and even stopped at Sakura and picked up soft shell crab for me. What a man.

I start physical therapy for my arm next week. Ugh out.

The last 4 digits

I just found myself at Lowe's on a Friday night. I was buying wood filler, charcoal, Folex carpet cleaner, and about to have an out-of-body experience. I realized that I know the last 4 digits of our credit card (7143) without looking.

I felt depressed.

I came home and found Matt cleaning the car (the earth's axis tipping simultaneously), and Sam running down to me, yelling, "I wanna ride in there with you!" So I did our favorite thing to freak out our neighbors, besides that thing where we walk around with full wine glasses: I allowed Sam to climb in on my lap, and we did a quick tour around the neighborhood in our cool Volvo stationwagon...with no seatbelts!

The year of living dangerously.

But I found a new street, one we'd never ventured down before, where people were outside with beers in their hands, and they were dressed well! A couple of them smiled and laughed when they saw my blonde bombshell driving the car, and for that brief moment I was filled with hope.

Tomorrow I'm planning a full-on escapade. We're going to walk down that street and talk to people.