punishment and reward

our sunday started off in good spirits, in spite of me burning all of it on bureacracy - payments and insurance policies and a bunch of other unexciting tasks. gd made pancakes, though, that was awesome.

we went to the first birthday party and it was awful from start to finish. we've decided - well, gd decided and i agree - that we're not doing sea point / fresnaye parties again, even if we like the parents. because of all the other parents, and it's not just us who were uncomfortable, a friend of ours couldn't handle the community bullshit to the point where she went to go cry in her car. some guy bumped into mr smear and he subsequently fell down a couple of stairs, either he's thoroughly oblivious to the world around him or he just didn't care when my kid started crying. mr smear's old best friend's mother didn't just ignore us, but was clearly discussing gd with her friend.

and as for mr smear's friend whose birthday it was, i don't think they're really interested in each other any more. but while he didn't want to do anything but stick with us until we were ready to leave, the moment we started moving he decided he needed to stay and play; we left, all of us in a foul mood.

it took us over an hour to start letting go of the first party and gear up for the second. the second party? that was great. we had plenty of conversation with interesting people and the kids LOVED playing together, mr smear has learned how to play tag and they were all very courageously using the super-tall slide that mr smear freaked out on the year before, the pretty tricky jungle gym, and the surprisingly high swings. win!

gd needed a break so we walked around the block for burgers when we got home, but royale was closed (wtf?!) and plant had already closed their kitchen, so we ended up getting steers veggies burgers which were pretty good.

the evening was mostly pleasant, although mr smear has been testing us the past week or two by ignoring us and then repeating the most disingenuous "sorry", so bedtime wasn't particularly great.

i've tried to work on a quick voting app this weekend, but i just haven't gotten it together. i've tried to make progress on 7 billion humans, but my head hasn't been in it. my jaw's really sore and swollen, not sure if chewing gum has been harmful or helpful.

i've been working on my podcast for the past few hours, it's been slow but i'm happy with what i've got so far. now it's time to hit the hay and hope that whatever my allergies are doing to my sinuses right now relaxes by morning...