reversal

 WELL. we went to our friends for dinner last night, and aside from enjoying a really nice evening with them - and eating too much delicious food - we were all completely taken by surprise when mr smear and their daughter forgot their rivalry and just had a really good time together!

today was mostly relaxed, we played rayman: legends (we've restarted from scratch, and we're generally playing pretty well together), and we watched the second installment of pirates of the caribbean. so that was a great start to a saturday.

in the afternoon we all went out to play table tennis, which would have been nice except for a) mr smear throwing a wobbly on the way that generated a lot of unhappiness and b) the apparently-biting flies (both gd and mr smear complained about them) and wasps around the table.

so after all the drama in getting there, and the minor success in mr smear deciding he wanted to play, we ended up getting out of there without much playtime.

i had a good chat with horseman, though it's tough hearing how much he's been struggling (he's been suffering from chronic pain, he's in montreal where the only effective care is private, and he's had to quit his counselling job and has limited benefits that are running out).

in the evening, i put on my blades, mr smear got on his bike, we picked up our friend's daughter on hers and we went to the climbing wall together, for the last time on the three-month membership we bought. the kids were cool, and the evening was largely successful (her father and brother joined us after a while).

after a few walls mr smear decided he was done, but not after doing something that i had to punish him for. minor, but still. towards the end, i struck a bargain with him that i instantly regretted the moment i heard it coming out of my mouth - two more "goes" to drop the punishment.

gosdsdammit, i'm the one who's being trying to reinforce the idea that punishments are not transactional. fuck, fuck, fuck. afterwards, i explained to him that i'd made a mistake and that that won't be happening again...

the ride home was alright, and the rest of the evening was alright. now it's our bedtime, we have a big day tomorrow - first day of school, and ari's pain clinic appointment, at the same hour. whoo!

it's okay

 the morning went alright. we hit the mall early, and after some consulting with the parents' group i think we got the right thing - an actual tanach for mr smear. and then a bunch of stuff at the pharmacy and grocery store.

and then a bread and a bagel and a... pretzel thingy at the bakery.

we came home, dropped everything off, then turned around and caught a bus to south tel aviv. we got to the store without incident, and picked up our couch cushions. the ones we paid for almost half a year ago. along the way i tried to explain the time value of money to mr smear. and that it's not exactly stealing, but kind of stealing, when you promise goods in return for money and delay the delivery for an unreasonably long time.

on the way home, we stopped at a coffee shop for coffee and apple juice. we all had a good time, right until we didn't - so that kinda sucked - but by the time we left we were alright again. the walk to the bus took infinity time because of the light rail construction, so we ended up at a light rail station and used that to get home instead.

i quite like the light rail.

the afternoon has been spent relaxing, with a good chunk of it devoted to an exciting rewatch of the first pirates of the caribbean movie. so that was awesome. now we're all chilling until it's time to go to our friends - or frenemies, in mr smear and their daughter's case :P