November Rain vs Sweet November

~~Today is~~ When I started writing it was the first day in a long time that I didn't have to work and no appointments either. My temporary crown has been replaced by the permanent one, our heating is fixed (for now), the parent / teacher meeting the other day went well, I even got some supplies for home made Christmas gifts.

So what am I doing today?

Going for coffee with a friend? Going to the gym?

Right. Baking.

And blogging!

Telling you about the good days and the - well, they are over so it wasn't all that bad.

Some days start with a bed that looks like this. Add some smell. Or don't.

I am glad for a functioning washing machine that I can use at all times. How do people in apartment houses do it? The ones with a laundry schedule that allows you to use the laundry room once a week?

Wednesday is Hockey Practise Day, and I usually go all the way to prepare for our car trip of almost an hour per way and the meals we enjoy on each one of them.

Last week I just made sandwiches because the previous couple of weeks Colin just had a snack at daycare, and one time when it got late they even packed one for him! So I just had an emergency baggie of dried apples that I threw in my purse at the last minute.

Yes, I was late to pick him up. Had to wait for the laundry to be ready to be transferred to the dryer.

Usually they send him to the bathroom before I arrive, so he just needs to put on his shoes and jacket, grab his backpack, and we are ready to go.

Not this time.

They had only just gotten back from the playground and were brushing off their dirty shoes at the entrance when I arrived. The first thing I noticed about Colin when I saw him was… a large dark area on his pants. "Hey C, how are you? Are you WET?"

Hey said NO!!!

Sent him to the bathroom and raced back to the parking space to get spare clothes from the car (don't you just love how organized I am for once? Yeah, me, too!!)

Finally on our way - late - I spotted sheep. Not just any sheep. Black headed sheep. Did you know they exist? I didn't.

As I was in the car and couldn't stop I had to sneak this picture off the Department of Agriculture of a German region.

I originally called this post "random thoughts". That's why I mention the sheep. No deeper meaning.

In the meantime it had started raining.

By the time we arrived it was pouring. And I figured out the reason for the heavy traffic I had been noticing. The circus was in town.

Nothing against the circus, I just hate when the people who visit the circus take up our parking. Especially when it's raining and we're late.

This already happened to us a couple of weeks ago. However I was prepared back then. I knew they were having their fall fair, and the city would be crowded, so we departed super early.

It was a good thing because the only parking space I could find was a semi-legal one at the Ferrari dealership almost at the next town.

So we had to shlep our hockey bag across town. At least the weather was nice!

So on the rainy circus day we parked a bit closer to the hockey arena, but my mood - and my hair, and my boots - were ruined by the time we made it to the locker room. Also I needed to pee.

Couldn't remain grumpy for long though. The little people on the ice just make me smile.

The next day I went grocery shopping when I heard this:

This is the coolest thing I have seen about our army in a long time. Actually ever. Yes, I live in neutral Switzerland, and we do have an army. Once us voters were asked if we should abolish our army, but there weren't enough people (even so 35.6%) who said "sure".

Apart from helping out on peacekeeping missions we don't have anything to do, so why not playing some music for the shoppers?

Speaking of shopping, I had a plan.

C needs a new winter jacket. With him being in school and me working there aren't a lot of opportunities to go to the mall together. That's where my plan ~~came in~~ was supposed to come in:

I would pick him up at school (3:15pm), drive to the mall, arrive around 3:45, have a snack at SBUX, have him do his homework (4:15), shop (4:45 - he's a guy!), go home (5:15), make dinner (5:45). Doable, right?

After only a couple of minutes on the road, traffic reports told us about an accident en route, and delays should be expected.

It was one h*** of a #$@&%*! traffic jam! Took an hour to get there! The good news was he didn't have any homework. the bad news was we had to skip the snack d/t time restrictions.

Snap a pic of the awesome Swarovski xmas trees, then off to clothes shopping.

On our (long) way I had asked him about his jacket, what did he have in mind?

It needs to be orange, have a warm lining, and a zipper rather than buttons.

So when we walked into H&M and I saw THIS, I thought "perfect! We're done!"

Mr C didn't think so. He wouldn't even try it on or explain why he didn't like it.

Instead he went into ref mode and stretched out his arms for "no goal"

Then he folded his arms for pretty much the rest of the conversation.

I won't repeat it to you, let me just tell you: I need to learn a lot until he turns into a teenager.

Btw I have been teasing him by shaping our Grittibänze like the ref and the sulking guy ;-)

So THIS week… We had to do better!

No traffic disruptions. School - Mall in 25 minutes. Sweet!

He didn't have enough homework for me to even get my notebook out. I so wanted to blog while he did math, but we'll do that another time ;-)

Instead we went to the book store… Yes, my first grader ~~reads~~ devours books now!

When it gets silent at home, you can usually find him - in odd places and positions sometimes - starring into a book. I'll have to blog about that some day.