Weekend Rundown

So the weekend, it was good.

JP and I stayed up way too late Friday night and Landon woke up way too early Saturday morning, so that was an unfortunate combination, but it didn't dampen our spirits - the weather was spectacular, extended family members were on their way, and brownies were baking by 7 AM. I even remembered it was JP's (27th!) birthday and graciously offered to get up with our screaming son even though I really wanted to lay in bed just long enough to make him do it. The birthday lunch ended up being a bit of a snafu- my parents missed two turns driving over from Houston (there's only about 4 turns involved in the whole trip ;), my grandparents showed up exactly on time, my brother arrived somewhere in the middle, and my sister got distracted by a tailgate party and graced our doorway about five hours late. We did manage to eat brownies together later - with special cowboy candles - so that was nice. It was a gorgeous day and everyone had fun watching Landon run around in circles and clap. We're so easily entertained.

That night JP and I went to the UT v. Missouri game. It was fun (and funny) to be back on campus with all the drunk, irresponsible undergrads- ahhhh to be young again. It's nice to be back in the city where we fell in love- walking around campus brought back so many great memories. Unfortunately, we're not 19 anymore and by halftime (about 8:30 PM), the score was 35-3 and we were both so exhausted we gave each other permission to leave the game early. Still determined to take advantage of our night of free babysitting, we headed to our favorite tex-mex place to watch the rest of the game with the twin comforts of chairs with backs and frozen margaritas. By 10, after we'd spent several minutes discussing what we were going to do next, neither of us wanting to admit that all we wanted to do was go home, JP turned to me and said- do we really want to go out or are we just trying to prove that we can? I was thrilled to stop pretending that keeping my eyes open wasn't causing physical pain and immediately flagged the waitress for the check. We were in bed by 10:30, comforted by college memories of stumbling home from 6th street at 4 AM - once upon a time we were fun, now all we want is a good night's sleep!

In support of our staying out till dawn, my dad had volunteered to get up with the Landon. When we came out to the kitchen around 8:30, Landon had been dressed, fed, and taken on several walks around the block. My dad said he was so nervous about missing Landon's wake up cries that he checked on him every few minutes after 6:45- and finally at 7:15 he just woke him up! Of course the morning it's someone else's turn the kid sleeps past 7. I got the cooking started while Landon played with his grandparents and all four dogs (my parents brought their two puppies- there was a lot of labrador in our yard!), and when they left at 11 the party prep was well underway. By 2 PM, the kitchen looked like this:

Dessert Row: marble fudge cupcakes, Halloween oreos, and brownies


The Snacks: black bean salsa, Mexican cheesecake dip, cream cheese and various toppings, a vegetable tray, homemade spinach dip, and various salsas and other dressings. (Also "Lit'l Smokies" in a crockpot on another counter)

There were coolers of beer, soda, and water on the back porch, a wine station inside, and various juices for the kids. Everything turned out really well and even though I have never washed and dried so many pans before noon I had a lot of fun putting it together. Almost all the decor was bought at Wal-Mart (including the surprisingly expensive looking leaf-shaped placemats under the desser trays) and I'm reusing it when I host Thanksgiving for JP's family this year.

It was great to see everyone - law firm colleagues, MBA students, old friends, neighbors, former UT swim teammates, etc. Landon had a blast entertaining everyone and didn't seem at all overwhelmed by the 40+ people in his house- including the other kids who played with his toys. He fell asleep the second I laid him down in his crib and JP and I had everything cleaned up and put away before Desperate Housewives started at 8 PM.

I'd say the weekend was a success. Unfortunately we didn't do any laundry or grocery shopping, so tonight's dinner consisted of chips and leftover dip, but hey, something's gotta give. Including the "resurrected from Bar Exam hell" commercial paper research question I was greeted with this morning- something about liability for an altered check under the California UCC. By 5 PM I gave up figuring out the various transfer and presentment warranties and just scooped all the research into my purse and headed home. I suppose I should get back to that- I don't think explaining to the assigning attorney that my brain was fried from trying to create fudge swirls in 24 individual cupcakes is going to get me off the hook when I still don't have the answer tomorrow morning!

P.S. If you took the California Bar and know whether Articles 3 and 4 of the UCC were fully adopted by your state, please let me know. For some reason, I can't figure this out. I blame the fudge swirls.