Big Day!

Wow, did Anja and I have a fun and not very typical day today! We woke up at the usual time, both got ready, and headed out to the bagel shop because I was dying for a six cheese bagel with garden veggie cream cheese from Einstein's. When we got there? NO SIX CHEESE!!! No Asiago either!! In fact, they were almost completely out of all the bagels, except for the spinach and chili pepper ones, and the power bagels. I settled for a challah roll with garden veggie cream cheese, and it ended up being very delicious, but not as filling as the six cheese bagel. Anyway... I was slightly thrown off by their lack of selection and also by the VEERRRYYYY friendly man in line behind us. The touching-my-shoulder kind of friendly. He was really nice, and not exactly creepy... it's just that he was so incredibly friendly that I wondered if we actually knew each other and I just didn't remember him. By the time I left I realized no, he didn't know me--I could tell by our conversation (he asked if Anja was my first child)--but I was still really confused by him. So I didn't order my coffee. But I reeeallly wanted some, and so I went to Big Apple Bagels in hopes that they had some delicious Flavor Of the Week--AND THEY DID!! It was CHOCOLATE AVALANCHE!!!!! However, they too were out of my favorite kind of bagel, so I didn't even feel bad about going to Einstein's first. In short: I had a yummy, if a bit hard to come by, breakfast.

When we got home Anja took a nap. A THREE HOUR nap. I was amazed. She had a really rough night last night, though, so I guess she needed the sleep. I called my mom and made plans to go to the dry cleaners together when Anja woke up. You see, whenever I go to the cleaners it seems like a huge pain in the neck to get Anja out and take her in with me, but I worry too much leaving her in the car at the curb. (I did it one time, and was sooo nervous... the lady assured me that everybody does it and one time someone's school-age children climbed up front and drove away.) When I came back there was a State Troopher pulled up right by my car and I thought for sure he was going to arrest me. He didn't. But it still tipped my nervous scale too far to be able to do that ever again. So anyway, now I either take my mom with me or drop Anja at her house and go to the cleaners on my own, which is a few blocks from my mom's house.

Aaaaanyway.... she said she'd ride with me this time because while I was dropping off, she had some stuff to pick up. She also had another errand to run and I suggested that if she brought her dog, Maizie, along with her, we could all go to Petsmart after the errands. So we did! And it was sooooo fun! Anja LOVES animals, especially dogs. She also really liked the birds and the cats, but was a little freaked out by the fish. I don't think she's ever seen fish before today. I try to show her the fish in my mom's pond, but I don't think she knows how to look through the reflection of the sky to see them. She never seems to notice them at all. Today she would put her hand against the tank and the fish would swim up to her hand and she'd pull it back and flinch. It was so cute! We also tried to look at the hampsters but they were all sleeping.

The best part was the BULLDOG that was coming out from being groomed. What a handsome devil! I SOOOOO want one. And they are so lazy, they'd be the perfect dog for me.

A funny thing that happened was that there was this woman in the store, just walking around looking at all the animals like we were, and Maizie would not stop barking and growling at her. It was so strange because Maizie never barks and growls at ANYONE, and she was really going nuts, trying to get at this lady, being really ferocious (as much as a 7 pound dog can be...) and while it was kind of cute, I kept wondering if this lady was going to shoot us or something. Maybe she was just carrying a lot of drugs. I dunno. It was pretty weird though.

So from there we went to my mom's house so I could feed Anja and my mom could feed me! She made me a grilled cheese sandwich--yum. We hung out and then went home. Once at home Anja went down for her afternoon nap. It was a little after 3:00, so I told myself I wouldn't let her sleep past 4:30. Then I thought, "gosh, I could use a ten minute nap..." so I went up and laid down with her... and didn't wake up until 6:00!!!!!!!!! For a little girl whose bedtime is typically between 7 and 7:30, six o'clock is MUCH too late to be sleeping! So I woke her up and started thinking of things to do to fill our evening since she probably wouldn't go to bed until MUCH later than usual... and I decided to see if my good friend Alison wanted to meet up for dinner. And she did! We went over to the Olive House in the Village, which is where it seems we always end up eating together, and it was a lot of fun. It wasn't crowded and the owners children are super friendly and only as crazy as most kids are. They really liked Anja, and toward the end of the evening Anja played on the floor with them. I had the Lamb Biryani which was awesome, and not tooooooo spicy... I like to get it with the yogurt salad and an extra yogurt salad as well and then I mix them. The yogurt cuts the spice and makes it extra delicous. And of course, it's always good to see Alison. By the time we left if was about 8:30 and Anja had gotten fairly worn out. I put her to bed around 9:30 and she's still asleep.

It's such a wonderful, cool, rainy night. I love it! The only bummer is that Martin isn't here. We both thought it would be a perfect night to drink yummy hot drinks on our porch. I love nights like this. I love fall.

I've recently made Anja a hat with ear flaps and tonight I finished one of the mittens that match it. It's perfect! It turned out way better than I'd expected it to, so I'm quite pleased. The only stupid thing I did was not writing down the pattern as I made it... so now I've just got to eyeball the second one and hope that they match well enough that nobody notices. Whoops!