Yesterday morning we slept late, and then we decided to go see “Gravity” at the imax theater at noon. When we got there, though, we learned that the theater had canceled the noon showing to do some kind of maintenance. So we went to get some lunch, and then we wandered Ikea for awhile. We bought one small package of cookies, which makes that the least-expensive outing to Ikea we’ve ever made.

After that we trekked back to the theater and watched “Gravity” in 3D on the giant imax screen. I don’t usually watch movies in 3D because they make me feel queasy, but the 3Ding in this one was pretty subtle and I felt fine after the movie. Except that it cemented my resolve to never, ever go to space. That was tense, man.

After the movie we drove back to Rockford’s parents’ house, where kid hugs and dinner awaited. And then we drove home, put the kids to bed, ate Lucky Charms and watched “Elementary.” It was a mighty fine day.

Yesterday we had to have all of our things done by 2 o’clock so Rockford and I could embark upon a lovely date night. The kids started their day with chocolate-chip pancakes (from the microwave, because I am a lot of things but the Barefoot Contessa of Children’s Cuisine is not one of them), and I started cleaning up the living room.

It was very cluttered, and I can see from these photos that there’s something still under that chair. But now it’s dusted and vacuumed and 99 percent less messy, at least!

After cleanup time, we got cracking on the school work. They usually grumble about it, especially when we first get started, but yesterday they knew they’d be at Grandma and Grandpa’s house at the end of the day, and I think that helped with their motivation.

Rockford came home around lunchtime, so I left him to feed the kids while I ran a couple of errands. Two out of three, of course, were cat-related, because apparently that’s the theme of this week. After a stop at the pet store, Lowe’s and the post office, I realized that I hadn’t eaten any lunch, so I went to Firehouse Subs and had a brisket sandwich. I wish I would’ve check the Weight Watchers Points on that first, because it was 25+ Points (the app only had it listed without mayo and cheese, and what’s the point of a sandwich without mayo and cheese?) and it was so delicious that I don’t want to eat anything else ever again.

Anyway, so I ate my super-Pointy sandwich, and then we hit the road.

If I’d taken any more pictures, they would’ve looked something like this:

because we went to a Neko Case show. But she has a strict no-video policy — we saw a guy get his phone taken away! and then he argued with the security guy for awhile! — so I didn’t take my phone out of my pocket at all. The show was great, despite the people behind us who had the following conversation and many more like it:

He: I really like lines and shapes.
She: Oh, me too! And process-driven art.

Sometimes I think I’m too old & crotchety for live music. Or to be anywhere in public, ever, for that matter.

Morning

I had a hard time falling asleep Tuesday night, so I took half of a melatonin. Which meant that I had a hard time waking up yesterday morning. Once I was finally lucid, though, my mom and I removed her truck’s battery and I took it to the auto parts store. The battery was so drained they couldn’t get their monitor-thing to tell whether or not it was any good, so they plugged it into a charger and said to check back in with them in a few hours.

So I went back home, where I found my mom and the kids feverishly cleaning the bathrooms.

The children and I did some school work, and I spent some more quality time in Pete’s room, removing the heat register and spraying it down with Urine Destroyer.

Afternoon

Poppy had a piano lesson. My mom and Pete folded a bunch of laundry.

I went to check on the battery. It was not ready.

Poppy had ballet and modern dance. On the way home I stopped at the vet to get some flea-preventative, and then I went to check on the battery. It was not ready.

Evening

I called the auto parts store and learned that the battery was almost charged enough to test. You would think, perhaps, that at some point it might occur to me that a battery that takes that long to charge just a little is probably a faulty battery. Hindsight, eh?

I picked Poppy up from dance, and we bought a rotisserie chicken for dinner. We came home and ate chicken, peas and rice.

The kids started playing video games, and I went to the auto parts store determined to come home with a battery. And I succeeded! The old battery was indeed dead, though, so my success came with a price. And a two-year warranty, and I had to install it in the cold by the light of my TeslaLED app. But it was a victory, and I am embracing it.

And the very best part of yesterday? After alllll that other stuff happened, Rockford came home from a business trip!