We had a pretty good weekend.

The worst was that Penny had a mild cold, or allergies, or maybe her ear infection was bothering her, but she spent Sunday and Monday being sort of low-level fussy - easily distracted, but easily fussed again. By yesterday evening, I was ready to come back to work.

(Once again, I am reminded that I am not meant to be a stay-at-home mom. I couldn't take three days? With my help on hand at all times, no less? Once again, I bow deeply to all stay-at-home moms. I do not know how you maintain even a facade of sanity.)

But really, it was a good weekend.

Saturday morning, we went out and ran errands, including a stop at the county library. (We opted for the branch that is further away, but easier to get to.) I hadn't been to the library in so long that my card had not only expired, but wasn't even in the system anymore. I had to re-register from scratch. And we initialized Penny's library card, too.

Matt and I took turns sitting with Penny in the kids' section (they have play tables in there that are exactly the right height for her to cruise around) and looking for books for her, while the other went back into the grownup part of the library to pick out books for - gasp! - ourselves.

Of course, we can't spend the time browsing that we might like, so I want to make up a nice long list of books I want to read and print it out and stick it in my wallet, so next time I can just go looking for them. This time I had only one idea, and it wasn't on the shelf, so I quickly browsed one row, picked out two books that looked vaguely interesting, then hightailed it back.

We've been talking about making the library a regular stop on our weekend errands - probably not every week, but every other week, say. It might become more frequent when Penny gets older and can actually read for herself. And doesn't get bored reading the same book day after day after day. In the meantime, I think it will be good to get her familiar with the library. When I was little, we lived less than a mile from the nearest library branch, and I can remember walking there both with my parents and (when I was a bit older) alone. I loved the library.

When we moved, there was no longer a conveniently close branch, and we stopped going. I just re-read books a lot, until I met Mila and she started loaning me books by the dozen from her home library.

I seem to have gotten sidetracked...

Oh, yes, Saturday. Around lunchtime, my friend Amy from work came over, and after we'd hung around a bit to make sure Penny would take to her, Matt and I escaped for our date.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was a very fun movie. I did have a couple of very minor grumbles. One: it was obviously intended as a supplement for the book, rather than a replacement for it. The fact that they didn't explain the origin of the Marauder's Map, or the shape of Harry's Patronus (both of which would've taken all of about 40 seconds of expository dialogue), left a lot of little things floating around for those who hadn't read the book. Of course, I'd read it, so I wasn't confused, but as Matt said - it was a better movie than it was an adaptation.

Also... I know it's common practice to use actors who are much older than the roles they're playing, especially for kids. Teenagers are routinely played by actors in their twenties and even thirties. However. The difference between thirteen and seventeen is pretty significant. I had to keep reminding myself that these kids were supposed to be thirteen, because they looked and sounded like they were fifteen or sixteen (as the actors were).

(That said, some of those actors are definitely shaping up to be pretty hot. I never had screen-crushes as a teenager, weirdly, but if I was fifteen years younger, I'd definitely be considering a couple of them after seeing this movie.)

The rest of the movie was really awesome. As always, I loved the special effects, and I thought the director did a very good job.

And then Matt and I went out to dinner, at which I tried to keep my diet cheating to a minimum, and almost succeeded.

I was less successful on Sunday. My parents had us over for dinner, and I confess freely to having pigged out. (The pound I lost last week came back, and brought a friend.) But we had a good time, so I'm not sweating it too much.

We didn't do much of interest on Monday - ran more errands and loafed around the house - but it was nice not to have to go back to work right away after such a busy weekend.

Today, Matt's taking Penny down to Newport News to see an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist, who will, we hope, help us get her ears settled. He's probably going to recommend tubes. Poor little girl, but at least it's happening now, before her hearing is completely messed up, and early enough that she won't remember it when she's older.

I just hope we can get it all over with before our trip to Chicago in September. That's only two months away.

To close: pictures! Yay!

--Liz