Friday list

• The guy down the street stole our lawnmower last month. We didn’t quite realize it for a while because he “borrowed it”. He came to the door and gave this whole long story about how he was new to the neighborhood and the HOA was on his case to mow his lawn (which was a little weedy, but not really that bad) and he didn’t have a lawnmower and none of the other neighbors were very friendly. So we let him borrow it, and while I kept thinking about it and wondering why he hadn’t brought it back yet (or mowed his weeds), we didn’t head over to get it. So last week my neighbor was over having a beer with me and I commented about it and it turns out that he has “borrowed” several lawnmowers in the neighborhood and looted a couple garages and everyone’s stuff has ended up at a pawn shop down the street. We haven’t really figured out how to deal with this yet. The mower isn’t at the pawm shop (it has been a month, it probably sold already). We spent a week finding out the guy’s full name, and now I assume that we’ll be filing a police report but I have the distinct feeling that we won’t be seeing our mower or our $200 for it anytime soon.

• I am running a 5k this weekend, and I am doing it by myself. It’s a very big event and I don’t want to go on my own, but it doesn’t appear anyone else I know is going and my running partners backed out on me. I’ve paid my money to get in, and I don’t want it to go to waste so I’m pretty sure I’m doing it but I’m not looking forward to attending on my own.

• I have a trial in Ft Lauderdale at the end of the month too, so I’ll be on my own for a week down there too. It will be nice to go to Ft Lauderdale and spend some time down there (Beach? Pool?), but I’m going to miss my family. And the reason that I’m going down there is not all sunshine and daffodils (I’m attending a trial that I’m not looking forward to attending). I will hope to get some reading done while I’m down there. That’s the first week of the Spring Reading Thing.

• The meds that I got on are totally helping. I haven’t been yelling at the kids quite as much, I haven’t been panicky about work hardly at all, and I’m not totally freaking out about the 5k or the Ft Lauderdale trip, so I think that they’re definitely working. I feel … caffeinated. I don’t sit as much, I don’t feel like sitting as much (although this does not bode well for my reading), and when I do sit (like at work), my knee is always bouncing like I’ve drank too much coffee. But I don’t shake otherwise, and I don’t seem to have any other effects, so I’ll take it. Maybe after it’s been in my system for a bit I’ll even out that way too.

• I’m not really a soup person. I like soup, but it’s just not a meal for me – it’s a starter. One of my favorite soups is Olive Garden’s chicken and gnocchi, and this week I tried to make it without even consulting a recipe for ideas … and I think I succeeded! I sautéed some onion in butter, and once they were soft I added flour and cooked that for a few minutes, and then added milk to make a gravy. Then once it thickened up I added seasonings, most of a bag of frozen veggies and some rotisserie chicken I had stored in the freezer, half a carton of chicken broth and a package of gnocchi that I got at Aldi last week on a whim. This is what it looked like: frankly, it was fantastic. It worked out nicely for dinner because I wasn’t very hungry and Hubby loves soup, so I had a small bowl and he had three. I brought the leftovers for lunch on Thursday.

• Other people take their kids to Sesame Street Live, or Princesses on Ice … nope, we’re taking the kids to Phineas and Ferb Live! I’m excited … possibly more excited than Henry but not more excited than Spencer. I haven’t told him yet (it’s next Thursday) because I will not hear the end of it. Ever. (PS – Spencer did go to Curious George Live two years ago and the TMBG kids concert, but this will be Henry’s first non-baseball event)

• I kept track of how many times I checked Facebook, Googlereader, personal email and Pinterest on my phone while at work the other day ... it wasn't pretty. Shhh.