T Minus 22 hours

Until the first day of public school.

On Friday there was a list with the class rosters of what the kids needed to bring with them the first day and since I don't happen to have 3 tubs of anti-bacterial wipes here in my supply closet, I guess I'll be finding a store today that does have them. My future school supply guessing didn't guess those, but I did pretty good on the pencil case, crayons, color pencils, and glue sticks. I didn't think to add tissue box to the list, either, but.. I guess it does make sense. The one thing NOT on the list was normal pencils. That surprised me. Maybe I was supposed to fill the pencil case with them?

In other news, we fired up the grill yesterday. Nothing fancy, but it seemed appropriate for a holiday weekend. .After church we stopped at the grocery store and for a cook-out lunch I needed to run in get burgers, buns and cheese for the burgers. And Milk since we were out.

I came out with burgers, buns, cheese.. plus figs (cause it was a recent conversation that we have a fig tree and actually don't know much about figs other than they are a component in Fig Newtons), strawberries, a pineapple, green peppers, ice cream, frozen french fries, and... no milk. Yep totally forgot that one. I'd like to say it's the first time it's happened. But that would be lying.

About the figs..I'll have to take and post a picture of them. They have the shape of large purple-ish cloves of garlic, but with the softness of a grape. However.. you cut it open and it looks like a sea urchin or something else found in the depths of the sea. And they taste alot better in Newtons than they do fresh. However.. when you live in a Mediterranean climate you can plant such things so we did. Just because we could. I also planted a pineapple. More on how to root a pineapple plant from the green top of a fresh pineapple later.. (have a new one rooting now after yesterday's grocery store impulse buy)

So not much else happened so far this weekend. Took the kids plus Sonia's friend to the splash pad playground yesterday it was busy as usual. On the way home, they were "starving" and since it was dinner time and we had a non-family member with us and I didn't want to be a mean mom.. I stopped at McDonalds. They have 20 pieces of chicken nuggets here for 4.99 which isn't a huge price to pay to keep them from telling non-family members that they're starving and I didn't feed them.  But then I have 2 non-conformists who insist on cheeseburgers, get the bag and have to go back because 1 of the 2 cheeseburgers didn't make it in the bag...

So.. Hand them the nuggets and they're clamoring for ketchup.  I look in the bag and there are 2 little packets in there. I think, well.. 2 packets is better than none, I guess and open them and spray it in one of the boxes I handed to the kids to share and I get a whiff of the said condiment..... Salsa.

At that point I'm torn between "it's my own fault for not looking" and "oh what the HECK?! is this a joke?!!"  and decide in the interest of not dragging all 5 kids into McDonalds (again) that they can eat the non-contaminated nuggets for a snack and dinner when we get home.
But I toy with the idea of writing a letter. I still might. But more likely I'll just learn to double check ketchup shaped condiment packets with red writing on them to make sure they say "ketchup" before applying them to my kids food in the future.

Do the McDonalds not in the southwest stock salsa packets? Is this a regional thing? probably. Sometimes I miss living in rural VA where Larry and I were the ethnic minority. Sometimes. But then I'd have to go back to hearing in that slow twangly drawl "welll...... you must not be from 'round here"

No. As a matter of fact I'm not. In fact if I was in my hometown, you wouldn't have to ask me where I was from. Instead you'd see me in town and ask how California was, how my brother was, how did he like Brooklyn, and you'd say "boy, can't believe how big your kids have gotten, why the last time I say you, you didn't have your youngest..." and then I'd know I was home. And this weekend I'd be mumbling about the curse/blessing of the annual fair gumming up the traffic but I'd still manage to get there and see everyone I knew and get myself some fried dough with powdered sugar getting everywhere.. Not young enough to be working in one of the half dozen school booths peddling roast beef, sloppy joey, and not old enough to be working there because one of my kids was there.. (shuddering at the thought of my kids in high school. 2nd grade is giving me a nervous ulcer)