Thank God, it's Monday.

How was your weekend?

We got snow. Again. You know the thrill of seeing your yard again as the snow melts? Uh-huh. That thrill fades after you've seen it so many times in a season.

Our furnace has been acting up for a couple weeks. This weekend, it went on strike. I'd be content to give it a swift kick and let it go, but Loren wants it repaired. There was a time when I could've called a furnace repair guy I knew around here, but he's long gone, so I'll have to let my fingers do the walking today.

We got confirmation that another repair person we hired is not to be trusted. What a drag. Thankfully, I'm a good detective, so fixing the problem he caused was quite simple.

We found some mold in a closet, and that just about sent me over the edge. I imagined it must be the cause of my growing allergy problems and Loren's asthma. I was glad to hear that the visible problem, at least, was far less than I'd imagined. Maybe finishing the cleanup won't be a horrible nightmare.

What DID send me over the edge was something discovered at precisely the same time as the mold. Someone put several dents and gouges in our lovely dining room table. The longest is 4". It's only a table. I know. But what's so horribly frustrating is our inability to move beyond the constant, deliberate destruction. Between that and the mold, I cried on Loren's shoulder and decided to run away.

Funny, when I run away, I always take the troublemaker with me. As bad as things are when we're home together, I always imagine it would be worse to leave that child, whichever it may be on any given day, home without my (clearly inadequate, but best he's gonna get) supervision. So I tell myself that buckling them up is an entirely legal form of restraint, and then make the most of it.

While we were out, we found the most wonderful little lake! It had attracted loons, ducks, pelicans, gulls, and bald eagles. I was so glad to have plenty of time and a pair of binoculars. If it weren't so far away, I'd run away again today just to revisit that lake. As it is, we stopped there twice. (Three times, really, but that story doesn't belong on the world wide web.)

We also went to Menard's for another dehumidifier, Krazy Glue, and a bunch of other stuff. If you ever get the Krazy Glue single use tubes, you must know ahead of time that twisting the nozzle on all the way opens the tube. I know it says this on the back of the package. But just in case you're like me, I'm telling you now. Those tubes are so little and so cute, I just had to dig in and check 'em out. Next thing I knew, I had webbed fingers. Oh no! How would I type with my fingers stuck together?! I had to laugh, and laugh I did. I was so glad to have plenty of time and acetone nail polish remover.

I ended my weekend in the most reasonable way I could muster. I sent everyone to bed, watched a movie, and ate ice cream straight out of the container.

Guess what? It's snowing.