shredding

Today began with a shriek.

The fire alarm outside my bedroom door went off at 5:30 am. I had fallen asleep at 4.

DH had already left for work, so that left two completely fog-headed women to try to figure out how to shut the damned thing off. We shoved an ottoman under the ear-splitting noise, climbed up, and poked at it. Damn. This alarm was connected to the house wiring. No battery to be pulled.

I went downstairs to see if the house really was on fire while my daughter continued poking. No fire. And the other two alarms (battery powered of course) were quiet. I brought a screwdriver back upstairs with me and DD disconnected it.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Blessed silence.

I was too jangled to sleep, so I started cleaning the house. Out of town relatives were coming for dinner, so it needed to be done anyway. DD went in to work a bit early. After a while I stopped twitching and was able to take a short nap.

Then a flurry of errands and table setting and flower cutting.

I had just put the roast in the oven when the outlaws showed up. Two fucking hours early. Now I had to come up with something for half-frozen, starving folks to snack on while they watched me fix dinner. And of course, nothing I offered was right.

Eww that cheese looks moldy. No, the kid cant have hot chocolate; it will ruin his dinner. Don't you have any plain crackers? We don't eat grapes.

The kid chased the cats, and I poured more wine and chopped veggies.

Somehow, (with lots of help from DD and DH when they got home from work) I got dinner on the table. And DAMN it was good. The outlaws acted surprised and ate EVERYTHING. Thank god for a good butcher and eli's cheesecakes.

They left right after dinner because the cats were hiding and the kid was bored. Another hour or so of doing dishes and washing tablecloths, and I put hubby and daughter to bed.

Finally ... quiet.


I hope I can get to sleep before 4 tonight.