Monday

Bagels
The girls and I went into Portland for lunch with Jay, and we finally got to go over to SE to Kettleman Bagels. All in all, a pretty good deal! Boar's Head cold cuts/cheese/mustard and decent bagels, although as Jay was quick to note, the everything bagel did not have salt. (They did have a salt bagel, though.) I figure if we're getting that picky, it must have been good. I was a bit disappointed to see that they call their (scrambled) egg sandwiches "eggels," which is the common (stupid) name that is used at every bagel shop out here, but again, a minor penalty. I got 6 to take home - they have day-olds for $2.99/6 or fresh for $4.75/6. I believe a dozen is $8.99 (plus the $3.50/gallon for gas to get there...)

Jazzer-dinged
Somehow I forgot to submit my Jazzercise report for February at the start of March - not entirely surprising with the knee pain I was having and the preparations for our trip east. Unfortunately, they have just instituted a $25 fee if your monthly report is submitted after the 5th of the month. I am usually so careful - in fact, I was sure I had submitted it, but I can't find any evidence to support that fact. So, another $25 to Jazzercise... but, I won't complain. It's just the same kind of feeling as getting a parking ticket or an itchy mosquito bite - not a big enough deal to wreck the day or break the bank, just a petty little annoyance that pisses you off for a bit.

Naps
How old are most kids when they give up naps? Mags has just argued with me about taking one today, and it may be that she is still loudly crying back in her room. I can tell she's tired, but I offered her the opportunity to take some books to bed and read. She's pretty much okay with that, and it'll get her to go to sleep eventually. If I could carve out a few hours in the middle of each day to lie in bed and read/snooze, I would be totally up for that.

Irish Tenors
In honor of the day, I brought our Irish Tenors CD in the car. Mags was relatively unimpressed, asking to hear Music Together songs instead, until we came upon The Fields of Athenry. I know that Jay sings to the girls, or at least to Mags, when he puts them to bed, but he has never let me hear his performances. Odd, being that he has to listen to me sing to/with them for at least 6 hours every Saturday and Sunday and nearly non-stop many evenings. Occasionally, Mags will ask me to sing "Molly Malone" or something that sounded like "Athenry" but I don't know the songs - so I know they come from her father. Suddenly at about the third refrain, Mags' eyes nearly popped out of her head when she realized that "my papa sings me that song!" She was psyched, although I don't know how closely the Jay O'Brien lullabye version resembles the sing-it-to-the-back-rows three tenor blow-out version. To her ears, I'm sure the Jay version rules.