Well, I read the paper and had my coffee and fed the baby a couple times, then handed her off to Sweetie so Monkeygirl and I could go to the spa!
They start you out with a warm foot soak and a warm wrap thing on your neck, and I had an orange-jasmine tea. Then some of the spa ladies come in and do a "foot rescue." This consists of a foot and lower leg massage and a paraffin dip. Usually the heat doesn't bother me, but this time it was a little burn-y on my toes. Still nice, though. Then they lead you off to your hour massage. The CMT asked if there was anything she should know, and I said "Well, I tend to carry stress in my upper back adn shoulders." Apparently, that was an understatement, because whereas they usually spend time massaging your arms and legs and stuff in addition to your back, she spent the entire time on my back to get all the knots, because, as she said, she doesn't like to leave a job half-done.
Then they bring you back to the lounge for a few minutes before the facial. I sometimes opt out of the facial, but I got it this time. I just don't quite get what a facial does for you. They slather some stuff on your face, wipe it off, slather, wipe, slather, wait, wipe, slather, scrub, mist, wipe... What could all that possibly be doing for your skin? But it comes with a shoulder and arm massage, so it's not unpleasant or anything.
Then we went back to the lounge for a minute before our pedicure ladies came to get us. I love the pedicure. This is only my second one, and I really think I should do it more often. They trim or file your toenails, scrub your feet and lower legs with an exfoliating scrub, sort of file off your dead skin, then paint your piggies. I chose a shiny hot pink.
Two friends had been unable to meet us for spa day, so we called them to meet us for lunch. One didn't make it, but the other did. We shall call her my doppelganger, since we are very regularly mistaken for one another at work. Anyway, I knew Monkeygirl had been to a nearby restaurant called Roxy, and I hadn't been there (it has a cowboy theme, which doesn't sound particularly vegetarian friendly). She assured me that I'd like it, and that she was sure they at least had salads. As it turned out, I really liked it! I had two delicious cocktails (a Cowboy Mary and a mango margarita) and was intrigued by the sound of another (the prickly pear margarita). We ordered the guacamole appetizer, and it was a very generous portion and the chips were fresh. I had a hard time deciding on what to have, as it was a brunch menu, so there were both breakfast and lunch choices. A couple salads and a soup (green garlic) sounded good, as did the French toast, but what really appealed to me was the farmer's market omelette. It had asparagus, button mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and jack cheese with greens on top, and it came with sourdough walnut toast (one of my favorites!) and a potato cake. I was really pleased with my meal and I'll definitely go back to try dinner, maybe soon. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the front of the restaurant is almost all fold-away windows, so we got to eat right by a big open expanse, and the weather was perfect for it.
Then I came home and Sweetie had had such a rotten time with Zadie that he was barely speaking to me. I whisked the baby off for a nap.
When we got up, I made stir-fry for dinner, and we ate, then nursed, then got punkin' ready to go out again! There was a Pops in the Park concert at our local park (the one where we always go to the playground). I had never been to a Pops in the Park concert, so I had no idea what a big deal it was. We wouldn't have driven anyway, but if we'd wanted to, we would have practically had to park at our house! As soon as I rounded the corner onto the street leading to the park, the cars were parked bumper-to-bumper. They also filled the side streets and the junior high parking lot. We joined the crowd descending on the park, and practically the first person I saw was my neighbor. He invited me to join his wife and son at the edge of a clearing, so we parked the stroller next to them. I let Zadie down and she immediately started walking around. The poor thing -- I kept telling her "No, that's not our blanket/bottle/ball/juice box/strawberry..." Blankets were spread out covering most of the large park, and there were little pathways between them that she led me through for, oh, an hour. Every time she came across a temporarily abandoned ball, she kicked it (her kicking skills are getting stronger). She was having a great time just wandering around through all the people. Did I mention the band? No? Well, we never actually saw them. The park was so large and so crowded that we never got near the stage. We could hear the strains of "Brown Eyed Girl," "Let's Dance," "Glory Days," "Sweet Home Alabama" and other hits, and occasionally Zadie would clap, but mostly she was interested in the contents of other people's blankets. Luckily, every time I'd go "No! Stop! Don't walk across their blanket; that's not ours" the owner of the blanket in question almost uniformly said some version of "Don't worry about it, she can walk on it." People were generally very nice and in a good mood.
Our only brief negative moment was when we were walking behind a family with a dog. A kid threw a stick for the dog to fetch right over Zadie's head, so the dog turned around to run after the stick and body-slammed Zadie, completely bowling her over. She cried for a minute but I think she was more startled than hurt.
Finally we walked home and put her to bed. Then I went grocery shopping, because I have a busy day today, too. I have to go to Ikea and the Co-op before 2, when I call Mom so she can help me with my hair. I also still have two loads of laundry to fold and put away (actually, 2 1/2, since Zadie threw to the floor most of the laundry I had already folded).
I'd like to get started on my day, actually, but Z is asleep on my lap, so we'll wait.
