An Accident of Hope

6.05.2006

Best. Weekend. EVER

Seriously. I am not kidding about this. Every moment was golden starting Friday night when we went and hung out with Merr and Summer and Camden and moving clear on through late last night when I managed to replace the wax ring on our toilet and stop the leak ON THE FIRST TRY.

So the yard looks terrible. So we still haven't painted the arches. So we found out our remaining cabinets will cost us $800 instead of the $500 we had budgeted. Who cares? Not us!

We even bought new cameras to celebrate! That's why there are pictures to document our joy. I got a Nikon Coolpix P2 and Kristin got a Nikon D50. And we got a free photo printer and free photography classes, WAHOO!!!

Also among the big purchases this weekend, we arranged with my brother to purchase the 1996 Kia Sportage he's fixing up. If you happen to know that the 1996 Kia Sportage is a death-trap or pure lemon, DON'T TELL US. We desperately need a 4 door vehicle with enough room to take the dogs camping with us, and this is the only one we can afford. In another month or so Julia will be too big for her bucket and my little two-door tercel is too small to get Julia in and out of a rear-facing car seat that doesn't come entirely out of the car with her each time. So be happy for us? K?

Anyway, back to the roundup. We hung out Friday night, Saturday went camera shopping and then to help decorate our Parent's Group float and then off to Grandchild the First's Fourth Birthday Party and then to a pre-Pride party and then to the Pride Dance. We didn't have time to get to the Dyke March. This was the first year since SLC has had a dyke march that we didn't make it. Sunday was Pride, and Kristin, Julia, and I walked in the parade next to the Gay and Lesbian Parents of Utah's float. It was a lot of fun, but Kristin and I are determined that by next year we will have gotten her Virago fixed and that we'll be in the parade with Dykes on Bikes!

It was strange. All the years that I've gone to Pride, I've always been one of the restless ones -- never enough friends, never gotten to Pride early enough, to get a good space on the ground. I would wander around the grounds, hoping to run into friends who had claimed some prime real estate. This year we were there early (because of the parade) and with a large group of other parents, so we formed a big blanket camp in a great, shady, space and watched the restless ones make their way by. I loved it. We may have seen fewer acquaintances in total, but we didn't end up overly tired and sunburnt. The blanket camp is definitely the way to do Pride. But next year we'll sneak in a picnic lunch so I don't have to spend an hour in the hot sun to buy over-priced, crappy food.

I've got my good shots uploaded to flickr. I'll see if I can get Kristin's up in the next couple of days.

I'm still glowing. Let's see how long I can hold it.