Tuesday, the electrician and the plumber showed up. Once they were settled in (hubby was working from home that day) I took the kids to popcorn park zoo. It was a nice trip, the animals seemed well cared for, and the kids had a great time feeding them, especially the bears, who were crazy about peanuts. Their trick of popping the whole peanut into their mouths and spitting out only the shells would be a neat thing to do in a bar, you know.

Wednesday, after music lessons, we headed up north. We hit Fairfield Garden Center for pond stuff, then Gencarelli’s in Bloomfield for most excellent desserts, and had a nice visit and dinner with the Davises.

Thursday, we were back in Bloomfield again – time to visit the orthodontist. Paying in advance seemed like such a good idea before we moved. Drove up to Palisades Center in Nyack, only to find that the Japanese tableware store that sold my favorite dishes is no more. So we scarfed down lunch and headed to Ridgefield Park to Han Ah Reum for lovely kim chi and oshinko and seaweed salad and laver and fruits and veggies you don’t find in the supermarket. But then. . .we were on the Turnpike and the Parkway at rush hour. Just not a good thing, ever. One thing I’ve noticed is that when there’s an accident up north, you get rubberneckers who slow down to scope out accidents. Down South, they come almost to a complete stop, so they can do a thorough visual search for blood and guts.

Today, after running errands, it was cooking and cleaning time. . .visitors coming from modthesims2 tomorrow, sister’s family on Sunday! Woohoo! Went to a place on the corner of Fischer Blvd. and 37 called Joppa Road Interiors – got a good bargain on a Chinese four panel screen, and some stone nature god faces that I hung on the fence amidst the ivy. Now there’s a focal point at the top of the back steps. They had a lot of really nice decorative items – I’m going to have to drag hubby out there when we’re feeling flush.