Time to spare?

My brother asked me today what I've been doing in my spare time, which I think is an interesting way to gain insight on the peculiarities of a specific chapter in a person's life. After all, we don't reminisce about our routines. These days, I've been spending my spare time (I have about 3 hours a day) either reading up on the histories of Venezuela, British Guiana, and Cuba; or hand sewing a cover for our toddler car seat. ( I also devote a couple minutes each day to griping about how dirty the house is).

I was late in returning some books to the library last week and incurred $.40 in fees, enough to disable the online book renewal feature of my library account. Thus, Danny and I loaded the kiddos into the car this morning to make our way to the downtown library to return more books and pay my fine. Upon approaching the Monroe/Call intersection, we noticed it was barricaded. As we weaved our way around downtown Tallahassee trying to find a way to the library, we started to think we might be missing something... ah yes! It's Veteran's Day! I remember my mom mentioned she had the day off... we started to notice that people were gathering along the blocked roads... a ha! There must be a parade! And so we found ourselves marching uphill towards the downtown area to see the Tallahassee Veteran's Day Parade with our trusty double stroller. Having arrived half an hour early, Dominic got to watch the high school band drum lines rehearsing. He was enthralled. We were well situated to watch the parade and someone gave Dominic a little flag to wave. Dominic sat in the stroller and I was squatted beside him, helping him to identify objects familiar to him only in book illustrations (fire engine!). After a while I began to get a little irritated that the man standing next to me was so shamelessly passing such foul gas so close to my face. I came to find later, that it was probably Dominic who had his second massive poopie in the span of an hour. This is what happens when you are trying to potty train a child who fights it by holding in the goods till you put his diaper on.

And so I've reached the end of another day and am running out of "spare" time. I'm off to tackle that car seat cover which I'm stitching together with the fabric recommended to me by the lady who works at the craft store...a fabric that I am almost certain will tear within a week of use. Commitment to a failed endeavor? I hope not!