The Best Laid Plans

Retail nightmares aside, I am having a pretty good streak. Things are good at work, kids are doing great, kitty cat is fat, dumb and happy, Scott is fabu. Pinch me.

Then one evening in the doctor's office (don't worry, it's not one of those stories!) the kids are prattling on and on to the doc about a trip they are taking to Disney with Lars. (Don't laugh at the irony of the Disneyland Dad actually taking the kids to Disney...it is so much more pathetic than that!)

So the doc, playing along while she preps a syringe, asks when they are going.

They are kids. All that matters is that they ARE going. Dates are for someone else to worry about.

So naturally they both spew forth dates for the trip. Both in July but wildly different from one another.

But both dangerously close to the weekend I have planned in Baltimore that includes outrageously overpriced baseball tickets, hotel reservations and lots of money thrown out the window on must-have souvenirs and things like crab balls and funnel cake, for sure.

I am pitting out, natch.

So when the kids and I have a moment alone, I ask for specifics about the trip. They think they know the date of departure, but are a little squirrely on the return date details. I feel my Big Birthday Plans are in jeopardy. I confide in Patrick that we need to get down to the nitty gritty details tonight because I've planned something special and am worried that it conflicts with their trip.

And I know what you are thinking --- how could plans Lars makes in any way conflict with anything I plan?

There is one nagging thought...

Months ago, when we were hashing out the details of Spring Break, he mentioned that he might have a chance to take a trip to Florida in the summer but that it might require that he overlap a day on my week.

I hate to forfeit time with the kids for any reason, but since there is always a chance that I may need a favor from him, like for a bufoonery-filled canoe trip or the tail end of the Gal Pal trip to Arizona, I grin and bear a little intrusion. So I say, "Not a problem, let me know the details as soon as you can."

But try as I might I can not recall any details about a trip. Could he have planned something and not told me?

I think I know the answer to that...