Long Day is Long.

I would have posted Monday but it was a very long, very busy day. Cuddle Bear and Snuggle Bug had the day off from school. We stayed in for much of the morning just because I didn't have the energy to go out and deal with people. This may or may not have been a good idea. They watched videos and fought, alot. By the time lunch time rolled around, I was ready for them to be back in school.

We went out to Vitale Park after lunch. Cuddle Bear spent a good deal of time on the swings. He really loves them. I think it is partly because he is a sensory seeking child and partly because what child doesn't love swings, right? Snuggle Bug tried to get some swing time in but he got upset because I wasn't going to stand there and push him the whole time. My telling him that he had to do it himself almost lead to a temper tantrum.

He got distracted by the other kids playing in the sandbox. They had brought a bunch of toys from home. They had this thing that was kinda like an excavator that the kids could sit on and dig with the bucket. Snuggle Bug asked if he could use it. Then he started to resist letting the kids who owned it using it. This lead to my engaging in a lot of redirection and reminders to respect the limits of playing with someone else's toys. At one point, he was pestering the other kids so badly that I had to take him away from the sandbox and give him something else to do.

This set the tone for a good portion of the afternoon. Snuggle Bug wanted what he wanted and would annoy someone until they let him do it. And when we were home, he whined in an effort to get what he wanted. I thought that perhaps today he would be less prone to whining. I was wrong. As soon as he got off the bus from school, he started whining and being demanding. The only time he wasn't being a whiney butt was when he was eating snack. It has been a frustrating afternoon.

Aside from the irritations of the kids being difficult over the last few days. I'm not entirely happy with how this evening is going for another reason. I was looking forward to having pot roast with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. The only thing that came out right was the pot roast. And, I don't know if I would say it came out right. It was pretty tough. I think I should have made it in the crockpot. The carrots were disgusting.

A little while back, one of our neighbors gave us ten pounds of carrots. Beloved put half of that in the freezer. I didn't think anything of it until I took one of the two bags out and discovered everything was mushy. I was optimistic that they would still taste good cooked. So, I gave that a shot and it came out very poorly. So, I have about five pounds of carrots that I have to get rid of because they are absolutely disgusting and none of my little tricks works to salvage them. I am not happy but I can console myself with the fact that I will be acquiring more real estate in the freezer and I didn't lose money on this failed venture.

I am, however, upset about the food processor that I bought a little while back. I assembled it as per the directions that came with it. When I first attempted to use it, the post that the blade sits on didn't move. I didn't pay a lot of money for it. At the same time, however, I have very rarely had problems with that brand of products. (It was from Aldi's and the Kitchen Living line. I got it on clearance because it was the last one.) I am trying to figure out what is wrong with it. So far, however, I've come up with nothing. I can hear the motor working and there is a tension in the post, so I know that the thing which is supposed to turn it is attempting to turn. I'm trying to figure out if there is some kind of locking mechanism that I have failed to disengage.

Honestly, I'm half tempted to hand it to Beloved and let him try. Because he is a bit better at mechanical things than I am. (We evenly split the minor house repair stuff that we do. Some time next week, we're buying plastic to cover the windows and we'll be putting that up together. It'll be fun. /sarcasm) I don't want to go through the headache of calling customer support and sitting on hold for a half hour or something only to be told I have to take it back to the store. I have a bad feeling, however, that might be the case.