I spent last Thurs. and Friday home from work. I wasn't sick or anything. I was just needed around the house.

By my own account, last Thurs. was a bad day. I know I spent too much of my time yelling at the girls. After the girls went to bed, as I reflected on how the day went, I realized that I needed to loosen up a bit or else neither I nor the girls were going to survive the weekend. I resolved to not be so uptight the remainder of the weekend. It worked for the most part.

Friday, I took the girls out to the Minnesota Zoo for what was left of the morning and early afternoon. We'd just gotten to the zoo and were headed towards Discovery Bay when I thought I spied someone I knew out of the corner of my eye. I did a double-take and there was my cousin's daughter! A very unexpected coincidence. I assumed she was there with her preschool/daycare program. I said hello to her and so did the girls. We went off to explore Discovery Bay. Unfortunately, the dolphin show was on temporary hiatus due to the introduction of two new dolphins to the existing pair. I felt bad for the girls because they LOVE the dolphin show.

Then we headed over to the Tropics Trail. The girls had fun wandering through there. Though, I kind of freaked as two male gibbons proceeded to tussle with each over territory and dominance which happened to include dry humping each other along with slap fighting and chasing. Thankfully, the girls didn't ask about the dry humping because I have no f'in clue how I would have answered that question.

After the Tropics Trail, we headed to the food court for lunch. We had just sat down for lunch when I saw my cousin. That explained why her daughter was at the zoo. So, we had lunch together (with her friend and her friend's kids). It was a very nice coincidence. Completely unexpected.

We spent a little bit of time playing in a room where the kids can dress up in animal costumes and whatnot. While we were in there, two zoo volunteers came in with a rabbit that the girls got to pet and stuff. Then we went home.

Saturday was pretty mellow. Shelly had a class to teach so I took the girls to Chipotle (surprise! Not!) for lunch. When we got back, Sophie took a nice long nap and I let Julie try out the "Moon Sand" castle playset that we bought for the girls. Though, again, I think I was too tough on her about getting sand out of the inflatable sandbox and onto the floor. Might explain why she said she was done much earlier than I expected.

Sunday was kind of a gloomy day. We spent it mostly indoors. I got a brief break from home in the afternoon and went over to St. Paul to check out Familia Skateshop. I've been getting their email newsletter for awhile now and finally got around to checking out the store itself. Nice little shop. I managed to avoid buying another pair of shoes. (Those Adidas Stan Smith Skates in navy, "running white", and "sun" were so tempting!) I guess they're also one of the shops (or maybe the only shop) in the area to get US-bound limited edition Nike SB stuff, too. Not sure if it's good that I know that or not.

We also had another Skype video chat with my brother and his fiancee. That was nice too. They got to see the girls a little bit (even if the girls were total goof balls).

One thing about the past few days. Since Shelly was taking it easy, it meant we ate out more often than we usually do. Mostly because I wasn't going to do much cooking. I think the girls liked that.

I think we should be back to "normal" around the house now. Hopefully, that also means I get back to playing more video games, too.