March 28

I’ve become a big fan of ChatGPT at work, but it has repeatedly let me down at home. Every family activity it has suggested has been a giant bust with only one exception, and there was no way it could have predicted that my old boss would show up randomly at the restaurant it suggested which was otherwise just sort of ok. Anyway, it suggested RAM for today, so we went, and there just wasn’t anything interesting there for anyone. Also there were 40mph wind gusts and it was like 60 degrees outside. You should have seen the kids’ faces. It wasn’t disgust and it wasn’t boredom, it was complete disinterest. Christina couldn’t even be interested in sharing a brownie with her father. No one cared where we went for lunch, so Billy just picked a place he’s been wanting to go to, the Bearded Pig. The kids walked in there and then their disinterest did mingle with some disgust, because there weren’t cheeseburgers or chicken tenders on the menu. They settled for pulled pork and mac and cheese while silently dying inside, but then the food came out and holy shit, folks. They liked it. Moods started to improve. And then the magic happened. I don’t know if it was someone at the table who suggested it or just a whisper on the (insane) wind, but somehow we ended up at Sweet Pete’s, and satisfaction even turned into smiles. I guess candy will do that to a kid. We got a banana split and came home and no one has had to eat anything since then. Except Pinot, who ate my Starburst and is yet once again dead to me. This dog has eaten more of my candy over the years than I have and I hate him for it. And then I ended up on this mission to find a Lego piece that Robin lost from her set that we bought in New York. Christina has a 20-gallon tub of Legos and we pulled them all out looking for a replacement piece, but couldn’t find it. So I went to lego.com, or whatever their website is, and ordered the piece, which costs $0.13, but I ended up paying more than $13 for it with service fees and shipping. But there is no way we’re leaving this thing unfinished just because she is missing a 3/8 inch piece that I can’t find in 20 gallons of Legos. I have a lot of patience, but it is worth $13 to me to not have to pull out 14,000 individual Lego pieces to try to find the one we need. That may be a very conservative estimate, too. And that, my friends, was Saturday.