hel - pez dispenser of happiness

So yesterday was my beloved sister's birthday. Last year, everyone but me forgot, I suspect because it fell the day after my return from Florida. So I really wanted to be sure she had a good one this year.

A couple of weeks ago, I called my brother-in-law up, and offered to come over and babysit if he wanted to take my sister out for dinner (or take the child away to my mother's place, where I could babysit there and my mother could return him in the morning, his choice). We finally got a plan pinned down yesterday, and so I headed over there after work.

When I got there, my sister was just sitting down to her dinner. She was, to say the least, shocked that I was there. Fortunately, she'd made enough spaghetti for her and her husband, so I ate his (though I told her it was ok, I'd just eat hers). When he got home about 10 minutes later, the following conversation occured:

Sister: "oh, Adrienne just dropped by as a surprise, and she's eating your dinner.. I'll have to figure something out for you to eat."
B-i-L: "why are you eating?"
Me: (laughing and taking away her plate) "She doesn't know"
Sister: ::increasingly confused:: Can I eat my dinner?
Me: (around a mouthful of very good spaghetti) "I don't think that's actually your dinner::
Sister: Well, what am I going to eat?
B-i-L: Whatever you want.
Sister: (light dawning) You're here to babysit? (to him) you're taking me out to dinner?

So they went off and had a lovely evening (and, being young working parents, used the time off to good advantage and stopped by the grocery store), and my nephew and I had a fine evening, though he was in bed by 8.

And I got my Christmas decorations, though the ones I bought just before I moved back are MIA.. I'm hoping they're at my parents' place, though I can't imagine where else they'd be.

Tonight, practice and helping a neighbour craft a letter of resignation.