It's the weekend, the house is in excellent shape, and the weather is going to be absolutely smashing.  So what's the problem?

The problem is this...  Dean's been stuck in NYC from Tuesday through today.  Whenever he's gone for an extended period, I like to do something noticeable around the house, which usually means doing a deep cleaning.  Did I mention the house is already in excellent shape?   While I'd like to pretend that I *always* live in a home that's only a few lit candles and some artfully arranged fresh flowers away from being photo-ready, the truth is that we go in cycles of cleanliness, punctuated by the occasional freelance job (filth and despair) and visit from friends (immaculate).  Lately we've been staying pretty well on top of our chores, so the house is in good shape.  Even Per's room is not too bad, though given 30 minutes of Lego time, that would probably change.  The point is, normally I use cleaning as my "wow" factor.  Dean leaves a house full of clutter, and comes back with everything in it's proper place (and a couple of lit candles).  Very impressive.  But this time, Dean left a house that was clean, and he's coming back to a house that's clean.  BTW, if any of you wags try to suggest that I should go the other direction and turn the house into a pigsty, I'm going to choose to interpret that as volunteering to come over and do some heavy lifting.

I did have one inspiration, but I realized I need more than 1.5 free days (now down to 1) to complete it.  We are looking to replace the studio carpeting with laminate flooring, which in and of itself is probably a 1 day job, but if we were going to be messing with the floors, I'd also want to tackle the painting.  And I'd have to make the decision whether or not I was going to spruce up the trim along with the regular color.  The windows and the doors would add a lot of time to the process.  It also would raise some other questions, such as the current furnishings, which are mostly "Early Adulthood Cheap".  We threw all the leftover pieces from previous apartments into the studio.  None of it fits together particularly well.  I sort of imagine pulling off a "While You Were Out" makeover, and completely surprising Dean when he comes back, and to do that, I suspect I need him to be gone a week, and me to take off at least 1-2 days from work.  Oh, and probably I'll need to rope in a few of you smart-asses from the previous paragraph to come bail me out when I find something unexpected that throws me for a loop.  I'm notorious for starting what should be a simple job, only to discover--just past the point of no return, of course--that something major (that I have NO CLUE how to fix) is wrong.  Like when I began pulling up the linoleum in our kitchen, and found that the door frame had been leaking and rotting out the subfloor.  I could handle pulling up and laying down squares of sticky linoleum.  I did not know how to properly fix rotting plywood.  In any case, I've shelved this idea with the idea of getting Dean to take Per camping at Oma's again this summer, wink wink.

I also thought of cleaning the basement, but as Per wisely pointed out, we need Dean around to do it, b/c so much of it is his stuff.  I did jokingly suggest to Dean that if he was willing to grant me permission to determine on my own what should get chucked and what should stay, I'd clean it.  His voice got a little strained as he said "No, I think *I* should take care of that."  (In case you are wondering, I mentioned the basement to Dean, but not the studio.  He claims to never read my LJ, so the studio surprise shouldn't be ruined, although if he suddenly starts chattering on Monday about going away with Per for 2 weeks, I will get a little suspicious)  After I mentioned that, Dean brought up "yardwork", which would currently be raking and carting away piles of sticks that have fallen from our trees.   This was a job that he'd said he was going to do last weekend.  Instead, on Saturday he took the dog for a long walk and then on Sunday he took the dog AND the boy for a long walk.  I'm not complaining about what he did, as it got everyone out of my hair so I was able to get a lot of stuff done.  But I'd be a little irritated if I ended up doing that job when he'd been talking for a while about doing it himself.  Feeling snarky is not the best way to begin performing a "kindness" for someone else.

On top of these grand (but unfufilled) fantasies, the other factor today is that Per has been exceptionally well behaved, and wants to do something fun.  He wanted to go somewhere like Mystic Aquarium, but my budget for "fun" is a little cranky after prebuying some tickets for summer adventures, so we're instead trying to think of something cheap and local to do instead.  And by cheap I mean <$5 for both of us.  We're leaning towards the park and maybe swimming at the YMCA, although "Mom" is not keen on getting into a bathing suit.  

So here is the problem:   It's bright and early on a gorgeous spring day, but I have no immediate plan for productivity.  I don't even have a real plan for spending quality time with my child.  I *know* I will be taking him to bowling in an hour or so, and I *know* I'll be visiting the "Shredding" event to get all our junk mail shredded, but other than that, I'm at a loss.  Which means that I'm very likely going to come back to the house, do a few more chores and then sit there with Per for an hour and a half saying to each other "Well, do you want to do this?"  At least tomorrow, when Dean is back, I will be animating most of the day on the KIT project, so the weekend won't be completely wasted.