The good news this morning was that the yard work was called on account of rain. Mom was happy to have us help her with housework until lunchtime instead while she and Alicia helped her with the twins and their usual Saturday work. I cleaned the third floor, and the second floor guest bedrooms and bathroom while Dad took care of the living room, dining room, office, and main floor bathroom. We had lunch shortly after Mom had finished nursing the twins at noon, and then Rowen came over to hang out with Mandy and me in the lounge for the afternoon.
We watched a movie and played until a bit after four, when we found out that I was going to be doing a sleepover at Rowen’s house. Ethan and Ehlana were doing a sleepover too; though they weren’t going over to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house until after their nine o’clock feeding. Aunt Leanne and Rowen’s Mom had set up the surprise for Mom and Dad so that they could have most of a night off before he’d be away for the week. I had time to pack my bag and make sure that Mandy had everything she needed before Rowen and I walked over to her house; getting there just a few minutes before her Mom and brother got home from the store.
Patrick was going to have Scott Faulkner staying overnight with him, and was sent upstairs to get his room cleaned up – or as Rowen advised me; stuff all of his junk into the closet and hope nobody opened the door. Rowen and I helped out with making dinner for six, and had everything ready by the time that Mr. Emerson got home after closing the store for the day. Dinner conversations at the Emerson’s usually included a large dollop of computer talk.
Now that they were getting into a slow time of year at the store, Mr. and Mrs. Emerson were talking about things they could do to get new business. Building on their one-customer custom computers was one option; though since Rowen's Dad was the only one who could build them right now, they were limited in how much they could do with that. I personally liked their idea for a data center. They already had a small setup that the school, town, and most of the businesses in the Ridge River District used; so it really wouldn’t be all that hard to add capacity for new clients. I might even know exactly where to find a few big customers to help make that work out very well for them!
Patrick was usually very shy whenever I was around, but he and Scott were both fired up tonight, and acting like typical eight-year old boys. Rowen was more annoyed by them than I was, but her parents were able to mostly keep their goofiness to a minimum during dinner; and then the two boys went up to Patrick’s room to play video games while the rest of us watched a chick flick in the living room. They saved their worst for after we all went upstairs to bed, and then they spent more than an hour trying to spy on our bedtime chat and spring pranks and practical jokes on us.
Rowen and I both did a little surfing and emailing on our computers while we sat up in bed talking; and that was when I found out how Violet’s day in Crystal Springs with Dillon, Jake, and Stephanie had gone. They’d done a little shopping, caught the late afternoon matinee, and then gone out for dinner before they all had to head for home. Violet also let me know that Dillon would be going to Woodvale for an overnight visit in two weeks; and when I sent her a reply, I invited her, Dawn, and Jillian to come to Witch Falls for the Ridge River Fall Festival – pending parental approval, of course.
Going back to the junior pranksters, sometimes it’s very tempting for Rowen and I to use our special gifts to deal with things like annoying little brothers and their buddies. They’d likely be less enthusiastic about their tricks after a few creative applications of Transmutation or Telekinesis on, for instance, the rubber snakes and spiders they tried to scare or gross us out with. Speaking of the little troublemakers; they’re back and at it again! Time to wrap this up, since it seems like the only way to stop them from bugging us is to call it a night and go to bed; so that’s exactly what Rowen and I are going to do.
