First of all, thank you all for the gushing compliments on my new hairstyle. I'm going to have to get another new hairstyle soon, thanks to my new, ego-inflated head.

I have to gloat, as I scored amazing seats for a concert with Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright and Ben Lee at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The concert is the night before my son has his first day of kindergarten and my daughter enters first grade. I was torn, feeling like I should be home with them, talking up the first day and packing lunches, but then I remembered, hey! I'm, like, married and the hubs can stay home with them and my sister and I can go rock out.

I've also decided to attend the BlogHer convention at the end of July, and will be co-leading the "mommy-blogger" room discussion with Meghan - which is sure to be raucous. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to attend - so many phenomenal people are planning on being there. Hie thee to Santa Clara, wenches!

This will be my first childfree weekend (and husband free, too) since the infamous trip to Tempe. I roomed with Lu, and two weeks after returning home discovered I was pregnant with my youngest. The hubs is leary of my plot to get Lu to be my roommate. Bwahahahaha. I told him not to worry. Four Kid Circus doesn't flow.

Since I've made a pact with myself not to tan, but have scary white legs, I decided to investigate other methods of coloring. I have botched every brand of self-tanner (self applied, that is) on the market, and have been streaky and orange. I just don't have the skilz, yo.

I decided to try Benefit Wonderbod Jiffy Tan, which is a lotion that you put on and then! Then! It washes off in the shower. This is SO GREAT, since you don't have to live with your streaky-ass self if you botch it. It's actually a nice color, too. Very tan like. Go! Buy!

Weary of the way my house functions, akin to Lord of the Flies, I informed my kids that we would be establishing some daily routines to keep on top of the clutter - routines that included *gasp* THEM. I tried to sell them on it:

"It's just like your kindergarten! We'll have colors and a chore chart, and on Mondays, purple can set the table!"

My son and daughter began fighting over who got to be purple. I tried to get the pep-talk back on track.

"Um, yes. Well. So, in kindergarten, everything has a special place, and you do the same things at the same time every day."

My son snorted. My oldest gave me a mooooo-oooom look and said, "Look, if we're going to do this right, we're going to need some of those anti-bacterial wipe cloths. And tape. We're going to need a lot more tape."

What the heck kind of kindergarten is my kid attending?

Anyway, I gave them some markers and set them up with big pads of paper to do some art, while I tidied the house. Not fifteen minutes later, my son appeared in front of me, his face entirely green. He looked like the Jolly Green Giant's sidekick. Sprout, isn't it?

I guess we're all experimenting with different skin colors for summer. Thank goodness it was a water-based marker.

Later, I had the kids watch some of the video clips on the Discovery Channel website. Educational, good stuff. An hour later, they had ransacked the jewelry stash from the Pretty Pretty Princess game and had clip on earrings dangling from their noses and strings of beads draped dramatically around foreheads and necks. They performed a pretty good imitation of a tribal dance for me, too.

It's Friday, at last.