I Had Forgotten

...what it was like to be home alone without a child. This is such a rare occurrence for me.

Monday was my daughter's first day at an all-day school/daycare. She goes two days a week (Monday and Friday) to this new school, in addition to her regular preschool.

So today, I managed to get the following things done:

1) drop off used printer cartridges for recycling
2) purchase office supplies
3) clean items to donate to the Salvation Army
4) drop off said items
5) make a deposit at the bank
6) have lunch on my own terms, without having to worry about anyone else
7) BUY MY NEW BIKE!! (more on this later)
8) spend 2.5 hours thoroughly cleaning the inside of my car (more on this later too)
9) revise a massage policy for the state of Oregon
10) four loads of laundry
11) walk the dog
12) make a (small) dent in cleaning the garage
13) give used toys to the neighbor girl
14) return a storage bin to friends
15) buy petfood (and a replacement toy for my dog)
16) have the first "date night" with my husband since August 2009

And all this was after sleeping in until 9:30.

Now, about the bike.
I'd put the bike on layaway last Sunday. I had to make a 25% down payment to reserve the 10% off pricing. It was a 2010 bike, on clearance, so it was a good deal anyway. The 10% was even better, especially considering the store I went to has a "points" system for everything I buy that equals 10% back I can use on anything in the store.

I got an email earlier this week that indicated they were having a "double points weekend." In other words, I'd get 20% back on any purchase. A good time to make the payoff on the bike, so I did.

I totally worked the system.

Of course, since it is designed for racing events, it doesn't come with pedals, so I had to get a pedal set, and I'd returned the shoes I bought to race in, so I needed new shoes. And I wanted a computer for it. I walked away with all my new bike stuff and what will be close to $200 in store credit.

It actually took me about 90 minutes in the store, during which time my car was parked in the sun. Did I mention that today was the first beautiful sunny day since February? We loaded the bike in the car, I happily hopped in to drive home and...nearly hurled.

WHAT was that stench and where was it coming from?

I rolled down all four windows, and if I had an extendable neck, I totally would have hung my head out the window, dog-like, on my way home.

It smelled THAT badly.

Once home, I unloaded my bike into the house and decided it was time for a thorough cleaning of my car.

I go through phases with my car (much like everything else in my life), where I will be so meticulously neat that NO ONE MAY EAT IN THE CAR. Then gradually things pile up, I'm in a hurry and visit a drive-through, I'm too tired to empty the whole car, and eventually I have to drive someone somewhere and realize that I have no place for them to sit.

I was at the no place to sit point, so it was possible that the odorous fumes were coming from something that my daughter had tossed into the back seat somewhere.

I began by simply emptying everything into the driveway in piles. I had a laundry pile, a sort it out in the house pile, a recycle pile, a garbage pile, a put it back in the car when I'm done pile, a donate pile, and a deliver to somewhere else pile. None of these were particularly small piles.

I pulled out the car seat, the floor mats, the spare tire cover, and anything else I could detach from inside the car. Then I thoroughly vacuumed all the carpet and upholstery and lysoled (new verb) everything else.

Despite having sniff-tested everything I pulled out of the car to see if it was the offending item, I didn't find anything that could be a possible source. I didn't even find any food garbage-gone-science-experiment that I could blame it on. While I was relieved I didn't find anything like that, I was also confused. I'd SCOURED the car and it was still potent. Not AS potent, but I couldn't tell if that was just because I had all four doors, the hatchback, and the sunroof open.

I'm sure the neighbors (once again) thought I was nuts because I kept moving around, sniffing different spots in my car trying to locate the source of the stink.

I got through all the laundry, thoroughly cleaned the car seat, and closed the car back up. After all, it's been two months since we saw sun, so leaving the sunroof open would not be the wisest move on my part.

When my husband got home, our daughter was asleep, so we got the neighbor girl to come over and babysit so we could go on a "date."

Here's how unused to having time to ourselves we are: our "date" consisted of going out to frozen yogurt, eating it there, and then walking to Target (I wanted Febreeze for my car). Once in Target, he tells me, "I'm going to the men's section," and takes off. It wasn't until I was wandering around household goods looking for the Febreeze that I realized we were paying a babysitter for a date night during which we were walking around Target, separately.

At least we had yogurt together. And I have my Febreeze.