sticks and stones

Oh, dear. So much happened in a matter of one weekend. Originally we were slated to spend the weekend at the beach for an early anniversary celebration (Four Years, next week...my, how time flies). But we decided to stay home due to the miserable cold that descended on North Carolina this past week. FIFTEEN DEGREES, friends. Or NEGATIVE FOUR to those of you who experience the weather in centigrade. In short, awfully cold for the fragile, heat-seeking, southern flowers we have become.

We had a nice weekend at home, including a much needed, indulgent, end-of-week celebration at Rue Cler, painting and puttering around the house, catching up on American Idol auditions (witness again my low-brow taste in television, but the best imaginations in the world could not invent the cringe-inducing Awesome that is American Idol auditions...but more on that later).

On Saturday night, Carlye and I made an ambitious Chinese dinner, complete with homemade crab rangoons and eggrolls, wherein we learned the secret to great Chinese food is to be fearless about frying and ignore the copious amounts of oil involved.

Then, on Sunday, we had the best little brunch with Dawn, Matt and Precious-Pinchable-Cheeks-Phoebe at our favorite weekend spot. They were making a cameo appearance in North Carolina to visit family.

What a lovely weekend. If only we had ended it at just that moment. When we waved goodbye to our kind friends, sated by an exceptional brunch, contemplating an afternoon nap.

But, no.

While playing his first indoor soccer game of the season last night, Ben Adlard went for the ball...only to break his arm. Yes. You read that right. Break. His. Arm. He came home with his arm crunched in a way an arm is most definitely not supposed to be crunched. And after many hours in the ER last night, and many shots of morphine and a local anesthetic, two doctors and a nurse pulled his arm and fingers in all different directions to reset two broken bones. Kindly, they let me sit that one out in the hallway.

Around 2 this morning, we arrived home loaded up with Percocet, and Ben with a serious cast halfway up his arm. Needless to say, he will out of commission for the foreseeable future. Poor guy. Apparently, soccer is an extreme sport. We go back in a few days to see if he needs surgery on his arm. Here's hoping he doesn't. In the meantime, he's on the mend with naps, magazines, Tivo, tea and Dunkin' Donuts.

All in all, a very eventful weekend. To say the least.

On the upside, should you find yourself in an emergency (and I hope you don't), I highly recommend UNC's ER. They have valet parking. Enough said.