Saturday the girls and I went to the farmer's market for our weekly produce run. We were coming home along Parker Road, in which the speed limit near town is 25mph and turns to 40mph as you get about a mile down the road. You can probably see where I'm going with this story. Driving for 20 years in Seattle, I am not accustomed to going 25 on an open road. It seems interminably slow. Going 5mph in I-5? Sure, because there's all these other cars in your way. Whatever. Anyway, for the first time in my life I get pulled over (except that one time when I was 18 and visiting friends in a bad neighborhood--they thought I was buying drugs based on my appearance), and I wasn't sure if I should feign ignorance, make an excuse, or cry. I decided on a lark to own up to my mistake.

Me: "I am really sorry. I know it's a 25mph zone and I was probably going too fast."

Officer: "You were going 40. License and registration please?"

He goes back to his squad car for a few minutes and the girls are beyond excited by this turn of events. He comes back.

Officer: "Do you live on the island?"

Me: "Yes, actually I live down this road, which is all the more reason I should have been aware of the speed limit. Again, I'm really sorry."

Officer: "I never let people off with a warning that try to make excuses, but since you owned up to it, it's your lucky day, ma'am. You just saved $140."

So we get home and I tell the girls let's try and keep this little event to ourselves. I've never seen them scramble out of their carseats so fast to run and tell on mommy.

"Daddy! Mommy got stopped by the police!"

I walked into the house and Henry was writhing on the couch, holding his ear. Because my children only get ear infections on the weekends so I have to take them to the ER where my copay is $150. After the doc gave Henry some medicine to make his ear feel better, Hen said, "can we go down to the cafe and see if they have any of that chicken rice soup and one of those ice cream bombs they have in their cooler?" There's something wrong when your kid knows the daily special at Whidbey General.

So, by my calculations, I only came out $10 behind today, since I didn't get the ticket I deserved, but did have an ER copay. Also today, Mitch chainsawed down a tree that was blocking sun from our vegetable garden and Jack and Dylan built a cool fort on the beach that only the sons of two architects could make. It had a special "total destruction stick" that you could pull out to make the entire thing collapse at once.