Oops I let her do it again

Alison Reed is going to be successful in her adult life. The only question is which side of the law she'll be on. I swear she has the soul of a con artist.

We haven't played Monopoly in a a long time, but we cracked it out this morning -- the Littlest Pet Shop-themed game board, of course. We roused Jeff out of bed and Alison picked out our game pieces. She was a pink LPS octopus. I was an LPS zebra. Jeff was the LPS husky.

It was all going my way. I had two monopolies on the rich side of town, two vehicles (LPS version of railroads)and plenty of cash. Alison had a lot of property but not much cash and she had the bad luck to land on one of my improved properties. She was $50 short but wasn't protesting, just resigned to the facts of the game.

"It's OK, honey. You can owe me," says I, falling once again into her trap.

Not 20 minutes later, she had my Biggest Littles Pet Shop AND my Round and Round Pet Town (aka Boardwalk and Park Place) and I was reduced to mortgaging the rest of my holdings.

"I love this game," she said.

I'm going to blame my lapse in judgment in having been away from the game for so long.

Ultimately though, Jeff somehow managed to eke out a win. He'd taken a bunch of my properties when I left the game and she was jailed a few times when he landed on her big money spots.

It was actually a good way to start easing out of the weekend. We spent some time at the Monon Art Fair yesterday where we got a great new piece of art for the yard and I collected the start of a fairly impressive sunburn.

I added to it by sitting at Broadway Betty's pool sipping too many gin-and-tonics and hanging out with some of the coolest women in the city. It's the infamous "Estro-fest" gathering and one of the events that makes summer fun.

Margaret Burlingame and I have a tradition of bringing a special gift to the bash and this year it was candy wrapped in papers that carried the Estrofest logo, different themes and great sayings like, "A lady is one who never shows her underwear unintentionally."

Margaret had a training that she couldn't skip and had to miss the party. Note to Margaret: it was another happily received offering. Thanks for doing all the work... :)

My good friend Tina Noel chaufferred me to the party, which turned out to be great because not only was my glass bigger than hers, it seemed to never be empty.
I think I must owe her something good...

All in all, the weekend has offered something to everyone at Chez Reed. We went to the Vic for an Indians game on Friday; the neighborhood art fair which gets better every year and a poolside party on Saturday; and blessedly nothing planned for today.

I'm not sure I'm ready to face the work week. I'm definitely going to need this day to recover, although I'm guessing we have either the bikes or Jordan Y pool this afternoon. I've got to hunt down the sun block.