Have you got a piece of paper and a pen handy? Cause here's the deal. Friday Ian will go to school, but Rich and I are off of work. This allows us to meet with the lawyer and sign Advanced Medical Directives followed by some child-free quality time. Nothing sets the mood like "power of attorney" and "end of life instructions". Somewhere in there I hope to take Ms. Kitty to the vet as well. Oh, and that evening I'll be going to BUNCO!

Saturday We're getting our Investiture on. Rich and I will be invested as the sixth Baron and Baroness of Marinus. We'll have three families staying with us for the festivities. Ian will be staying at my folks' for the day, though he's not going to be happy about that. I'm literally bribing him with Thomas trains to keep him from being pissed that he can't go to the event with us.

Sunday Rich, Ian and I are getting up at dawn to head to Bowie, Maryland. We're leaving our houseguests behind to clean up after themselves and lock the door behind them. Rich's folks (Nana and Granddad) will follow along at their own pace from Richmond. Our goal is to be on the road by 7am so that we're at Beth's house by 11am when Rich has to take his Colon Blow medicine. I offered to strap him to the roof of the car like Mitt Romney's dog but it didn't seem the best pre-op plan.

Rich will set up a laptop in Beth's guest bath and be "pre-disposed" for most of the day. He's restricted to a clear liquid diet all that day.

Monday GAME DAY! Rich and I will be leaving at 5am from Beth and Steve's house. Nana and Granddad will be coming to the house to stay with Ian while he's sleeping.

At 6am Rich and I check in for surgery. He is literally the only surgery Dr. Hanna has scheduled that day, for obvious reasons. Surgery should start around 7:30am. At that point I will head the 1/2 mile to the hotel where Nana, Granddad and Ian will have eventually made it.

I'm going to find something to do with my kid that day. Maybe the train museum. We'll have at least 8 hours to use up. I can call anytime I'd like for an update. At some point I'll send Ian off with Nana and Granddad and wait for Rich to come out of surgery. The plan is for me to stay with Rich overnight that first night while Ian sleeps with Nana and Granddad in the hotel.

Tuesday and Every Day After My plan is to stay in the hospital from 9am-6pm or so. Then I'll pick up Ian from Nana and Granddad and head to Beth's. We'll have dinner and co-chill and I'll put him to bed. Then I can relax at Beth's with some company versus being all alone in a hotel room with a sleeping kid. There is also FaceTime between Beth's and the hospital so that Ian can hopefully see Rich.

Care Calendar Megan has set up a fabulous care calendar to help us schedule all this stuff. Some of you already got an email invite to be "personal helpers" but there are jobs for everyone. Key things we need in Baltimore are folks to stay with Rich so that he's not alone if I'm away with Ian, at least for the first few days. Back in Norfolk, we need folks to take our dogs for walks so they don't become (any more) neurotic. We also need folks to come visit during the day in the hospital and to prepare some lunches and snacks.

Once we're all back in Norfolk, the help expands to more food, some simple childcare, more dog attention and other things like that.

For one-stop shopping on important info and links, bookmark http://www.inabottle.org/slime. I'll be updating things like Rich's room number and the general state of things there.

I've been very chill about all this for the most part. But looking at that care calendar and seeing things turn from red to green as our friends signed up for things got me all misty-eyed. It's a graphical representation of how much we're loved.