Sharpie on Concrete

Kay.  So.  Micah's bestie, Daniel, came over to play the other day.  It was actually a nice day (shocker), and they were playing outside. Micah came in at one point and said, "Mom, Daniel is drawing on our sidewalk with a marker!"

I figured it was like one of those crayola markers, so it wasn't a huge deal, but I did poke my head outside and said, "Hey, Daniel, don't draw on my sidewalk with markers, m-kay?"  And he was really sweet about it.  "Okay!" he agreed.

So then I was walking through the kitchen a little while later, and I glanced out my window.  And Daniel was drawing on the neighbor's sidewalk!  Upon further inspection, I realized that he was drawing with a sharpie.  Oh my gosh.  So I go outside, and I say, "Um, okay, don't draw on ANYONE'S sidewalks from now on, m-kay?"  And again, he was really good and nodded and agreed.  "I'm going to have to take your sharpie, Daniel, m-kay?"  M-kay.

It wasn't until further inspection that I realized the damage he had done.  He wrote his name in enormous letters on our front walkway:

This picture doesn't do it justice.  It's wayyy more noticeable than this.

Then I inspected my neighbor's sidewalk:

Quite artistic, really.  It's almost Picasso-like  And once again, he signed his work.

My neighbor, Laura, was letting out her dog, and I snagged her and explained what happened.  She laughed and was like, "I'm not too worried about it.  The weather will take care of it this winter."  Which is how my reaction would have been, except we have to try to sell our house before winter hits. 

I did call Daniel's mom, who was really embarrassed.  I felt badly; I didn't want to embarrass her.  I was just like, "Hey, if you want to send him over to help me scrub up his mess, I think that would be cool."  She said she wanted to look online to see how to get permanent marker off of concrete, and that they would be over in an hour.  She and I laughed about how Daniel shouldn't have signed his work; it would have given him plausible deniability. 

It's like when I was in second grade and drew on my baby-sitter's t-shirt.  She always just played our Atari when she came over, and that bugged me.  So I was like, "I'm going to draw on the back of your shi-irt!"  And she was like, "Whatever.  I'm playing Donkey Kong."  So I wrote on the back of her shirt.  I wrote my name and my sister's name.  "Karlenn and Natalie."  She claimed later that she thought I had clicked the all-point pen inside and was just using the blunt, retracted end to pretend to write on her shirt.  Turns out, that shirt was from China, and her parents got really mad, and my parents got really upset with me.  Things must have turned out okay, because later, she was still our baby-sitter, and she "accidentally" broke my wrist...  Just kidding - it really was an accident, but it's fun to pretend that she was exacting her revenge for me writing on her Chinese shirt.

I know how busy it is to be a stay-at-home mom, and Daniel's mom also homeschools her kids, which I can't imagine.  My day is absolutely busy, every single second.  I don't know how people can add homeschooling to their daily regimen.  At any rate, a few hours passed, and I didn't see any sign of them, so I set out to try to scrub off Daniel's handiwork.

I have a bottle of Goof Off, which said it could remove permanent marker from concrete.  So I gave it a shot.  It didn't do much:

The D is a little smeared, but that's all.  So I'm trying to figure out what to do. Ben is out of town for a business trip, but he suggested me pouring acetone on it and then scrubbing at it.  So we'll see what happens.

This is Laura's dog, Blackjack:

 He wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get a good picture.  He's a big labradoodle puppy, and he loves me.  Whenever I'm outside, he is there with me.  My constant companion.

So any thoughts on my concrete conundrum?  Send them my way.