Row Row Row Your Boat

Remember the oar I took home from our vacation to Maine?

I finally settled on what to do with it. I ordered large prints of a few pictures I took while on the island. The kind that would 100 times better if I owned a good camera. However we work with what we have here people. I went to Micheal's today and took it as a good sign when I got there and saw the sign for buy one get one free on picture frames. So I framed and matted the pictures and tah dah....

I don't really care for the shell thing on the right but it needs a little something for balance and I was playing with wire, shells, and sea glass and hot glue. I also noticed after took this one of the pictures was crooked so that has been fixed. Makes it feel all Mainy doesn't it?

Yard Work

Last night I was trying to put my garden hose away after watering my new plants and this happened...

This can't be good right? Clearly it was time for a new hose reel. So I headed to Lowe's this morning to get one along with some tomato cages for Lexa's tomato plants. I was a little shocked to see that a hose reel comes with this set of directions.

Is it just me or is that a lot of writing for an item such as this? Admittedly it is three languages but still.

The first step said, "This hose reel is fully assembled and requires only moments to install." Right, I have heard this before. In the end it wasn't too bad, and I even learned a few things. Things like hoses have a male end and a female end. As described in the step, "Thread male end of leader hose into in-tube." Who knew? It seemed like more than I wanted to think about with respect to a hose, but that could just be me. At any rate everything went fairly smoothly and it now looks like this...

The second task for the day was to get Lexa's tomatoes propped up. My trusty assistant worked very hard to ensure that no tomatoes were injured in this endeavor.

Those cages are a bit of a pain to untangle as the very patient guy at Lowe's could attest. It took him about 15 minutes to untangle eight of them from the pile for me. The entire time I kept saying, "I am very sorry."

To which he would reply, "Oh it is no problem Ma'am." Of course that was before I accidentally dropped one on him. After that I am pretty sure he was thinking, "Why couldn't I have just walked down a different aisle, this woman is going to kill me."

However it all ended well. We even discovered that a few have buds. She can taste them already.

It is important, by the way, to work in your swimsuit. That way you can jump in the pool with your sister when you are done. I mean is was 82 degrees here today!  

Basements and Bureaucracy

After leaving you with such a tempting announcement of basement cleaning for today I am sure you have been eagerly awaiting my report. I had to take care of one issue before I could sequester myself into the dungeon. I had received a letter reminding me that I hadn’t licensed my dog yet this year.

Now, to be fair I already knew this. It just so happens that to re-license your dog your have to go to City Hall between 8:00- 4:30 Monday through Friday. I do not find these to be very convenient hours as I am actually working between those hours on those days. I would actually believe that most people are. It would seem like City Hall would have a better percentage of people actually able to register their dog if they offered later hours at least one day a week. However, the letter was also sent to the Burlington Police, Department of Animal Control I opted not to make this a matter of principal or anything. I mean look at him…

He really isn’t much more than a glorified stuffed animal. He wouldn’t make it in prison. The guy sleeps sucking on a stuffed chicken under a purple and pink butterfly blanket. It just wouldn’t be pretty. So I made the trek downtown this morning, and now Cabbie is all nice and legal.

I can also happily report that my basement looks great. I hauled an entire car full of stuff to the dump. I had bags full of stuff to take to Goodwill, but instead set it outside my house with a free sign on them and almost all of it is gone at this point. I am really excited about how much stuff I was able to get rid of. I made a few interesting discoveries too. When my mom sold her house she boxed up a few things and wrote my name on the boxes. I opened them up today and found a:

varsity jacket complete with Nancy Regan era Just Say No button,

the birthday candle my grandmother bought for me when I was born. Every year we burned it until I was 18. Note the 5 lb 15 oz weight nothing like the 6+ lb. Andrea… guess we know who was hogging all the food in there.

A hat that has to have something to do with Girl Scouts and camp. I only pray I never wore it, or at least that there isn’t any photo evidence that I ever wore it.

Girl Scout sash,

A program from our (Glenolden Elementary School) first grade production. Really things only a mom would keep. I found the note card where she wrote my blue poem that I had to read too… incase you want me to read it to you.

My clarinet book and music (found the clarinet too).

Another Girl Scout item. I think we had to wear these at Peak 85. When they made us camp in floorless tents in a sheep pasture in England. I note the button that indicated a sub camp. I think this is for keeping track of where you are suppose to be. In case you wander off into the Boy Scout area and then have to go racing back to make it in before they notice you are missing. Not that it ever happened to me personally, but I am just saying those kind of things could have happened to less trustworthy individuals. Me, I only had wholesome friends and we never would have done something like that.

I also found these funny little guys. They might look really strange, but I was really excited to find them. My grandfather made them. Whenever we would make the trip out the Grand Junction, Colorado to visit him he would open up the closet with all the wood working projects inside and let us pick one out to take home. I can remember my dad telling me to hold on to them that they would mean a lot to me someday. He was right.

Solo

The girls are away to visit their dad for a while this vacation. I will not get to see them for five solid days. I have never gone this long without them. It was definitely rough to say good bye. I still can’t think about it a lot because, quite frankly, it hurts too much. I have a list of things to do while they are gone. Partially to keep my mind off of it and partially because I can’t easily do some of these things while they are here. I have gotten a fair amount of things done between yesterday and today. Both days have been sunny so I got some of the flower gardens weeded and seeded. I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. I managed to flick gasoline all over my right arm while filling it and it took me about 10 pulls just to get the thing started. Both of which reminded me how much I hate mowing the lawn. Never the less it is done.

I rearranged the office furniture which I had been meaning to do for some time. I like it a lot better.

Although I now know I have an electrical outlet that no longer works in there and a rather unsettling gap between the wall and ceiling. Both things I was happier not knowing.

I also got around to cleaning out the kid’s dressers to remove all the clothes that no longer fit them. I found all of these socks no longer have a mates.

How is that possible? I buy them socks all the time, and I always buy them in pairs. Why do this many no longer have a match? It is an age old mystery I know but I still can’t figure out where they go exactly.

I went grocery shopping today. The most notable thing about that was that, without the kids here to buy for, I am a bit lost as to what to buy. It was the strangest thing. I went to get some things that I want to eat for the next few days and honestly I think I have forgotten what exactly I like to eat. Which is probably one of the most bizarre statements, but it is true. I found myself wandering around thinking what do I eat? It is a strange thing to go from cooking for kids to just yourself.

I will leave you this little teaser… tomorrow… I clean the basement.