Lake Weekend

Ahhhhh! It was such a relaxing weekend at the lake!

Maybe a little too relaxing.

Our little lake house is situated in the middle of the Ozark Mountains, about 20 feet from the water's edge. Unless you remember to bring your hiking shoes, (I didn't) then you are forced to laze around the house or swim. It was too cold to swim. Therefore I was forced to laze around the house. Sometimes, for a change of scenery, I lazed around the deck.

Once I lazed on the hammock out on the boat dock.

I lazed around so much that my legs started to ache. The kind of ache you get on a Trans-Atlantic flight. Now that's LAZY!

Besides lazing around, the other major activity is eating. We usually divide up the meal responsibilities, which creates a bit of a competitive atmosphere. We had some lovely grilled porkchops with a crispy onion/sausage relish. We had biscuits & gravy. I made grilled hamburgers and bratwurst. There was great watermelon, blueberry pancakes, homemade ice cream, s'mores around the bonfire...

But here I must congratulate myself: I stayed on my diet. Maybe not perfectly, but all things considered, I did pretty darn good. I had one little bitty beer and no other alcohol. One bite of ice cream. One s'more. Hardly a single chip. (Like I said, I wasn't perfect...)

I was able to start a new book: "John Adams" by David McCullough. It's pretty good so far. I've never had a big interest in the American Revolution, but that may change. McCullough does a good job breathing life into historical figures. And that's what makes them interesting.

Anyway, that's the weekend report. I came home to find my Chrysler Imperial rose in full bloom. And Tiffany is no slacker either. I'm in rose heaven!

Ahhhh, Silence.

I am treasuring the silence today.

Today and tomorrow: the last two days of school. The last two days that my mornings will be quiet, peaceful, silent. No cartoons, no computer games, no arguing and fighting.

I think I'm going to promote quiet this summer. When I think of our summer mornings, I think of cartoons. Whoever invented Cartoon Network should be prosecuted. Yes, I share some of the responsibility. I purchase cable. I allow my children to tune in. It's sheer laziness. Remind me if I slip: I will limit the TV this summer!

Mom, if you're reading: Thank you for hiding the TV every summer when I was a kid! That was genius. When I was a kid, my mom and dad took the TV and put it in their closet, up high, out of reach. That was back in the day when families had one TV. All our little friends thought we were freaks. "No TV?" What kind of family has NO TV? Sure, we would go over to the neighbor's house and watch TV from time to time. But when I think back to the summers of my childhood, I do not think of television. I think of open windows with curtains blowing in the breeze. I think of playing long, extended games of imagination in the back yard. I think of hide & seek. I think of the pool. I remember ice cream and swing sets. Walking to the library all by myself and coming home with armloads of books. Paper dolls. Listening to the cicadas.

Sometimes I declare "silent reading time" for the kids. I don't know where this came from. Maybe they do it in school. Anyway, for some reason, they freakin' LOVE silent reading time. All I have to do is say: "Kids, it's silent reading time" and they all scramble for a book and read. Even the youngest. I don't know if they think they're getting extra credit from me, or what. But it works.

Silent...Reading...Time. Just the words make me happy. Here's to more silent reading time this summer. And cicadas. And swimming, and running, and exercising the imagination.

Not Much to Say

Feeling better today. I sure was whiny yesterday! We are having perfect weather in KC, 70s and sunny, which is enough to cheer anybody up.

I'm working today. I think my boss is still out of town, so it will probably be quiet. I'd rather be busy, but you get what you get.

My mom had her retirement party yesterday. It will be really strange when she no longer works at St. Luke's. She's been on the faculty of the nursing school for as long as I remember. It's part of my identity, in fact. My mom is a professor at St. Luke's. No more.

Times change.

Bad Day

Ugh. I'm feeling so down and out today. I actually had to tell my teenager that it hurts my feelings when I drive her around while she sits beside me with her iPod turned up to maximum volume, or chats with her friends on the cell...totally ignoring me, the chauffeur. Then I had to tell her not to wear torn up clothes to work. Then I realized that she probably tore and cut the clothes on purpose, formerly nice clothes which I bought for her.

I am totally overwhelmed with too many activities.

The trial is back on my mind.

I had a boring day at work.

It's too rainy to plant.

I missed my boys' "crossing over" ceremony tonight where they advance in Boy Scouts. I had to drop them off at the meeting, run to pick Anna up from work and take her to dance, then race back to Scouts, but I missed the ceremony anyway. Even worse, the boys had to go in front of the whole crowd to accept their new rank, and tell the den leader that their parent wasn't to accept the "proud parent" pin. Shit.

I got an email that Kathleen has four soccer games this weekend. Paul is taking the boys camping, so he can't help.

I have to throw a huge teacher party in the next week and I don't have the time or inspiration.

I have a laundry pile the size of the Sears Tower because my dryer was broken.

...And I have to get my teeth cleaned at 9:00 in the morning.

Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn.

I'm Back

It seems I took a little break from blogging! It was unintentional. I just didn't have much to say.

But now, as I sit here and wait for the self-tanner on my legs to dry, I find I do have a little something on my mind and I want to vent. It's about the trial. You know, the last "official" word I had was when the prosecutor called me on December 2 to tell me that the trial had been delayed. The trial that was supposed to start on December 5. I asked him to call me when he had a new date for the trial. Did I receive a call? No. But I heard "through the grapevine" that the trial had been rescheduled for May 29. Then I heard, again unofficially, that the trial was going to be delayed again. So now it will not start on May 29, or so I assume. I have heard, again, quite unofficially, that it may start some time this summer.

Sometime this summer.

I don't know about you guys, but we make plans during the summer. We go out of town. We take vacations. We do stuff!

Am I going to get a phone call "some time this summer" telling me I have to be in court in 48 hours? Even if they give me a week's notice, what if I have plans?

It has now been over two years that this stupid, fucking trial has been pending. I feel I deserve a little more courtesy from the stinking prosecutor who expects me to testify for him.

OK. Thanks for listening. Now on to better subjects. We had a great Mother's Day around here. My entire family (except Garth) was here, and Paul's entire family showed up, too. We had a great time, all 45 of us. The men cooked, and they really outdid themselves! Well, the men and Susita, who made a killer artichoke pesto. Wow. We had smoked ribs and chicken, watermelon, green salad, bruchetta, bacon-wrapped scallops, smoked salmon, carrot cake, peach crisp, chocolate-covered strawberries, (made by Laurita), and, I almost forgot...fried onion rings. It was crazy, fun, and totally decadent. And, last but not least, we had Weiss beer, which I thoroughly recommend, even though it's a man-beer.

Of course, the top prize for decadence goes to my step-brothers who brought bacon doughnuts. When they said they were bringing bacon doughnuts, I thought they were kidding. But they weren't. And they were pretty good, too. Doughnuts cut in half, with bacon inside, like a little sandwich. I think you'll be seeing this item at all the state fairs from now on, right beside the fried Twinkie stand.

Coffee Question

It's not easy being a non-coffee-drinker in a coffee-drinking world. It's not that I choose to be a non-coffee-drinker. I wish I was a coffee drinker. I love the aroma of coffee. I love the idea of coffee. I want the used coffee grounds for my garden... The problem is that I just don't like the taste of coffee.

Lucky for me, my teenager has taken up coffee. My house smells like coffee every morning! I have coffee grounds for my hydrangeas. I'm finally using up my 15-year-old coffee filters. But I have a burning question: Does the coffee pot have to be washed every day? I'm sorry if this is a disgusting question. So far I've washed the whole thing every day, including the part that holds the coffee filter. But I wonder if it's really necessary. I'm pretty sure our coffee pot at work doesn't get washed every day. Maybe I shouldn't admit that, since we make coffee for our patients. Tell me, coffee drinkers, do you wash your coffee pot every day? If not, how often do you wash it? Please! I need some answers.

Blog Inferiority Complex

I'm having a little blog angst, because I've come to realize that I have nothing of interest going on in my life.

Then again, that might be a good thing...

Would somebody please threaten to sue me if I write libelous statements? That would liven up my day a bit. (See Laurita's blog if you want to get the scoop on this inside joke.)

No?

Well, then I'm forced to write about my garden. I took advantage of the perfect day yesterday and here's what I planted: 100 impatiens, 2 elephant ears, 26 caladium, 3 delphinium, 4 verbena bonareinsis, 1 hosta, 4 diascia, 6 ivy, 10 basil, 6 tomatoes, 1 salvia...plus I divided and moved some perennial geranium. I still have three pots of ajuga that need to be planted, but it's raining now, so they'll have to wait.

The termite guy is coming today. Our back fence is full of termites. The good news: our house is termite free. I hope the termite goo doesn't affect my plants. And speaking of pests, I have a little family of bunnies living in my daylilies. FYI, baby bunnies look a lot like rats. They love to frighten me by tearing out of their hiding places whenever I water. They jump down over a 10' retaining wall and stun themselves. I feel a strange mixture of pity and disgust when I see them struggling to right themselves and scamper away. Anybody who thinks I'm a heartless monster has never lost scores of plants to their ravenous appetites.