This week

Bought some Impatiens to plant in the shady flower beds in front of the house and some Wave Petunias for around the old pump in the backyard. I might even get them into actual dirt before they die. At least I plan to...

The van got nice new tires - not that I intend on actually driving it with gas nearing $3!

I found two...TWO...book sales this week. Like we need more books.

We spent $50 over 2 days on a ton of books (I say 'we' because The Husband came with me to one sale). That's about what we spend on a trip to Barnes and Noble just getting books for the kids. The first sale I will definitely watch for next year. It was enormous (and not crowded) and everything was not only sorted by subject but also alphabetized by author! A librarian's dream! The second was smaller, really crowded, not alphabetized and more expensive.

And I will be found reading most of my books this summer in my new hammock chair that UPS brought me last week and that I finally got assembled. It looks like this and it's way comfy :o) and no children are allowed! It even has a cupholder for my diet pepsi.

Tonight is the last ball game of the week (yay!). The Husband took the older two (it's the Daughter's game) and Younger Daughter is currently at Sassy Neighbor's house so it's just me and the animals for awhile. I may take a book out to my chair :o)

Softball, part deux

We won!

It took an extra inning because Older Daughter was forced out at the plate (the batter bunted?!), but we kept the other team from scoring and in our inning with bases loaded the winning run walked in.

Go Phillies! :o)

Softball

What a softball game! It was freezing so Younger Daughter and I watched from the car for awhile. I finally got out to go find out the score and we were behind 8-0 in the 4th inning (they play 6). We caught up over the next 2 innings to tie the game - and would have won if the coach had told his daughter to slide into home when she stole it (the catcher dropped the ball after she tagged the runner). It is currently the bottom of the 6th with a tie score (10-10), 2 outs, full bases and 1 ball on the batter. Older Daughter is the runner on 3rd representing the winning run. Did you notice that I said "currently"? At that point the game had to be suspended due to darkness so it is to be continued.... And I still haven't gotten warm yet. And the umpire looked like Alan Alda.

Plant babies

I was a little worried about my Basil plants - they seem so tiny. But I was in Home Depot today and their 99cent basil plants weren't much bigger than mine. I still have more in seed flats to move into bigger pots.

These are basil, cilantro (a second planting - all of the first planting died), parsley, cosmos, blue flax and something else I can't remember (the tall one is a sunflower). We have Chinese Lanterns started in the kitchen and I'm trying to root some Magnolia cuttings.



Here's a pic of the 12 bulbs that we planted in front of the summer kitchen last year...

Dinner on the go

This was our dinner table Wednesday night. Both kids had ball games - fortunately they were both home games. So Younger Daughter and I sat in the van between the fields for much of the evening.

Tonight we have two games at different fields. I think dinner is going to be M&Ms or something...





Here's The Boy in action:

Easter weekend

We spent Sunday with The Husband's family at The Homestead - all but his oldest sister's family was there. His #3 Sister brought their newest Seeing Eye Puppy - a 7 week old German Shepherd, who is very cute but very boring for a puppy. She mostly slept all afternoon.

The Cousins practiced their pitching - our baseball games start this week.



On our way home we stopped off at their house to say goodbye to their year old Golden Retriever Puppy who is going back to the Seeing Eye for training this week. Wilma's a nut and was suddenly afraid of The Husband - actually of all of us except for Older Daughter. The plan is that if Wilma fails training that she's going to be part of our Peaceable Kingdom - although I think that The Husband is hoping she'll pass and we'll get to have the German Shepherd if she fails!

On Saturday the kids colored 3 dozen eggs:

Holy Week comics: #4

Holy Week comics: #3

Holy Week comics: # 2

Holy Week comics: #1

Stuff

It was pointed out by an adoring fan that blogging has been light this week. The one day I intended to post something our internet was down after 2pm for the rest of the night and after that I just didn't get around to it.

Most of the week has been spent getting the kids to base/softball and doing odd jobs around here. Oh, and repairing rabbit damage! Neo's cage is 2 feet high but it doesn't have a top. This week he learned how to jump out and met us in the living room first thing Monday morning. We have no idea how long he was out, but he chewed a few wires and severed the computer's audio wire (aarghhh! I can't even find the connector that was in the back of the computer). So I've spent lots of time driving around to auto parts stores looking for split wire conduit to cover all of the computer wires. No one could provide more that a few 5 foot lengths so I've been scouring the internet. Ordered a 75ft roll last night.

Today I'm finishing with the curtains that I put up in the front porch and trying to tackly Younger Daughter's "desk" in the living room - at least there's supposed to be a desk under that pile. I also have a bunch of half finished projects, like the lamp I've been trying unsuccessfully to rewire.

Oh! The big accomplishment for the week was taking down the Christmas garland and lights over the kitchen window....

The kids have half days M-W, then they're off Th,F,M,T. We're going to try to learn some sewing - even The Boy wants to learn.

Martha Stewart just came on and she's standing at the counter with a seder plate and cup in front of her with a Yankees cap beside it?! Elijah will be coming as an overpaid athelete?

Speaking of the Yankees - that's what The Boy's baseball team is this year. He's more than thrilled!


Here are my 11 new trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. I just need to buy some thimbles to plant them in :o)

The Wonderful World of Shoelaces

Everything you always wanted to know.

Ahhh spring....

Dad called yesterday afternoon to tell me that it was snowing there (Maine). Well today I woke up to 1.5" of white stuff. Nothing to plow, though - it was gone by 2pm.

A Typical Saturday Dinner

We had cake for dinner:


And Fries with ketchup for dessert.


Or is that an A-Typical dinner? Meatloaf and mashed potato cake with pound cake fries and strawberry ketchup. I think my Mom was fooled the most. She walked in while we were having dinner and we offered her a piece of cake. She took a loooooonnngg look before someone told her what it really was.

Speaking of Mom, she came out last night so that The Husband and I could go out to hear a friend's band. As a thank-you I bought her some potted tulips and left them on the kitchen table. This morning I told her that they were for her. She gave them another loooong look and said that she and Younger Daughter saw them this morning and thought they were so pretty in the kitchen. Then Y.D. put them in a pretty matching basket and everything -- so why don't we keep them here for now and give her the bulbs when the blooms are gone. So essentially we are thanking my Mom for driving an hour and spending the night with dead flowers.

Finally got to use the plow

We cleared the old compost pile from behind the shed.

Facial night

And it tastes good, too! ["It's a floor wax...and a dessert topping!"]

Quick update

I'm feeling bad for not up updating all week so here's a quick check-in.

The Husband finally took The Boy to an archery place this morning to get his birthday present (Jan. 29...). They came home with a recurve bow and a quiver full of arrows so they've been outside shooting arrows (along with older daughter who wants one, too) while younger daughter and I went to a Brownies activity.

I've kept busy this week transplanting seedlings into larger containers - the basil is a month old and is still teeny tiny. I did break down and buy transplants of broccoli and spinach because the seeds I planted aren't doing much of anything.

Oh, The Boy is supposed to be on the 21-day disabled list after getting hit in the knee with a pop fly at his second baseball practice. He saw an orthopedist last week - nothing's broken but it is a bad bone bruise so he has to wear a knee sleeve and has a prescription for crutches. Being the baseball freak that he is he went to practice yesterday anyway and was all over the field backing up everyone else until his coach finally ordered him to STAY at first base and DO NOT run after ANYTHING. It's funny how he can run around the ballfield but ask him to pick up his dirty socks and suddenly he can barely stand up!

My desktop computer came back from the computer hospital this week (the power supply just stopped working - fortunately it wasn't anything worse. While it was away the rabbit chewed through my trackball cord - I spliced it back but it's flukey so I need to get to Circuit City for another one (at least the one I like came down in price from $40 to $20 because we seem to go through at least one a year per machine).

OK, so that wasn't so quick, but it was an update :o)

Arrrrrr!

I've always been afraid to turn in here:

We went to P'burg today to do some shopping and I finally remembered to take the camera so I could get a picture of this sign. It's on Rt. 22 near the Honda Dealership. Not a bad photo for 30 MPH in the rain (no, I wasn't driving).

Comic