June 2008 Archives

I was so relieved to hear he's going to be home for our visit. He was only going to be stuck sandbagging. Not that it isn't work, but its relatively non-lethal. Its just the whole idea of the non-negotiable required participation is freakishly stressful. His regularly scheduled (and therefore somehow toothless) guard gig has him playing instruments and singing in that swingin' style at various public venues throughout the midwest. He's a charming reminder and advertisement for the armed services, patriotism (the non-rabid kind) and civic duty, in general.

I can't imagine the relief folks must feel when their loved ones in the services return from somewhere actually dangerous. It boggles the mind. See the above right corner to determine the beginning of the end for that insanity.

Thank you so much, to everyone who does serve. Especially Paco.

Meanwhile, over at my sister Cricket's web site (which I'd have here as a favorite if I wasn't too lazy to figure out how to do that) she tells the sad tale of her hubby Paco and his damn civic duty to sandbag parts of the midwest against the deluge for the next couple of weeks. God, he's wonderful, he really is. So wonderful in fact that I really don't want to share him during the one damn week a year my family gets to see him. Also, this means that Sysguy is going to be stuck with me and Cricket, and all our kids for a week. With only his macbook to keep him sane. How will he do it?

Oh Paco, we're going to miss you. Sob!

(Wasn't Jenna Bush available?)

Things have been busy chez kmbrknits
We got a new roof, taking us from leaky wood shakes to gingerbready asphalt shingles in a loooooong three weeks. It involved a fair amount of dickering with the roofer. Sysguy did lots of research on the "just right" shingles and a spiffy edge and ridge venting system for our eve-less abode, and yet, the roofers managed to screw up the sheathing, which was the one thing we thought they'd probably have covered in the competence department. Fun!! Anyway, we ended up with this:



This is just a bit from the backyard, but its the wrong time of day to take a front photo that's decent, and I'm too lazy to get up from here and take a decent photo elsewhere:

This is my summer command center. I am eternally grateful to Sysguy and the Wonderparents for making it possible to have the world at my fingers poolside of all places. I can even control the music selection from here. It ROCKS! Literally. It was great to have this level of control and interactivity for our annual "Schools Out!!" swim party, which fortunately happened the DAY after they finished the roof.

School's Out!!
We invite the Things' entire respective classes for a giant party that can get a bit chaotic, so I don't like to have to go inside and mess with music type stuff in case someone does something stupid. This year was just as rollicking as prior years. This time, it has been over 100 degrees outside for several days, so the giant cee-ment pond was the perfect temperature, instead of coldish, for once. I even tossed in the standby watermelon to keep it cool, and it ended up being the most popular pool toy. It lasted 3 hours before they finally cracked it open. Who knew.



Of course, someone DID do something stupid, we had a kid who was soooo excited to be there that he tore off his shirt at a clip and literally RAN into the pool. In the middle. Where its about 7' deep. In his sandals. As I saw him jump in I thought, "well, there's some enthusiasm!" Sadly, he didn't actually know how to swim, so my next thought was "OH shit!" I dove in and got him, he was fine. I slapped him into a swim vest, so he had a good swim day after all, but good grief!! Fortunately, that was the most excitement we had.

Its my birthday!!
The next happening of note was my birthday, where I turned 45, and was delighted to do it. I got (a patio set and a new roof) "Super Mario Galaxy" for the wii, which was fabulous, because it kept the Things out of my hair for three. Whole. Hours. While I got some sewing done. Yay!! Also, I made my own cake, thus ensuring that it was a non-disgusting confection, sans gummy worms, colored frosting, bizarre sprinkles, finger pokes and hovering. Yum!!

In other news
I've made a point of trying to fill the pool with neighbor kids and school mates before we go on our annual three-week Illinois visit. We have some pretty nice kids in our area, and I'm glad to have them over. Here are the 1st grade guerrillas ambushing the 3rd grade smart alecs the other day:

Yeah, that's Thing 1 hiding behind floats with his buddies after one too many remarks about how childish Thing 2 and friend are. Can't see it from here, but they've each got nuclear powered super soakers. Hee.

Today was a more sedate swim, here are the Things and a sweet kid from school, eating popsicles on the hammock.