Spring Break

Spring Break.

Termites: The termites have been blasted. The carpenter tore apart the wall. He then showed up at odd, unplanned times, and put it back together again. I won't complain (anymore). The wall is done.

Yet: I will complain about the cost: OUCH! OUCH OUCH OUCH! I hate unexpected expenses.

Blood: The other morning I had to take Daniel & Dominic to the lab before breakfast for cholesterol blood check. Dominic was also getting his test for celiac. The day before I made deviled eggs with the last of the Easter eggs and Daniel ate 4 of them. that's 8 halves. How's that going to look on his cholesterol test? As for the celiac... well... I'm just doing some deep breathing.

UU Trip: 4:30 a.m. Wake up Matt & Daniel. Tell them to get dressed & make a final check of the bags. Send them to the airport. Daniel has gone off to Boston on a UU 9th grade trip, visiting all kinds of wonderful Unitarian sites in the city. Matt is with him, chaperoning. He's already called me 3 times today to let me know that Daniel is doing okay. I'm waiting for the last call of the day. (Later edit -- they just called. Daniel's numbers have been good today, just slightly higher than range, about 170. But I'll take that over lows, especially when he's traveling. He had lunch at a bakery of all things -- not a gluten free one, either -- but they had a chef's salad with no croutons so he ate out the meat & cheese. For dinner the gang went to Quincy Market and he found a Greek place & got lamb kebab with rice. He actually went off with the kids, and Matt stayed at the B&B to have dinner with the grown ups. Cell phones were on. Daniel had his Calorie King book in his kit. He had a buddy. Everyone was fine. Daniel even quizzed the guy at the Greek food stall to make sure that the rice "pilaf" was gluten free, because pilaf will sometimes have orzo noodles in it. So all is well, and my shoulders are a little less tense.

Cherry blossoms: they are blooming. I think we will brave the crowds tomorrow and head downtown to take in some prime cherry blossom viewing.

Kites: The kite festival is also tomorrow. How are they gonna get those things in the air without wind?

Mud Hut: Today we went to the Mud Hut to paint some pottery. 3 pieces = more than $70. I am in the wrong business.

Etsy: My sister in law, Kathryn, introduced me to Etsy. It is dangerous. Tonight she showed me pouncing. Go to www.etsy.com and look at the menu that goes down the left side of the page. Click on pounce. Then just pounce and pounce again. I'd spend all night pouncing, but then I'd never write anything here! You try it. See how long you pounce.

Walking: We have walked a lot over the past few days. The weather has been inviting. I took the kids to Great Falls (see my flickr pictures) and we climbed rocks, spotted lizards, admired wildflowers, and picnicked. Today I took Nora & Dominic on a trail that followed the northwest branch of the Potomac river. We saw a dog take a swim, a dead deer with most of the meat gone (but not all!) and its ribs turned, U-shaped, up to the sky. It smelled awful and Dominic almost threw up but he held it together and we got upwind. After the deer carcass, the views were rather lovely: a lazy river meandering through a forest full of newly budded spring trees. (Can you say allergies?) The kids bounded down a hillside, pointing and shouting, and then crossed a fallen tree trunk over a steep drop (that scares the shit out of me, but the kids were halfway across as I'm yelling, "Don't go across that tree!!!" so I had to follow them and it pissed me off how they make it look so easy but walking across fallen tree trunks over a steep drop makes me freakin' dizzy). We could have continued on for miles. The woods were lovely, dark and deep, as Robert Frost said. But we had promises to keep (I told my friend I'd let her come over and use my computer printer because hers died) and miles to go before we could go to sleep (miles and miles, especially if you've gotten up at 4:15 a.m.).

Pizza: The pizza place near us had this deal where if you save the coupons off of 10 of their pizza boxes, you could bring them in and then get a free cheese pizza. I had 10 coupons. Dinner for the three of us cost $2.65 (three drinks) plus $2.50 (video and toy machines for .50 or .25 for the kids).

Eyes: they feel like they are about to fall out of my head. I've done the miles, so now I can sleep. Good night, everybody.