Too busy to write

I've been too busy to write.

One would think with a holiday weekend and no plans, I'd have lots of time. Not so.

My husband worked most of the holiday weekend. He worked all day Saturday and half a day on Memorial Day. Since he had to get up early both days to go to work, I woke up early, too, so I spent the weekend exhausted, taking care of the kids.

My husband is in fact at work again this evening. The only reason I'm able to write is that my daughter has fallen asleep a little early. My son is watching me type right now and asking lots of questions about what sounds certain letters in the alphabet make. I need to get him his vitamin, make sure he brushes his teeth, and put him to bed. I also need to get my daugher's diaper changed and put her in pajamas.

Okay. That's done except my daugher had on a clean diaper already and a little knit shorts and top she put on this evening. I decided she could sleep in it. I really don't want her up and crying.

Today was my son's final day of preschool. He and my daughter will be back at preschool in July for "Summer Camp," but the program then is much different from regular preschool. It's hard to believe I'm the mom of a kindegartener now. It doesn't seem that long ago I was in high school (although I graduated 18 years ago).

We leave in a week to fly home to Michigan. I haven't been back for a couple years. It will be fun to see everyone. My mom has had a cabin for several years. She spends a lot of time there and sends me pictures of it. I've never seen it so one day we'll run up to Harrison and take a look.

K is home from work now, so I'm off.

Garden

It was over 20 degrees F warmer today than yesterday. The weather was sunny and fantastic.

K put the chickens outside in a portable pen this evening. They still have a heat lamp, but I think that can go in a week or so.

My beans look like they are doing quite well. I think they'll start blooming in the next week. One of my zucchinis had its first blossom yesterday. The other one had its first blossom today. Both blossoms were male so there won't be any zucchinis from these flowers.

One of our sweet cherry trees' cherries are ripening, but as the cherries ripen, they are splitting and birds are pecking them. I think we won't get any usable cherries from that tree.

All of us watched an episode of the A-Team this evening. Even the cat joined J and me on the love seat.

K has to work this weekend. I don't know if he'll work every day or just Saturday. I'll have paperwork to do.

Tomorrow we take Brenna to the vet's. She has no idea. I need to bring get her carrier out tonight so she gets used to seeing it and doesn't think I'm going to pop her into it.

Errands and oven mitts

After today, the cold rain that we've had for a few days will end and it will warm up. I'm looking forward to that. The kids haven't been able to play outside much lately, and they are getting restless. I am, too.

My cat will go to the doctor for her shots on Friday. Both my kids are coming. They are afraid of dogs so the time in the waiting room may be a problem. Back in Michigan, my veternarian had a waiting room for cats and separate waiting room for dogs. I liked that, except I had a hamster at the time.

I just got off the phone with an old friend. I know her from elementary school. I'm trying to make arrangements to see her and her family when I'm home for a visit in June. She married someone I know from middle school. Time will be tight on the visit since there are so many people I haven't seen in years I hope to spend a bit of time with.

Today J and I went to Target after dropping N off at preschool I needed a new curling iron. Yesterday evening I noticed one of the plug prongs on my bathroom floor on the old one. I had to throw it out. Of course I ran into people who know me as I wandered around Target with my hair incredibly straight and hanging in my eyes because I couldn't curl it this morning since I had no curling iron. I tried to find one made in the U.S.A., but all of them were made in China. I finally settled on the cheapest, but the barrel is slightly larger than I prefer. I like an odd size, 5/8 ", and very few places carry it. I'll have to keep my eye opened and just use this until I can find exactly what I want.

I also needed oven mitts. They, too, were all made in China. I'm getting sick of everything I want being made in China. I'm trying hard to buy from the U.S. or other countries that at least pay a living wage and that have and enforce environmental laws, but it's tough at the stores I shop at. Also, it takes quite a while to find the country of origin marking on most products. I think the "Made in the USA" should be in big print on the front of stuff that's marketed in the U.S. so I can preferentially choose it when I can afford to.

I needed new oven mitts because my husband charred mine last weekend. For Christmas I got him a stand alone burner to melt his beeswax in so he wouldn't leave a waxy mess on my stovetop any more. He was in our screenporch, which he has comandeered for his many bee-related projects, melting wax in a double boiler on his burner. Fortunately he stayed with it. He didn't realize his water had boiled away, and he scorched the bottom pan. He set it on the oven mitt when he removed it from the burner, but it was hot enough to char the mitt. He told me he'd take the old oven mitts, and that I should get new ones. Okay, I did. I let my daughter pick out the color, and she chose the black ones. Maybe she was thinking black would hide char marks better.

Well, it's 10 p.m. now so I need to begin getting ready for bed.

Life--because what else is there?

My Internet connection has been up and down since Friday. Mostly it's been down. I got e-mail the whole time, but limited web access. Sometimes I'd be at a web site and it would crash and not connect to another page. It's been very annoying. So far it's been going quite well today, but I've been too busy to do much with it.

I've been back-and-forth to N's preschool. We dropped him off, and then J and I returned an hour-and-a-half later to see his "graduation." Then we left since it was "Lunch Bunch" day and he stayed until 2 p.m. This evening we all had to go back there again, and even my husband came. It was his end of the year art program. The kids sang songs, we had punch and cookies, and we looked at some of the art he's done recently. His final day of preschool was supposed to be this coming Thursday, but because of the snow days we had, we'll have a make-up day next Tuesday.

At Lunch Bunch, N and one of his friends were playing with juice. N got it in his hair. I didn't get it cleaned up before his program this evening, but I did give him a shower before bed so he doesn't have to go to preschool tomorrow with such nasty hair.

Yesterday J took one of her overloaded (with pee) diapers, ripped it opened, and spred all the nasty, wet gel filling all over her bedroom. She had it on the bedspread, under the bed, on the bookcase, on the floor, on the baseboards, on the window sill, and in her own hair. Fortuntately she didn't get it on N's bed. It took my husband and me a long time to get it up, and I doubt we got it all. She spent most of the evening in her room to think about her behavior. That girl needs to become potty trained so badly.

This evening, J insisted I had to open the watermelon we got at the store this morning. Once I got the kitchen cleaned up and all my husband's paperwork done, I did open it. J had a couple pieces in a bowl. She proceeded to mush them up by hand and get the table soaked with sticky juice while I was in the kitchen cutting up the rest of the watermelon so I could fit it into the refrigerator (my back was to her). There was one more mess for me to clean. Sometimes I feel like I spend my days cleaning up messes.

I was so exhausted this evening, we put the kids to bed 20 minutes early. N can't tell time yet, but he was arguing with me that it couldn't be bedtime since it was too light outside. His dad explained how days are getting longer as we approach summer. I feel a bit guilty about misrepresenting it as bedtime, but I'd feel a lot worse if the kids had stayed up. I'm very tired of having to come entertain them about every 25 seconds and having to pick up after them so many times each day. If I can get a good night's sleep, they'll be cute and fun in the morning.

The flower seeds and gladiola bulbs I planted last week are starting to come up. We've had a lot of rain lately. In fact, we have had so much, I'm afraid our strawberries are going to rot instead of ripening. Sunday I started some more seeds indoors, including some pumpkin seeds. I've been meaning to get them going for a while. I think these seeds should be sprouting by this coming weekend.

The little chicks in the house are getting a lot bigger. We are hoping to put them outside this weekend even though it's a week earlier than we had planned to. They'll have a lot more room in the pen in the yard. Hopefully the weather will be warm enough for us to do this. My husband my be planning to rig their heat light up in the pen.

Dinner was a disaster. My kids ate none. My husband asked if it would bother me if he ate leftover chicken from a couple nights ago because the smell of tonight's dinner made him feel unwell. It was spiced pork chops, brown rice, and green beans. We've had it before. Usually I'm not the only one eating it. It is normal for the kids to refuse it, but not my husband. It tasted okay to me. I think I should quit buying all pork but bacon and ham since I'm the only one who likes pork.

We have eggs going out our ears right now. I need to give eggs to my friends and neighbors. I think we are getting about four a day on average from the chickens. We certainly don't eat four a day.

Gotta go. My husband had wanted to see CSI, but my five-year-old son wanted to watch TV with him. There goes CSI. Instead all of us are going to see an episode from my A-Team Season 2 DVD set.

Kids and garden

I had to clean up a nasty mess J made this morning. We had a container of worms (for fishing) my son forgot to put away and it rotted. J found it and brought it to me and said it smelled very bad. I told her to go dump it out in the compost pile and throw the container away in the trash in the shed. She's only three, so I should have watched to make sure she did what I said. I didn't. Later when I went near the sliding (screen) door at the back of our house, I realized it smelled like a dead carcass. My daughter had dumped the rotten worms out on our deck right next to the door. I had to get out the hose and wash down the deck. Nasty!

I guess it was better than yesterday, though, when my son got bubble gum in his hair while I was on the phone with the airline buying my airplane tickets. He didn't want to wait for me to get off the phone; he wanted to cut the gum out himself with scissors. I ended up ripping it out by hand while I was on the phone to keep him from giving himself a haircut.

While my son was at preschool this morning, my daughter and I finished putting in my cutting garden. We hoed some rabbit poop into the soil. Hopefully that won't make the soil too fertile for the cosmos I planted. Then we cut up a little bit from one of our privet hedges to make strong, small, straight sticks with which to mark the rows. Then we planted a row of gladioli, a row of cosmos, and four rows of zinnias. Each row is about five or six feet long, so it is really a very small cutting garden. When everything is in bloom, though, I should have enough flowers to have as many bouquets in the house as I want. Since I grow those flowers just for cutting, I don't worry about leaving enough to make it look nice like I do with flowers from other parts of the yard.

In my cutting garden I've also got some purple-leafed basil that re-seeded itself from last year , and that's where I'm trying to get little seedlings of gomphrena (globe amaranth) and strawflower to grow. Something keeps digging up at least one of the seedlings every night, though. I wonder if some animal is interested in the rabbit poop I planted with them. At the ends of one row of seedlings, I planted painted daisies. They are supposed to be perennials. Another perennial coming up in the middle of the purple-leafed basil is some butterfly weed I sprouted from seeds last year. In the very front of the cutting garden, I have a row of yellow marigolds. I don't know that they cut well, but they were in bloom at the store, and I thought they'd make the area look better quicker than waiting for seeds to come up.

Tuesday

A friend of mine just bought a new house last month. She had a fifth child in December and the small house she and her family were renting just wouldn't hold the family any more. She's wanted a house for a long time, but it took the extra child to convince her husband they needed to move.

Before retrieving my son from preschool, my daughter and I dropped by my friend's house so we could see it for the first time. It's lovely and has four bedrooms. My friend's yard is very nice, too. They even have a large apple tree. She's painted some of the rooms and they really look great.

Hopefully my viewing her house has inspired me to work on prepping my livingroom walls, because my husband told me he'd paint the livingroom if I prepped it. I had been trying to select a color last fall when we noticed a huge crack in the ceiling, so we got that fixed first. I've just been to busy or lazy to proceed with the livingroom. I don't think my husband has time to do it now anyway, but I really should get it prepared and purchase paint in case he does find time.

I bought my plane tickets today to go home for a visit. We'll be there for a week and a day. I'd like to stay a little longer, but the Northwest Airline vouchers gave us the best price if we travel on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. To travel on other days cost an extra $50 a ticket, and I needed three tickets. Since I'll be taking this vacation alone with my kids (no husband along), maybe the trip will seem too long anyway.

The weekend

The weekend is almost over. It's been a lot of fun and chaos. Yesterday we tried to go fishing at a local park. The fish weren't biting so we walked around the pond and saw a lot of goslings, some ducklings, and a great blue heron.

Then we drove to the floodwall for the river that runs though our city and had a long walk. Even J had a great time at the floodwall even though the walking was probably too much for her (she's three). The view of the city's skyline was great, and the river was even better. The trees have all greened up, and there is some white water from the rocks in the river. It attracts lots of fish-eating birds. Also we walked past a couple manufacturing plants, and I enjoyed the view of industry--smokestacks, forklifts, stench, 55-gallon drums, chemical totes, trains, heaps of industrial debris, that I really do miss since I left my job to raise my kids.

This morning my kids started fighting at church near the end of the service. To solve that problem, when my husband went up to take communion, instead of waiting in the pew as the kids and I usually do, we just got up and followed him out of the pew. Then the kids and I went to the car to wait for K to finish with his communion so we could leave. During communion, N tried to beat the tar out of J, and I yelled loudly (yes, during communion--oops) to get him to stop and then to begin the march out of the pews. I think my husband was quite embarassed with us all. I imagine everyone who sat near us was glad to see us go.

I went shopping today. I went to Linens-and-Things. I needed a new sheet set for summer. I have two sets of flannel sheets for winter and I had two sets of regular sheets for summer. When I got my sleeper sofa last fall, I put one of my sets of regular sheets on its matress. Until today I only had one set of summer sheets available for my bed. I found pinkish peachish sheets. I had hoped for more pink and less peach, but I also didn't actually want a set--I wanted to buy the parts individually so I could get a full-sized fitted sheet and a queen-sized top sheet. Color became of secondary importance. My bedroom isn't pink. I just wanted pink sheets. I'm one of the five or six married American women who sleep in a full-sized bed with her spouse. It's a very tight fit. With a queen-sized top sheet, we won't fight so much over the sheet. My husband saw the color and looked ill for a moment. He'll get used to it and won't care as long as he doesn't have to keep the bedding clean.

Busy day

Today, along with going to playgroup in the morning, we met a friend (with three kids) at a local park in the afternoon. The park has lots of gardens, a a barn with farm animals, and a couple bears. It is quite hilly, and we were in the 80s so walking around was a bit uncomfortable. We spent the afternoon there, and I got home in time to bathe the dirt off the kids and make dinner.

I'm thinking of taking a bath tonight, but I'll need to be in and out of the tub before CSI gets over since my husband is watching it but will want a shower when he's done.

Tomorrow the kids and I are going over to one of N's preschool friend's homes to play for a while in the morning. I need to get back by noon, though, because K's office is getting a new computer, and while the guy is there installing it, I need to assure I can still reach the office computer with mine at home. I don't know what time everything will be ready for me to make the attempt.

K forgot to bring me any paperwork to do this evening so I did have a more relaxed evening. I even had time to run to the pharmacy before dark. The kids were down to their last three vitamins.

I'd better go if I want any chance of a nice bath.

I tried to write last night, but I think Blogger was having some downtime. It's just as well; I didn't have anything in particular to say.

I took J to the IHOP this morning after dropping N off at preschool and making my business bank deposit. The service was great, but I wish they'd change their grease and wash their griddle more often. J had a good time coloring her placemat while we waited to eat. The problem will come when we pick N back up and she tells him we went out to eat without him. Hopefully she'll have more sense than that, but she didn't the time I took her out for ice-cream after we got her blood drawn.

Yesterday I registered J to attend preschool next year at N's preschool. In January, I registered her to attend a huge, slightly cheaper yet more prestigious preschool (J got the last opening in her age group in January) only 2.5 miles from my house. N's is five miles away. Anyway, she must be potty trained to go there. It's not happening. Now it's looking like I may need to spend some time at my husband's office in the fall, so she must be in preschool. N's preschool still had four openings left, and 3-year-olds can wear pull-ups. I guess I'll just have to drive the extra miles. That's the only thing I dislike about N's preschool.

Just another Monday

After dropping N off at preschool, J and I had to stop by the bank to pay my husband's business's payroll liabilities (taxes and such). J had a temper tantrum when she got a blue sucker and not a pink sucker. I wasn't able to convince her she should be happy she got a sucker at all.

I spent a lot of time working on my garden today. I had started some flower plants from seed (and the plants are still extrememly tiny) in peat pots, and I got them into the ground today. I think there were about 15 tiny plants. I mixed lots of rabbit poop into the soil. I also did that under our bamboo teepee before I planted cucumber seeds. I planted a rosebush we picked up this weekend (Knock Out-by Monrovia). I have one in the front yard under my kitchen window I put in last year, and it's excellent. I don't have to do anything to it, and it doesn't get blackspot. The rosebush got rabbit poop, too, and some peat moss. Finally, I watered everything including the bean seeds I planted yesterday.

Mothers' Day

I called my mom yesterday to wish her a happy Mothers' Day. She left for a trip to England yesterday evening, so it will be nearly two weeks before I can call her. I had been planning to send her flowers, and I'm glad I didn't since she's not home to receive them.

N made me a cute card at preschool. He and J picked me a bouquet from the buttercups in the neighbor's lawn. They and my husband got me Season 2 of The A-Team on DVD. They got me Season 1 for Christmas.

I've been saying since the year The A-Team first came out, that it's the best TV show ever made. I'm still saying that over 20 years later. Okay, that probably says a lot about my taste in TV. I love action, car chases, explosions, and humor. I especially like shows where the good guys always win and the bad guys always lose. Perversion is pretty much kept in the closet. Sex isn't shown--merely hinted at. I like shows that are obviously phony. TV should be an escape from real life--entertainment. I hate a lot of the serious, depressing stuff.

I do like CSI sometimes, but I don't have time to see it often. It can be quite depressing. The evil and perversion are right out there in the open. I don't like that part. I do like the cool investigative techniques and probably fictitious databases, and I laugh at the way they seldom turn the lights on and investigate crimes by flashlight. CSI is interesting, but it just doesn't leave a good feeling the way The A-Team does.

Moving on...

We went fishing after church and the doughnut shop. We caught lots of little fish. Finally we remembered the camera and got pictures of J fishing. We forgot it on her first fishing trip.

I planted two kinds of beans today. I started preparing an area to plant cucumbers. I'll try to get to that tomorrow, along with putting in some scarlet runner beans that will grow up a bamboo "teepee."

Food and plants

It's a Saturday, but my husband has to work. Hopefully it won't be all day, but I never know.

J has fallen asleep. I think she has a cold. N has been playing Nethack on the computer, but he stopped to finish putting together the Strawberry Shortcake puzzle J had been working on.

I made waffles in my waffle iron for breakfast. I actually think I prefer the frozen kind. That's sad. I'm sleepy. I had my husband make extra coffee for me this morning, but he forgot when it came time to fill is travel mug, and he left me barely any. I haven't bothered to make more.

America's Test Kitchen comes on in a couple minutes. If it's not a re-run I've seen before, I'm hoping the kids will let me watch it. It's one of my favorite shows.

My little pots of seedlings need to go in the ground today. The weather's been so cold that they aren't growing well, but the plants are showing signs of lack of nutrition. I need to get them in the ground and fertilize them. I think it's finally going to warm up this week.

The first of my tall, bearded irises and my first rose have bloomed today.

J and I went to playgroup at the church today. I think about five other moms showed up today. For this group, that is a lot. One mom brought cupcakes with very gooey frosting. The mess was astounding.

We're having a friend of mine with three kids come over tomorrow. That should be interesting. I hope the weather allows us to be outside. There's a lot more to do outside. If I find time and inspiration this evening, I'll try to make a coffeecake. If not, I may run to the supermarket for one in a few minutes (once the kids are in bed). That's likeliest. I also need to get a loaf of bread. Last time they visited, at lunch we wiped out most of a loaf of bread making P.B. and J.s.

J got sent to her room just before dinner for refusing to clean up a mess she made in our family room. She quickly fell asleep. She's just waking up now, and it's nearly bedtime for her. She'll probably be hungry. I saved her some dinner. She may be what causes a problem with my running to the supermarket. I doubt she'll be going to sleep at bedtime; she'll just be getting up.

This weekend we are finally going to have a warm-up. This has been the coldest spring I've seen since I moved here eight years ago. I was going to complain to my mom because we've only been in the 60s for quite a while. She's only been in the 40s so I shut up.

I got some fake tanner at Target this morning. I'll probably use it a few times and then give up. I do that almost every year. I don't think I even bothered last year. I guess it's getting time to put on the tan-in-a-can.

J is starting to cry, fuss, and call "Mommy!" now. I need to go.

Stupid refrigerator

My refrigerator is still freezing stuff, so I moved its setting some more. I went to make a salad with a package of pre-washed spring greens. They were frozen. I looked at the bottle of water my son refills and keeps in the freezer. It was frozen. I looked at the ziplock bag of pumpkin pulp my husband froze last summer when we harvested pumpkins. I moved it from the freezer to the refrigerator Sunday so that it would thaw and I could serve it with dinner. It's still frozen solid. I sure hope I can get the refrigerator adjusted properly. I really can't afford to buy another right now.

My money is going to go towards three airplane tickets. I plan on taking my kids home to see our families next month. I guess home isn't really the word anymore. I haven't lived there in over eight years. K hasn't lived there in ten years. Right now to use the airports I insist upon, each ticket is nearly $400. My husband can't get away from work (the joys of running one's own business) so I'll be on my own with both kids for over a week. Oh, and the $400 per person doesn't take into account the car rental. This will be expensive. We don't go often. Last I went home, we all drove back the summer of 2003. K's business had a lot of problems while he was out of town for the week, and he says he'll never leave for that long again.

K forgot and left his chainsaw out in the rain. He was spraying the thing with WD-40 this evening, but I don't know if it still works. If we need to replace it, that will also be another expensive item.

N had "Lunch Bunch" at preschool today so I didn't have to pick him up until 2 p.m. today. J fell asleep just after lunch (something that rarely happens). I had to take care of some stuff over the phone with my husband's office person and the bill for our credit card machine. Then I had free time since J was asleep. Before she woke me up, I actually had about a half-hour nap! My cat, Brenna, slept on my head and purred me to sleep. It's been a long, long time since Brenna and I have napped together.

Life and beer

Yesterday my dentist's office called and wanted to move my appointment from next week to today. I agreed, but I wouldn't have made Mexican rice the day before (tons of onion and garlic) had I known. I got my teeth cleaned today. All was well.

I got beer today. It's been a long time since I've owned any. I had a beef recipe that baked in the oven with a bottle of beer (and other stuff) dumped over it. I also wanted to make some beer-cheese bread. Before I came up with two recipes (when I thought I only needed one beer), I borrowed a can from my neighbor. (I don't think one can by just a single can or bottle of beer in this state.) My neighbor always has a can of Busch in his hand. He lent me one. I've never had Busch. I've only had Molson, Michelob (might not be spelled right), St. Pauli Girl, Labatts (might not be spelled right), and one time Fosters (yuck!). The last time I had beer was before all the "ice" beers came out. I don't like beer anyway, and I wasn't sure if Busch was any good. I didn't want to dump it on my beef, although I thought it would be fine in bread. I decided since I need two bottles anyway, I should go buy my own. I went to the supermarket and the only brand I recognized as having consumed before was the Molson, except it was Molson Ice. Well, that's what I got.

My beef tasted quite good. It wasn't bitter like beer. Perhaps the 1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar in the recipe improved the beer. I've always thought beer should be sweetened. The recipe was from Cooking Light, and it had a French name I can neither pronounce nor spell. Maybe I'll have time to try the beer-cheese bread tomorrow. Maybe I'll do it another day.

Anyway, I've returned the can of Busch to my neighbor. I did it quickly because my fridge has started freezing things. I don't know if it's broken or if one of my kids adjusted the temperature dial. My neighbor will be happy to take any extra beer off my hands, so once I run out of beer recipes, if there's any of the six bottles left, I know what to do with them. Hopefully they won't freeze in the fridge and shatter the bottles. This morning I watched my daughter eat two frozen hard-boiled eggs she got from the refrigerator. I've adjusted the thermostat and hope things will quit freezing.

Still tired

I'm still tired. N woke up in the night, crying. I didn't notice that. I was awakened by K leaving the bed to see what was going on. He had a nightmare. He dreamed he was being chased by a bumble bee. K had to put him in the family room with a Bob-the-Builder video running to get him to calm down enough to go back to bed. Even though he had the volume very low, the sound kept me from falling back asleep. I think it lasted about 45 minutes. The only thing that separates my room from the family room is a pair of French doors.

J was very tired today, too. She and N still share a bedroom so she was awakened by the commotion. She had a couple falls from being so tired. Once was at the supermarket. She was climbing on the cart while I was writing the check (I still can't watch her and write a check). She fell off the cart and landed on her face. Later she was upside down on our couch (why, I don't know) and fell off, bumping her head on the floor. Then she was very fussy all day and pulled the stunt of telling me she wanted something when she didn't or that she didn't want something when she did, and then she'd have a temper tantrum when she didn't get it. She definitely had more temper tantrums than usual today. Finally I made her stay in her room until she fell asleep. Now she's up and much happier.

N is mad at me. Even though he refused to eat what we were having at dinner, I insisted he sit with us while we ate. He was grumpy because he wanted to watch TV. He was not much fun as a dinner companion. Fortunately, my husband didn't rush off with his plate of dinner today to see the local news when it began. Instead he stayed and helped enforce my requiring N's presence at the table.

My husband got a write-up in today's business section in the part where they spotlight small business owners. That's good. I learned from the article that he had borrowed some money from one of his brothers when he first began the business. At that time, we had been dating for nearly three years, but he never mentioned the loan to me. I can't complain, though, because we weren't married at the time. I asked him about the loan since I'd never heard about it before. It was a small loan he paid off in full long ago and insisited his brother accept interest.

I made some Mexican rice today. I watched it being made Saturday on my current favorite cooking show, America's Test Kitchen. I have the cookbook that goes with this season's programming. There were many steps, but none were difficult. The simplest part was that the whole thing ends up baking in the oven. It was the first time I'd ever put that saute pan and lid in the oven. I knew it was supposed to be able to go in the oven. The recipe actually called for cilantro, and I HATE cilantro so I picked some parsley from the back yard and used that instead.

Right now that's the only cooking show I watch. I don't have cable TV or satellite TV so I have to rely upon PBS for cooking shows.

A bath and to bed early

That's my goal for tonight if I can manage it. I'll try to get a bath as soon as my kids go to bed at 9 p.m.

One of my friends from playgroup's son just turned five, and he had a party this afternoon. Both my kids were invited. It was fun to see. Mostly I just sat by myself and watched from a distance. I didn't want the kids to be to clingy, but if they began to fight, I was going to take them home. There were fun games like throw old eggs at pictures attached to the privacy fence (cool game), and throw water balloons on pinecones (my son's exploded in his hands). Also they waved a "magic wand," said magic words, and then dumped baking soda into a bowl of vinegar. Of course, the party also had the traditional cake and ice-cream and the opening of presents. I took note of the fact that the ice-cream was in individual frozen cups. That's something I'll do if my kids ever force me to have a party.

Anyway, being around all that commotion has left me tired. After the party, we had to go to Kroger. I would have preferred a nap, but I pretty much gave them up when I had my son.

I just realized my daughter (3) has had the water running in the bathroom for a long time. I think I need to go grab a towel and see what she's done.