Thursday, May 22, 2008

May-hem

Ahhhh spring, school lets out (WAY too early if you ask this mommy), baseball practice starts in earnest, the summer rec activites are laid out before us and the garden FINALLY gets a little love. Okay, maybe a little too much love. Actually, a LOT too much love from my eight year old. Charlie is definitely his father's son, nothing makes him as happy as digging in the dirt. In a loving attempt to help get the gardens ready for some planting, my junior horticulturist decided to get rid of 'some of those old weedy things' by going deep and digging them out completely. Those old weedy things were actually my perennials that we've spent a few years nurturing and worrying over and hoping someday they'd look like they're supposed to look. Well, maybe in a few more years then. Bless him for an earnest attempt and I will never let him know the extent of the unhelpfulness of his act. So, the May gardening goal just changed scope slightly but is still achievable before the end of the month. My secondary goal is well completed, although I must be completely honest and admit to a degree of cheating on the sock sorting. I actually just chucked the vast majority of the socks, fed some to the waiting sock gremlin and bought everyone in the house two new packs of socks. Is that so wrong? I'll have to get back to you on that one.
The leftover garage cleaning from April list is still not done, but I have decided to absolve myself of responsibility for anything outside of the immediate houseage. Justification? Yes indeedy and I am really rather comfortable with it.
In other news, my niece got married a couple of weeks ago and we traveled down for the big event. With the exception of a rather damp and chilly weather system, the wedding and ensuing party was great, right down to the bride showing off her prodigious juggling skills during the reception. Charlie, the host of the Upper Midwest Bathroom Tour, had a rave review for the portable johns provided for the event. I know what you're thinking, Charlie's lost his touch for giving a porta-potty a four star rating. I'm going to have to agree with his assesment. Not only were there electric lights, but a sink, mirror AND running water! He thought that was the darndest thing he'd seen in a long time and spent a fair amount of time in the aforementioned potty before coming to his four star rating.
Unfortunately, the weekend was not without one major casualty, the Zen fountain in my bedroom has burned out...the pump anyway. No, my house is NOT that dry and I'm beginning to suspect it never really was. It seems the CATS thought the fountain was provided for their personal water consumption and spent the weekend slurping gallons of water out of the damned thing. Guess what happens to your Zen fountain when the cats drink the water down past the level of the pump intake? Yup, you end up with a sad and nonfunctional pump. Grrr. Next time, I'm filling it with something like vinegar and see how the cats like drinking pickle water. Of course, I'm not entirely sure that a pickle-scented bedroom is really the atmosphere I was going for at the outset. Hrmm, I'm open to ideas on keeping the cats from repeating this tragedy once I replace the pump.

Going to give the June projects some thought this week. Six months in, I really thought I'd have gotten more done by this point. Maybe I need to get more ambitious...or not.