Beneath the Surface

Yesterday younger daughter decided to stuff the bathroom sink with toilet paper and fill the bowl (apparently she couldn't get the drain to close). She then left the water running, just a trickle. An hour or so later we discovered the entire (carpeted) bathroom was flooded. Covered the floor with towels (and I thought I was done with laundry for the week!) and set up a box fan to help dry it. Someday she will stop doing stuff like this...soon would be good!

I finished reading American Gods last night, stayed up until 3:30 a.m. to do it, but after a certain point you just have to keep going!

Making double-chocolate muffins for playgroup today. Don't be too impressed, it's my quickest, easiest recipe!

I learned how to make a latticed pie crust today. (Okay, I did it the easy way, but it still looks cool.) I went out to pick cherries, estimated what I'd need for two pies; I made enough pastry for two pies; I pitted the cherries and soon realized that what I had there was enough cherries for three pies. Checked the refrigerator--yep, I'm out of shortening. Hm. Therefore, lattice crusts.

Luckily my family likes pie. Maybe not that much pie...

Dan has taken the girls to see Spy Kids 3. Taking the kids to movies is his job, not mine. I don't like going to movies--all that sitting still!. :)

Just waiting for our isp to get email working again...

I'm looking for ways to cut back on some time-consuming things, since I plan to be busier come fall. I'm hoping to spend a fair amount of time studying, and I'm going to home-preschool my 4-year-old (she'll be going to public school for kindergarten but that's not for another year), which could be fun or could be not, depending on how well I plan :).

So I've decided to quit the office of Chronicler (person who does the newsletter) for our local SCA group. I'm only barely, marginally involved in the group anyway. True, it doesn't take up a great deal of time but every little bit helps. I might possibly have someone interested in taking on the office, but even if that doesn't work out, I'm not going to be doing it. At some point in the last ten years or so, I'm not sure when, I developed the ability to say "No." It's been useful. :)

Today was the last day of the girls' swim classes, and they both passed to the next level; guess we'd better start looking for fall classes for them. To celebrate, I had promised them lunch at Taco Bell (their fast food of choice despite the really sucky toys that come with kids' meals there). We went to see their dad so he could hear the good news as well, and then they got to pick out ice cream (Ben and Jerry's pints, haven't bought that in over a year so I don't feel too guilty about pushing the budget there :)). And right now I can hear the singing of the two little robotic hamsters Dan got them.

Not that the kids expected any of this, or asked for it--but man!

I now have the distinction of being the first person Elder Daughter's hamster has bitten. No, I wasn't swinging him by his little tail :). I was holding him, carefully and gently I thought, while she changed the litter in his cage. Two little pin-prick puncture marks in the palm of my hand. Then he tried climbing my shirt, obviously trying to obtain access to my neck--well, we weren't having any of that!

So I was calling him "Dracula" and she asked me if that meant he was a "hampire." Well, that did it, and now I have all sorts of fun annoying the kid with hampire jokes. Her uncle pronounced him one of the "hamsteratu." This could be a long weekend :).

Another late night, I could get used to this :). (Fondly remembering my college days and all the nights that ended after sunrise--I became quite expert at scheduling no classes before 11 a.m. :))

We've added another blot to our weekly schedule. Started quite a while ago with Thor (and then Sif as well) on Thursdays, next we added Freyja, Frey and Frigga on Fridays, eventually Odin on Wednesdays, and now Tyr on Tuesdays. I guess it's lucky for our mead-'n-ale budget that there aren't any more obvious additions!

Speaking of that sort of thing, we realized today that Midsummer is less than two weeks away and we haven't done a bit of planning yet. Time enough for me to write something once we've got a rough plan in mind but still cutting it a bit close. With a small group you can do that though :), although it's not ideal. Our Midsummer plans vary from year to year so I really do need to wait until after the planning meeting--it's not like Yule (or Ostara!) where we tend to stick with the common traditions, or Winter Finding where we stick to our own tradition of honoring Skadhi and Ullr (hey, up here it's almost winter at the equinox and hunting season is just around the corner!). Or maybe I'm just rationalizing procrastination :).

The first day of summer vacation went well--I'm not sure it's living up to the kid's expectations yet, I think she is anticipating all sorts of adventures and, well, we're just not all that interesting! I don't like to schedule my kids too much--I think they need plenty of time on their own just to do their own thing, and should have a good long summer with days of wandering and playing and coming up with their own cool stuff to do.