Officially summer ...

Wow, we've got ourselves a bit of a heatwave. It went from, what, some pleasant 80-degree days jumping up into the nineties. (I feel for our folks in Southern Oregon. Michael's folks are probably "enjoying" the triple digits this weekend.)

Yesterday we took the kidlets over to the park with the wading pool. The lifeguard there has a set of twins. They're seven now ... She assured us that it does get easier. ^_^ It sounds like her twins don't quite get along as much as Bucket and Bruise do.
(It melts my heart when they give each other random hugs. And, when one of them hits the other one, I mandate hugs and kisses. And kisses. And kisses. Until they both break out in giggles. And all is forgiven. Yep, that's how I roll.)

I also talked with a gal with a SWEET accent. As we talked, I said, "I adore you accent. Where are you from, Scotland?"
I GOT IT RIGHT. Score for me. But she was very cool. Traveled a lot, been stateside for over a decade, likes Alexander McCall-Smith ... Very fun.

Today, we went to the Farmers' Market. I bought a pint of raspberries. They're all gone already. Seriously, ripe raspberries? They're my crack. I could eat my weight in them. I would have tried to ration them ... but I had Bruise and Bucket competing for the ripe, raspberry deliciousness. Hey, I DID share, so I do deserve that Nobel prize ... but my generosity ONLY goes so far.

I'm really ready to get Bucket a new swimsuit ... but first I should go through their clothes from last year. She really hasn't grown all that much. That'd save us around $10 ... Just enough to cover buying a little pool for the backyard.

The backyard which is now UNDER CONTROL!! (Thanks be to our church youth and to the generous gift of that weed-eater. Score!) I mean, we still have TONS of work to do on it ... but, oh, it actually looks like we give a crap about it!

We cleaned up at the church today. As the first people there, we got to choose what we wanted to do. I opted for the bathrooms - Yeah, it's a bit of work, but I like to have clean bathrooms. And since I'm a mom, I'm all about cleaning off the changing stations and using air freshener ... Yeah, can we say OCD? Yup, I can start to approach it at times and about the strangest things. (Having enough toilet paper? I could probably fill my ENTIRE HOUSE AND VAN with the stuff ... and I'd still worry about running out at an inopportune time. Because I'm good like that.)

Oh, it looks like that Aunt Flo of mine is vacating my life, for a time. Thank goodness. And I'm still being all good about not nursing my babies. My baaaaaabies. Yeah, they're growing up. I mean, Bruise did bring out the Boppy pillow the other day. And Bucket does still try to demand that I give her the good stuff ... Yesterday, they were swayed with pasta with Alfredo sauce and spinach. Woot. (They didn't eat as much as they did of the Tuna Helper last night, with added "brokky" <-- These children are CRAZY about asking for broccoli. If only Bruise ate as much as he asks for.)

I got to pet a drone bee today. He was nicely fuzzy and vibrated like a kitten on sixteen espressos. (At the Farmers' Market, there was a booth with honeybee information. And since I love reading the beekeeping adventures of Birdchick and Mr. Neil Gaiman, I dragged the family to see them.)
Bruise and Bucket wouldn't touch the drone (even though he didn't have a stinger. Male bees don't), but they did enjoy watching the worker bees in the little wood and glass case as they buzzed around, filling the honeycomb.

Sometimes, I want to have a beehive of my own.

And then I wonder if I'm channeling Marie Antionette ... how she had her little farm. Just for the thrill of milking a cow and growing a turnip and all that.

But if would be nice to have some fruits and vegetables that I know are not at all in danger of carrying E. coli or Samonella. I mean, a sun-ripened tomato? Yummmmm. Fresh peas and green beans? My own (free) raspberries?? That are full of summer sunshine-flavor?

There was a booth that offered meat products ... and shares in animals. We could buy a turkey or some chicken or some cow-flesh. Or BACON (Maybe some fatback. As Jom Gaffigan says, "It's supposed to be like bacon on steriods.").

(Yes, I could never eat kosher. I likes me some bacon. And mixing dairy and meat. Yup, I'm a total goy.)

Well, I should go and get Bruise out of my room before he starts putting on my heels and messing up my bathroom counter again.

Enjoy your heatwave, everyone! I hope you all have a nice, cool place to relax!

Bonus conversation between Michael and me:

As we pass a group of kids selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts for $8/box-

Me: Well, I guess that's not too bad. If there's a dozen per box, then it's only 75-cents per doughnut. ... Whatever happened to the days of the 35-cent doughnut?

Michael: They've gone the way of the dinosaur.

Me: *bitterly* And my nostalgic childhood.

Yes, I still long for the times of idyllic youth. When excitement was attained merely by heading down the concrete stairs to the creek by my house, when I never worried about money or the economy, when my biggest worry was how long I'd be grounded for not cleaning my room ... or how long it'd take me to find that overdue library book.
Back when I was flat. And sported some dang-heavy bangs.
Back before I had wrinkles and cellulite and stretch marks.
When it always seemed that every princess found her prince and lived happily ever after, villains were easily recognizable by their black hats and mustaches -- and the sinister way they had of curling said mustache and laughing maniacally; when heroes always triumphed, when America was "The land of the free and the home of the brave" and the only people who didn't believe that we were the good guys were Nazis and Communists.

Yeah, once I grew up, things really stopped being simple and clean-cut. Why is this? Why can't it always be as sweet and simple as childhood?

Ugh, I hate being all downer-iffic. I need some more raspberries. That and a good, free, not-crowded swimming hole within a couple miles.