Carpet

The carpet will be installed Tuesday.

Because I cannot read a calendar, I scheduled the carpet to be installed two days before I am hosting an art class for my church kids group. The plan was to have the class outside, however, we are still busy with the ark building and whatnot and I will never move to Seattle because My God The Rain Is Making Me Crazy.

Normal Texas summers include swimming and playing in the sprinklers and being outside and having to get your butt to the playground before 9 so it's not too hot to play. This Texas summer features nothing but rain. We had 11 inches of rain in June. Normal is around 2 inches. My tomatoes were all blooming and lovely and ready to produce a huge crop. We counted 182 grape tomatoes growing on the vines and countless blooms ready to pop. All rained to death. We never got any sun so they never ripened.

Meanwhile, I have to have 1400 sq feet of house including all of our closets moved into the garage before Tuesday. And I'm hosting a dinner party tonight and I have a hair appointment at 2. Apparently, I no longer believe in sitting down.

Good thing guacamole is the easiest and most appreciated appetizer in the world.

Guac

2 medium Hass avocados
Juice of one lime
small spoonful of mayo
minced red onion
minced cilantro
diced tomato
salt

Dice the avocado and add the lime and mayo and mash until smoothish. You want some texture, but no big chunks of avocado. Add salt to taste. Add the red onion, tomato and cilantro to taste. I add probably a couple of tablespoons of each. Taste and add a bit more salt and lime if needed.

Make it up no more than half an hour before serving. Put in a bowl and put plastic wrap on top of the guac (not the bowl, the guac itself), making sure no air pockets are left. The pit doesn't really do anything except stop oxidation where it comes in contact with the guac. Putting plastic wrap directly on the guac accomplishes the same goal.

Rock Star

Bean achieved an important milestone last weekend.

Her first rock concert!

This one featured the not-at-all-painful musical stylings of Ralph's World (punk rocker turned kid's singer) who sing one of my favorite songs ever:

M-O-M-M-Y needs C-O-F-F-E-E
D-A-D-D-Y needs C-O-F-F-E-E

(fun and educational because Bean learned to spell Mommy, Daddy and coffee!)

also featuring the verse

I need a latte, a cappuccino
and tonight I think I'll have a little vino

At the end of show, they got all the kids on stage and, of course, parents took their kids.

This is what happened.



Yes, I'm playing the bass.

Yes, I'm really playing the bass.








You can see the part of the bass player on the extreme right of the photo. And pieces of three of my adult friends in the background. The bass player handed me the bass and told me to strum. So, I did.

There's video.

With headbanging.

(Much to the bass player's delight - he said most people are too embarrassed to have fun with it. Like you can embarrass me.)

Fortunately, the people with the camera are in their 40s like me, so YouTube is doubtful.

Parts

I was putting the washing into the dryer when I spied, on the bottom of the washer, a roach corpse. Or, rather, two pieces of a roach corpse. Now, I am fine with any kind of bug or critter except roaches. In Texas, we get these enormous Bugs Of Doom. This thing was probably a good 1 and 1/2" inches when whole. So, anyway, I'm putting the laundry in the dryer and then I see roach bits stuck in a couple of the holes in the side of the washer. And a big smear of roach guts.

Fortunately, my husband was still home and cleaned out the washer for me (I then ran a towel and alot of bleach through because EWWWWWWWWWWW) but I had to shake out the laundry and, I don't really want to talk about it except to reiterate that I Really Don't Like Roaches.

I'm rewashing everything now. I was afraid I'd be washing my face and run into a roach leg.

Gives me the wiggins.

I've got good company for my birthday

Thumper and Yarn Harlot.

We've been doing nothing but celebrating. We went out to eat Tuesday courtesy of a friend, last night courtesy of my husband and, today for lunch, courtesy of my parents.

After all of this gluttony, I must eat super-healthy for a while because it's bathing suit season and I'm passing the point of wanting to appear in a suit. Granted, most women hate bathing suits, but I want to keep it where the first thing that's noticed is the chest. That way no one will realize I even have thighs! My thighs are threatening a corporate takeover. Bad thighs! The sad fact is that after 40, your body views calories in an entirely different way and wants to keep them and love them and hug them and slather your butt with them.

Today is the start of an overly busy weekend. It's been feast or famine around here. I'm hoping that, after this week, we can settle down to a mellow summer. I need time to knit a shawl for my mother's birthday in a couple of months.

My foot hurts

Oh, it's not awful, but I have been on my feet for most of the day and, suddenly, my big toe has started to feel a bit owwy.

Good excuse to sit around and knit while Bean is at Vacation Bible School, huh? (VBS this year is a bit too Jesus Camp for me, so I declined to teach it. Bean loves it and the people are all very, very sweet, but I'm a bit too world religion to relate stories as "a true story from God's word". I'm more on the level of, "it's a cool book about God and have you read this one from the Upanishads?")

Today, I occupied myself working on a business plan to get angel investors for a friend's real estate development company. (And suddenly found myself with the job title of Director of Operations which just makes me laugh like hell. That MBA is coming in mighty handy these days. That and years of experience watching small companies blow up through lack of proper planning.)

Not as bad as it looks

It's a good thing that you can't see under the bandages, because I have a nice slice in my foot. I patched myself up with butterfly sutures and a couple of big bandaids, but it's a bit nasty under there (no, I did not need stitches, but it was close).




Don't drop one of these on your foot.