Day in the Life of an Idiot

Right now I'm suffering from a bad sun burn. On Saturday, the family and I went up to Siren, Wisconsin to hang out for the day at our friends' cabin. We had originally planned to go for the whole weekend, but Shawn is off for a business trip to D.C. and didn't want the hassle of packing/unpacking/repacking. (Travel generally makes Shawn nervous. VERY nervous.) So our compromise (I really, really wanted to go) was that we'd head up just for the day. No packing invovled. Of course, Shawn still managed to pack several bags, but, for her, it was pretty restrained, only the swim bag and a change of clothes... oh, and the "bathroom bag" just in case.

Mason and I had a great time kiyaking back and forth across the lake: we did it twice, actually. There's a public beach almost directly across from their cabin, so we kiyaked over so Mason could play on the playground equipment and, weirdly, on the beach. I kept saying to him: "You know, we have private beach just over there." But my little Leo is very social and he really just liked being in the water with other happy, screaming kids... even though they were strangers.

We didn't do anything official for Summer Soltace, although I think getting sun burned is a fine tradition on a solar holiday.

We came back to discover that one of the filters on the tank in the thirty gallon tank quit working. Luckily, I have a smaller back-up filter that continued humming along, so I just left it until this morning when I ungummed the works and got it going again. We have a lot of java moss in that tank and the filter sucks it up on a regular basis... well, enough had gotten wound around the spinner/motor that it completely stopped turning. Anyway, the point is it's going again and I think the fish are MUCH happier. They're goldfish, after all, and they produce copious amounts of waste.

In other news, Mason has some serious garden magic. I told you we started a patch of a "Victory Garden" rather late in the season a week or so ago? Well, everything has come up, even the corn. The amazing this is that I did almost nothing to prepare the soil. I just turned over sod and left it for a couple of days. I didn't even really remove or break up much of the sod. Any seed that Mason touched has totally sprouted. To the point that I'm going to have to thin the rows already if we want anything to actually mature. He's got carrrots, radishes, peas, corn, sunflowers, and watermelon all growing like weeds. In my garden? Real weeds and not much else.

My mother is a good gardener, and I'm beginning to believe the green thumb must skip a generation.

Our CSA box is almost depleted thanks to Shawn's desire to have my "faux restaurant-style salad" for dinner last night. I make it a kind of big meal by adding a grilled bit of chicken (usually cajun spiced) on top, along with a sliced hard-boiled egg. But we snarfed up most of the head of buttercrunch lettuce, some of the green (actually purple) onions, spinach and arugala. All our radishes are eaten, as is the kohlrabi.

We still have a ton of potatoes, though, and one head of brocoli (which I think I may cook up for lunch.) But this is just right for us. Not a lot of waste, and we won't be getting another box for another whole week. (I was REALLY worried about getting more than we could handle, so this is wonderful.)

After lunch here, I'm off to write in the one air-conditioned room in the house. This year, Shawn and I decided (ahead of time, for once!) to put the air-conditioner into our bedroom. Unlike Mason's room, where it has been in the past, it's actually big enough to sleep three in an emergency. Plus, there's a good outlet in there so I can write. If only the big computer with internet connection fit in that room too!

Hope you're all well, and happy New Moon.