Michael has had a busy week. He's been playing tennis a LOT. Today he had his second private lesson. Thankfully, coach moved him up to be able to practice with the kids his own age. He was practicing with the younger kids and getting impatient with them.
The coach commented in an email to me late this morning that Michael looks like he's having fun, and he's learning fast. Yay!
Alesia's summer school ended yesterday and so she walked down to the tennis courts with Michael, to watch. They callde me later and said the coach had showed her some basics, which is awesome. I am hoping she will go down there and practice some with Michael. It would be such good exercise.
When I got home yesterday, Mike and Alesia were at the pool. As soon as they came in the house and I got my chlorine hugs [I like that smell, actually] Mike gave me a kiss and said, sotto voce and very seriously "I cut down bamboos?!" Mother and I had told him he could only take his hatchet and cut down bamboos when I am there. It makes Mother nervous. I don't care if he cuts them - they proliferate like crazy in our yard and bug us all when they pop up in the lawn. We do want to leave enough of them to act as a privacy screen, though.
So Michael went to work and there are now bamboo fishing poles for all of us, seasoning. My brother had cut some bamboo poles when he was here last winter but the soccer team destroyed them, when they came over for a cookout. I love to fish - haven't held a pole in my hands in about 20 years, though. I hope we can go fishing when Bro comes home on leave.
Our movie last night was Bowfinger, the classic Steve Martin film. It's hilarious. Martin plays a small-time filmmaker who decides to make a film starring an action hero who won't agree to be in the film, so they film him surrepticiously. For more, see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131325/.
I was so tempted yesterday to go out and buy a trampoline. My kids have been wanting one ever since we went to Kate's house a few months ago and they got to bounce on her trampoline. The problem is money. A decent new one costs about $300. Used trampolines scare me. I fear accidents. Mother is not keen on the idea because she's afraid the oompa-loompa sized yard men we have will hurt the trampoline, when they move it to mow. They've banged up the soccer goal and garden hose, but not permanently. [I am more inclined to think the trampoline would hurt them, and they'd sue us. I have worked a lot of premises liability cases in 23 years as a paralegal...]
As I was driving home last night, though, I began to recall the nightmare last year when the kids started school. It was School Supply Hell. Every eyar it's like a brutal scavenger hunt to find everything. Michael had to take Kleenex and wet wipes last year, for instance. I thought in high school it wouldn't be so bad, but all of Alesia's teachers demanded she do her notebook a certain way, a separate binder for each class, plus special pens, calculators, etc. If I go to Office Depot, which is the mecca for school supplies, I can find almost everything if I am willing to fight the crowds. The prices there aren't great, though. Walmart won't have everything. The School Box won't have everything. I want to make one trip, and Alesia will forget to bring in the supply lists and I'll have to go buy them every day for a week or two. The total spent on these supplies will be in the hundreds of dollars! Aaaargh! What do poor mothers do?!
The trampoline will have to wait.
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FUNNY
Mother and I were visiting with Lesleigh last night and Mother recalled a funny story told by her friend Jeanie, who is a world-class musician and heads the music department at mother's church in Augusta. Jeanie left Augusta as a very young woman in the early 1950's, to go to New York and study at Julliard. She had never traveled much and was very intimidated by the city. Augusta Georgia is a not really a small town - but it was 50 years ago.
So Jeanie wanted to get a New York driver's license. She goes to the DMV to take the test, and fills out some papers and goes up to the counter. The patrolwoman at the counter looked at her and said what Jeanie thought was "Count to 10!" Startled and intimidated, Jeanie stuttered "One, two, three, four, five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten?!" The patrolwoman just shook her head and snarled, "No! I said Counter 10!"
LOL
