The Crab Chronicles

New Horizons

Michael woke at 6:30 and we did an hour of homework before school. I had agreed to the plan. He also got his shower, dressed, and had breakfast. Good thing his school doesn’t start until 8:50.

 

I putzed around all morning, and then went to meet a couple of attorneys for a lunch job interview. I mis-read my notes and got to the restaurant an hour early. Yikes. It would’ve been pleasant sitting outside waiting, once I had figured out the problem, but they kept blasting this muzak music on the patio, which was too loud and annoying.

 

The interview went fine, because I used to work with one of the attorneys, T, years ago, and it was not a high-stress situation. I didn’t feel any of the usual interview nerves. We talked shop and T and D told me about their practice, in a little town just north of here. It’s mostly employment law, which I like. They are very informal, and hours would be flexible. We then ended up talking about my kids until almost 2:30. I think it would be a great job, even though part-time, if I can manage on what they pay. I am waiting on an offer.

 

Altogether it was a really pleasant lunch, except for the waitress. She was a tiny little woman who wore way too much makeup, and looked sort of like a witch – then again, maybe I’ve been reading too much Harry Potter. The waitress kept staring at me like I had three heads. It was weird.

 

Of course, I’d been sitting outside the restaurant for an hour before I went in, so the whole staff must’ve thought I was a bit wacky.

 

I got home around 3 and just had time to get Mother settled down for her nap and check email, and in came Alesia from school. We picked up Michael and headed to Target, to look for some shoes for Alesia. The school has banned flip flops and most of the sandals Alesia favors, so she’s down to one pair of shoes, and she requested some Converse sneakers, saying she would pay for half of them, which I agreed to. Then we get to Target and they have dozens of pairs of Converse, but none are the right color or the right style. Michael and I were hard-pressed to remain patient with her. When I suggested she get a pink pair she looked at me like I had told her to cut her own throat.

 

“Pink?! Uuuugh! NO MOM!”

 

Michael whispered to me, “She’s really like a boy, isn’t she?

 

Then we found some tee shirts for each of them, and a new zippered hoodie for Michael, so it wasn’t a wasted trip.

 

When I got home I was soo hot and tired. I made beef stroganoff and salad for dinner. Michael and Alesia ate a reasonable amount of beef and huge amounts of pasta. Their salads are usually gone in 1 minute flat.

 

It looked like rain all day, and no rain. Then about 10 tonight, HUGE thunderstorms rolled in. I am just glad we didn’t lose power, knock wood.

 

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I don't have any new photos to share so I dug into the archives and found two cute shots. 

Here, Alesia and I are just outside the Kremlin in Moscow. I was freezing.

 

Skip ahead 2 1/2 yeas and here I am with Michael in Kazakhstan, at a cafe that specializes in blinys [thin pancakes like crepes].

School Is Your Job

This year, I am trying not to micro-manage my kids' school situations. I have told both kids they need to be responsible for doing assignments, getting projects done and turned it, studying for tests, etc. I have emphasized that Mother and I are here to help, but school is their responsibility. It's their job, so to speak, we've explained.

Alesia walked into my room at 7:20 this morning and said she needed me to carry her to school for tutoring. I had only been awake a few minutes. "What time do you want to leave?!" I asked her. "7:25" was the answer. I had 5 minutes to get ready. I took her in, but I grumbled. We only beat the bus by a few minutes.

She was getting tutored in Algebra II. She reported she got the highest grade [85] on the first test. She understands the value of tutoring. I warned her she needs to tell me the night before she needs a ride in, though, so I am not bleary-eyed.

Michael came home and was quickly thrown into a foul humor when he realized he had forgotten his science book and not written down his social studies homework. He got quite upset with himself, threw the papers on the floor, etc. It was a hissy fit. I snapped at him, I must admit. I let him cool off in his room a while, then when we had both calmed down we talked, with me holding him like a baby and rubbing his back. I explained that teachers will usually be nice if a kid needs an extra day on an assignment, if he tries hard and is remorseful about missing a homework deadline. Michael is having to learn strategies to help himself get things done. He is very slow to complete assignments, but he will have to speed up a bit. I told him he will just have to go in early tomorrow and do those assignments before class. His bell doesn't ring until 8:50, and I can get him in there at 8:25.

I made a loaf of banana bread this afternoon and it came out very well. I was tickled. It was a little dry - my aunt never makes it too dry and it's her recipe - but Alesia and Mike both ate huge slabs of it after school. The timer stopped and I just got it out of the oven before it burned. It's full of bananas, and I added lots of cinnamon and honey. It was sweet, but not too sweet.

I cooked chicken and rice in the crockpot for dinner, and it came out really tasty. I used a lot of chicken stock and white wine and herbs, especially rosemary. The chicken was melt-in-your-mouth tender. I will definitely make that recipe again.

My cousin Terri, who lives in Texas, sent a big box of clothes outgrown by her two teens. Alesia and Michael were thrilled. I wish Terri lived closer so we could see her and her family more often.

I've gotten promises of several donations for my Antares Foundation raffle!! I am so excited. Stay tuned for more details on that.

Insomnia

I did a really stupid thing today. I took a nap. Now I cannot sleep. I must stifle the urge to go downstairs and make banana bread. I have been craving it ever since I saw the recipe on Pioneer Woman's website, although I prefer my aunt Jane's recipe. Do my thighs need an application of banana bread?! Nope.

We had pork ribs for dinner, cooked in the slow cooker all day. If you aren't afraid of ribs, they are SO easy to cook. I was afraid of them for years, until I got my slow cooker. Just buy a rack of ribs, and cut it into several pieces. Put salt and pepper and seasoning salt or Emeril's rib rub on them and throw them in the slow cooker, on low for 8 hours or high for 4-6 hours. Put a cup of water in the bottom of the slow cooker, if you want them falling-off-the-bone moist. When serving, douse with barbeque sauce. Yum. I threw in a chicken breast for Mom since she's not crazy about ribs.

We also had green beans and Pillsbury crescent rolls. I hadn't had any in years. They were as sinfully wonderful as I remembered.

Tomorrow I have nothing in particular I need to do. I should work on my next book, which will be about Michael's adoption. I should put all the loose photos in albums. I should continue trying to find a literary agent. Will any of those things happen?! I don't know...

Michael is having issues with PE at school. There is no privacy in the locker room and he's embarrassed. It also takes him longer to dress and undress than the other boys because of his hand. He is wearing the gym clothes under his regular clothes. It's still in the high 80's here and I fear he will get heat stroke, although he says the school is cold. I sent an email to his English teacher to ask her to cut him some slack if he's late coming from PE. I told him to just take off the gym clothes in the bathroom and not wear them all day. I don't know what else to do. If he continues to have issues I will have to get a 504 plan but I was hoping to get by without one.The 504 is for handicapped students, just to make sure the teachers give him some extra help when needed due to his disability. For instance, if he were deaf it would get him an interpreter. He hates feelings different, though.

Alesia was frantic yesterday because she left her purse at school. As soon as she came in, nearly in tears, I put her in the car and we raced back to school. I was praying the whole time, as was Mother. When she went in, she found the purse sitting on the floor next to her locker and nothing had been taken. She had all her babysitting and lunch money in there, and her MP3 player! We told her that proves the power of prayer! She has lost entire purses before.

I have not gotten any response to my post below about raffling off prizes for Antares Foundation. It's a very worthy cause. You can donate a gift card, that spare MP3 you bought on sale and didn't need, a gift certificate for a massage, or an original handmade item. If you have an ETSY store you can donate something from there and I will give you publicity on my blog. I won one of Hallie's prize packages and got a nice painting, a tee shirt for Mike, some lovely artistic notecards, and some beautiful handmade earrings for Alesia. The items were worth a lot more than my donation.

So please think about donating.

Antares Foundation's New Project

My friends Apryl and Laura over at the Antares Foundation are amazing women. They give of their time and love and money to selflessly help kids still in orphanages in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, where I adopted Michael. When I was adopting him they got in touch and let me know they had met him, he was a great kid, and even sent photos taken when they visited. They spent time in Petropavlovsk this summer, seeing the kids in the orphanages there, strengthening ties with the local Antares folks, and exploring more ways to help.

The sad reality is that most older kids in orphanages never get adopted. When they leave the orphanage, it's hard for them to get work or go to school, without life skills or family support. Many turn to crime, feeling hopeless.

Antares has a wonderful new project, to help older kids transition to life outside the orphanage. It is SO needed!

I would like to help, but with my money so limited right now, since I'm not working, it's difficult. However, my friend Hallie over at Wonderful World of Weiners just did a very successful fundraiser for an organ donor awareness charity by asking folks to donate prizes, then holding a raffle. She has a large readership, though, larger than mine. People donated a variety of things, like handmaid jewelry, gift cards to stores, tickets to sporting events, etc. Not all donations were huge, but she raised over $5,000 in raffle tickets! I donated a copy of Adopting Alesia, my book.

So I am throwing this out there to y'all: is anyone willing to donate a prize, which can be raffled off to help the Antares Foundation with the project to help the orphanage graduates? I am happy for you to send it to me and I will pay the shipping costs to get it to the raffle winner. The donation to Antares is tax deductible. You can use Paypal or a credit card, or just send them a check. It's all on their website. 

Email me if you're willing to help, [email protected]. Thanks!

Coco, the Baby of the Family

Sometimes there is no cohesive way to blog. Sometimes I just want to share the weird stuff rolling around in my head. Guess y'all figured that out from yesterday's post, huh?!

Today, I want to talk about the "baby" of our family - Coco.

Michael was afraid of Coco when he first came to live here with us, in May 2007. He had never seen a tiny [10 lb.] Yorki-Poo who likes to bark at everything, hides Milk Bones under the sofa cushions and in Granny's bed, and enjoys nothing so much as licking faces and ears. He has finally made his peace with her. He likes to sit at the kitchen table and roll a piece of bread into tiny little balls and toss them in the air. She catches them. He also plays with her. He has grown so much now that he can carry her pretty easily. Right at first he couldn't pick her up.

Mother saw him with Coco the other day, when he didn't realize she was there, and he was lying on the floor patting her and singing to her "You are such a beautiful puppy, my cute little doggy girl..." etc. She said it was just precious.

Alesia has always adored Coco and played with her. She picks up Coco and cradles her like a baby.

Both kids, as soon as they got their new cameras for Christmas, instantly took a lot of shots of Coco. She is the most photographed dog in Atlanta, I daresay.

This is Coco on Granny's bed, wanting her belly rubbed.
 

This is where Coco spends a lot of time, on the back of the loveseat in the family room, watching the front door. When one of the kids comes in she barks like a maniac and practically levitates off the sofa.

[NOTE: the 2007 date stamps are wrong. These were made in the last few months.]

In Russia, dogs almost always live outside, even in Siberia where it's routinely 20 below zero in the winter. There are no leash laws, so dogs also freely roam the streets.

Dogs often hang out outside orphanages, and the kids feed them and pet them.

Alesia loves dogs so much, she has been bitten many times, and has the scars to prove it. The orphanage caretakers let her and the other girls roam around the city streets, and whenever Alesia saw a dog, she wanted to pet it, thus the bites.

I asked her once why she loves dogs so much and Alesia replied, "Because in Russia only the dogs loved me." I nearly cried when she said that.

Dogs are great givers of unconditional love.

Coco is also a great size, because Alesia can bathe her in the sink.

When I have had a bad day, 5 minutes of playing with Coco is very therapeutic.

Every night when I watch a movie with the kids, Coco likes to come and take a nap in my lap, snuggled under my chin. She often licks my ears a bit while she's there. If there are crumbs on my shirt, or a small spill, she's right there to lick it. She will even lick the sides of my mouth, if I don't dodge her fast enough. She knows no boundaries.

I don't mind it, but guests sitting on the sofa are sometimes quite startled by a 10 lb. furball suddenly licking them on the face.

Not long after we moved in, Mother made some bacon and set it on the kitchen table. Coco jumped up on the chair, grabbed the bacon, and took off with it. She had eaten all of it before Mother realized what had happened.

Coco often hides bits of bread or Milk Bones in the sofas, under pillows, in odd corners of rooms, even on the fireplace. She could survive for a week on the food she has hoarded all over the house.

We think she also eats bugs and dust bunnies, probably the causes of her frequent digestive upsets.

We read not long ago that house dogs often have a vocabulary of a couple hundred words - as much as an average 2 year old human. I am not surprised.

One day, Alesia was standing near the staircase and Coco was on the floor by the bottom step. Alesia: "Go on upstairs in my room. I'll be there in a minute." Coco turned and went upstairs and into Alesia's room, like OK, whatever. Alesia didn't point upstairs. Coco knew the words.

 

Here's Coco with squirrel, who takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

She is our precious furbaby, and we all adore her.

Things I Don't Understand

It's Monday. It's a blah day. The only things I've done today are 1) go grocery shopping alone, which was tiring and; 2) take the kids to CVS to buy Mike a lock for his locker, which he had to have before tomorrow.

Michael is at tennis. I need to be cooking dinner. I am thinking seriously about it. In the meantime, here are some odd ramblings from my weird brain.

Here are some things I just don't understand.

Sticky Buns
I'm sorry, these two words do not conjure images of something yummy. Even the photo on the Pioneer Woman website is not tickling my taste buds. They look like they are incredibly messy to eat. After I got over my cotton candy obsession at age 15, I decided no more messy things will be eaten by me. (The only exception to that is funnel cakes, which were invented by the devil.)

Alien movies
There is a new movie out about aliens being segregated in a slum that lookd a lot like South Africa. I think it's called District 9. My friend Jeff saw it and liked it. I saw the preview and wanted to fast forward through it, but I remembered I was in a movie theater, not at home.

Aliens have been done to death. They've popped out of Sigourney Weaver, given Bill Pullman a bad headache in Independence Day, even been cute and cuddly like ET. What else is there to say?! Unless they can sing and dance or are willing to go on reality TV shows, I think their time is over. let's stick to humans.  

Pantyhose
In my opinion, pantyhose are instruments of toture and should've been outlawed decades ago. I want to see all pantyhose go to a museum somewhere, or be recycled into something useful. There is no reason for them. A couple hundred years ago some prudes decided women's bare legs were scandalous and thus stockings were born, and garter headaches at the same time. Then came nylons. Then came drawing on your legs during World War II because all the nylons were being used for parachutes. I remember as a child in the 1960's watching my mother struggle with stockings and a garter belt, and thinking, oh man, I sure don't want to grow up and have to deal with all that. And God was kind and invented pantyhose, which I wore for years, when I was reasonably young and cute.

Then I gained some weight and sprouted grey haris and quit wearing pantyhose. As God is my witness I hope to never wear them again. My legs are butt ugly and long pants can cover them a lot more effectively.

Now we have "business casual." Thanks God!

Wii
I don't have a Wii, and I've assured my kids we will never have one. Here's my confusion. Why don't you just get out and PLAY the sports on the Wii??!! Why don't you just learn to play a guitar if you want to be in a rock band?! Why are you substituting computer-generated fakeness for the thrill of REALITY?!

I read a science fiction short story many years ago where humans just sat around and stared at the computer all day long and nobody left the house. All life was lived through the computer. Human interaction was a thing of the past. Sound scary to anyone?? Anyone?? The Wii craze makes me afraid, very afraid...

Politicians
They are all alike. They are ALL lying, cheating, manipulating, power-mad wackos. Why do people LIKE politics?! I hate politics. We should just let everyone vote on issues using a Wii - then we'd have better government participation.

I will add some more to this later. Right now I have to go invent dinner out of thin air...

Driving Miss Dee

I slept for almost 10 hours last night. I NEVER do that. I woke up with a slight backache, which is why I never sleep that long. Usually 7.5 is just right for me, but hey, I had not slept much Friday night and my body just was glued to the bed. What an attractive picture...

Alesia got to drive today. A lot. She drove to Michael's hair cutting appointment. He got to tell the stylist how much to cut, and didn't have a fit afterwards, so OK. He's over 5 feet tall now and has pimples I figured it was time for him to look as weird as all the other little boys. I am mellowing. Or maybe just tired of the sulking. Who knows.

Anyway, we drove a little more and she kept missing stop signs. I freaked, a little. Tried not to show it. Then, I smelled something funny. Alesia had left on the parking brake for a couple of miles. Stunk BAD. I was ticked but trying not to show it. That always works SO well, me hiding my emotions. Alesia declared "I an NEVER driving any more! I told you I didn't want to drive!"

So I made her drive the rest of the day.

She drove to Steak & Shake for lunch, her second favorite place. She drove to the movie theatre. She drove home. She drove more than an hour and a half.

Except for an unfortunate incident of giggling and turning the car in weird directions at Steak & Shake, she did fine the rest of the day. Except for the fact that I was sitting there praying and saying the Hail Mary in my head the whole time [and I'm not Catholic] it was all good.

The kids went to see GI Joe The Rise of Cobra, and I went to see Adam Sandler's new movie Funny People. I HATED the movie. I love Adam Sandler. LOVE HIM. He must've been smoking crack to ever even consider making that movie. Yikes. Depressing. Not funny. Ugh. I left before it was over. Be warned. 

HUMOR

I AIN’T GOT NO BODY!!!

 Before I retired after teaching for 32 years,I collected the beguiling observations of my students concerning body parts.Here are some of them:

 Skin is used to help hold people inside  themselves.

 When people are just skeletons,they are still themselves but their looks are gone.

 Bones are  what keep us  from being too floppy and relaxed.

 The humorous vein supplies blood to the funny bone.

 An appendix is something found in the back of  a book.Sometimes they get in people and have to be taken out.

 Sound would not be all that important to study if it was not for ears.

 Most doctors can tell about your heart by using their horoscopes.

 There are cavities all through our bodies.Don’t worry because that is all right as long as they don’t get into our teeth.

 Digestion is best done on an empty  stomach.

 Laps are so that more than one person can sit on a chair at the same time.

 Without red cells ,the blood would bleed to death.

 Going down our human  neck, we find the sacoughagus,telling us when to cough.

        Harold Dunn, “Traveling Light”,reprinted from THE WORLD ACCORDING TO KIDS

Party Aftermath and More

The party for Mike's tennis team went exceedingly well. I felt very gratified. I forgot to make pictures, alas.

Not all the families were able to come, but there were enough people to make me feel it was a success, and there weren't so many that it was a madhouse.

We had, I think I counted, 5 little boys. They seemed like a thundering herd. They spent a lot of time outside in the back yard. That's why we bought an old house with a back yard.

The food turned out well, except my chicken was a bit tough. We had barbequed chicken, pork, green bean salad, mac & cheese brought by my buddy Carrie, potato salad, fresh fruit and dip, deviled eggs, a veggie tray with hummus and pita bread brought by Melanie, croissants, and Klondike bars for dessert.

We almost didn't have deviled eggs. Mike was in a foul humor because before the party I kept asking him to help me with cleaning floors and straightening up, and he acted like I was terribly mean to ask him to Windex the glass-topped tables. So I asked him to try a deviled egg. He said "These aren't any good. I'll just take them up to my room!"

Next thing I knew he had eaten 4!

I never even got a taste of one of the eggs. Everyone who got one was complimentary, though. Here's the trick. I don't put anything weird in them. I hate biting into a deviled egg and thinking "What the hell is IN this thing?! Eeeuw..." So I put simply egg yolks, Duke's mayonnaise, garlic salt, salt and pepper, a little powdered mustard, and some melted butter. The butter helps the flavor a lot. It was my Mamaw's trick.

I think I shocked all the grownups by suggesting we fix our plates and sit down, and THEN call in the kids to eat. I knew the kids would tear through the food. So I sat and ate in the dining room and the kids got what they wanted to eat. They sat in the family room and ate. I confess I DID go in there and pass out coasters, because I hate moisture rings on my furniture. Otherwise, though, they didn't bother me. Michael told me later all he ate was mac & cheese & green bean salad.

I had such a nice time talking to the other ladies. The men stayed in the kitchen and talked sports. After dark, I realized the kids were outside and had a moment of panic, because we have a lot of snakes around here. I let them stay out there, though. All the outside lights were on and they mostly just sat on the trampoline talking.

When everyone cleared out, I was exhausted. I put up the food and went to bed. I couldn't sleep. Finally dropped off about 3. I had to take extra Melatonin and some Motrin for my aching feet.

At breakfast, I told the kids to just eat fallout from last night. Michael had green bean salad and potato salad. Alesia had the same, plus cold chicken. Hey, I was fine with it.


Today has been interesting. I went to a meeting of the Atlanta Writer's Club and heard a speech by a local author, Marc Fitten. He talked about traveling around to 100 indie bookstores, to find out how they operated and promote his book. He started a blog about it. I bought a copy of his book, Valeria's Last Stand, and look forward to reading it. It's about a woman in Hungary just after the fall of communism. There is a bit of romance in there, too, involving middle-aged folks, so that sold me on it. Well, that and the fact Marc actually lived in Hungary during that era and knew his subject.

Years ago, I worked at a bookstore, Davis Kidd in Knoxville, just over Christmas. Snobby people would whisk in, hand me a barely legible list of 20 different books, and say "I'll be back in a half hour to get these books." I still have nightmares about it.   

I had worked at a very different kind of store just out of college, for about 6 months. It was a tiny store, and more fun by far. I just couldn't make enough money to move out of my parents' house. Someday I'll write a short story about my bookstore experiences, or maybe I'll just share anecdotes here sometimes. Stay tuned.


LAGNIAPPE

My aunt sent me this email and I thought you'd like to see my answers - because hey, you don't know enough already, huh?! If you're so inclined, leave a comment and tell me YOUR answers! Inquiring minds want to know!

 

A) Four places that I go to over and over

Kroger, the post office, CVS, Regal 24 movie theater
 
B) Four people who will e-mail me art, pictures, goofy e-mails, fun stuff: 

Mother & Frank daily, sometimes Carol & Lauren

C) Four of my favorite places to eat: 
Bambinelli's, Firehouse Subs, any Thai restaurant, Blue Ribbon Grill

D )  Four places I would like to be right now:
on the beach alone with my children; taking a nap with Coco the maniac barking dog far far away; in the movie theatre watching the new movie about Julia Child; sitting in front of a hot fudge pecan sundae from Sheridan's Frozen Custard

E.) Four people I'm almost sure will respond:  I am clueless!
Here's an alternate question I prefer - Four people, living or dead, I'd like to eat dinner with: Jesus, Julia Child, Robin Williams, Jon Stewart

 F) Four TV Shows I like:  

Antiques Roadshow, If These Walls Could Talk [on HGTV], Today Show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Poetry and 'Tude

I may or may not have the energy to blog tonight. I am scurrying around madly getting ready for a small party tonight. All the food I am making is done and in the fridge. I have been spot cleaning the carpet, dusting, and even straightened up my room and Mike's room. I also [wicked chuckle] made lengthy chore lists for the kids.

I have to have a party of some sort every 6 months or so, or my house would never be really cleaned...

My friend AnnMarie over at Vox Poetica asked me for a poem about vacation, fall, and death - on one or all three of those topics. Here's mine:

Falling Island

To avoid the summer crowds, we
vacation Thanksgiving week at the beach.
Roaring waves throw down a carpet of shells
on the darkening sand, and
threaten
the house on stilts.
Hurricane's coming.
I picture the dead turkey flying again.

She liked it. So nice to see a poet with a sense of humor.

When I was in grad school in the UT graduate English program, many moons ago, churning out poetry, I realized quickly that most of my professors had no sense of humor, at least not about poetry. The other grad students looked at me as a weirdo, too, because I had such a hard time taking it seriously.. I didn't make a single friend in the program. I did a lot of eye-rolling, too, like when I had a professor tell me I was wrong about the purpose of writing being communication. Those intellectuals didn't care much for me. I am 1/4 South Georgia redneck, and proud of it. To heck with 'em.

Shopping Alone and Drooling Over a Cake

Woke up in the middle of the night last night, thinking mother was calling me on the walkie talkie I always keep near the bed. I went to the top of the stairs and listened, but heard no noise from her room, so I tried to go back to sleep. It was useless. I finally cruised around the internet a bit before heading back to bed.

 

This morning I have circles under my eyes that are scary. I look like a cross between the Pillsbury Dough Boy and Night of the Living Dead…

 

I was thinking I’d come back upstairs after taking Michael to school and just go back to bed. However, I wasn’t terribly sleepy. So I ended up just drinking an extra cup of tea.

 

I went to Publix by myself around 11. I am so accustomed to shopping with the kids and Mother, or at least with the kids, that having to go all over the store by myself and hunt down my items was a real chore. I felt like I was in an alternate reality. I must’ve looked dazed when I got in line at the checkout, because a tiny, elderly man helped me unload my buggy. He was buying bottled water and beer. Actually, he may have just wanted to move me along so he could go somewhere and get trashed.

 

Unloading the car was worse, without my helpers. Yikes. I was a sweat monster by the time I was through.

 

Michael’s tennis team is coming over tomorrow night for a barbeque season kickoff party. I went ahead and made the green bean salad this afternoon, and boiled the eggs for the deviled eggs. I’m also having a fruit plate. I made the barbequed pork last week and froze it, and I will slow cook the chicken tomorrow. Others are bringing more side dishes. I was thinking about making brownies for dessert, but knowing how hot and tired I will be by tomorrow afternoon I just said to hell with it and bought a bunch of Klondike bars.

 

Michael was in an extremely foul humor when I picked him up from school. After eating an enormous plate of leftover lasagna and a piece of cake, his mood brightened a bit. Then he started kvetching about losing his special tennis hand. I went upstairs and looked in his closet and there it was, in a backpack he doesn’t use for school.

 

I thought all was well. He came home with his tennis racquet damaged, probably beyond repair. He likes to throw it in the air and bang it around. All the boys do, to some extent. It made me so mad, though, because it’s a good racquet and I don’t need to try and replace it right now. I will make him pay for part of the replacement racquet.

 

Alesia babysat the neighbor’s child tonight until almost 9, so we didn’t do a movie. Instead, we watched a program on Public TV on Georgia’s barrier islands, which was fascinating. I particularly love learning about Cumberland Island, which is almost entirely owned by the park service and has wild horses. Michael played Nintendo.

Then Alesia came home and we started watching Iron Chef. Alesia and I were laughing so hard, Michael finally put down the Nintendo. The theatricality of it was so absurd.

My neighbor Jenean, who Alesia babysat for, makes the most wonderful cakes. Below is one she made last week.

 

If you're in the Atlanta area and need a special cake contact Jenean.

[email protected]
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