Life in the Yard

It's still March but life is poppin' out all over. Thought I'd better catalog a few items, particularly in case it freezes and everything croaks.

No worries for the immediate future, however.

Daffodils. My favorite bulb in my favorite bulb color :-)


Violet and water drop.
I had another picture with the drop in focus, but the violet was blurry.

Apple buds, ready to burst.


Grape Hyacinth.


Pear tree blooms.


 

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A New Record

March 28....a date that will go down in history as the earliest we have ever mowed the lawn.

Ethan was quite anxious to get agoin'...so much so that he has been sharpening up the mower blades and testing the machines, as of last week.

And today he asked if he could start.
And he did. Mowed for close to 3 hours. He was going to quit after 2 but then I came outside to help and I guess he was stuck :-)


During the course of lawnage we discovered a major part of an apple tree--nearly half of what was left--had broken off...
...you can see it was pretty rotten inside. Plus, we had strong winds for the past two days.

This poor tree has lost major limbs over the past 3-4 years. So much so, that those two younger looking branches you see are actually sucker shoots that I allowed to live out of sympathy. I thought the tree should be be applauded for making the effort so I didn't prune them out.

I also figured it was a last ditch effort to get a couple of apples out of the fading relic.

Basically, it is one fourth of what it was in it's prime.

I stopped mowing to go get my trusty bow saw. There was not much to cutting it off since it was so rotten. Cutting it up for the burn pile took a bit more effort. And judging from the rings, the branch is around 20 years old. I figure the tree itself is around 35 or so.

Far from being sad, it simply means God is taking care of me in my increasing age, as I will have less and less people around to help make applesauce, thus, cutting back on the apple trees is fine with me.

I'll just replace it someday (and the one next to it that may be following suit) with a nice flowering tree that will simply look pretty and not require harvesting in the fall.

But getting back to the mowing, I glanced over old blogposts to discover if, indeed, this was the earliest of all mowings.

I discovered that the peas of last year came up a whole month later than this year.

Also, we had a snow on April 20th...that's a little depressing, actually.

But not nearly so much as reading how I'd lost over 20 pounds by this time, last year.

Ouch!

Somehow the weight-loss karma has not kicked in this time around.

Yet.

One thing we've learned for certain though, today: it's terrifically early for mowing.

Then too, it's not always wise to look into the past.
 

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To Blog, or Not to Blog...

...that is a question that might depend upon whether Dave Letterman is a rerun, tonight....

OOOOOooo, too bad. It's a new show but hey, there are always commercial breaks!

Speaking of small vacations, I went shopping today because...I don't know...it's just weird how we keep running out of things like cereal and milk, not to mention staples like scotch tape.

(if those two boys wouldn't insist on refurbishing their Lego guns with coverings of tape I'd have more supplies for repairing my tablecloth)

But they were in for a real treat tonight, as I brought home brand new 99 cent squirt guns!

In no time at all they had duded themselves up as FBI agents (I don't know what I was thinking concerning going outside and spraying water).

The complete ensemble included vests, sunglasses, and ID badges that were made from plasticky, metal tag thingies leftover from Summer Bible School.

Their teachers would be so proud.

Soon they were absorbed in going around the house, finding and arresting bad guys and taking them to jail.

At one point Ethan was involved and then I heard something about the bad guy leaving prison because he felt smothered..."Wait a minute...WHAT are you guys doing up there??"

"No, no, no, it's just pretend."

Fortunately supper came soon enough to preclude any more arrests. After that it was a simple matter of The Dick Van Dyke Show, 30 more minutes of computer game time and then a bit of milling about until time to get ready for bed.

I always find I rest better when they are resting in bed.

Speaking of which, the winds picked up during the night and have been whooshing hither and yon all day. The actual speed may only read 27 mph but it sound pretty howly from where I sit. Must be those great breeze amplifiers out in the yard: trees. The tall, piney kind.

Makes me feel a wee bit sorry for the bald eagles over in Decorah. The kids and I have been glancing at the Eagle Cam on occasion. One of the eggs was supposed to hatch over the weekend but I haven't heard anything for certain. They seem to be keeping their offspring under wraps.

And wrapping up sounds good, right about now.
 

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Yes, it's official....

Spring is here !

You can always tell when the daffodils burst out.


And it's nice to hear the robins saying goodnight to each other, at dusk.

This isn't a robin, but a red-winged blackbird.
He was sitting on a wire by the road, singing for pure joy while I was inspecting daffodils.

Robins and R-W Blackbirds, Grackles and Starlings, Kildeer and Morning Doves, and of course, the ubiquitous sparrows. They make up most of our local bird population, though I haven't heard the Morning Doves this year.

Oh yes, one of my favorites, the Western Medowlark.

Pretty soon we'll have a 2 or 3-day stopover by the orioles and possibly a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. They'll come to the feeder for oranges and sunflower seeds, before they settle down to nest in a more woodsy location.

And the gorgeous Indigo Bunting! Can't forget him, though they will only stop for a brief visit, as well.

Goldfinches...almost forgot about them. Tons and tons of them, as well as those feisty hummingbirds (reminds self to get hew hummingbird feeder).

But the most obvious sight was a flock of pelicans that flew by, earlier this evening. No picture this year, but I heard the tale from Nolan and saw the long V-ish line, off in the distance.

Yes, I guess it is spring.
 

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Ma Works Da Land

Another gorgeous day so I just had to get out and do some more clearin' of brush.

Most of the regular garden is now spiffed up, as evidenced by 5 or 6 wheelbarrow loads dumped on the burn pile. And contrary to popular opinion, it didn't consist of old vegetables that were left to rot in the beds.

This is because I'm finally getting smart and not planting as many vegetables!

I have quite a few wildflowers gathered from various roadside ditches. Several are proving to be invasive so I figure if I plan this out right, we may not have to mow much of the yard in a coupla years.

I also discovered that it takes a lot longer to remove pine needle mulch from rose bushes, than it does to put it on in the fall.

And it's hazardous.

Oh I have gloves. But by the time I reached the rose bushes my hands were grubby from your basic dirt-without-gloves work. I didn't want to put dirty hands inside my gloves so I spoke those same, pointless words I tell myself each spring, "I'll just slip in around the thorns and be out of here in no time."

After I saw blood running down my hand I thought, "Oh. Now I REALLY can't use the gloves because I don't want to get them all bloody."

And so the cycle of Ma's irresponsibility continues. But I like to think of it as my little way of making others feel good about themselves.

You're welcome.

Now it will soon be time to prepare for tomorrow. Another potluck, which means another cabbage salad from Ma.

If you make it really big people don't notice you aren't bringing a main dish casserole.

Then there's the usual routine of watching Brit-coms with Carolyn and Ethan, while doing my nails for tomorrow.

I still have to pick out a polish that goes well with all the cuts and scrapes on my hands...
 

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Tomorrow Being Thursday...

...I think I will make it through this week!

Today was test day in math for Nolan and Trevor. This is usually pretty good since there are only 20 problems and no new material. We got done by 12:15, which fufilled my goal related of getting on the treadmill again before lunch.

(everything is scheduled around school and the treadmill)

Despite my thinking up new penalties for Nolan, he still managed new infractions and so I must get more creative.

You would think he'd get tired of being punished...
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This evening we decided fairly last minute to head into church for a midweek concert. This means I'm now 2.5 miles behind this week's quota, and it will be worse after tomorrow because that's when Loren and I are planning to go out for the evening. But lost miles are not the end of the world, right? It has to be good to get out of the house--for the kids, this time--even if the concert wasn't up to what I expected.

(bad Ma, for having expectations!)

Other than that everything is the same except for the extraordinary weather. Lots of warmth, and a goodly amount of rain over the past two days.

Hope the spinach, potatoes and peas are thinking productive thoughts!

Leaves are budding and grass in greening. Surely we must have more frosts, but for right now the spring seems to have tripped right on over to summer.

If I were smart, I'd call school to a halt and get something done around the house. I could almost start seedlings along the edges of walls where extra dirt has collected over winter.

I'll have to give it some serious thought while I veg out with TV...
 

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Another Monday

C'mon, Friday !

Even Thursday is pretty good. At least you know that Friday is AL-most there, and once in a while it means a movie and eating out, fer Ma :-)

Today was a pretty typical Monday. It began--similar to Saturday--with Ma hearing the stealthy pad of feet upon the stair. It was shortly after 6am and He-who-shall-not-be-named was making another attempt at sneakery.

Naturally, I snuck down aussi, to see what was up. Saturday had found the same culprit sitting in the dark in front of the TV, hoping, no doubt, to get in a little clandestine viewing before the others appeared on the scene. Others who might not understand his need to interface with cartoonery.

And it was the same this morning only this time I saw the telltale sign of reflected light suddenly going dark. He was nowhere in sight but soon came out of the bathroom claiming "the call of nature." Unfortunately for him, I spied a stray remote lying on the couch (I already take up two remotes to bed with me, but apparently there is yet another one that wants guarding).

Faced with the incontrovertible evidence he did the only thing he could...continued to deny all despite his obvious transgression.

Back to bed he went.

*insert usual schooling hassles for Monday, including several, "I HATE school! Why do I have to do school, anyway? It's a waste of time!"*

But thankfully we have made through the rest of the day with only one illicit incursion into the motor home, two smacks of his younger brother, the usual extra baloney, missed game time and missed intro the The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Tonight after they go to bed I'll not only write out their assignments for tomorrow but explore the whole area of new and unusual penalties.

But as I said, this was a fairly typical Monday. Tomorrow should be a tad better.

*break*

Oh. I'm sorry. We had a little business take place wherein "someone" ate the leftover bacon from BLT's (which is partly my fault for not putting it away soon enough) and so NOW he has extra school for tomorrow.

And it's still tonight.

Wow. I can hardly wait for Tuesday...life is just that enjoyable.

But at least I can look forward to a couple of hours to myself, soon.

And tomorrow, as I just told "you-know-who;" tomorrow is a new day.

We hope it will be better.
 

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In Which Ma Communes With Dirt in Her Rite Of Spring Breakiness

This post has all the earmarks of a fantastical tale: from the heady thrill of school vacation, to the drama of seed potatoes; both procurement and planting. The sweeping panorama of mulch-topped loam juxtaposed with the whineful tones of a sweaty 12-year-old, unable to comprehend that the month of March and "Let's go to the beach!" are incompatible themes.

Topped off with a gorgeous sunset...well, how can you go wrong?



The call of both Spring Break and tater plantin' could not be denied.

It boils down to a tale of Ma and her shovel. Interspersed with a nap and two utterly divine portions of Diet Coke and Spicy Doritos.

Throw in the added bonii of peas and spinach--not to mention clever, pseudo-Latin phraseology--and you have a veritable tripartite victory of early garden seedy-hilariment.

Yes, it was warm, but not too warm. Demanding? Quite, and yet, not quite quittingly so.

Did the offspring enjoy their their day of break? We do not know, as we did our best to maintain distance. The concept of vacation for homeschooling mothers is paradoxical enough without gumming up the works with togetherness.

And so 'twas a day of bliss. A day of bliss and toil, of driving to town and buying seed potatoes, and then driving back home, all the while ensconced in a vehicle reeking of rodents.

But mostly it was a real nice time fer Ma to kick off the proverbial shoes of school monitor and shod her middle-aged, plantar fasciitisized feet in old tennies, dig up part of the garden, plant her 10 trees from the Arbor Day Foundation, plop the seed potatoes into their hills, cast peas and spinach seeds into the good earth, all the while garbed in an old T-shirt and sweat pants à la Goodwill.

Friday, March 16; Ma's Day of Spring Breakiness.
 

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Spring Break!

For one day, that is :-)

We can't afford to skip a whole week of school, but hearing about the collective spring breakiness of everyone and their cousin, aunt and next door neighbor got to be a bit old.

So I was whining to Ethan and Carolyn just before bed and they said, "Why can't we just have tomorrow off?"

Eminently good sense!

And so we shall.

It will be another glorious day, weather-wise, so I'm gonna see if I can round up some seed potatoes, dig up a patch of garden, transplant my little trees, fix up some fencing, and perhaps clean up at the local memorial garden.

Sounds like a fullsome day! Warm temps and then 4 days of potential rain will make tomorrow an opportune time to work da land.

Everyone needs a little break from the routine. I know I do.

Just the thought of not having to write out assignments for tomorrow is liberating.

So now when I hear about someone taking a trip or having the week off of school, I won't feel so bad. I have Friday and Saturday for.....stuff !
 

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Warmer and Warmer

Ah, spring.

The sound of blackbirds cackling in the trees; the whistle of a warm wind through the pines; and that special music coming from snow tires running on 75 degree roads.

Winter is past! In fact, it hardly even was.

School-wise we had a not-too-bad day. In other words, just short of miraculous.

Well, except for that one spot right before lunch when I had to make peace over how much extra cheese would be put in the macaroni-n-cheese (Trevor was ticked, since it was a "no extra cheese" day--but we made an exception for Derek being here--so Trevor confiscated the pack of cheese into the living room....)

There were two other instances of complete unfairness, but I can't remember what they revolved around. They seemed quite dire at the time. It reinforces the reality that a seemingly inordinate amount of my day is spent keeping a lid on things of little import.

Sorta like being a waste management engineer except you don't get paid.

In other volunteer news, I went over to the local park and pruned back two burning bushes in the beds I help maintain.

There were a lot of people enjoying the warm weather. Against my better judgement, I agreed to take Ethan, Nolan, and Trevor with me, so they could run around like crazy people on the playground. At the last minute I declined their request to take a real baseball, figuring if anyone was there it could turn out to be potentially hazardous.

Ethan spent almost the whole time reading a book.

There were loud screams coming from the playground equipment but several checks on my part determined that they were: a)not from my kids, and b)not caused by my kids doing something to other kids.

I think Nolan enjoyed himself quite wonderfully. He loves to play with other children and is actually incredibly nice and cooperative with them.

(there's a lesson here, somewhere...)

I only got in 1.25 hours but it sure was great to be out working on gardeny things.

I went out to my own garden yesterday but there was little to inspire me. However I will have to start clearing and planting early crops, soon. And I did see that at least 4 of my new trees, heeled in last November, are starting to sprout. The Arbor Day Foundation promised they would replace any that did not live and I certainly plan to hold them to that promise. Particularly as they exercised absurd timing by shipping them around Thanksgiving.

Should replant them any time but must get more fencing to hold off the varmints, first.
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As for tomorrow, Derek heads back to Texas. We would appreciate prayers for a safe journey. Looks like he will be traveling through a fair amount of rain, again. He drove all the way up on Sunday through rain, too.

But I'm pretty sure March rain is better than March snow :-)
 

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Signs of Spring

This is where I put up all those great photos of growth and birds and baby bunnies or whatever...

But it's hard to snap a picture of the first robin when two boys are following you all around the yard.

Maybe in another day or so.

I did notice daffodils coming up by the house, and wonder of wonders, a few even survived the cable guy digging a hole to bury the ground wire that we aren't using, anymore.

Another sign of spring would be the low concentration level in all three boys. They want to go outside so badly.

Today I had to separate all three. One is a disturbance. One gets disturbed. And one is a policeman.

They've got this beautiful rhythm all worked out amongst themselves.
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In other news, Derek went down to University of Iowa Hospitals today for another cardioversion. He drove his re-repaired truck and Loren went along to drive on the way home. They don't encourage people to drive for several hours after the procedure.

Speaking of which, it went fine and dandy. Derek is back in sinus rhythm and hopefully will stay that way. While it is much easier on his heart to get a 35 joule shock from his ICD than a 200 joule shock from external paddles, we do hope and pray that this time will the one wherein everything works together (kinds of meds, dosages, etc) to keep him from popping back into a-fib, again.

At least it was a gorgeous day to get zapped.

They came back somewhat earlier than when I go along. All the more amazing when one considers they stopped at Menard's on the way home.
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We did survive our busy weekend, with the library on Friday, junior delegates to the county convention on Saturday morning, and special music at Washington Reformed Church on Sunday evening.

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Yesterday I went shopping by myself, much to the consternation of all the kids. After realizing that would be the extent of my fun for the week, I decided to stop in at McDonald's and have a leisurely Diet Coke (which only cost a buck) and read the paper. I also took along some sliced apples and bought a small pack of fries.

It was kinda nice. And no weird old guy bothered me, this time around, an additional and peaceful sparkle to my already bursting day of exciting-ness.

I even went hog wild and hit Goodwill, finding book #10 of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, by Alexander McCall Smith.

Good stuff :-)

And that's the weekend roundup. Time for supper and that usually means disappointing one or more of the three youngest.

I like to think of it as a ministry.
 

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Sitting Around Waitin'

Derek is on his way up from Texas. Unfortunately, due to changes in the banking system, Loren is unable to track him through gas receipts online.

Well. All I can say is, "Things have come to a pretty pass when you can't even spy on your kids!"

Instead, I amuse myself by listening (once again) to Beatles' barbershop.

_________________

It was a very small crowd in church this morning. If, indeed, twenty-five people constitute a crowd.
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We sang special music at the neighboring church, for their Sunday evening service, tonight.
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Now...off for another LOTR reading session.
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(that concludes our sporadic post of the day)
 

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The Windmills of Ma's Mind

Carolyn and Ethan returned from the county Republican Convention not long ago. They were pretty excited, in that they got to hear Chuck Grassley speak :-)

As if seeing Senator Grassley were not enough, Joel Sult was there. Joel is a great guy and quite the barbershop enthusiast. To the point that any activity Mr. Sult takes part in is merely seen as another vehicle at which to sing tags. So naturally, Joel took them aside after the convention and, abetted by Sandy Ritsema, sang tags :-D

I fully expect some day to learn that Joel, while on a visit to NYC, will have stopped in at the United Nations Headquarters and cheerfully coerced and directed delegates from around the globe into singing the tag ending, To Reach the Unreachable Star.

Nothing quite that momentous happened here at home, although I did initiate Trevor and Nolan into the exciting rituals of cleaning tub, sinks and toilets. Strangely enough, they thought this was fun (for the most part) but I'm sure we can soon chase that aberrant idea out their minds.

Usually they only have to take care of emptying trash, sweeping and mopping the bathroom floors. But I figured Carolyn and Ethan might not have the mental energy needed for their usual tasks, what with all that strenuous sitting, so the two youngest boys had to do everything.

And frankly, there were one or two places that were cleaner....*ahem*....(if anyone is taking notes).

Churning right along, looks like only 2.5 months of school, left! Oh my, I can hardly wait. Somehow though, we'll have to get back in the routine of doing every single subject. A couple of items were cast by the wayside while prepping for the Iowa Test of Basic Skills that ended up being something else (I'm not bitter...no).

And at some point I should go out and see if my baby trees survived winter. They may well have, since our winter was on the wimpy side. Daffodils close to the house are peeking out of the ground. Well, except for where that guy dug a hole to put in a wire for the "free satellite trial" (nothing's free, and no one asks me where to dig).

But I've seen flocks of black birds and I imagine a robin or bluebird will turn up, any day now.

The sun is shining and it's 64 degrees.

I do believe spring has blown in.
 

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Lotsa Lotsa

The diet is dead. Long live Spanx!

Not really. You can't say that about Spanx because, unlike corporations, it hasn't been granted personhood by the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, the ol' diet seems mired down in a mixture of ineffectual methods and chocolate cravings.

Ah well.

The treadmill continues apace and who knows...perhaps I'll recover last year's success before long.
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In other news, a lot of things are piling up on the horizon.

Library tomorrow or Friday, Carolyn and Ethan heading to the local convention as junior delegates on Saturday, and special music this Sunday night at the church-down-the-road.

This last item has presented a few difficulties in that Ethan's voice is changing and we're still trying to find a second song we can do together.

Do you suppose anyone would notice if I played a CD and we lip-synced?

And shouldn't the past participle of lip-sync be "lip-sanc?"

Which reminds me....the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is coming up in April. Today I got a call asking if I would emcee an historical presentation at our church; a program that will basically replace the usual mother/daughter banquet (which our church hasn't had in a long time, but that would be another story). So I said "yes" because it shouldn't involve much more than an introduction--I can probably handle that--and we hardly ever have anything on our schedule, anyway.

Naturally, when I looked at the calendar immediately after the phone call (yeah, yeah...) I discovered the program is the same day as Carolyn's ACT test, AND the big barbershop chorus concert up in Mason City.

After careful consideration, I still feel it can all work out, time-wise. Carolyn goes for her test in the morning and even if it takes a half-hour longer than the website says, she should be done by 11:30, meaning I'd get back home by 12:00, giving me 30 minutes to get dressed and hoof it (figuratively speaking) over to church by the 1:00 program. The evening concert will be at 7:00, an hour away. I figure that selling one of the kids into indentured servitude should take care of gas money.

Worst case scenario, Loren has to retrieve Carolyn from her test and ferry her over to the church (catch that nautical theme?).

Worster case scenario, Loren dresses up as Captain Smith and does the emcee thing.

Worstest case scenario? I take Carolyn's ACT test for her, earning a score that precludes any hope of her going to college.

But I think we'll go with my original plan.
 

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Gnashing and Crashing and Gnashing Again

Testing for Nolan and Trevor finished this morning. They both said it was mostly "easy."

I can veritably sniff the approach of doom.

Taking my usual organized approach, I ordered a 4th and 6th grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills "Scoring Higher!" book for each. It includes two practice sections for each subject, followed by a test on that subject. Then at the back, there is a complete practice test over the whole kit an caboodle.

It's fairly thorough in filling in test circles and this year I was encouraged that they had an easier time of it. My spot checking found above average results, for the most part.

Well OK...spelling was near disastrous, but I figure that will improve with further reading and/or an introduction to the miracle of spell check.

And like last year, after I'd carefully scheduled their time, the school called and wanted to move up the test date. We hurried on through, finishing 90% of the prep and the entire practice test.

The crowning frustration was discovering I'd prepped them for the wrong test. Just this year, the local school switched from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to something called The Iowa Assessment Test.

I think this is where I crawl into a quiet hole somewhere, crash, and pretend I don't care.

Speaking of ill-fated shenanigans, despite warnings to the contrary, Trevor and Nolan resumed jumping from the triple bunks onto mattresses on the floor. There must have been some hefty bounces as Nolan rebounded last night and hit the wooden floor hard and had the wind knocked out of him. This scared him quite badly. But he also said his back hurt and he could hardly move. That scared me. I gave him some ibuprofen and parked him on the floor mattress.

He managed to stay out of trouble for the remaining 20 minutes 'til bedtime.

Thankfully he was fairly normal by morning. This was good for several reasons, one of them being I avoided that awkward phone call, "I'm sorry Nolan can't come in for his last day of testing...he jumped off the bunk beds and broke his back...I'll get back to you in a couple of years."

And now, you probably thought my title reference to teeth gnashing was merely a melodramatic reference to going insane...

No, it's much more concrete. When I went to the dentist last, with fear and trembling for the possibility of approximately 10 cavities on the side of my sore mouth, I was told that I'm grinding my teeth at night. It's doing something to my jaw. Something which apparently does not involve the cool occurrence of tuning in nostalgic radio stations via old fillings. It actually does some damage. But the insurance will not pay for the suggested appliance so while waiting for the possibility of funds to become available at a latter date, I plan to experiment with a combination of paper clips and chewing gum.

It sounds easy enough.
 

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Burning Our Couches Behind Us

Or at least, off to the side.

Of course one can be sentimentally attached to old furniture. Fortunately that would not be us since:

a) they were so raggedy that we had to throw blankets over all the cushions to keep the exposed foam from rubbing off. A spring or two was also broken.

b) the Hoyts as a clan are fiercely and proudly incapable of sentiment

And I have found over the years that one does not bear too deep an attraction for items acquired second hand. And that is why this picture brought not sadness or nostalgia, but supreme pleasure:


Myself, because I couldn't stand them any more, and the kids, because lets face it, there's a little pyromania in each of them.

The flames had been higher, but started to die back a bit as I looked out the window in shocked amazement and scrambled for the camera.

Who knew you could get such an impressive blaze from decrepit couches?

We got rid of both old blue dinosaurs...well, originally they were blue-ish, and replaced them with two completely and utterly intact pieces from Ardith and Justin's. They are moving to the Twin Cities and found that moving two less pieces of furniture might be a good thing.

I'm always happy to help others in acts of doing good, so I took the Moby Dick, the great white van, down to Cedar Rapids a week ago tomorrow. It was a fun day for me in that I cruised the highway as well as the radio dial, finding good driving conditions and several acceptable oldies stations.

Also, had fun with Justin and Ardith when we they took me out for lunch to Panera Bread.

I could get used to life in the big city.

Now we prepare for another weekend. This weekend being nice in that:

a) no one is sick (that I know of

b) there is no church potluck so I don't have to wrack my brain figuring out which of my mediocre dishes people will hate the least.

In addition, Loren tested out the previously non-working VCR and it seems to be working again. I'm sensing good movie times ahead, including perusing a few more Star Trek: the Next Generation from the vast collection my sister nabbed at a library sale.

And now, Tuna Helper calls. First it called to me from the store (it was on sale) and now it's aromatic and sinus-clearing therapy calls from the stove.

Adieu. May your couches be comfy and your tuna fettuccine.
 

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