Scenes of summer in my yard

WTF???

by Bethany Sanders Jul 21st 2008 9:15AM

Here's the good news: Disney is finally creating their first African-American princess. Here's the bad news: They just can't seem to get it right. The first version, The Frog Princess, was scrapped due to complaints that it was too stereotypical. The princess, named Maddy, was to be a chambermaid who worked for a spoiled white woman. Maddy is saved from a voodoo magician by a white prince, with help from her voodoo fairy godmother.

Disney's second version -- The Princess and the Frog --is still a musical set in New Orleans, but the company is keeping mum on most of the details. The heroine will be a 19-year-old named Tiana, and the film will be set in the Jazz Age. Disney says, "Princess Tiana will be a heroine in the great tradition of Disney's rich animated fairy tale legacy, and all other characters and aspects of the story will be treated with the greatest respect and sensitivity." Let's all hope they do exactly that.

- from Parentdish

No woman no cry

Yup, it's been an adventure this summer so far and it's only early July. I've wanted to post many times but first I had to clean out the hard drive in order to load more pictures.

So what happened?

It started with a ginormous oak falling in my front yard. No detailed pictures, too depressing. It was 9pm at night when I heard this loud crack and bam! I guess I should be glad that it didn't fall on the house but at the time, I sincerely thought that it fell on something - a moving car, a couple walking a dog... Fortunately none of that happened but it did cost nearly 3 grand to get the dang thing hauled away and get the cables to the telephone and internets fixed.

all that's left

I think I told y'all that I have a mouse. Well, obviously there is no such thing as a "1 mouse" infestation but I can't even go there right now imagining the possibilities. One night, I think, a mouse got into my bird's cage trying to rob some seed and, I think, the male bird fought it back because the next morning the PETA college son (who is responsible for me not calling in the exterminator in the first place) woke me up yelling that something weird happened to the birds. The male was really beaten up. His wing was hurt and all of his feathers on the injured wing was gone. Who the hell knows what really happened but that adventure cost me $175 for the vet.

happier times

I finally got to open the pool. The pool guys informed me that the chipmunks turned my heater into a chipmunk hotel. It is totally destroyed. The little buggers chewed up and redecorated everything inside. A new heater will cost me $3 grand but guess what? WHO CAME UP WITH HEATED POOLS ANYWAY? Pools are for cooling off. It ain't a bath tub! My boys will have to get used to swimming in a chilled pool.

With all of that going on, my hubby had nothing better to do but to paint my house. On a Monday morning these guys show up and commenced to totally destroy all of my flower beds around my house. Hydrangeas, specially selected hostas, perennials, roses - all trampled over or splattered with paint.

Even with a gorgeous face like that, he can make me so mad!

And, if that wasn't bad enough, it was the sulky 13 year old's graduation day and last day of school. So all of my last day of school/graduation preparations plans got shot to shit because I'm fuming over painters.

Graduation or the NBA draft? You don't want to know what I went through to get him to tuck his shirt in and take off that do-rag!

In order to prevent myself from totally wigging out, I decided that I required some pharmacological intervention. I reached for the Ativan. But, as I was so blind with rage, dumb me swallowed a couple of Ambiens instead! I don't need to tell you what happened at the graduation not that I could anyway because I have absolutely no recollection!

It was all a blur...

Several days later, the painters return. This time with power washers. They are now going to power wash the deck. Now the perennials in my flower beds are destroyed - coreopsis, lavender, dahlias... too many to list. I am now in the market for zoloft...

Then my new friend, Beate, tells me that she is moving back to Denmark. There was so much going on but I had to find the time to get together one last day to knit with her. Here we are with her friend Erin.

Erin then organized a group dinner where we could all say good bye.

Beate

So, have I been knitting. Yes, absolutely. How else would one survive?

Dream in Color's Smooshy

These are Kirsten's Achillea.

Interweave Knits Cable Rib Socks in ONline Supersocke Cotton color Beach

What else? I'm also almost finished with my pinwheel sweater that I frogged, I made a nice lace cotton scarf and I finished my mother-in-law's shawl. I'll show you when I take more pictures.

Oh, did I mention that the painters destroyed the cables to the internet, the tv and the telephone. At first I refused to intervene and have it fixed. Let the hubby painter/contractor deal with it. But then the children waged an insurrection and I had no choice (and no zoloft) so I called in the repairs.

When I was talking to my pal Phyllis about not knowing what to blog about because so much crap has happened, she suggested I keep it simple and show you my socks. But, alas, I need pity. So, here I am, trying to survive summer with 3 teenage boys and two teenage nieces (a whole 'nother chapter I'll talk about later) and a hubby who feels he can now (after 20+ years) "get involved" with fixing up the house.

But, when I tally it all up something so simple made all the dilemmas worthwhile.

A lovely yellow finch. I'm so easy to please!

Garden Club event

My Garden Club hosted its Secret Garden Tour earlier this month.

This is the one time of the year that I feel like a little girl free to wander into strangers' yards and secretly smell all of their flowers.

This year we invited local artists to paint the gardens...








And while I got to enjoy the seasonal beauty of my neighbors' gardens, I couldn't help but wonder when I would find the time to finish my own...

Pool not opened, beds not prepared...

Sometimes the demands of life compete with all that I want to do in a day - reading, writing, gardening, knitting, laundry...

Only on the 7th day of June, it was no contest, I knew where I wanted to be and what I wanted to be doing...

I really need to consider becoming a vegetarian...

About a dozen pigs, including this one, escaped from a flooded Iowa farm and made it to a levee. But they were shot and killed by authorities who said the animals threatened to weaken the barrier.

Dove Love

I have this basket hanging on a hook on the wall on my back porch. I like baskets and I, er, well, sort of collect them. I can't pass them by at house sales or flea markets. For whatever reason, several years ago, I decided to hang one on the side wall adjacent to my back door.

One day I see this dove perched on it and I thought it was strange.

I really didn't think anything of it because I've had this pair of doves hanging out near my bird feeder for several years. I thought she was looking for food.

As it turned out, she was actually nesting... In the basket!
Wait, I have some better pictures...

That's the baby!

So now no one is permitted to use the back door. Then one day I see this...

THERE'S TWO!!

Chaperone Adventures

Don't ask me how this happened, but I allowed myself to be talked into chaperoning my 8th grade son's 3 day school trip to Washington D.C. A few parents backed out at the last minute so how could I say no especially if it meant a solid 5 hours of bus knitting and a private room.

When I told the 8th grader, I thought he was gonna die.

I reminded him that mothers always have the last word

Meanwhile all of his friends (boys and girls) CHEERED when they learned that I'd be going. So while my son was embarrassed to know me, nearly 200 other kids appreciated my "coolness" and the child that I nursed until he was 4 years old and who is also responsible for everything that sags on my body, sulked. He also lobbied the principal to be on a separate bus. So, I baked cookies and bought boxes of the best donuts for my bus. I made the sulky child a bologna sandwich (my last word).

But as you all know, life (especially mine) is full of surprises...

THIS

AND THIS

FOLLOWED BY THIS totally screwed up the day.

Of course I would be on the bus that broke down. The only consolation was I got to see a black and tiny female state trooper. Ok, for all of you Non-Jerseyites, New Jersey State Troopers have a dubious history. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I would have never believed my eyes when this very petite trooper with a giant trooper hat was for real. After I adjusted my eyes, and my camera, I realized that she was issuing instructions to the bus driver to get our bus off the highway, pronto, by getting it towed - WITH US ALL ON BOARD!!

The tow truck started to hitch our bus 'cause trooper girlfriend don't play, we had to scurry to get the kids back on the bus.

Then our very Irish tour guide who for obvious historical reasons that I don't need to recount to you all, matched attitude for attitude with trooper girlfriend and said that we were all going to sit and wait until our replacement bus shows up and if we were going to get towed it would be to Washington, D.C.!!

Trooper girlfriend left in a huff!

So, we waited

And waited...

And waited some more...

And started to lose all hope

I started getting bored and began taking pictures of traffic... Then I spot a bus!

Oops, wrong bus!

Help finally arrived 2 hours later and then we had to transfer stuff from the dead bus to the other (sans cookies and donuts - long ago devoured)

The rest of the trip went as most school trips go, you spend most of the time on the bus and enjoy drive by history -

Mount Vernon

Don't ask

The requisite Starbucks

Evidence of unending war esthetically displayed at Arlington National Cemetery

Evidence of national pride - baseball stadiums - we build these better than schools

Lord, we sure need him again

We were able to de-bus at the Capitol Building for a photo op (yes "they" still let us lowly citizens climb the capitol steps)

There were some museum stops (no pictures allowed) and a fabulous dinner cruise around the Potomac. We were also treated to a zany guided tour of Old Towne Alexandria, Virginia.

I found a 1792 Apothecary but tragically no yarn store

But I did find the chance to have a cup of java with Obama!