Weekend Wonders

Who knew that a pool 3 feet deep and 6 feet wide could provide a waterfall of fun. My sis has such a pool in her yard. This is a handy recreational perk when your grandchildren come to visit.
It was the site of two days of ridiculous, watery fun.

The Water Octagon

Count: One Mother, One Sister, One grown Niece,

one small nephew, one small niece

My 80 year old mother instigated a water fight from outside the pool that lasted at least an hour, losing, easily, 3 inches of water...wearing out 3 squirt guns and only succeeding in getting my mother into the pool, in all her clothes plus sneakers, after the hour and only after my sister and niece got out of the pool and manhandled her into it. Hilarious. Our YaYa is hecka strong, sneaky, and stubborn. She wasn't going in and was a complete exasperation to all in the pool.

The Next Phelps

Both my little niece and nephew are fish. They love the water and are great swimmers. Their goggles made me laugh and make their eyes look kinda goofy. My favorite thing is tipping them over off of whatever floatee they have claimed. You wouldn't know that you can get up to three floatees in this space but you can and it makes things pretty interesting. I was so proud of their skills, holding their breath, swimming under water...going, going, going.....

HotWheelin'

There is also ample concrete track around the patio for some serious racing. This little guy is a major speed demon who doesn't much mind crashing one bit!

Nature Girl

This little one will try anything her older brother does. She's gonna grow up tough, however, she is every bit the princess who likes pretty dresses and finding a quiet spot to spin a tale and rest a bit.

Two days of total Auntie-dom: Awesome!

Fun Stuff

license plate generator

Just wastin' time on a Saturday. Click on the link to make your own.

Blue Sky

Now that the smoke has cleared out and it looks like beautiful clear, clean mountain air is back for awhile I have to admit I am feeling hazy. This is what the sky looked like for most of July due to wind patterns and too many scary fires in California:

With the return of blue sky I find myself spending mindless hours on the deck. Seems after a swell burst of creative endeavors I need to refill the well. For the first time my wildflowers are actually attracting butterflies. I had a huge yellow and black guy buzz the yard every morning around 10:30 for a couple weeks. Now, I have a lovely little white and blue one that actually comes and bops around the flowers for a bit each day. This makes me happy in the simplest of ways. A friend of mine sent me an e-mail friday that told of big astrological changes with the eclipse that occurred friday. I am taking time to realign myself with that...I say as a way of explaining my complete lack of motivation. Then again it could be just a lack of hiking, my partner seems to have disappeared into the ether this weekend. It could be my current disillusionment with work. It could be I need a vacation. Change of scene. I just seem to be baffled of late. Thank goodness I find my own neurosis humorous.

I did execute a rather bold sewing project. My Djembe needed a cover and I don't feel like shelling out the cash for a fancy full body carryall however, I do want the head protected when I am hauling it around to class and what not. So, with no pattern, some cool material and a bit of quilt batting I assembled what can only be described as a muffin top for my drum. It looks a little funny but serves the purpose just fine:

Last weekend I did hike back to Skunk Harbor. The hike that is two miles down to the Lake and then a rather wicked hike back up. After the smoke, haze of July it was evident there are still some stamina issues to overcome on the steep inclines. Ha! It is still one of my favorite hikes, a quiet beach, swimming, a little lunch...all good.


I have been doing a lot of reading. Thanks to a tip from No More Commas Period, I picked up a book called Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I'm not generally a big sci-fi/fantasy reader.
This book is way out there in topic: cyberpunk futuristic technology driven society. However, it is set on Earth and not in some other galaxy which is what kept me interested in it, that and all the really cool vocabulary that I wish there was a dictionary for. I've read another of his and I am on my third...so we can see that this is heading for a summer reading series since I can't seem to stop.

Ruth has her blog up and running, go say hi and welcome her to the blogosphere. I'm heading over there next.