These are some of the neat places we have in our town.

Someone spent a huge amount of time on this mural. It's great. My kids pretend to enter the arches and open the doors.

Right next door to the mural is the best Chinese food place ever. It's my favorite Almond Chicken of all time. You can split a meal three ways and still feel pretty full, but it's better to just split it halfsies. It does need a little cosmetic work, though.

The picture with the tables is like a secret garden. You have to squeeze between two buildings to get there and I don't think anyone ever uses it. Maybe at festival times, but someone keeps it up. I would love to cover the place in candles and take hubby for a romantic, moon and candle light dinner.

The Coffee Mill has really great chicken salad with bits of pineapple in it. It's also owned by my friend, so I like to go there to support her business. She has the gift of hospitality and a great sense of color and a head for decorating. Her cafe is a great place to sit and relax. This year my friends and I went there for the first day of school and we all met again for the last day of school. The beginning of a new tradition!

And finally, have you ever seen a better example of the All-American home? I love this house. It's much bigger than it looks and has fabulous landscaping. It also has an unattached three car garage that looks like a bungalo. Very pretty and peaceful looking, isnt' it? Looks like a place a character from a book would live.

Garfield and The Omen

Hubby and I went to see Superman last night. Saw this sign as we waited to go into our theater. I don't know. Something about these two movies in the same theatre creeped me out. You just wouldn't think these would be used in the same sentence.

Superman had a great look, very retro. I thought the new guy was a good fit; nice smile, looked the part, especially in his Clark duds. I liked the new Lois but kept picturing her as a blond surfer. She did a good job. I had to ask about the time line, though. Hubby said that this movie takes place after the second, as if they were acting like movies III and IV never happened. I didn't think I had ever heard of Lois having a kid before and Clark and Lois seemed so much younger than if they were just picking up where the other movies left off. I guess I'm just not up on my Superman story lines and folk lore.

Can't wait to see Devil wears Prada. Gotta love Anne Hathaway. I'm on the wait list for the book at the library. I always love to compare the written and film versions. (Yes, I have to use the library occasionally! I can't buy every book, but I do buy books from my favorites, you know who you are! Gotta support those hard working writers out there, 'cuz you know I'm going to want you to buy mine someday. Word.)

Just finished Eat Cake and am reading Kick-Ball-Change, by Jeanne Ray. Loved Eat Cake. A real family, with real problems, helping each other against odds you wouldn't think were surmountable. A wife and a husband who loved each other. A snotty kid who turned out to be not so bad. A mom and dad with their own set of things to deal with. AND CAKE! I bought a birthday cake just to have around after reading this book, so there is some danger!

Great book lists are another reason I love reading blogs. I don't think I would have found this author if she hadn't been praised by other bloggers. Nice, light summer reading is what I'm all about right now.

Here, here and here are a few sites that have posted about their reading lists lately. Go check them out. You may have to peek around in their archives to find them, but that's half the fun. Beware of the second link, though. Lisa is having a year of reading dangerously, and there's not a lot of light, summery stuff there. I am going to try to read Of Human Bondage this summer. We'll see how that works out.

Thanks for sticking around on this long ramble! Must be the heat.

June is for...

Lightning Bugs



Birthdays




Learning to ride without training wheels! Good job, Sprite!

The prodigal dogs

We have naughty dogs.

Buddy and Scout need a lot of exercise and they like to run, but alas, we have a small yard and my top speed is a quick walk, so they don't get what they want unless they escape. If Scout, the yellow, girl dog, escapes, she will come back because she doesn't want to do anything unless Buddy, her brother, goes with her. Buddy doesn't care, if he gets out, he's gone.

Sunday, they both got out and were gone for hours. Finally, we stopped searching and left home ourselves. When we pulled in hours later, there they were, patiently waiting and exhausted. They probably thought we weren't coming back.

I'm happy they were home instead of doggie jail, which costs $15 each if we have to bail them out, which we have done before. The lady said we had to pay a fine because of the leash law. I tried to get out of it because, technically, they were leashed. They had escaped with leashes sailing behind them, which is how they were caught in the first place. The pound lady didn't buy it, so we had to fork over the dough. Our dogs never learn their lesson. They are sorry for a while, but they have a high rate of recidivism.

Isn't recidivism a great word? I learned that from "Raising Arizona" many years ago and try to work it into conversation whenever I can. :)

We are happy to have our naughty but loveable dogs back, even if they go give us grief.

If I were a poet...

this is what I would write about from my life today.

My girls making art on the deck around our community pool by dipping paint brushes in goggles full of water, and how by the time they were finished, the pictures had almost disappeared in the heat.

How my pretty daughter still looked pretty even though she pouted and moped when she didn't get her way and how my heart broke a little that she would not give an inch. And that I was embarrassed by her and for her and that I didn't handle it well.

Watching two balloons sail up in the sky. I wondered if they were let go intentionally of if there was a small child crying about it.

Having dinner with my son in folding chairs at an outdoor concert. Just sitting and being comfortable together.

The way my back feels now that is has been overly baked and how my head and eyes hurt a little after too much sun and chlorine.

How it's funny when a bunch of strangers come together to watch more strangers make their music and how we are all united for that little bit of time.

I felt glad today when I saw someone else's child throw a fit. It made me feel better about myself and then it made me feel worse that I felt that way! Motherhood!

And I would put into words the range of emotions I felt all day and the few tears that squeezed out even though I didn't have a full on cry. How I was happy and content and frustrated and exasperated and sad and back to happy and grateful and tired. Only I would say it in such beautiful prose and the words would turn and flow and resonate with someone besides me.

How I wish I could be a poet.

Sometimes you just need a little air guitar

Old men yelling

Men and their golf.

On my walk around the golf course this morning I witnessed three very excited old guys, screaming at their golf balls. "Go in!! Go in!!" It was very funny. The force of their breath probably blew that ball in the hole.

Then I saw a tall, skinny man do a victory dance. He kind of looked like a coat hanger doing a jig. Again, very funny.

I should walk more. You never know what you will see. Too bad I didn't have my camera.

To my two men

Happy Birthday, son! And Happy Father's day to a super dad, my hubby. It is great to see you guys loving each other and I'm glad you got to celebrate your special days together. I love you!

A respresentation of my organization skills

Piles, piles everywhere! Fortunately, show and tell is limited to hats... Here they are.


This is a pile of my girls hats, thrown up on a shelf.



A hat used for decoration in my laundry room. I do sometimes wear it when I am feeling springy and girlish.



More hats used for decoration. Son played little league and was a Yankee for three years running. We string all his caps across the top of his room.



Another big pile of hats thrown on top of hubbies closet.

My summer resolution? Clean out closets. Thank you very much.

Trigger foods

When asked what foods set me up for binge eating, dieting failure, and all around crappy eating, these are the first three things that come to mind...

I really should not ever eat, even one, red vine. I cannot stop. It is a sad, horrible thing. I have no control. I wish I could laugh at it but it's really kind of sick.

Butter is another enemy. When I nursed my son, I would eat a whole loaf of bread and more than a stick of butter a day. Now, if I start in with the butter, I can easily slip back into the stick a day habit. I try not to keep it in the house except for special occasions. Unfortunately, I shouldn't ever bring it in the house because I WANT IT ALL THE TIME!

Diet Coke... What can I say. I know it's bad for me. I gave it up for Lent. It's another can't-have-just-one situation for me. Not to mention it's expensive and when I decide to stop I have to go through withdrawal symptoms, again. You'd have thought I learned the first time.

This is why I don't drink, not ever. My tendencies are dangerous.

So, starting right now, I am off the proverbial sauce... again. It's water, I can't believe it's not butter spray, and sugar free gum.

Lord, help me.

Go read this

Go read the June 2nd post called the The Crowded House at ragamuffin diva.

This woman writes hard stuff. I often gasp or feel a flinch in my heart when I read the things she writes about. She is poetical and real and as honest as all get out. Very brave. Look through her archives if you get a chance.

Thank you Mair, for showing us that the ugly stuff can be beautiful when brought to the feet of Jesus. You have a very special and unique gift.