The heat’s here, and man were we ever quick to accept an invitation to the Brisson’s pool over the long weekend. Â It was spectacular, and some of us were quick to engage in a favourite activity: kid tossing. Â Here are some surprisingly decent iPhone action shots of Gary obliging the boys with some airtime. Â They hated it of course, so we did it again and again.
It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.
I love a nice, rich, full lawn as much as the next moron. However, it seems that my other love of enormous four-legged animals is in direct opposition of this. To call our pathetic grass a lawn is a bit generous, as anyone who has been to our house in the last ten years knows. At least in the front yard, where the dogs dole out daily punishment in the form of steamy yellow rivers. There’s no escape for my grass, even in the winter when Lloyd melts canyons through three feet of ice and snow to poison the frozen turf underneath.
The back yard fares a bit better since the dogs don’t get back there quite as often, but it faces another yellow menace: dandelions.Â
Since I am too much of a tree hugger to really put anything on the lawn that would handle that problem (organic fertilizer snake oil salespeople, I’m looking at you) we end up with lots of dandelions. Lots and lots of dandelions. There’s a reason why we have so many, it’s right next door. Not sure if you can tell from this poorly lit cellphone pic, but that’s not a blanket of fresh snow in the park beside our house, folks.
Anyway, I was cutting the grass for the first time this year and I stumbled across what must be the first step in the dandelion revolution: the dandelion missile. Here’s a couple of blurry shots, you can see it has a separate stem inside the launcherlion.
Â
It seems clear to me that this dandelion was preparing to launch not only seeds, but a fully grown plant right into the air. Who knows what they were planning, but it seems I have thwarted them for now, even accidentally.
What horror would have been unleashed had their dastardly plan come to fruition? We may never know. I will be watching for the next thing, however. Heed the grass, folks.
Yes people, even our dandelions have dandelions.
So, this morning I wake up a little earlier than usual and start organizing the front hall closet, cleaning out old winter clothes from the basement, etc. Â As a result I am in jeans, T-shirt and iPod earbuds when the boys are eating cereal. Â Quinn turns to me and says:
“Shouldn’t you be at work?”
To which I reply:
“Um, I have been off work for three weeks now. Â Haven’t you noticed that I’m around in the morning, and around in the afternoons?”
His response; “Oh yeah.” Â Quinn may not be the most observant 7, almost 8 year old. Â He then says; “Hey, maybe you could get a job as a snowplow driver.”
I respond and say; “Uh, you could almost say that I already have that job, ha ha…”. Â The subtlety was lost on him, because he said “Wow, really?” and I had to explain that a snowplow driver is basically unemployed in the summer. Â Quinn is not at his best in the mornings….
Cael, ever helpful, pipes up and says “You should get a job as a night guard! (a la Night at the Museum, one of his favourite movies) Â You know what you would get then?”
There’s basically no answer to this, so I say “What?”
His cheerful response; “Friends!”
So, friends, I guess it’s back to the basement for me, at least until my shift at the museum starts tonight….
Yesterday Cael and Nikki and I were driving in the van, and Cael announced that he has a phobia. Keep in mind, he’s 6, so we were pretty interested to hear what kind of self proclaimed phobia he could have. He eloquently announced:
“I’m scared of things with sharp teeth that jump out at you.”
I don’t think that many of us would disagree with that one, buddy. Least of all this guy, who was sitting at his computer at 2am in his home, and was bitten on the hand by a 3 foot King snake that had managed to escape from his neighbour’s house. He then had the presence of mind to capture the snake before getting 911 assistance.
That’s taking it to another level of pants-shitting terror, methinks.
Finally, we have this tragic story of a little boy who would have done well to have a phobia like Cael’s.
Boy’s Tragic Death Could Have Happened To Any Family With 20-Foot Pet Python
March 3, 2010 is our 9th anniversary.
or
3/3/2010Â =Â 9th
or
3 + 3 + (2+0+1+0) = 9th
9 = 9
Cosmic.
I love you honey. The universe wants it so.
This sort of number geekery has happened before here. It seems I am a one-trick pony.
It’s ok folks, it’s not me.
Still here, just unusually silent.
