At the middle school they have a day about a week before school for the kids to come and get their schedules and their books and they can buy gym clothes and sign up for various things. They call it L.E.A.P. which stands for something, but I can't remember what.

Anyway, today was L.E.A.P., so the Squig and I went down to the school to get her all set up. It's always fun to go places with her, just the two of us, and joke around while waiting (and waiting, and waiting) in line. We had a nice time. Her two best friends were there, as were various other friends. She seems to have a good schedule for next year and she's getting to be a little excited about getting back to school, even though she'd much rather sit around on her bed reading books for another five months.

This evening, for her church young women's activity, they're going to a Habitat for Humanity site to do some clean up. Kids under 14 are not allowed to be on a site where construction is still going on, so they can pretty much just do clean up at that age.

And after filling out her permission slip to go, it got me thinking that volunteering for Habitat might be a fun thing to do this next school year. They have lots of opportunities, from construction work (fun!) to office work (eh) to working in the Re-Store, which is their re-sale shop (hmmmm). I think it might be fun to work in the re-sale shop, and a good way to keep an eye on new stuff coming in!

We're planning on going down there to check it out and see what kinds of things they might have that we can use for a much-needed bathroom remodel. It's one of those, well, we have to replace the toilet, so we might as well redo the floor while the toilet's out, and if we're going to redo the floor, we should paint the cabinets while the floor's up, and if we're going to paint the cabinets, we should replace the counter so they look nice together, and if we replace the counter, we have to replace the sinks and faucets and before you know it, you have a bathroom remodel. I'd really like to replace the tub too, but the tub alone costs half what the rest of the bathroom would cost to re-do.

Anyway, that's one more idea for things for me to do this next school year.

Bookworms

Well, we went to the library today. It's not our normal library day, but I had a book on hold that was expiring today, so we went.

It was pretty uneventful, except that with the amount we paid in overdue fines, they should name a wing of the library after us. Sam forgot his reading log for the summer reading program and tried to sweet-talk the librarian into letting him pick a prize anyway. It didn't work. Hopefully he finds it soon, because the last day to pick up prizes is the 15th.

Ruby also started soccer practice today.

This blog-a-day is going to kill me if my life doesn't get more exciting. I'm thinking of re-arranging all the furniture in the living room and kitchen and re-purposing some areas. That might be exciting. It would work better if we had new floors in the living room and kitchen. Some day, some day. I really hate these tile floors. I liked them when we looked at the house, but they're hard to clean and they're hard on your feet. I have to wear shoes around all the time or I get back aches and my heels hurt. It's that orangey mexican tile. It's going to be a bear to rip out. But it will be worth it.

Kisses?

On the way home from the dentist today with Squig and Sam, Sammy Hagar's song "There's Only One Way to Rock" came on the radio and I said, "Five Points if you can tell me who sings this".

Sam said, "Uh, Kisses?"
I'm thinking, Whaaaaat???

After a minute I figured it out, "Do you mean KISS? There's a band called KISS."
He said, "Oh. I thought they were called Kisses."

I just had to laugh.

Not Sure This Counts

Technically, it's August 3rd, because it's past midnight, but since I haven't been to bed yet, it's still Sunday to me. So, I'm counting this as the official Day 2 entry of the August Blog-a-day.

There is just a whole lotta nothin' to write about today. We went to church, we came home, couple of naps, dinner, and then bed.

Oh, John did make a nice dinner for us.

And I've been working on cleaning all the junk off of John's old laptop so I can use it. He doesn't even know what a lot of these programs are for. So, why are they on the computer? The world will never know.

I sure wish my life was just a little more interesting. Lots going on this week, so that should help.

The Official Premier of the August Blog-A-Day

And here we go!

Today we picked a ton of tomatoes. We got one big huge "Speckled Roma", three of some sort that I don't remember planting, but they look like a kind of black tomato, possibly a Krim, and a basket of cherry tomatoes of various sizes and colors. I ate one of the black tomatoes for lunch. Leftover chicken and a tomato. Tasty.

This evening I took the girls to see G-Force, the guinea pig movie. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and had a very streamlined plot. It was basically Mission Impossible: For Kids. But the girls loved it. The guys went to a Giants game in San Francisco tonight, so I thought we'd do something fun.

And we're off to a good start for the August Blog-A-Day. Now if I can just remember to write every day, we'll be in good shape!

Blog-a-Day in August

So, even though I don't think anyone reads this blog, I'm going to try to see if I can post something each day in August. Mid-way though August, my kids will all be in school, so I'll need something to do.

Maybe I'll use it as a brain-storming sounding board as I try to figure out what on earth I'm going to do with myself next year when they're all in school full-time!

And so, there you go. A post a day. We'll see if it goes anywhere. I might just spend all of August sleeping until it's time to pick someone up at the bus. Or I might get up and do something productive.

Seriously Chopped

So, my kids and I like to watch a show on the Food Network called Chopped. If you've never seen it, it starts with four chefs and they get a basket with mystery ingredients and have to throw together an appetizer using those ingredients in 20 minutes. Then one is eliminated, then the three make a main course in 30 min., using a different basket of weird ingredients, and then after another elimination, the remaining two go head to head on the dessert course. The winner gets $10,000.

The graphic as you come back from a commercial break is a cleaver chopping through the title of the show.

Last night we were watching a recorded episode, and my son very seriously asked, "If they lose, do they really get a knife thrown at them?"