Just Another Night

Last night we had a very lovely Girl Scout meeting here. Got plenty of decisions made and ideas kicked around. Bronze Award, here we come! During the meeting the girls got busy with the chalk. As you can see, they left no stone unmarked!

On the cat and kittens front, there has been a change of plans. Last night, while everyone was here, Mama got upstairs and promptly went to one of her favorite places, behind the TV. After a short while, she ran down the stairs, grabbed a kitten and started heading out. It didn't take a genius to see that Mama had decided the living room would be a much better nest than the dank basement. We stopped her, locked her behind the door and cinder blocks and bemoaned our fate. What we were going to do? At 1 AM, I decided. Our feline family would be locked in my bedroom, instead of the basement. Dry, warm, safe, perfect. We can easily keep Marco in the dark about the whole thing and get to enjoy the kittens. Downside: Living with cat food and a litter box in my bedroom. *Sigh*

New Developments

I'm going to run through quick the weekend. Saturday night we were invited over to friends for a cookout which was super yummy and swimming for the kids. The weather held off and it was a relaxed and enjoyable evening.

The next morning we drove all the way down the Anderson family reunion which is in Quaker City. A bit of a haul. Tons of food and even more family. It was the most perfect day to be down there this year. Not sizzling hot or pouring rain. And take a look at the view!

But none of that is important because look what happened!

Oh yeah, it's kittens, two of them. I realize now that I haven't been keeping you all up on the developments with the cat. (If you would like a recap on how all this got started you can check back to May postings.) We've been living on the fringe of having a cat all summer. She hung around and got fed. We got to pet her and love her without dealing with litterboxes or the Marco issues. And then about a month ago it became apparent that other trouble was brewing. Our skinny little stray was putting on the weight and it wasn't fat. Come to find out from web article reading that this is a fairly common things for cats to do to people: adopt some sucker family and then get knocked up.

We couldn't find her for two days, even though Marco was trying to tell us where she was. Finally E. found her and the two kits on the steps going down to the outside entrance to the basement. Almost where we found her originally. We've unblocked the door and she's moved herself and her family into a box down the back part of the basement. The problem is still Marco. Having kittens in our disgusting basement isn't ideal to say the least, but we really have no choice. The dog is so big and clumsy, there's no way he can be around the babies and his relationship with the Mama has never been great. I keep being told how much fun kittens are, but we are going to miss all of it with them downstairs behind a door fortified with cider blocks to keep the dog out. (I'm not kidding!) And we are looking at least 5 weeks of this. Misery!

The End of the Softball Road

THE SOFTBALL SEASON IS FINALLY OVER! RING THE BELLS! BEAT THE DRUMS! DANCE THE FUNKY POODLE!

Never has 20 games lasted so very, very long! 9 rained out games had to be made up at the end of the season, which equals an extra month of games. Yesterday threatened to storm all day, but constant singing of "Mr. Sun" and doing rain dances backwards held off the drops. During the game, a brief shower tried to dampen spirits, but quickly gave up when it realized it was dealing with men who had had enough. They weren't about to stop playing for anything! Happily, Triangle Surveying ended their season with a win of 13 - 12 making their record... Well, let's just say they ended the season with a win. Way to go guys!

Cedar Point Day

One of the best days of the year is Cedar Point day. The annual all-day trek of the Andersons all over the best amusement park in the world. We got there at 9:30 am and left at 9:24 pm. A full day to be sure! We go for the roller coasters and rode 8 of them, some more than once. Every year we try to ride a new coaster and this year was Raptor which is a hanging coaster that has loops and twists. Very intense and cool, smooth and unpredictable. It is an incredible ride! Callie was scared to death to get on and then rode it almost the whole way with her eyes closed, but she said she'd go on again. Our favorites in the park are the Magnum, which was our first ride of the day and the Mean Streak which we rode twice.

The day was a tad bit too warm and the sun was a smidgen too bright, but we stood tough. Standing in line for the Raptor, which doesn't have shade tents or misters was the longest part of the day. I'm a little sunburned, and I'm sure it's from that particular wait. After that we took it easy on the train ride followed by the Paddleboat ride.

We have found out if you want a really good picture of E, you have to put him on a rollercoaster. Most people look insane in those pictures, hair flying, faces twisted in a scream. But E he looks great, like he is having the time of his life! We are really going to have to buy one someday!

Camping and cartoons

I see I need to do a little catch-up here and recap the weekend. Friday night, all four of us were somewhere different. Ethan was camping out at Findley with his Boy Scout troop. They fished, went boating and cooked out. I was out at Timberlane on a Leader Only overnight. We had a campfire, laid out in Green Meadows to watch the meteor shower (only two shooting stars the whole cold, wet time we were out there), giggled a lot, hiked everywhere, had a yummy brunch prepared for us and then had water aerobics. Lovely! Callie spent the night at a friend's where they did who knows what, but all her nails are polished now. And E had a late softball game in which he hit his first ever homerun! I'm so bummed that we all missed it!

Saturday afternoon I had to run out to Findley to pick up Ethan, because we had a big night ahead of us. We were off to Blossom Music Center and the Cleveland Orchestra performing Bugs Bunny on Broadway. A first for the kids to go there and it's been a long time since E and I were at Blossom. The crowd was huge! The whole hill was filled and there was enough food there to feed a small country!



I've never sat in the pavilion before, but that's where our tickets were for the show. Not exactly sure how it happened really, but check out how close we were to the stage! I told the kids this was probably the one and only time they would ever sit inside at Blossom so enjoy it now.
They showed the Bugs Bunny cartoons up on the screens and then the orchestra played the music along with it. There were about 12 different shows including a Roadrunner and Coyote, The Rabbit of Seville and What's Opera, Doc?. It was wonderful and so much fun! I will never listen to cartoon music in the same way again!

Number Twelve

Yesterday found the Andersons taking in the sights and sounds of the beach in lovely tropical Avon Lake. While the kids splashed around, E and I took a stroll down the beach. Lying there, abandoned in the sand was Number Twelve. Number Twelve is a scuba diver with a little 12 on his chest (hence the name). I looked around for Numbers One through Eleven or even the missing companion of this fallen hero. But Number Twelve was alone and needed a new team behind him. I knew just the two. Here is his story told by his two new best friends.

E: This is the city that Number Twelve rules. Everyone loves him.

C: They rebuilt this city after the volcano destroyed the other one.

E: Here he is defeating the dinosaur dictator.
C: The dinosaur was the dictator of the sandbox. Now Number Twelve rules it!


















E: Here he is sitting on his throne.

















C: Number Twelve is always trying to get to deep water, but he never makes it.
E: He never makes it because he gets distracted by something else. Always.
C: He goes around in his bucket boat and finds shells and rocks.
E: Once he got stranded but he didn't know it.
C: Once when he got seasick, he ate his favorite shell.
E: The one time that he did make it to the deep water, he couldn't see anything because it was dirty.
C: He liked the slides at the playground. That's how he became the Master of Air!
E: He likes sand. That's how he became Master of Land.
C: He often loses his foot.

Caller ID

Today I want to write a tribute to the two people who don't live in my house- Larry and Ellen. Two people who couldn't be more different and who have never met and yet share one thing; all their friends think they live with us. Let me explain and it's all about phone numbers.

Larry has our exact phone number, but with a 216 area code, meaning he lives in Cleveland somewhere. This slight difference in numbers is too much for the people in Larry's life. Through the conversations I've had with these people and the sometimes very long messages they've left on my machine, I've gotten a pretty good picture in my head just what kind of guy he is.

• He has his own place. This is a landline number, not a cell phone indicating that he is almost settled down. Also, no one ever calls here looking for "Bud" or "Mike" or "Stacy", cluing me into that he doesn't have a roommate or a live-in cutie. (But we'll get to the girls later.) Larry has money in his pocket and is living in bachelor paradise.
• Larry has a hard time waking up to get to work on time. Occasionally, some very husky man will leave a message wondering where Larry is and why he isn't at the site. The husky man usually sounds pretty put out by Larry.
• Larry works some kind of construction.
• Larry has probably knows what it's like to be fired.
• Larry has friends who like to drink and then call people. The person they like to call is Larry, but they get me instead. It is very, VERY tempting to mess around with these poor fellows when you accidentally end up talking to one, but so far I've been very good. I've even gone as far as to remind them about the area code and they are always very apologetic. One actually tried to ask me out once in gratitude. What I can gleam about Larry from these guys is that you are almost always like your friends making Larry a heavy weekend drinker as well (which might account for the problems at work). But why is Larry not drinking with them? Hmm... Maybe Larry has made new friends? Oh, the drama!
• Larry is a ladies' man! Girls call looking for Larry as well as drunk friends and irate bosses. Their messages are short almost as if they don't know him very well. I can imagine his scribbled number (sans area code) on cocktail napkins slipped into sequined purses in smoky bars. The same girl has never call twice meaning that they are smarter then the area code puzzle or (and this one is more fun) Larry is the handsome, cool guy in the dark after a couple of Lemon Drops, but the light of day is something else entirely.

I think it's a fair account of Larry, a good character sketch to be sure. This has been going on for a good two years, maybe longer. And just this morning at 8:20, a blurry guy called looking for Larry. There was an angry, screaming woman and a barking dog in the background, making it so noisy I had to tell him twice that he had the wrong number.

But let's talk about Ellen. I said she's the opposite of Larry and boy howdy is that true. Ellen lives here in town and has the "322" version of our number, which is an honest and simple mistake to make. The people who call looking for Ellen are not as entertaining as Larry's calls, actually it makes me a bit sad when they call. Here's what I know about her.

• Ellen is a retired or semi-retired, but still very active. She drives and is the one in the bunch who drives her friends around. They leave messages confirming that's picking them up in the morning. Ever see a car full of little old ladies? That's probably Ellen behind the wheel.
• Ellen has lived around here a long time. We've been getting calls for Ellen as long as we've had this number, which is 13 years. I'm betting she's had her number a lot longer.
• Ellen has gentlemen callers. At least two different guys call Ellen and leave long, boring messages about what they are up to and wanting to catch up with her. They never call looking "Mr. Ellen". So I suspect she's a widow. One guy wanted to make plans to sit with her at the next spaghetti dinner.
• Ellen has grandchildren. Once a little kid left an adorable message for Grandma thanking her for the new pajamas. More fuel for the widow theory.
• Ellen can cook! Several times over the years some older woman has called RAVING about some dish Ellen brought to the meeting and begging for the recipe.
• Ellen goes to meetings where people bring food.

Okay, my picture of Ellen is a little sketchier than Larry's, but still fairly accurate I suspect. When the frail little voices call looking for Ellen, they seem so disappointed that they get me. They apologize and then, more often than not, call right back again a few seconds later, even more confused. That's where the sad comes in.

But here's the kicker. Go ahead and make a wrong number, no crime in that. But why are these people leaving messages on our machine? Our message right now is the kids rattling off our phone number and then suggesting you leave a message for our dog Marco, who is lonely. Is this a message that either Larry or Ellen would have on their machines? I don't think so. How can their people listen to our message and think "Oh good, I got the right number!"? We could change it and say something like "This is the Anderson's and not Larry or Ellen's", but where would the fun be in that?

A Day Outdoors

Today E. and the girl went out to Camp Timberlane for the annual Father Daughter Day. They had a really beautiful day to be out there. Clear skies and not too hot. They swan, canoed, did archery and hiked. Last year the craft was making a bat house, which was cool. This year is was a making a rattle, pop bottle tops wired to a stick. A bit of a let down. It was too warm to stand by the fire and make a s'more so they took off a little early. This was the fifth year they've gone out for this day together at camp.

The boy and I weren't about just to sit around so we headed down to Bur Oak bike trail and did the whole thing. We stopped now and then and explored the side trails. We even went wading in the river for awhile. We chased tiny fish and the boy found a cool little rock.

Another trail took us down to this really huge cottonwood tree. It's so special they've got it all caged up so it won't run away!
The best part of the day was that E. and the girl stopped at Joe Bocarrdi's, which has the yummiest pizza ever, and brought one home!

No more complaining

I've made myself sick with complaining about the heat and I resolve to do no more of it. It does no good and I suspect it might actually make you hotter just by talking about it. Very bad news today about the neighbor's pool though. It's leaking and we have to stay out until they can fix it. The timing is rotten to say the least.

To get out of the hot today (and that's not a complaint, just stating a fact) we went to the movies and saw Monster House. It was better than I expected and had some really dark, creepy parts to it. We also had lunch at Bellachino's which has the best nachos in town. That was the project last summer the kids and I worked on, to find the best nachos. We had these cool forms we made up to rate taste, variety, and price. We hit all the restaurants, clipboard in hand. So now if we want nachos, there's no messing around, right to the top.

Hey, let me hear from you out there! I know leaving a comment looks like you have to register, but you can just click anonymous and skip all of that. I'd love to know who's still reading this beside or is it just you and me, Chip?

Bye Bye Birdie

My very lovely friend Chip has described the weather as gross hot and what a perfect description for it! It is just yucky! This house is just a big sauna set on high, hot and damp. Luckily we have the neighbors pool for relief, but today (say it isn't so!) the pump is down. To the sprinklers!

Yesterday, we went to see Bye Bye Birdie performed by the Elyria Summer Theatre Association. It was a good try. The singing was just so-so for some of the actors. The sets were okay, but the train they had was excellent. There was also a live orchestra and that was a nice touch and they were pretty good. Of course we only went so we could spend two and half hours in a dark, air conditioned room. By the time we got home, we couldn't go back in the pool because the obligatory daily thunderstorm was underway. At least it cooled off a little. But as long as I get to watch Deadwood on a Sunday night, it's all good.

But I really want to write about how much I love eBay post office day. Something about all those little packages stacked up and ready to go makes me so happy! Is it the idea that stuff is leaving the house? Is it that I know every little package represents a small amount of money? Or is that I'm just like Maria in the" Sound of Music" and "brown paper packages tied up with string" are one of my favorite things? Hard to say.

Yard Sale Success!

It rained all night. All night! Thunder, lightening, pouring rain. I was positive the sale was going to be a wash out. (Oh! That was bad!) Woke up at seven and it had stopped raining and the weather people said that it would stay clear. And low and behold, it did. It was cloudy and threatening, but it never rained. The trees were really wet and anytime the wind blew, we would have a mini rain shower. The sale went over pretty well. Got rid of lots and lots of stuff and made a little green in the process. I can mark "Have Yard Sale" off my very long to do list!

Today, E and I went to Cleveland for a poetry reading in honor of his friend Jack's 79th birthday. Jack was going to read a bunch of his stuff and there would be cake and whatnot. What we didn't know was that another poet would also be reading, and this guy was the worst. Absolutely miserable, insane poetry. It made you want to scream and bolt from the room. This guy's claim to fame is that sometimes he makes a clever pun. That's it. That's all he's got beside dressing weird, acting insane and forcing people to not only listen to his crap, but read along with his endless handouts. The guy must spend a fortune on paper! I only applauded when he said he was done. It was a very long afternoon.

Much Ado

Last night the kids and I went to see "Much Ado About Nothing" up at the college. They had an outdoor performance in their little amphitheatre and it was an excellent show. The kids were able to understand and really enjoy the performance. Of course it helped that I gave them a quick overview of the story along with key clips from the movie so they could keep up. The last thing I wanted to do was spend the whole time answering "Who is that? What did he say? What's going on?". The show was interrupted once during the first act for a rain delay. They were able to finish the first act, but we had to move inside for the second. It was raining buckets when we came out, so good call on the move!

Tomorrow is yard sale day, one of the more interesting days of the summer. I have a sale every summer and it usually goes pretty well. I like visiting with the neighbors and catching up with people who drop by. But there is always the creepy and downright scary few that make yard sale day that much more exciting! The trouble right now is the threat of rain. It's raining right now, thunderstorming actually, but there's not much I can do about it. I like to put out the stuff the night before, but that's not going to happen this year. We will just have to wait and see what the morning looks like.

Books and Magazines

I finished "The Chocolate War" a few days ago and I don't think I actually read it before after all. None of it rang any bells. Maybe I wanted to read it but never got to it. It was a really good book, but I could tell that I've been reading nothing but Newbery's for a long time. Every swear word was a slap and there were lots of references to...well it's set in an all boys prep school and you know what boys do! Shocking! But despite the language and all the sex talk, it was a great read. I've started now The Outsiders, which I know I have never read or (believe it or not) seen the movie.

The kids and I just got back from playing tennis. If you think it's easy for three people to play tennis, two of which are kids whom tennis experience is made up of 6 classes last summer, than you've never tried it. Luckily, the court up at LCCC with the wall opened up and we could hit the ball against the wall for a good long time. We left when we finally hit the final ball over the fence and into the field. Some genius has written "You Suck" on the wall. I was starting to believe it after awhile.

But the reason I am blogging today was an article I just read in Discover magazine. Discover is my favorite magazine ever! It's my forever gift from my dad who buys the subscription. I think he does it just so we have something to talk about! Most anything interesting I tell people starts with "This article in Discover said..." The article today was about a guy who gives happiness lesson, that being he teaches people to be happier in order to improve their lives. It was a very well written article full of point and counterpoint. He says that happy people are healthier, live longer, are more productive and successful. Others countered that being happy all the time is unnatural and unrealistic. I was digging it and then came the side bar, which is very cool. Titled "Dead Poets' Anxiety", here's the first sentence.

"Poets who committed suicide were much more likely to have used first person singular references like "I"," me", and "my" and fewer first person plural words like we, us, and ours.... Suicidal poets also tended to use fewer communication terms like "talk", "share" and "listen". Then there was a contrast of Sylvia Plath and Denise Levertov.
I'm sure this isn't true of all poets, but what a cool thing to study and find a correlation in!

Bye Bye Giant Tree

Monday night, around 11 PM, it sounded like someone was shooting of firecrackers right out on the street, immediately followed by a crash and a huge whoomp! It was a branch, falling off the tree two houses down. Now mind you, this "branch" was bigger than any of the trees on my property, except the oak. It blocked the road completely as it fell perfectly, right in front of the only car parked in the street, maybe only a foot off the front bumper and rest up into empty yard. No damage to anything. Tree guys couldn't have done it as well as the ants. Oh yes, it was ants. Lots and lots of them. That big branch was hollow. The street was crawling with them. I like to think about that one nibble too many. The poor branch was just holding on when some little critter needed a late night snack and CRASH, then whole damn thing comes down!

This morning, at 8 AM, three of the biggest tree trucks I've ever seen came for the rest of the tree. This was a tree lawn tree and I guess the city doesn't feel like it should press it's luck. The next branch probably was going to go through someone's roof. It only took a morning's work to shred through 100 years of tree.

This tree was a giant, just a fabulously big oak. The kids and I went down to measure the stump, 6'7"! And while I never wanted it at the end of my driveway, it was an impressive landmark for our block and I will miss it.

Award Winning Books

Last night I finished the book "Dobry" by Monica Shannon. Not a particularity great book, but boy oh boy do I know a lot about Bulgaria peasants now. I mention this book because it marks the end of a project I've been working on. I have been trying to read all the Newbery Award winning books and last night I did it!

If you are not familiar with the Newbery Award you can learn all about it here. In a nutshell, every year the Newbery is awarded the best new book in children's literature. It was first awarded in 1922 and I'll save you the math, that makes it 84 books right now that have won. I started reading them because these are the book you find on the teacher shelves in elementary classrooms, where I spend oodles of time. Our local library down the street also helped out by having all the Newberys in their own special section, saving lots of time on searching for titles. I didn't read them in any particular order, just what I happened by next. The last few I had to order in from other libraries because ours didn't have them. But now it's done. The boy asked me which was my favorite. Out of 84 books, that's a tough choice, but here's a few that I really loved:

• Tale of Desperaux-- Kate DiCamillo-- Okay, maybe this one is my favorite
• Year Down Yonder-- Richard Peck-- Or maybe it's this one...
• Number the Stars-- Lois Lowery-- got to love a good Nazi story
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry-- Mildred Taylor-- excellent writing
• From the Mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler--E.L. Konigsburg -- long title, great book
• Island of the Blue Dolphins-- Scott O'Dell-- girl power!
• The Twenty-One Balloons-- William Pene Du Bois-- strange book, but neat
• Johnny Tremain-- Esther Forbes-- I'm sorry E. I liked this one!

Just choosing these was difficult! Most of the books were wonderful in some way (otherwise, I guess they wouldn't have won!). I would have been easier to make the list of books that were real stinkers!

If you are looking for something easy, quick and satisfying to read, I would recommend almost any Newbery winner. It's been quite an experience. I still read out loud each night to the kids and it very often the book I just finished. So what will I read now? I just happen to have a fabulous little book here listing 50 great young adult novels. It's a whole new section of the library for me! My first book is "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier. I remember liking it in High School. Let's see if it's still got it!

Beach Trip

It's been hotter than heck around here! Being air-conditioning-less, we have to improvise. A few days ago it was a new sprinkler, a real one from Home Depot, no more baby sprinklers from the toy store! Today it was a trip to the beach. We all got up early, had a big waffle breakfast and were sitting on Huntington Beach by 9:30 AM. Very unlike us to say the least. But we had a lovely, sandy time. The lake was nice and cold, almost too cold when you first get in! The kids buried each other in the sand and dug out little walled lakes that they filled, then destroyed. E and I sat in the shade to read and people watch. No pictures because I forgot the camera, but it was a beautiful day out there. The sky was SO blue! Around noon it was starting to get crowded, so we headed out. Now we're home again and sweltering. Oh, well. Tonight I'm going to work on my photo albums which I have been putting off for.... Let's just say it's been too long. Being too warm to move around much, it's the perfect night for it.

Lights Out

Scolded! Get off my lazy blogging butt and post something new, I've been told. Okay, you make a good point, it has been too long. But the fact of the matter is that the lazy days of summer have finally caught up with the Andersons. After a busy, busy June of camping in one form or another, July has found us flopping around with a wide open calendar. Yesterday I even took a nap in my hammock! We walk the dog, cuddle with the cat, cook-out, eat ice cream (Twist and Shake!), and watch whatever movie just came from Netflix.

The power went out yesterday, which didn't cause too much of an alarm until we heard the firetrucks very, very close. I decided to cut through the back and see what the fuss was all about, but I never made it out of the yard. Mary, the neighbor directly behind me, had firemen in full scary gear all over her house, trying to get in. I wanted to tell them "Please don't use that ax! Those patio windows are really easy to pop!" But then the back door opened. They had climbed in a bedroom window. Thank goodness! My neighbor is a single mom who works crazy long days and is never home. When the power went out, the neighbor on the side came out and saw sparks shooting out of the back of Mary's house. The power line from her house to the pole was drooping almost to the ground.

The fireman secured the whole deal and put up "Do Not Cross" tape, took all their big truck and left. The power company came out and did their thing for a couple of hours. For awhile we had power in just the kitchen and the upstairs. Weird! Then, no power at all. We played Clue by candlelight which was lots of fun and I'm not saying that just because I won. And now it's all back to normal and the clocks are re-set. The "Do Not Cross" tape, left lying around by the power company has been scurried up by the kids, soon to be used in all kinds of cool ways if I know them!

Everybody Home

It's been a long two weeks, but finally all the Anderson's are back together on Columbus Street. E is home from Vermont. The boy is home from camp. The girl spent the night last night at Relay for Life with the Harrison's. Today, we are just hanging out together and doing tons of laundry!

Happy Birthday today to my darling sister! I hope you have a fantastic day! We love you!

Family Night at Camp

The girl and I joined the troop out at Firelands last night for dinner. As you can see, our Scout is alive and doing very well. He really seems to be enjoying himself. His leaders are all extremely impressed with how easily he's adjusted to camp life. He's been very busy taking rifle shooting, leatherwork and fishing, along with attending Trail Blazers, which seems to be some kind of Boy Scout Basics type of class. He is covered in bug bites, but other than that, he seems great!

Fireworks Night

Last night was fireworks at Cascade Park. The weather looked crappy all day, but by dinner it was all blue skies and cool breezes. A perfect night to be on the hill. The girl, the brother and I went with the Harrison's. Lots of glow bracelets, a loud band and a fantastic show. Thanks for pictures Denise! And thanks so much for coming along with us!