Flower and Library Friday

Written on Aug 7.

Jet and I started, on Friday, with getting up really late. I think he has a cold, and I've definitely gotten that cold since. Just a head cold, nothing debilitating other than my wanting to sleep, a lot.

There was one thing we HAD to do on Friday. It is my weekend to take care of the rose garden. I'd had a stint that was supposed to have happened in early July, and I was gone, so I'd missed it and I'd informed a bunch of people, so someone did take over, then. But I missed my time in The Garden, as Jet calls it. I had to weed, dead head, and water, but the night before Longmont got dumped on, so I think they were okay for the week.

In order to buy myself the time to do all that I filled two buckets with water balloons. A whole lot of water balloons, little ones mostly, but some big ones buried in there so Jet could have some fun both finding them and using them. It was a little nerve-wracking driving with them in the car, but we got them there intact, and Jet hopped down, took one of the buckets and manfully picked it up and struggled with it all the way to the garden.

I took everything else. Then Jet got started with "watering the roses" while I wandered through and dead headed everything, weeded, etc. It's soothing work for me to just stride through and check on each bush. I cut off all the dead flowers and what rose hips as have formed, and then I weed around it and make sure that the watering system is getting it good and wet. It's comforting work. Jet found that the thorns on the bushes were excellent for popping the balloons. I found that it made it less than handy for cleaning up the rubber after the balloons were spent. Oops. Luckily, I had my gardening gloves, and I did what had to be done, grazing through after Jet to just get as many of the balloons up as I could.

The balloons gave me the hour I needed. Yay!

From there we went to the Library, and Jet got his Loot. I'd found the reading card just this morning, and frantically filed in as many books as I could remember, and even went up to his shelves to fill in a bunch more. Jet recycles a lot of books for night time reading, and we'd gotten through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stuart Little, though I'm still not entirely sure Jet gets all the words, just hearing them in context seems to be good enough for him.

We took it in, and the Librarian accepted his form and asked him about who had read books to him, and Jet promptly hid behind my legs. Yeesh. So he didn't answer any of her questions, but did accept looking through the treasure chest for some toys. She handed me the three packets of coupons and gift certificates that "Jet" had earned by listening to stories. I think that if we'd actually been around we could have done this in stages and he would have spoken with her about the books. But so it is. We did read all summer, so I don't think it was a cheat, but it still felt a little odd to do it all in one day.

We hit the Asian grocery store in town next, as Jet was craving mango ice cream balls. We bought two packets and, predictably, Jet ate half of one for his lunch. He also ate half a peach, but other than that... I let him believe it was a mango, so he slurped it up happily "because Crash eats mangoes!"

I had a scallion streamed bun with "hairy sprinkles", i.e. pork sung. Yummy and not too nutritious, so I added the rest of the peach to my diet as well.

We spent a bunch of the afternoon in the basement, playing video games, staying cool, and doing some exercising, as the Dance Dance Revolution was put into exercise mode. Thanks, Anita! It was a great idea, and Jet can bounce to his heart's content and never have the machine boo at him. And I get not only a good workout, but actually get better at some of the dances! Goodness.

John came home, and he rode the exercise bike. We ended up deciding to use one of Jet's coupons and went to IHOP, where he got his smiley face pancake for free! Happy Jet. He also fell asleep in my arms at the dinner table when we were done. So John and I changed him, and I rocked him in my arms for a bit until he was completely asleep. Then we laid him down and we enjoyed our early evening.

Flower and Library Friday

Written on Aug 7.

Jet and I started, on Friday, with getting up really late. I think he has a cold, and I've definitely gotten that cold since. Just a head cold, nothing debilitating other than my wanting to sleep, a lot.

There was one thing we HAD to do on Friday. It is my weekend to take care of the rose garden. I'd had a stint that was supposed to have happened in early July, and I was gone, so I'd missed it and I'd informed a bunch of people, so someone did take over, then. But I missed my time in The Garden, as Jet calls it. I had to weed, dead head, and water, but the night before Longmont got dumped on, so I think they were okay for the week.

In order to buy myself the time to do all that I filled two buckets with water balloons. A whole lot of water balloons, little ones mostly, but some big ones buried in there so Jet could have some fun both finding them and using them. It was a little nerve-wracking driving with them in the car, but we got them there intact, and Jet hopped down, took one of the buckets and manfully picked it up and struggled with it all the way to the garden.

I took everything else. Then Jet got started with "watering the roses" while I wandered through and dead headed everything, weeded, etc. It's soothing work for me to just stride through and check on each bush. I cut off all the dead flowers and what rose hips as have formed, and then I weed around it and make sure that the watering system is getting it good and wet. It's comforting work. Jet found that the thorns on the bushes were excellent for popping the balloons. I found that it made it less than handy for cleaning up the rubber after the balloons were spent. Oops. Luckily, I had my gardening gloves, and I did what had to be done, grazing through after Jet to just get as many of the balloons up as I could.

The balloons gave me the hour I needed. Yay!

From there we went to the Library, and Jet got his Loot. I'd found the reading card just this morning, and frantically filed in as many books as I could remember, and even went up to his shelves to fill in a bunch more. Jet recycles a lot of books for night time reading, and we'd gotten through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stuart Little, though I'm still not entirely sure Jet gets all the words, just hearing them in context seems to be good enough for him.

We took it in, and the Librarian accepted his form and asked him about who had read books to him, and Jet promptly hid behind my legs. Yeesh. So he didn't answer any of her questions, but did accept looking through the treasure chest for some toys. She handed me the three packets of coupons and gift certificates that "Jet" had earned by listening to stories. I think that if we'd actually been around we could have done this in stages and he would have spoken with her about the books. But so it is. We did read all summer, so I don't think it was a cheat, but it still felt a little odd to do it all in one day.

We hit the Asian grocery store in town next, as Jet was craving mango ice cream balls. We bought two packets and, predictably, Jet ate half of one for his lunch. He also ate half a peach, but other than that... I let him believe it was a mango, so he slurped it up happily "because Crash eats mangoes!"

I had a scallion streamed bun with "hairy sprinkles", i.e. pork sung. Yummy and not too nutritious, so I added the rest of the peach to my diet as well.

We spent a bunch of the afternoon in the basement, playing video games, staying cool, and doing some exercising, as the Dance Dance Revolution was put into exercise mode. Thanks, Anita! It was a great idea, and Jet can bounce to his heart's content and never have the machine boo at him. And I get not only a good workout, but actually get better at some of the dances! Goodness.

John came home, and he rode the exercise bike. We ended up deciding to use one of Jet's coupons and went to IHOP, where he got his smiley face pancake for free! Happy Jet. He also fell asleep in my arms at the dinner table when we were done. So John and I changed him, and I rocked him in my arms for a bit until he was completely asleep. Then we laid him down and we enjoyed our early evening.