I picked up Ada, went to the store to get items that Mac could make for dinner, took care of dishes and a load of laundry and then went to bed for the night, settling in about 7. This morning, I still have a headache, but it isn’t as bad. Tylenol isn’t putting a dent in it though which is more bad news for today. Any headache that I wake up with that isn’t eased with Tylenol only gets worse until I use something to knock myself out. Hopefully, I will make it through the kids’ tumbling classes this morning.

The morning weather is beautiful. I wish it could be autumn/spring for a longer period. I checked out the weather for today, and noticed there was a severe weather alert. I couldn’t imagine what sort of severe weather would be on a sunny 60 degree day. It turned out to be a frost advisory. First thought was “We just got done with it being in the 100/90 degree range, frost already? Really?” My second thought was “Does that really warrant a severe weather alert? Severe frost? Should we take cover?” Weather reporting is getting ridiculous. I’ll leave you with my favorite weather report ever, giving thanks that I don’t live there.

I was going to make Sopa De Maiz Pelao^* tonight, because you know, what sounds good on another 110+ degree day is a …warm bowl of soup? Okay, not, it doesn’t sound good. But I can make it in the crockpot which doesn’t heat up my kitchen at all. However, I’m out of garlic to make hogao^**, which goes in the soup. Tonight needs to be leftover night anyhow.

Fabric
I need to go fabric shopping. I’ve been doing some online. I want it to make some backdrops, so it isn’t too complicated. I’m just making curtains. I have the bar for the top with my backdrop stand. The big thing I want is to put a weighted bar through the bottom to help keep it taut. If the fabric is too thin, I may have to add backing. I’m basically wanting patterns, either paisley/flowery or stripes or other interesting patterns, to emulate cool wall paper. I could just use wall paper on a huge piece of foam board, but I don’t have a system to hold it up. I do have a system to hold up a backdrop. I don’t have a sewing machine.

Examples of some that I’m looking at:
Flower/Paisley
Cool pattern
Stripes

And so on. I can decide on patterns better once I plot out the photo I want to take with it.

Freakin’ Hot
Like everybody else, I feel the need to document how freakin’ hot it is outside. The heat index was 113 yesterday, and it promises to be the same today. I started the grill for dinner, and did not even feel the heat of the flames. It was that hot, folks.

It counts as an “F.”

*A soup with pork (usually the neck, but I have ribs), yellow hominy and hogao

**A Columbian sauce: diced tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, onions, cumin and saffron. And whatever else I’m forgetting because I’m not looking at the recipe. Salt.

Beware, Hydrology!

In more appropriate word, it’s flooding. Really. Flood Statement. Flood Warning. Flood Watch. Whichever. Flood. I prefer the Hemingwayization of the weather.

Speaking of hydrology, we spent the day yesterday at Wisler’s Cove at Perry Lake. The boat stayed in the marina since it rained almost the entire time. The sound of it hitting the metal roof of the dock while also pummeling the giant puddle we were sitting by^* made it a very loud day at the dock. Add the blaring music to the rest of the noise, and I couldn’t understand a word of what people sitting right across from me were saying. However, I did get to test the signal strength of my new phone, and am happy to say I was able to tether it to my laptop and get a pretty good internet connection. I at least got a little bit of work done. I like the lake when it is peaceful and quiet.

*That would be the lake.

The kids and I have made two trail trips. One of the paths is still covered in standing water, and since we don’t have shoes for that kind of trail walking, we’ve had to take the other path and just deal with mud. It hasn’t been too bad. Ada did fall once, but she bounced back with only a scratched knee. Also, part of my walking/jogging path, which is paved, still has standing water on it, and I almost fell three times because of it. And I was walking really slow over it. The issue with that is that our soil has a lot of clay in it. And that soil is washing up onto the sidewalk along with the water. Remember the last time you played with wet clay? Yeah, try walking on it. There were new “Caution, Slippery When Wet” signs there from Parks and Rec tonight, but there isn’t anything on it to help. Like maybe some straw. Maybe it wouldn’t help. I don’t know, but I about broke something. So, yeah, rain, it can not do that for awhile.

I bought a new toy the beginning of March–A Garmin Forerunner. I bought the shoe pod for when I’m indoors, but haven’t tried that piece out yet. *cough* I have had the opportunity to use it a handful of times for walking/jogging. I now have a historical record of my time, average and max speed, average pace, elevation, calorie calculation (based on height, weight, age and activity–good enough) and average and max heart rate. It plots everything on a graph for me, so I can see how my speed, elevation and heart rate changes over time. It also plots my path on a map. I do nothing except put it on my wrist and then plug it into my laptop when I get home. It does more than just that. You can designate laps, set up workouts that will prompt you to change something with beeping and set alarms for max and min heart rate. It is also set up to use with bikes as well. The worst thing I’ve heard about this device is the customer service. Lucky for me, I know whose door I need to knock on to get it fixed. It is also nice for threading the strap through my keyring before I put it on my wrist. Now I don’t need pockets for my keys while I’m out.

The best part is my cool down. I drive the convertible the long way home around part of the lake with the top down.

Thank-you Summer weather^*. I love you.

*Okay, more like Spring weather for Kansas. Summer weather is even more humid and in the mid 90s to lower 100s.

The kids and I went outside to check out one of Jay’s flowers that have poked above the ground. Something has already started to eat the leaves. Here is Ada’s solution:

I have a great idea. Let make a sign–a small bug sized sign–with a picture of a bug and a line^* so they know not to eat the flowers. Does that sound like a great idea?

It sounds like a fabulous idea–Ada’s Organic Gardening Solutions. I’m sure it will be one of those solutions that will have everybody saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?!?!”

*I’m assuming she is referring to the international symbol for No.

To add to the fun of trying to not add to the total of cars in ditches, my car died on me.

Thanks, Spring Equinox, for all this sleet and snow.

Ada had dance Saturday morning, but we didn’t spend our typical Saturday together. We headed to one store to pick up a gift for her birthday party she was going to in the late afternoon. Then we went home to spend time with my brother.

I went to listen to Ira Glass speak Saturday night. He talked mostly about This American Life and some about journalism in general. He did it well. He told his story rather than gave a lecture. It’s what he does best. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would like to go see David Sedaris in April. I’d need to grab tickets to that soon.

The other event of the weekend was the sleet and snow that started while I was at Ira Glass. Most people sort of tumbled out of the parking lot rather than drove. I’m not kidding when I say that the entire line of cars in front of me on Crestline slid down towards 15th. It would have helped if any of them knew not to ride their breaks. A few cars were going sideways, and at least two went off the road to avoid hitting others. I just downshifted as soon as I started to slide and managed to make it down without incident or further sliding. Imagine that.

Lastly, I caught the sickness of the kids, or caught something. Combine that with being up with Jay most of Saturday night, I spent a lot of time Sunday in bed. I had one big house chore that I wanted to do today, but I still don’t feel great and didn’t sleep well. I’m going to spend today much the same way, tackling only laundry and dishes. I even have dinner already made.

Why I even post about this non-event? Because my co-workers in South Dakota are under a blizzard warning. Blizzard at the end of March. Not only that, they are getting sleet first, so layer of frozen ice followed by a blizzard at the end of March.

Non-weather news: The piece that holds the handle to the freezer onto the door of the freezer broke into a million pieces^*, and our bed sprung a leak. At least I can still open the freezer door, sleeping in the living room until the bed is fixed will be all slumber-party like, and our room needed a spring cleaning anyhow.

*About 10

Happy Birthday, Lydia! I hope you enjoyed your present, courtesy Mother Nature. Tomorrow, back to regular winter cold, I think.

I am looking forward to fall–sweatshirts, cool breezes blowing through the windows, crunchy leaves, warm food.

I also have a long standing rule^* that any movie that is viewed in the month of October must be a horror flick. I’ll have to make up a queue of my favorite horror movies and try to watch 1-2 a week.

*It pains me to attached the adjective “long” onto that. I started this rule shortly after I started college. *Sigh*