Oldtimers

On Saturday night Speed Racer and I had the chance to catch up with some friends from college we hadn't seen in really really long time. And by a long time, I mean (at least for one person) a quarter century. As in we could have celebrated the silver anniversary of not seeing each other.
Amazingly, even though we might appear to be quite a bit older, we are all still very simpatico, and Speed Racer and I enjoyed our evening. We're already planning to do it again, and hopefully ccpdppr will be able to join us.

We're not prepared

Today there was a water main break at the main pumping station that provides our water. We have to boil our drinking water for at least the next day. I told Speed Racer to use our emergency supplies.

• which consist of three gallons of water.
• for six or (given what our house is like) more people.
• for at least twenty-four hours.

After this I'm going to go out and get some real emergency supplies.

(But we still have 3 cans of Spam squirreled away for when the North Koreans (or whomever) attack -- I wonder why I thought Spam was so important to have on hand?)

Get Pumped, Part Deux

Speed Racer has made the super-duper filter work. He is still threatening that we have to take the whole thing apart and make a bigger hole in the bottom, but it works! We can actually see the fish in the pond now.

Get pumped

Speed Racer and I had a brilliant idea. Since the pond is still suffering from an overabundance of algae, we thought we would make a super-duper filter, which we will inoculate with a special culture of algae-eating bacteria (which I have yet to order.) Speed Racer bought yards of filter floss stuff and carbon mats, and yesterday we went to the Home Depot and bought various bits and pieces of tubing and galvanized nipples and a large and decorative pot with a nice hole in the bottom. From these ingredients, and a bag of river pebbles, we created the super-duper filter. We were so proud of ourselves!

Next, we filled the thing with water-- and found that the pot leaked! We removed all the filter floss, carbon stuff and the river pebbles so we could line the pot with black plastic garbage bags and re-assembled the whole thing. Again, pride at our own cleverness ensued, especially when we saw the that pot no longer leaked when filled with water.

After several attempts to connect the pump, we got the system going. However, the pond pump moves too much water for the super-duper filteriness of our super-duper filter. We quickly moved to Plan B -- using a pump that splits the output between the filter and a fountain. Poor Speed Racer had to keep getting in and out of the pond as he attempted to adjust the flow-rate of the pump and fountain. Jaws, the koi , was very annoyed and bit Speed Racer's foot. Finally we thought we had it right -- just the right amount of water going to the filter, and not too much going through the fountain, so the fountain wasn't spitting water out of the pond. Again, we were full of pride!

But last night, I went out to check the whole set-up before I went to bed, and found that the filter was overflowing, spilling pond water into the yard. So I turned the pump off. Speed Racer pondered what to do, and he just got back from Home Depot with a new galvanized nipple with a very beautiful valve in the middle of it. He just needs to get a few new hose clamps, and he'll try again. I have no doubt that he'll make it work, he always does.

One more lily

check this baby out! I don't even remember planting this, but I must have -- right? I mean, lilies don't "volunteer," do they?

On the "volunteer" front, I found a tomato plant growing in the pot with our ficus tree. The ficus tree spent last summer on the deck next to the tomato plants, and I'm guessing that a cherry tomato fell into the post, one of the seeds germinated, and lo and behold, a volunteer tomato. It has flowers on it, so we may get a second-generation tomato or two to eat before the end of the summer.

Jim Thorpe, PA

Speed Racer and I enjoyed our weekend in Jim Thorpe very much. Some knucklehead forgot to bring the camera, so we don't have any pictures of the town, the bed and breakfast, the train, the Lehigh River, etc. But we think it is definitely worth a return trip. Back in the day when the town was called by its original name, Mauch Chunk, it was the second most popular tourist attraction in North America, after Niagara Falls.

Third Son and his pals had a great time paintballing too.

The new dog next door

The new dog next door didn't go home until Monday afternoon. By that time, he had earned a new nick-name -- "Devil Dog." Speed Racer named him thus, and now even his family is calling him Devil Dog. Fortunately, he is adorable, (as seen in this picture that Speed Racer took of him) which is probably why he continues to exist! Since he went home, he has been quite confused about which house he lives in, and which car he is supposed to jump in.

The New Dog Next Door

is a total pain in the *ss. Just ask First Son and his Girlfriend who babysat him this weekend.
Peed on my NEW bedroom carpet.
and in the kitchen
and in the living room
Pooped in a couple of indoor places too
Chewed socks
and belts
and sneakers
Made Dog bark even more incessantly than he usually does.
Did not sleep all night in his crate as advertised
Drinks vast quantities of water and then walks around dripping from his muzzle
chased the Cats
and moves way too fast to have his picture taken which is why I have a picture of Baby Sister's dear departed springer Maggie instead, who also used to pee on my floor and walk around dripping water from her muzzle.
We are all hoping his family gets home from the their weekend trip really really soon, like in the next 10 minutes.

The new dog next door

is still there. He is a very sweet and friendly Springer Spaniel. I knew she wasn't going to give him away.

It's hard to blog when you're watching TV all the time

So I haven't posted anything this week, as my time has been spent getting caught up on Jericho (I must mention how magnanimous Speed Racer is for letting me use his beautiful television).

Tomorrow, we are taking a little trip to the Poconos. Third Son and three of his friends are going to the Invasion of Normandy at Skirmish in Jim Thorpe, PA. Speed Racer and I in our well-practiced roles as chauffeurs are driving them up there, and then spending the night in a B&B nearby, while they paintball their brains out. It promises to be a beautiful weekend, and Jim Thorpe is (I have heard) a very nice town to hang out in for a day or two.

We had to rent a van for this expedition, and I decided not to rent from Budget after my last experience with them. So I rented from Hertz instead. When we got there to pick up the van, the office was closed, and the rental agent was nowhere in sight. Also there was no van visible in the parking lot, which Speed Racer thoughtfully pointed out. Eventually, the guy turned up (some story about having to take a car to the body shop because the renter got in an accident.) Then he announced he didn't actually have a van there. Speed Racer was all "I told you so," and the guy said he had to go down to the airport to get a van for us. He promised he'd be back in 20 minutes. Which, believe it or not, he was! We entertained ourselves by going to the liquor store. The van was unwashed and unvacuumed (not a big deal when you're going to put four teenage boys in it.) But, I didn't to have drive to King of Prussia, so I guess it was a better experience than renting from Budget. Also, the guy gave me two 15% discounts, which was really nice.

I made the Jericho plunge

Yes I did. I watched Jericho on Friday. Okay, well not exactly Friday, because Speed Racer and I had planned to watch Dr. Who. And I know the Jericho fanatics want us to actually watch it when it's on and not DVR it, but that's what I did. I thought it was pretty good, and I hear it gets better.

And now I have to watch 12 or 13 episodes before next Friday! So sorry to anyone who thinks I am going to cook, clean, or drive them anywhere. Fortunately, First Son has them all on his laptop.

Lilies

These double orange lilies are blooming in the front yard right now. Of course, I have no clue what variety they are, or where I got them.
The pink ones I got in the K-mart in Rehoboth, Delaware a couple of years ago. I went with my mother to buy paper towels and laundry detergent. These are the first Asiatic lilies that have deigned to grow for me.

Good news

Chocolate reduces blood pressure


If they do another one of these studies, sign me up!

Wanna see my frog?

Random house

Second Son got a job (yay!) -- he is going to be a barrista at a Starbucks in University City.

First Son's girlfriend gave him an extremely short hair cut. He now looks completely different from the were-bear we brought back from college, especially because he also shaved off his beard for his job.

Third Son is taking Brazilian ju-jitsu. This seems to be a sport in which people roll around on the floor and grunt. I have been told that there is more too it than that, but that's all I can see.

Dog has taken to barking at me incessantly while I am blogging.

Speed Racer, First Son, Third Son and a couple of Third Son's friends went to see the new Transformers movie at midnight last night. They said it was a good movie, but they never played the Transformers theme, which was disappointing (apparently.) Also, Bumblebee is not a VW Beetle in the movie, which is practically sacrilege.

Second Son's cell phone never came back.

MIssion Trip: We're Back!

We're back, Third Son and I, from the mission trip. It was terrific, and we both really enjoyed it.

We left early(ish) Sunday morning. St. Paul and I had told the kids and their families to meet us at the church at 7:30, so we could be on the road no later than 8:00. Of course, we ended up not showing up at the church until 7:55, but hey, everyone else was there and ready to go. A quick stop in the church, where we interrupted the (usually) quiet and staid 8:00 service to get a blessing, and we were on our way.

When we got to North Carolina 8 or so hours later, we met the other groups attending that week - anther small group (from Michigan) and a huge group from Minnesota. To my relief, we all seemed to fall in a comfortable spot on the religious spectrum, and the kids from Michigan and Minnesota were delightful. Our kids were a little stand-offish for oh, maybe 6 minutes 30 seconds, and then they dove in, getting to know everyone, and learning to speak Minnesotan.

In the course of 4 working days, we made new friends, painted a church (my crew) and a house (St. Paul's crew, who also experienced "Southern hospitality" from their homeowners, including a "frahhed" chicken lunch wiht "paah" for dessert), played with some of the cutest kids ever in Kids Club, thought a lot about poverty in the US, cheated at Uno with the developmentally disabled clients of Mattamuskeet Opportunities, pondered what the world would be like if we really tried to live like Jesus, washed a lot of dishes, scratched a lot of mosquito bites, ate a lot more than we usually would, went crabbing, canoeing, and to a Wednesday night service at a local Baptist Church (which our Episcopalian kids LOVED!) and got to know ourselves a whole lot better. Plus, my cell phone and Blackberry had no service, so I got to really get away from work. The weather was hot, but with a cooling breeze all week.

On Thursday night, we had a community cook-out, to which all the people we had served during the week were invited. Seeing some of the folks, whom I had thought we wouldn't have a chance to see again, was like a little glimpse of some people's vision of heaven -- the banquet table where we will meet all our friends and loved ones and party for a few centuries. The cookout was only about an hour and half though, not even one century. After the cook-out, we had a foot-washing service -- as a demonstration of "servant-leadership" the Youthworks staff washed the feet of the adult leaders of each church group, and then we washed the feet of our kids, who were awed by the experience.

On Friday, we went to Nags Head to go kayaking. The kids sang all the way -- all the songs they had learned during the week. We visited Kitty Hawk and then made our way to the kayak store. Our appointment for our expedition was at 2 pm -- at 2:01, it started to rain and thunder --and it rained solidly until 9 pm! No worries though, the church we were staying in, St Andrews by the Sea, has a beautiful youth room with (thank goodness) a TV and DVD player, as well as an air hockey table and a foosball table. So we had a hilarious dinner out together, rented a movie, and relaxed for our last night together.

So now we're home. Thanks to everyone who kept us in your prayers (or thoughts).