Bored and Amused

Yesterday was a standard Friday - as Spirit Week is gearing up kids wore team jerseys, but things went smoothly. We had a reward for good behavior - an ice cream social, and tied it to an outdoor lunch. Beautiful day, kids got out, had lunch, had popsicles or ice cream novelties (and we had quite a few unopened boxes donated by parents) then ran around a bit. When I say beautiful day - low 80s with no clouds, no humidity and a slight breeze so even in long pants in the sun in was comfortable.

On the bad side, isn't there always one, it appears my soldier friend will not be buried in Knoxville near his "adoptive" family who have nurtured, loved and supported him for the past 5 years after his "blood" relatives refused to take him in. Seems the Army, somewhat like the courts, awards the remains to blood relatives first, no matter how strong the connection to loved ones. He may be laid to rest near his deceased mother and grandmother by people that only care for him now (briefly) because he is a soldier killed in action, soon to be forgotten in the middle of nowhere with an unvisited grave, rather than in a veteran's cemetery a few miles from the home he shared with two parents and a 3 year old sister.

Saturdays are always a good day. Today the weather continued to be amazing, so I mowed the front lawn for perhaps the last time this year. It has been really dry (so dry I watered the drought resistant lemon tree today) so the grass has slowed growing, plus the days are shorter, signaling it to cut it out. Weeding front beds too, soon to put down some wood chips for the winter.

Youngest had a volleyball game in the morning, and oldest came with, to get new gravel for the fish tank which had a death last night - 0ne of the two tetras. Surprisingly, she enjoyed watching her sister play. The parents were worried, since this team really blew us out last time, but the second game the girls were up 7-0 to start, and were 14-11 through a couple of service changes before losing 14-16. They still haven't won, but I think this put a little confidence into their game.

After that we went to World Market - I had never been there but I WILL be going back. I could browse the foods for hours, and the tiny little bottles and packages of things make me long for Christmas and custom making some baskets and boxes for friends. Interesting and eclectic beers, too. It helps that I took French in high school and German in college ("Was kommt aus Lubeck?" "Thomas Mann und marzipan."), to decipher most of the products, some of which I have only ever heard of.

Now just hanging out, doing nothing. Going to finish Disk 5 of Supernatural, have some brownies. Listening to Pandora radio (Pandora.com for those of you who have never tried it...it is AWESOME) and sighing at the Warren Zevon (Heartache), and chuckling at the message on Tom Petty's "The Last DJ" while listening to it on a totally computerized "radio" station. Doing nothing is an understatement. I was on eBay earlier, but I don't have too many categories to check out lately. Bike shorts, which I always seem to be outbid on at the last minute or second if they are a decent deal. With the economy in the toilet I expect more bargains as people sell their hoarded goods for cash to run their SUVs. The restaurant we attend en famille on Saturdays was pretty empty, to prove the point. Heard about some woman getting a house for the minimum bid of $1.75 or something - I might have been dreaming I was watching the news, though.