Melting

102 degrees. What else is there to say? We don't move much, and we huddle in the dormer window of J's room, where the only air conditioner, a tiny thing, is making a valiant but losing effort. 102. What is the point of living in the Pacific Northwest and going through all that gray and rain for so many months if summer is going to be miserable too!?

OK, on the not miserable front:

My friend from Maine just spent a week with us and it was wonderful. We have what we call a "vacationship" as we don't speak or email too much, but once or twice a year we vacation together and have a grand time. We were friends and roommates in Israel and she is the reason I am a librarian and also the reason I dated my husband long enough to marry him (nagged me until I called him). We've traveled together on four different continents, and although she is a little bitter about my lion survival plan, which involves shoving her in front of pouncing lions and running while they are distracted, she has overlooked it enough to continue to be my friend.

We had a great week. We walked and biked the river trail, went to the Arts & Crafts Fair, canoed in the lake, and ate terrific vegetarian meals. She let J "help" blow dry her hair, read him stories, and was willing to dig holes with him while I sat in the shade. She didn't mind going to six different stores looking for the perfect side table. She gets along swimmingly with my husband and my mom, and doesn't mind just reading during a lazy afternoon or talking about knitting. Excellent vacationship.

The intrepid canoers. Though, now that I look at the pictures, it reminds me that it was a row boat, really - but we did paddle.

Bee vs. Boy

Yesterday afternoon's knitting (me) and sawing (Roni) was disrupted when ear splitting screams erupted from the deck. I look out and see J jumping up and down, shrieking. Turns out that wasps built a nest in his little plastic workman's table and when he reached for the drawer one of them stung him on his thumb. I was actually relieved as I thought he'd disemboweled himself with a plastic hammer or something.

So Roni spent dusk spraying wasp nests. The tool table wasn't the only one - they've also built nests in three of the dormer eaves. We spread death in all directions, making J very, very happy.

Here he is doing his impression of a dead wasp. He's also fascinated that the bugs sting with their bottoms - didn't get that on camera but be assured that he is acting it out alot.

And here, fully recovered, working on his tow truck skills. His goal is to grow up to be a tow truck. Not the driver, mind you, he wants to be the truck.

Also making him very happy is his new air conditioner, installed yesterday. His room is on the sunniest part of the house and does get the warmest of all the rooms. He is also not at a stage to understand that it will cool off soon after the sun goes down. Doesn't help that he goes to bed before the sun goes down, of course.

Roni loves it too. Caught him studying accounting in there in the afternoon.

Adding a just occurred conversation:

J, coming from his Mighty Machines show in the office: I spilled Papa's drink, I need a towel.

Johnna: There is one on the chair in the kitchen.

Roni: What do you mean, you spilled my drink. How did you get my drink?

J: I just had it.

Roni: How did you "had" it?

J: I just did.

Roni: You took my drink?

J: I just wanted it.

Roni: You can't take my drink!

J: I just did.

Is this our future?

Yes, the woods again.

I'm thinking that I need to change the name of this blog to "We camp, I buy fiber, nothing else happens." Really, we don't have anything else to report.

J and I went camping. Deception Pass this time, with my L.U. (loyal underling - though she's looking for a different job ((weep)) that might offer more benefits such as hours or money, but that is a lengthy aside for another day) and her son. We told everyone it was to give the boys time to bond, but since her son is 18 and J is 3, the chances of lifelong friendship developing are smallish. He was great for sharing the piggybacking though, so we like him.

It was a great place for J. Lovely sandy & rocky beach to dig in and a lake just steps from the sea shore in case he wanted to swim. Next time we'll rent lake boats. The adults were happy too - fairly private spot, the bathrooms not too far away, red & pink wine and some rum for the more difficult moments of wilderness life, such as the times when the L.U. drives clear back to civilization for a job interview that turns out to be scheduled for a different Tuesday.

J is reduced to bliss by marshmallows and fire-poking-with-stick. There was a little trauma the second night when he had first a nightmare and then a catastrophic night diaper failure an hour later, so Mom was a bit groggy by the end of the trip, not to mention sunburned and deeply in need of eyeliner, but I'm still counting the trip as a success. Roni got to a casino in his absence and got back out only $7 down so his time alone was also a happy one.

And I came back to a delivery of alpaca-silk-camel fiber combos, so all is right in the world.

After getting up this morning, J asked me what we were going to do today. I told him (with secret delight) that he was going to "school." There was a brief pause, then an ecstatic intake of breathe, and then he proceeded to tear around the house, getting ready as fast as he could shove his little body into superman underwear and his little feet into the wrong sandals. His love of daycare is a little amazing to me, given the turnover in adults there - we arrived this morning to find another letter in his file telling us that the director was gone. Again. This one lasted only a month or so. He's on his fourth teacher in the same classroom. And he hasn't been there a year yet! I know that corporate daycares tend to have a lot of turnover, but surely this is excessive, and should send up some red flags. But, he is so very happy there. He only cares about the kids anyway and they don't turn over the way the staff does. And the people who do stay are very nice to us, his vocabulary has grown in leaps and bounds, and he can tell his colors apart now so my worries about him being colorblind have been alleviated. So he gets to stay, even if no one else adult does, as long as he's happy and safe. That's really all I expect from a daycare anyway - they aren't required to get him into Harvard.

Random trips to the wilderness

OK, maybe not wilderness but there were trees at least. I've been a bit remiss about posting since school got out, so here are a few of our adventures this summer.

Camping with the Frost's extended family over Memorial weekend:

Camping with Grandma just a few miles from home - we're working our way through the county parks with camping potential:

My road trip to the Black Sheep Gathering on the last day of school. It was a blast, and I barely resisted becoming a shetland sheep owner. If I hadn't had to go back on Amtrak and doubted their willingness to have sheep roaming the aisles . . . also loved the Jacob sheep, but found those horns a little intimidating.

And my cousin's backyard definitely doesn't count as wilderness, but we had a great time there, complete with the Italian branch of the family and a band.

It's been a pretty good summer so far.

Facing the Fish

A rather gray day today, so we spent some of it indoors at the Aquarium. It also doubled as an anniversary treat, as today is the 2nd of our yearly anniversaries due to our double weddings. (I forgot AGAIN! Every summer I miss the date until a mother or mother-in-law calls. Embarassing.)

Loved the dome room where J worried about the shark danger and we watched a giant sea star make its slow way down a window. But the highlight was watching the sea otter feeding time - they smashed clams with great abandon and sucked down each one without a chew, racing their fellows to get the most into their stomachs before they were all gone. Lunch from the Market with interesting delicacies from the Korean food stand to try and bagpipe music played by a couple of teenagers to round off the meal. Urban life has its moments.