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elfsDidn't sleep too well Sunday night. Not sure why. Just toss-turned all night. This morning I feel tense, tight, all wound up in the flesh and all too loose in the brain. My elbows and wrists hurt in that overworked way.
But then kneeling in a flowerbed and pulling out weeds one after another, hour after hour, will do that to a man. At least the front of the house is starting to look good, but I should probably buy a cheap power-washer to do the windows and paint facing. I turned the compost bins, and set up a trap in the house for fruit flies, since we seem to have a sudden infestation of them in our trash. We cleaned everything out as soon as we found it, but there are still loose bugs in the house, so the trap.
I'm worried about my orchard, though. The apple trees were assaulted by tent caterpillars in mid-spring, and now they're both just groaning under the weight of their apples. I've never seen them so burdened before that their branches are brushing the ground. I can't mow under there and have to pull out the dandelions by hand. The pear tree seems to be doing better, but it's early yet for pears. Wait until they get full-size.
We attended a good-bye party for Kouryou-chan's teacher, who's moving back to her native Ireland. It was sad to see her go; she was such a good teacher and I really liked her. I don't have much in common with many of the people who send their kids to Montessori; I get the impression few of them are breaking their piggy banks to do it, what with all the Lexus and Mercedes in the lot. Great cartoon, though: shows two fish wandering past a mob of fish, all clearly going in different directions. "That must be a Montessori school."
But it was fun to talk to the people there, nonetheless. I was a bit disappointed to discover that at least one woman I spoke with there thought that it was still the school's job to do all the educating. There is that "I'm paying all this money, why should I do the work too?" attitude that depresses me.
When we got home, we did more gardening, I played a chapter of Opposing Force, and then Omaha and I played with Kouryou-chan for a while, making paper crowns and playing pretend games. I made a london broil for dinner that, sadly, wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. And there were yellowjackets in the house-- three of them! Kouryou-chan freaked when one of them landed on her. I got out the portable bug zapper and killed them.
Y'know, I love living in a suburb, especially an older one where there's still a lot of green. But some days that greenbelt is just a source of nuisance bugs, y'know?
But then kneeling in a flowerbed and pulling out weeds one after another, hour after hour, will do that to a man. At least the front of the house is starting to look good, but I should probably buy a cheap power-washer to do the windows and paint facing. I turned the compost bins, and set up a trap in the house for fruit flies, since we seem to have a sudden infestation of them in our trash. We cleaned everything out as soon as we found it, but there are still loose bugs in the house, so the trap.
I'm worried about my orchard, though. The apple trees were assaulted by tent caterpillars in mid-spring, and now they're both just groaning under the weight of their apples. I've never seen them so burdened before that their branches are brushing the ground. I can't mow under there and have to pull out the dandelions by hand. The pear tree seems to be doing better, but it's early yet for pears. Wait until they get full-size.
We attended a good-bye party for Kouryou-chan's teacher, who's moving back to her native Ireland. It was sad to see her go; she was such a good teacher and I really liked her. I don't have much in common with many of the people who send their kids to Montessori; I get the impression few of them are breaking their piggy banks to do it, what with all the Lexus and Mercedes in the lot. Great cartoon, though: shows two fish wandering past a mob of fish, all clearly going in different directions. "That must be a Montessori school."
But it was fun to talk to the people there, nonetheless. I was a bit disappointed to discover that at least one woman I spoke with there thought that it was still the school's job to do all the educating. There is that "I'm paying all this money, why should I do the work too?" attitude that depresses me.
When we got home, we did more gardening, I played a chapter of Opposing Force, and then Omaha and I played with Kouryou-chan for a while, making paper crowns and playing pretend games. I made a london broil for dinner that, sadly, wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. And there were yellowjackets in the house-- three of them! Kouryou-chan freaked when one of them landed on her. I got out the portable bug zapper and killed them.
Y'know, I love living in a suburb, especially an older one where there's still a lot of green. But some days that greenbelt is just a source of nuisance bugs, y'know?
