More Sunday Afternoon Randomizer

I am...

... drinking: tons of seltzer water (I gave up sugar in my coffee last year, this summer I'd like to give up sodas, tea with sweetener, etc. Except for mojitos. I am NEVER giving up mojitos!). Lots of iced coffee (I should buy stock in Starbucks).

... eating: smoked salmon (I am OBSESSED). Eggs, cooked every which way. A (very) late night cheeseburger after a long night.

... watching: finished the Dick Van Dyke show (all five seasons). Started rewatching the old Wild Wild West show (kooky old scifi? YES PLEASE!). Went to see The Shallows with Allen - such a truly terrible shark movie but so. much. fun. I screamed every time the shark popped out of the water and laughed at myself a lot.

... enjoying: the new car, and being able to drive around with all the windows down (although I'm NOT so excited that the same window that they worked on to get it to pass inspection has quit working again. Nor that I have to get the oxygen sensors worked on). Getting to spend some time in the water helping out my instructors with tricky kids.

... thinking about: my Alabama family (I'm missing them terribly). Going to the beach in August, and how I really should make reservations before everything fills up like last year. All the little tasks I need to get done when I have some spare time. Next swim season, and what we should do differently (or continue doing). Tiny house rooflines. How big Zephyr is getting - I bought a harness for him at the pet store and it was TOO SMALL.

... (re) reading: Atlas Shrugged. Remembering how (for me) this is the ultimate novel,  the most beautiful thing ever written. I love Dagny and Francisco D'Anconio and Ellis Wyatt and Richard Halley.  And if I ever have a son, I am so naming him Rearden.

Sunday Afternoon Randomizer

I love Sunday afternoons when I don't have to work. (I don't mind working on Sundays,  exactly - some of my best times with the kids have happened on Sundays - but inevitably when I don't get those few hours on Sunday night to set up for the week ahead, I end up playing catch-up all week.) I've spent this weekend getting stuff done. I pulled out everything from storage underneath the trailer and either discarding or donating most of it. I got my little (very little!) garden of zucchini,  tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and basil planted. (I'm so terrible at gardening. I want so badly to be good at it.) I replaced the faucet sink (with liberal help) after the original one broke. I did laundry and dishes and put them away. I ran a ton of errands. I went to the dump. I cleaned out and vacuumed the car. I cleaned the house.

I cleaned both boys cages and figured out a way to rig Zephyr's drip bowl with zip ties so he can't remove it. (Why he likes to detach it and sleep with it is BEYOND ME.)

Someone made me see red for a few moments this weekend when they called me "lazy" for not singing or playing the piano. I was furious for a moment because so many people who never mattered have tried in various ways to guilt me into doing what they think I should be doing. And then I thought about how little this person's opinion mattered, how unhappy his life looked, and how happy I was, and I let it go. Small victory.

I've been eating some amazing food lately. A birthday dinner at Charles Street Brasserie (pork kabobs, a smoked salmon platter, and seared tuna). Homemade shrimp tacos. Baby kale and swiss chard. A burrito. Snow crabs and salmon for Father's Day.  Soft - boiled eggs with smoked salmon, capers, and coconut mayonnaise. So. Much. Coffee.

Also,  I've been listening to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged through Audible. I fully intended to listen to as much of it as I could for free and then cancel the subscription,  but I like it so much I might keep it. It's an interesting experience, listening instead of reading. I've reread Atlas Shrugged every summer but one since I first read it - which means that I've been reading it for about a decade.

I'm enjoying the new car. Not that I ever disliked it, I just had a hard time giving up my beautiful orange truck. But I am really enjoying having more room and doing lots of driving with the windows down.

Summer Bucket List 2016

June

*1. Buy new CD

*2. Road trip!

*3. Watch it rain

*4. Go to the lake

* 5. Play in the sprinkler with the triplets

*6. Go to the movies

*7. Buy new goggles

*8. Try a new restaurant

*9. Watch a sunset

*10. Cheer for Ruth at a swim meet

July

*11. Take the triplets and Mason swimming

*12. Paint the bathroom

*13. Take Allen on a brother date

*14. Buy new sunglasses

*15. Write end of season thank you notes

*16. Purge and clean

*17. Paint the kitchen backsplash

*18. Read a new book

*19. Swim in the dark

*20. Dinner with the swim gang

August

*21. Eat seafood

*22. Go to the beach

*23. Watch the Olympics

*24. Reread Atlas Shrugged

*25. Go stargazing

*26. Feed giraffes

*27. Go people - watching

*28. Shakespeare! 

*29. Take one picture every day

*30. Go geocaching with Abigail