A Weekend of Transition

It felt like a weekend of transition…..the boys get out of school tomorrow (after a whopping hour and a half there) so they were already in summer mode.  My sister Debbie headed back to Boston….so sort of a transitional weekend for my mother as well.  Here are my notes….random as always…..

1.  In response to my last posting….Ernie is definitely the one that was insane to trim my hair for me.  The last time I had him do that I think I was about eight months pregnant with Leo.  The length of time will give you an idea as to the outcome.  Evidently it's sort of like childbirth however and you start thinking 'oh, that wasn't so bad.'  Eh….it'll grow back and I swear I'll never put Ernie through that again…..

Remind me of that….

2.  Last night I was doing something in the kitchen, listening to music and Ernie came in and said, "I know you've been a little down lately—–listening to a hell of a lot of the latest Peter Case but you know sometimes when it's warm out and summer is starting….you have to listen to some power pop" and proceeded to put this on:

3.  Friday I looked at the forecast and saw it was going to rain and therefore decided this was the PERFECT day to get Leo's Rail Simulator set up.  So after calling all over town (I made my colleague Nancy do some of them because I hate making phone calls so) we finally determined that the closest copy we could find was in Bloomington so Ernie and Leo set off for Bloomington that afternoon only to drive through the predicted storms all the way.  oops.  By the time they got home the end of our street was totally flooded which gave the boys something to wade through which was good as I couldn't get the Rail Simulator to work.  To put it on I had to install Parallels and then Windows on my Mac.  I've worked on and off on this all weekend—-got those two programs installed but  can't get the Rail Simulator to work.  The last time I remember being this frustrated with computers was the last time I had a PC.  Oh well, Leo has been sweetly understanding thus far but I better get this figured out pretty soon.  I installed the Rail Simulator but when I start I get error messages.  Any ideas?

4.  Saturday was a near perfect day—–we went to the farmer's market and got to see Wordy Diva Lisa IN PERSON as well as get asparagus, the most beautiful Bright Lights swiss chard ever, arugula, tons of spinach, some more smoked pork chops and a couple of steaks…..  Then I took a nap. Ahhhhh.  I never used to be able to nap but now…..  Anyway, that night was Debbie's last night in town and we'd planned to go over there for pizza but with all that bounty in my kitchen I decided to cook.  Ernie lightly grilled the chops and I sauteed onions with the swiss chard stems then added the leaves, a handful of currants and some red pepper flakes (marvelous if I do say so myself).  Rounded it out with some roasted potatoes with herbs and we were too full to even have the strawberries for dessert.  We sat outside (still have to get a ramp for my mother's wheelchair) and watched the bats come out as it got dark.

5.  Owen went off to school this morning in jeans and a t-shirt and he looked so strange to me.  It's been some time since I've seen him in anything but  khaki (Indiana Jones) pants.  Ernie took him to Champaign Surplus and got him a new pack that nobody could accuse of being an old purse.  He also got a holster with a  gun.  I know, I know…..I was the one that didn't want toy guns.  'Only when you're Indy' I said faintly….

6. Oh….and here's Bob in a playful mood…..that's all for now…..more later…..