Assorted Things

Katie pointed us to another article on ethanol and how it will harm both the economy and the environment.

Philip has been asked to come in for an interview for one of the jobs in Japan he applied for.

We have been getting multiple boxes from FedEx and UPS and USPS every day this week. I don't remember having so many wedding gifts arrive after Nathan and Katie's wedding. Good thing Matt and Rachel stopped by yesterday; they cleared out corner of the living room from its stash of big boxes. But another has arrived. Wow!

I made two dozen tortillas, four loaves of bread, and a half-gallon of granola today. I'm beginning to think I need one of Polly's grandma's aprons. My black shirt is all floury!

Y'know the cliche, "Every cloud has a silver lining"? Well, fewer mosquitos has been the silver lining in the "cloud" of years of drought. After getting some rain last summer and a decent amount of rain this spring, we are seeing mosquitos like I haven't seen in a long time. Time to haul out the DEET or start looking into less toxic alternatives.

Glenda linked to an article on the importance of picnics. That's something we really need to work on. I remember with great fondness the picnics at Lake of the Woods and the parks in town. However, I have a husband who hates camping and hates picnics. After decades of marriage, I still haven't figured out how to work that -- other than going camping without him a few times. Besides, with the aforementioned mosquitos, it makes me wonder how picnics would be this year. The closest we get to picnicking is burning the brush pile in the backyard and then cooking hotdogs over the fire. It's outdoors and away from the phone. And as long as we don't continue to set standing live trees on fire, we should be okay!

Still no sign of chickenpox in our household. I was thinking that the pox-breakout should be today or tomorrow, but no fever yet either. Woo hoo! Not bad for an immune-depressed kid.