I've been kind of busy the last ten days.
My brother left for the final bit of his training before heading to the middle east, where he will be working with the military to combat terrorism. He's very excited about the job, not so much about missing his kids' football seasons. There was a big party to celebrate my nephew's high school graduation and imminent departure for college. I stayed up way too late discussing movies, books and current events with people I love but don't get to see very often.
Last week Jay and I went to see
Pat Green at our favorite venue here in town; the amphitheater at the Minnesota Zoo. Despite a month of cool, gray, damp days, the day of the concert was clear, blue and hot. We met our friends for dinner before the concert. We ate at one of the many places in town who claim to be the originator of the "juicy Lucy". I had the "Saucy Sally". The Saucy Sally gave me soupy poopy but that wasn't a problem till the next morning.
The concert was GREAT. First off, anyone would be fun to see at the zoo. It's beautiful and intimate; about as close to having a headliner in your back yard as you can get without being a corporate bigwig. Second,
Pat Green puts on a kick ass show, even if he does say so himself, which he does.
Last week Josie had try outs for high school volleyball. It was four days of hard work and following orders and missing out on what has been the highlight of her summer for four years; karate camp, but all worth it when she made B-squad! After the teams were set, Jay and I took her out to the lake for the last day and a half of karate camp. It's two hours out of town and we left town during rush hour and drove through several thunderstorms but it was a nice drive. We saw a double rainbow between storms. After dropping her off (she wouldn't let us come into the gym with her. We just dumped her stuff in her cabin and she banished us from the camp grounds. Nice.) Jay and I had dinner at Mort's Deli in Golden Valley when we got back to town.
In the midst of all this, Jay was busy. While the feds have been sponsoring "Cash for Clunkers", Jay was doing his own "Clunkers for Cash" deals. We are back down to only three cars instead of five, which makes much more sense since only three of us can drive. I like Jay's deals much better than the government deal; no one had to wait on the feds to get their money, no one had to take on a new car payment, there are two happy drivers tootling along in their affordable rigs and two perfectly good cars didn't have to have their engines destroyed so we could all feel good about ourselves.
We feel pretty darn good about it.
Ty flew into town for a couple of days and we got to play some serious scrabble. He'll be back in a week or two for his buddy's wedding. Katie is out in Yellowstone trying to decide what she wants out of life.
Zack and Jay started classes today so last night I made a blueberry coffee cake. I almost forgot. Zack reminded me at about 11:00. Okay, I
did forget. Good thing he reminded me. So, school started for them and Josie had her first official high school volleyball practice today. There's still a week of summer left but it seems like it's over.
I'm never ready for summer to end. I hear rumors of mom's who can't wait for school to start up but I don't know any of them. I think it may be an urban legend. Don't get me wrong, I get used to having my days all to myself pretty fast. By the end of the first week I can barely remember what summer was like. This will be the first time in about seven years that I won't have to make that ten mile commute twice a day to the grade school. I won't miss that. Still, I can hardly believe that Josie is in highschool. Four years and she'll be ready to head on out to Big School Somewhere.
It was only yesterday that she was starting kindergarten and Ty was starting his senior year. Boy, I freaked out that September!
Maybe I'll freak out again.
I can't; I've been summoned for jury duty.
