whole lotta (insert whatever) goin' on

So, um... hello to my four readers! :)

To sum up: In the past weeks, we have pressed on to finish our school year with WAVA; canned two batches of strawberry jam; attended D and S's final piano recital of the year; gone to a Mariners' Game (they lost); been interviewed/filmed by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation for a part in a DVD they're composing for alternative education; taken a weekend sabbatical sans kids to the Tacoma waterfront; plugged up the dishwasher so it wouldn't drain; taken apart same dishwasher at least 8 times to determine the source of the plug; contemplated shelling out $199 for a new cheapo dishwasher, then fixing old one once we removed the source of the problem: a plastic fork tine and an orange pip stuck near the valve; primed the front bathroom walls; primed the porch railing; pressure-washed the back porch in preparation for painting; and accidentally left $20 worth of household supplies at the checkout stand at WalMart....AFTER having paid for them. And customer service can't find it. If you came home from Wally's yesterday with three sticks of deodorant, a new mop head, and two tablecloths that you did NOT purchase.... please email me.

There's more, too, but I don't want to drive you away from this site begging for mercy.

The dishwasher saga has been going on since last Friday. A. now knows the ins and outs of this dishwasher, let me tell you. I started to take the dishwasher apart, but came down with some vague stomach virus thing that knocked me queasy with a low grade fever through Sunday.... (sorry I didn't call you back, Lori... that's why) --so A. had to finish it up for me.

Tomorrow D turns 10!!! sigh. All you moms of toddlers..........hug em now, huh? And all you can. Every day. Even if the hug is more like a strangle at times. :) I've baked a cake that needs frosting and decorating (with dragons). We're having a family thing tomorrow, then Friday we're hooking up with Crystal and her two halflings up in Seattle. Maybe she'll take pictures. :p

Then in July we'll be taking D. to his birthday present over at the Tacoma Dome: Walking With Dinosaurs exhibit. This has better be cool because it was spendy even at WAVA group rates!

what lies beneath

Today, arriving by the grace of Grandma K. and the Big Brown Truck, D and S received a White's Prizm II Metal Detector for a shared birthday present.

It arrived whilst they were at a piano lesson, so A and I got to play with it first. Our first booty: 1 penny! WOOHOO!

The thing has a discriminator on it so you know whether you're over a nail, a pop tab, or a diamond ring. However, I'm a little dubious about its reliability.... when I tossed MY wedding ring on the ground, it registered as a nail. (Hm. Must examine this ring more closely.)

We left the detector in a conspicuous place so they'd find it easily when they came home from piano. Overjoyed kids! Pirate's booty to be found! Caches to be sought! The treasure hunt is on!

Scanning a small portion of our backyard, the kids and A recovered 11 pennies, 3 nickels, 1 dime, 2 quarters, a button (or a cracker jack toy, can't tell), a fishing weight, a click-clack/hair thing, and the back water spigot handle that D lost when he was 3.

What would make D's joy complete: finding that mammoth skeleton he KNOWS is in our backyard somewhere...

We have big plans for this metal detector, oh yesss. Maybe it will be the O family version of geocaching.

The eighth thing

Rebecca nailed me to do the "8 things about me" meme, when I had already / recently completed 7. So I told her I'd think on it and try to come up with something that she didn't know.

So here it is. Number eight. woot.

8.) I can't pronounce "frontier" or "windmill" properly unless I specifically think about it in advance. Frontier I have ALWAYS pronounced "frawn-tier" because that's how I remember singing the Davy Crockett song when I was a kidlet. And windmill comes out sounding like "wind-meal"--UNLESS I stop and make myself say it right.

Yes! Eight useless facts about me!