Frogger Live

Well, not much has happened in the last week. Therefore, it's suddenly relatively exciting that we visited a local park. We're not sure if this would be a stand-out normally, but life has been fairly routine this week. The park, on Ford Lake, was actually quite nice. We invited our new neighbors/old friends Kristin and Matt to join us. After a short woods trail, we reached an elaborate boardwalk that circled the lake and bridged several manmade islands. Everywhere we looked, off either side, there were turtles sunning themselves on logs. That, combined with the plainly visible adjoining highway, reminded us of a real-life version of Frogger.

Comedy of errors

I had meant to do homework tonight.  Really.  Jon was going to be out until at least ten (he is directing "Into the Woods" this month), the dogs had been fed and I was sitting down to get a lot of work done.  That's when the doorbell rang and our new neighbors (also friends from church) needed air conditioning while their own home suffered a power outage (during our 10o degree heat wave), so I introduced them to the kids and gave them the general tour.  After they left to go shopping and get dinner I finished making my own meal and sat down to do that homework I was talking about.  That, of course, was when the kid from the University called to collect money for some campaign drive.  Right.  He must not have noticed that we only graduated in the last couple of years, because he thought we were going to bave a thousand dollars to give him for a chair in an auditorium.  He should have called the med student who graduated in 1980.  It did, however, take me almost 10 minutes to convice him that we were not going to donate for said chair and by that time the phone was ringing again.  My mom wanted me to go look at the beautiful red ball of setting sun, which I really thank her for and I really enjoyed... until the front lawn sprinkler (yes, you remember sprinkler system 2?) came on, shooting straight up my shorts.  I had finally opened a book (remember my homework?) after drying off and changing into my pajamas when Jon called to say he was on the way home, and not 10 seconds later, the doorbell rang again - Kristen and Matt were still without power, and me still in my pajamas with soggy hair.  Then Jon came home, we all chatted until nearly eleven, they went home to try and sleep, Jon and I caught up on the goings on of the day and now we are headed to bed.   Homework?  What homework?  But it was a really fun evening.

The Roadhouse Rules

If ever there was a place that could say "we use only the finest ingredients," Zingerman's Roadhouse would be it.  Actually, they said it many times, or at least our waitress did.  We decided to check it out tonight for dinner, and we really enjoyed it.  The Five Burger Sampler was a plate of five miniature burgers (very cute) made with your choice of world class cheeses (but oh, how to choose... there had to have been fifty possiblities).  The five micro-brew sampler was a good compliment with a variety of light to dark beers arranged in sequence on a rustic wooden tray.  The prime rib was also excellent, and the wine recommended by the waitress was a great compliment.  Mostly we were awed by the ability of the place to combine every degree of elegance (or lack thereof).  The t-shirt ensconced waitress delivered a polished description of each $30 meal and $15 wine (by the GLASS) while we made our selections from newsprint menus.  The decor was that of a down home diner or barbeque (complete with 14 hour smoked pulled pork) but with linen napkins and fine glassware.  What impressed us most?  Strangely enough, it was the ability to sample anything on the menu before ordering.  We could have made a meal out of that and it would have saved us ninety dollars!

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

We went for a walk in the neighborhood tonight and finally met some neighbors. The people on the corner have lots of rescued animals. Hmmm, kind of like us. The people next to them have a brand new baby. We'd like to be a combination of the two. On the same walk we met lots of bunnies (they're eating our flowers more than anyone else's), ducks, and a muskrat in the nearby pond. Finally this year, our lawn is catching up with the others. Now if only our hot tub would do the same (read: we need to get one). It may not be summer down home on the farm, but it is friendly and full of wildlife.

Round one, sprinklers.

This is our first house and we have only been here for a year so there are a lot of things that we are still learning, like lawn care.  Last summer we tried to get the hang of the inground sprinkler system and I won't lie to you—there were several mornings when we were awakened at disgustingly early hours by the rush of water against our bedroom window.  Oops, set the system wrong again.  Now, last summer I blamed it on user error, but after the past few days I have come to realize that the issue isn't us, it's our system.  I have just sat down from my most recent mad dash to the control box in what appears to be a futile attempt to reign supreme over its sudden spurt of adolescent egotism.  Last night we were watering when system two decided to throw a tantrum and just quit.  Following that assertion of self independence the revolution spread and none of the systems would work at all.
Today the battle continued in the form of a militant revolt on the part of system two. Its watering every couple of hours started at 9:30 this morning... even though the dial was set to OFF.  It had seriously developed its own agenda and would not even respond to my repeated depressing of the "off" button.  I'm sure its goal was to completely wash away my garden as a means of getting its point across, whatever that may be, but I will not let it be the boss of me.  I unplugged it.