1. For the first time in a long while I have spent almost all day alone, since Roger normally works from home. He and Katie left this morning to make a business stop and then go to Arwen's house. They will leave there early tomorrow to take Katie to O'Hare for her flight to England, and thence to Italy, where she will be the nanny/English teacher for a couple of very cute kids for the summer. Tommy spent last night at a friend's house, came home long enough to shower and change and then went out to lunch. The "occasion" was the last day of school, but Tommy and his friend were exempt from finals today. (English paper turned in on Tuesday, AP Calculus exam taken last month.) He came home again long enough to change for work; I dropped him off and will pick him up again at eight.
2. To all of you who live where school has been out for weeks -- Michigan law mandates that classes not begin until after Labor Day. So the school-year lasts well into June. This also makes for crazy situations involving sports. There are actually two football games before school begins next fall.
3. I have begun practicing the flute again. (Actually, I don't think I ever practiced much before, but I was better at it when I played regularly.) Our choir at church is doing a special piece with a flute part for our pastor's last mass at the end of the month. (He will be returning home to Nigeria. Our new pastor is Polish.) None of the various young flautists who have played with us in the past are around any more, and none of the band kids I asked were available. It's coming along pretty well,and I am excited to be doing something musical on an almost-daily basis.
4. My friend Tracy mentioned in her Quick Takes that she is a fan of Chain Rxn on Facebook. So am I! She likes the sound, and I am discovering that this is one of the few games where I don't mind the sound effects. I hadn't been playing with the sound on because usually I am playing near where someone is trying to work or sleep. But the house is empty. Bring on the little chime noises!
5. I am going to also take advantage of the nobody-in-the-house phenomenon to cook dinner just for me. I do this periodically when Roger is gone, and let the kids fend for themselves. What's on the menu, you ask? Liver and onions with bacon, grits, and sliced tomato. Except for the bacon and tomato nobody likes any of those things but me. My favorite meal growing up was liver and spinach. Maybe that's why I didn't have a whole lot of friends??
6. I went to the library on Monday and returned ALL my books, and promptly checked out 8 more, including three new books that have a two-week rather than a four-week check-out period. I'm done with one, partway into both of the others. (One is a mystery, one an "Asian family comes to America" story.) Nothing spectacular enough to tell y'all about, unless the Asian one sudenly gets better. I do want to recommend a non-fiction I checked out, though --Your Best Birth by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein. As a home-birthing mama I'm a bit of a "birth junkie" -- for a couple of years I thought about training as a midwife -- and though I never thought I'd be saying this about anything by Ricki Lake, the book is excellent. It is NOT an "everybody should do home birth" spiel, but a "know all your options and make informed choices" admonition. Read it!
7. It is a beautiful sunny day here, and still cool enough that I wore a sweater when I walked the dog. I've heard reports that this summer is going to be cool-ish, without extreme high temperature or humidity. Since I'm in the "hot flashes" stage of my life, that sounds ideal! I like living where there are four distinct seasons, but if I had to eliminate one, "hot" would be first out!
More Quick Takes can be found here.
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I haven't read the book by Lake, but I did see their documentary, The Business of Being Born. It was excellent, and if you haven't seen it, I'd really recommend it.
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