Life in a Nutshell

Mom emailed me, and she asked, “What’s new with you this week?”

Out poured an actually decent explanation – a far cry from my usual writer’s block this month – so I thought I’d share it with y’all. I’ve also included pictures for your viewing pleasure. Here it is:

Not much. We went to Teresa’s bbq, of course, and at one point I lost track of Ariel and had one of those parent horror moments where you’re sure your child is dead (they had a large pool in the backyard, and the back door was open). My stream of consciousness was is she in there what if she’s in there how long has she been in there is she dead she must be unconscious cuz she’s not thrashing can she be revived how long has she been deprived of oxygen will she be brain damaged oh my god… And then Matty assured me that the pool was empty. But I was still kinda shaky for a good portion of the night. I have a newfound hatred of pools.

(Teresa, just so you all know, is a friend that we met on WoW. We’ve been friends for months, and she was living in Arizona, but she just moved to Vancouver last week. We were lucky enough to get to meet her this weekend. It’s weird hearing such a familiar voice come from the face of a stranger!)

They sent us home with a ton of leftover food (Teresa had bought and prepped enough food to feed all of Vancouver), so we’ve been working on polishing that off over the last few days.

I’ve been weeding out those little weeds that were between the bricks that I told you about. Remember how I said that they were kinda pretty and I wanted to just leave them there and maybe just take out a few of the bigger ones?

Well, they’re all 3 feet tall now. And wanna guess what they are? I’ll give you a hint – Dan starts sneezing when he heads toward the back. Give up? Ragweed! Woohoo! I’ve been cultivating a field of allergens, and they’re ripe for harvest!

And guess what lovely creatures think that ragweed is absolutely delicious? Slugs! And snails! Which would explain why there are slug babies all. over. the. plants. I mean, I would weed for a little bit, and then I’d look down, and I’d have like 3 or four baby slugs on my gloves. It was… astounding.

So I’m almost half-way done clearing the back. Obviously, there’s no way Dan’s gonna do it – I wouldn’t even ask him to. The poor guy is enough of a sneezing wreck when he mows the lawn, for crying out loud. It feels good to get out there and pull up 3 foot plants by hand (girl power!), and it’s a decent workout for my arms and thighs (yeah, my thighs! sore all day! go figure!).

What’s new with you?