Earthquake!

Yikes! We just had an earthquake here! I was here on the computer and the kids were watching TV when we felt a jolt, then a shaking. I gathered everyone up and we went to a doorway, which is what we are supposed to do. It continued to roll for awhile then finally stopped. There is no damage here and we are all fine. Just a little shaken. We have phone coverage and electricity.

According to the TV, it was a 5.8 which is a decent size quake. It was centered about 20 miles northeast of here (more or less). Steve was at work and he said that he felt it strong where he is. That's kind of weird as he is further west than I am. But he works in a big building so maybe that's why. Cell phone coverage is out. Systems must be overloaded.

I hope people are safe where the epicenter is. I would be watching the news right now, but I want the kids to get their minds off the quake so we'll watch some Spongebob. It's also time for lunch so I'm off to fix that.


ETA: News is now reporting the earthquake was 5.4. Still big enough for me!

Swimming, Swimming, and More Swimming!

Gosh, I hadn't realized how long it had been since I last posted!

I've been consumed with the swimming pool! Ryan and Emily started swim lessons last week and since they were a little scared of doing some stuff in the water, I've been taking them to the pool at the park to get them used to the water a little more. Back floats and dunking their heads in the water have been their weak spots. I take them around the pool on my back and have them practice their kicking. That gets me a little tired after awhile. I try to help them with their back floating, but that's a little trickier. They both don't like to have the back of their heads in the water. But we do what's comfortable for them so they don't freak out. That would defeat the purpose. I'm trying to make everything fun while trying to practice what they need to be learning. And, little by little, they're making progress. They're not as afraid any more, and they're just now starting to dunk their heads all the way down!

So, I'm a little tuckered out right now. Along with the swimming, we still have basketball practices and games to go to. Luckily, this is the last week of swimming lessons. I wish basketball was over, but both Kathryn and Ryan's teams have playoffs. I don't know how the playoffs will work as this is our first year of basketball. I secretly hope our teams lose so we can be finished! I know that sounds awful, but Kathryn and Ryan are tired of it already, too!

I don't know how all you soccer moms out there do it. I get tired of all the running around. I guess by now, you're probably wondering why I sign up the kids for all these sports. Well, aside from the swimming, which was my idea, Steve is the one that enjoys all these sporting things and he signs them up. He loves doing this stuff with the kids and they enjoy it, too (most of the time)! I enjoy it, too, but up to a point. Once it starts to get me frazzled with the running around from place to place, I'm ready to hang it all up. That's where I'm at right now.

I haven't had a chance to upload some pictures lately, but I hope to get to it soon. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Sorry if this post sounded a little whiny. I do love my life and wouldn't trade it for anything!

I Need New Glasses!!

I'm now starting to feel officially middle-aged. I desperately need bifocals!! When I had my eyes checked two or three years ago, the optometrist said I didn't need them yet, as my close-up vision was still pretty good (I'm near-sighted -- I can see things close-up without my glasses but not far away). I could read with or without my glasses. Now, it's gotten to the point where I can't read at all with my glasses. I have to put everything more than an arm's length away to see it! So, I just take off my glasses to read or do close-up work. My arms are getting a lot of exercise taking them on and off, on and off. If I were far-sighted it would be a little better because I could place the glasses on my nose, just so, and I could look above the glasses to see far away and through the glasses at my book, knitting, or whatever. But when you're near sighted, you don't have a place to put your glasses. Maybe paste them at the eyebrows so they'll be at eye level for far away stuff and just look down below the glasses for the close-up stuff. I know that doesn't make any sense, but since I am nearsighted, I understand myself! LOL! Maybe those of you who are also nearsighted can get what I'm trying to get across!! Main thing - I can't see close-up while wearing my glasses.





So, it's time to see the eye doctor. I first have to check on my insurance and refresh my memory about what's covered. If I remember correctly, it didn't cover much. It covered a very little amount for the glasses so I've ended up paying a whole lot.

I took Ryan and Kathryn to get a few uniform items for school. Kathryn needed a bigger size skirt and Ryan needed an extra pair of pants and shorts. Thankfully the uniform place was not crowded. I was afraid there would be a huge wait. Not good when I have Emily! So, we were there for a short time, then we met Steve at work and had some lunch. We always love meeting him for lunch.

Kathryn has basketball practice tonight. Let's hope that Emily can get through that time without falling down. My goodness, it seems like the last three times she's gone, she somehow falls down on the cement and scrapes her knees, elbows, hands, etc. One thing for sure, she lives hard!

I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but I need to get a first aid kit for the car. I have a few band-aids in my purse, but I need some in all shapes. I just bought some Neosporin to Go.

Now I'm off to clean out the refrigerator. That's my first step before making out my menu for the next week. I hope there's not too many science experiments in there!

Blessings, everyone!

What I've Been Up To

I've just been taking it easy and trying to keep the kids occupied so they won't get on each other's nerves.

Earlier in the week, we went to Universal City Walk (an outdoor shopping area) near Universal Studios. We had some lunch, spent an accidental fortune on candy, and just enjoyed window shopping. Regarding the candy, the store is one of those where you choose your own in a bag and pay by weight. As I was helping Emily get her 1/4 of a lb amount, Kathryn went on her own and loaded up on Jelly Beans and M&M's. She thought you just filled up the bag with whatever you wanted. Of course, the rules are, once you get the candy, you just can't put it back. The total ended up being something like $20.00. Too much for our pocketbook, on candy, no less!!!

This is Emily enjoying some of Kathryn's loot!

Steve painted Kathryn's room. It's now a BRIGHT pink. A very modern look for our cool girl!

This is just a swatch of the color. It's much brighter in real life.

The kids had lots of basketball practice going on. Games are usually on the weekend.

We've done some reading and worked on Math skills.

We had this visitor in our house the other day.




When Ryan and Emily came running into my room saying there was some kind of big bug flying in the living room, I was secretly panicking because I was so hoping it would not be a flying cockroach. Those things FREAK ME OUT!!!! I need Steve to handle that stuff but he was at work, so I had to be the grown up and take care of the situation. I was so relieved when I saw that it was just one of these beetles. I don't know what they're really called but we call them Japanese Beetles. They have a really pretty fluorescent green shell. We seem to get these in the house every so often. I don't know how they get in, but when we find one, we get it and send it back outside. It makes a buzzing noise like the June bugs.

Yesterday was the start of our county fair. I love going there every year. I usually go twice - once with the kids and once just Steve and I. The kids don't usually care to spend lots of time looking at the foods and crafts on display. I enjoy looking at all that stuff. I have to take snapshots of beautiful crocheted and knitted items for inspiration! That reminds me I need to continue with the Minnie Mouse afghan!!

Here's a snapshot of the books I'm reading right now. I usually try to read one book at a time, but I couldn't resist when I saw these at the local library and my church library.

Love's Abiding Joy by Janette Oke - 4th in the Love Comes Softly series

This is a wonderful story about living in the frontier West.

Come Be My Light - writings of Blessed Mother Teresa

Excellent insights into her life

Only Heroic Catholic Families Will Survive - Fr. Robert J. Fox

These are great essays and articles written by an assortment of people about family life, marriage, parenthood, and what it truly means to be a Catholic family in today's culture.

So, I'm enjoying these warm summer days, just doing the simple things with my family.

I hope you're all enjoying your summer. And for those of you Down Under, I hope you're staying warm and cozy!

Menu Plan Monday

Here is my planned menu for the week:

Monday: Tasty Onion Chicken, Zucchini Rice Pilaf, salad

Tuesday: Chili, tortilla chips, cornbread, fruit

Wednesday: Hamburgers, roasted potatoes w/onion soup mix, fruit salad

Thursday: Beef n'Cheese French bread, salad

Friday: tacos, rice and pinto beans

Saturday: pizza, salad

Sunday: spaghetti, garlic bread, salad

For more great menu plans, check out I'm an Organizing Junkie

A Tag

Tracy tagged me for this fun meme:

Four, Four, Four, Four.....

A. Four places that I go to over and over:

1. grocery store
2. church
3. Target
4. My mom's house

B. Four people who email me regularly:

I hardly get any personal emails :( I do get frequent ones from the following:
1. Steve (from work)
2. my kid's school
3. Lion Brand Yarn
4. Borders books

C. My favorite 4 places to eat:

1. Ruby's
2. Super Mex
3. Red Lobster
4. Souplantation
D. Four places I would rather be right now:

1. a cabin in the mountains
2. a beach house
3. Hawaii
4. colonial Williamsburg

E. Four people I think will respond:

1. SuzyQ
2. GrandmaK
3. Mitzi
4. Kimberly

F. Four TV shows I watch all the time:

1. Lost
2. The Next Food Network Star
3. Supernanny
4. Mass on EWTN

G. Four words that describe you:

1. shy
2. considerate
3. non-confrontational
4. pensive

H. Four favorite "old school" Hollywood actors/actresses:

1. Frank Sinatra
2. Jimmy Stewart
3. Spencer Tracy
4. Bing Crosby

I. Four favorite "old school" television game shows:

1. Press Your Luck
2. Concentration
3. Let's Make a Deal
4. Password

J. Four favorite "old school" television shows:

1. I Love Lucy
2. Dick Van Dyke Show
3. Twilight Zone
4. The Brady Bunch

K. List four things you liked best about Christmas when you were a child:

1. scent of the tree
2. family get together
3. Christmas music
4. Christmas TV specials

L. List four things you liked best about Halloween when you were a child:

1. cheap costumes from Savon
2. candy
3. trick or treating
4. my dad scaring kids at the door

M. List four things you did not like about growing up:

1. strict parents not allowing me to do many social activities w/friends
2. feeling left out
3. having to take the bus to school
4. feeling dorky

N. List 4 events that impacted your life:

1. having an Evangelical witness to me in college (caused me to search further in the Catholic faith)
2. my marriage
3. birth of my children
4. death of my father

I tag those listed in letter E.

History of Religion

I've been busy doing things around the house, shuttling kids to games and practices, and just plain trying to keep my head above water. So I'll just post this until I get a chance to do a longer one.

This is a very interesting map.





H/T Steve Ray

My Son Wants to Be A Zookeeper??

Ryan has such a strong interest in all kinds of animals. He reads all kinds of books about them, loves watching Animal Planet, and plays with all kinds of animal toys. He wants to be a zookeeper when he grows up.

So, we recently got him the Zoo Tycoon computer game. I'm not too sure how it goes, but the gist of it is that you get to build your own zoo, complete with animals, attractions, concession stands, etc.etc. You get money to construct buildings and buy the animals and make sure you provide the right kind of environment for your animals. You make sure they are fed, have room to roam, play and whatever else you need to do to make them happy. You also need to make the zoo enjoyable for people to visit so you can make some money. The more the merrier, I guess.

I really haven't had the time to sit with him and go through all the directions so he pretty much is experimenting and I'm around if he needs some help.

So, I went off to do something and after a long while, he comes looking for me to show me what he did. He decided to buy 54 elephants! He wanted to see what they would do. The area that he put them in was too small for that amount of elephants and apparently the fence was too low. The elephants started to break out of the enclosure and attack the guests! Oh my goodness! They started swinging at them with their trunks. Apparently the guests took off because there were then something like 19 guests in the whole zoo. After a while the computer froze - too much action going on perhaps.

Obviously, Ryan is a little young for this game. He's still too young to figure out all the complexities of running a zoo, but he has lots of fun just bringing in the different animals and providing a proper environment for them. He likes to see them walk around, eat, or just roll around in the dirt. He doesn't care when a message comes up saying the guests are upset that there are not enough restrooms, the soda cart has broken down, or that the giraffes are getting sick and dying. He just loves playing around with anything that has to do with animals. His curiosity is amazing to watch.

I'll leave with this picture of Ryan (along with Emily, who insisted on being in the picture). He's also a heart stealer!

I Survived!

Today was the first day of summer vacation and I SURVIVED! I had to referee a few arguments but overall, we kept our cool.

Kathryn told me she needs a new bathing suit. I just bought her one last year and it was a little big, so I told her to try it on. It fit fine. Then Emily asked to try hers on. Hers is getting tight so she will need one. Well, since they had their suits on, they wanted to go in the pool. It needs to be inflated and since it would take a while, I told them they could go in the sprinkler. That worked out great and they had a good time, except the three times Kathryn ran back in the house because of the bee that was flying around. By the third time, I told her she better just stay in the house. The others decided to stay in as well, so that was the end of that.

I'll try to get the pool pumped up this weekend.

Tonight we went to the Angels game. Tickets were $5 each so that was an unbelievable price. The Angels lost but we had fun. I had to get up and walk with Emily a couple of times but she lasted for almost 9 innings.

Tomorrow, I have my hair appointment so I'll be taking the kids to my mom's so she can watch them. We'll also have lunch with her. Then it's basketball practice for Ryan.

In between, I'll clean and cook. The usual.

Blessings to everyone!

RIP Tim Russert

I was saddened to hear the news about the death of Tim Russert. Although I don't watch much of the Sunday talk shows, I would occasionally watch Meet the Press, especially when Mary Matalin and James Carville would be on together. I was always impressed with his fairness and his style. He didn't get me angry like some others are wont to do. I guess I just plain liked him.

I would like to read the book he wrote about his father, Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life. I see that it's number one on the Amazon list.

May he rest in peace.

Random

The week so far has been spent doing lots of yard work, getting rid of overgrown plants and pulling weeds. Also, we're getting a new screen door for the front, so I cleaned the front porch area. I know entrances look nicer without one, but we love to have our front door open in the summer, especially in the evening time when the cool breezes come. But we don't want the mosquitoes and other bugs to come in with it!

I didn't get around to doing another menu plan this week because I'm still following the one from last week. The Chicken with Orzo came out great and so did the Pizza Noodle Bake. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of them because I didn't think of it. I'm not used to taking pictures of my meals. I guess because everyone knows what chicken nuggets, spaghetti, and tacos look like (frequent meals around here)! LOL!

Summer vacation is right around the corner - next Tuesday as a matter of fact. I'm looking forward to getting to sleep in a little bit longer - not too much longer, though, as I like to start my day with some quiet time while everyone is still sleeping. Ryan and Kathryn have both started basketball this summer. I'm not too thrilled, but I won't get into that!:)

I got some gas this morning for 4.35 a gallon. That was the best I could find and that was at Costco. The lines there are so long, at times, six or seven deep! It reminds me of the lines back in the 70's (I know, I'm dating myself)! The gas station closest to me was already at 4.59! I don't know how much more of an increase we can take! I wish I had a smaller car but we need the space that my minivan offers.

Well, I think I'll take out my knitting and have a go at it!

Meme

I was tagged by Cathy from A Bit of the Blarney to do this fun meme. It looked easy, but once I got to thinking, it was a little bit hard to come up with ten people.

Ten people I'd like to spend ten minutes with (in no particular order):

---Pope Benedict XVI
---Clarence Thomas
---Frank Sinatra
---President Bush
---Mother Angelica
---David Eckstein (shortstop for Toronto Blue Jays)
---Jim Caviezel
---Blessed Mother
---Archbishop Chaput
---Paula Deen

And number 11 would have to be all my blogging pals. I'd love to meet all of you and have a little chat!

Menu Plan Monday

Yea! I finally got organized enough to plan my menu again! It's been quite a while and I've just been flying by the seat of my pants in regards to planning my menu- as in, I haven't been doing it. So now, it's the start of a new month and here is my planned menu:

Monday: Ryan's baseball team has a pizza party so no cooking today! Just some good pizza at the parlor.

Tuesday: Tacos, Spanish rice and beans

Wednesday: Pizza Noodle Bake with Cornbread

Thursday: Chicken with Orzo

Friday: Spaghetti with French bread and a salad

Saturday: Homemade Chili with cornbread

Sunday: Sole Fillets, rice, steamed vegetables

For dessert this week, I plan to make some chocolate chip walnut cookies. Also, I have some bags of frozen blueberries to use up so I plan to make Blueberry Oat muffins and some blueberry shortcake.

To see other menu plans, visit Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

A Trip to the Wild Animal Park

We had a wonderful trip to the Wild Animal Park this past weekend. The weather was great and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Emily and Kathryn enjoyed trying on the masks.

Here's a momma giraffe with her baby!

Some lionesses lounging around.

Rhinos are much bigger than I thought!

Kathryn got a beautiful flower painted on her face.

We had a wonderful time. I'm sure we'll be back again!

Happy Birthday Emily!

My baby turned 4 on Saturday!

Catching Up

Last weekend was tournament weekend and we all had a great time. Kathryn's team didn't do so well (they lost all their games and didn't score one goal), but it was a good experience for her team. Most all the teams in the tournament were competetive teams meaning they practice almost everyday and just go around playing in tournaments. Kathryn's team is your basic recreational soccer team. And believe me, you can tell the difference. They were a little intimidated at first because all the other teams they played were so good. But by the third game, they were a little less shell shocked and just played the best they could. They even made the other team sweat a little bit! :) Kathryn's has a wonderful coach and she explained to them that she didn't put them in this tournament so they could get smeared by the opponents. She put them in so they could have some experience playing against better teams and raise their level of play and just to have some fun playing in a tournament. In spite of the outcome, they all had a super time and so did the parents. Last weekend was super hot, but playing by the beach was great. We had ocean breezes the whole time!

Kathryn in her uniform.

This picture is kind of hard to see but it's a shot of Kathryn standing next to a girl on the other team. This other girl is probably over six feet tall! And these are 10 year old girls! It was kind of hard to play defense against her!

Remember the story about my trees? Well, I had a visit from the supervisor of tree maintenance for my city. He looked around, checked the roots, checked the dirt, and said the trees were getting too much water! My trees are Holly Oaks and he said these trees don't need a lot of water. He suggested I change the schedule for my sprinkler system so that the trees don't get as much water. I can't believe that we are the only homeowners who are watering around the trees so much, but our trees are almost the only ones that look the way they do. The tree man said that over time, if the trees get too much water, they will start looking like ours. I find it a little odd that watering a tree too much will make it look like ours but I guess I'll start watering around the tree less. I'll have to adjust the sprinklers and make sure the water is not hitting the tree trunks and set the timer for a shorter amount of time. I'll have to find the right balance so that the grass doesn't suffer and turn all yellow, especially in the coming hot summer months.

I also had a visit from the plumber this week. We've had two leaks on the faucets outside of our house for the longest time, but we finally had to call when my kids tried to pull the backyard garden hose to the front yard, even though it wouldn't reach. I don't know why they didn't realize that we have a hose in the front. Well, they pulled and pulled until it popped out of the faucet, taking with it some ring part of the faucet! Kathryn came in the house saying something happened with the hose so when I went out to look, I saw the water gushing out of the faucet. It looked much worse than it actually was. But, the plumber needed to be called because now that the hose was no longer attached, I could see how much water was really leaking out. Enough to leave the ground in a puddle.

Luckily the plumber just had to put some new part. He did the same thing to our leak in the front yard and that was that. I was thinking since the leaks were there for a while that we would have some damage on some old pipes, but he said they didn't look too bad. So I think we made out pretty good.

Tomorrow we're off to the wild animal park for a day with the animals!

Tournament Weekend

Kathryn is playing in her first soccer tournament this weekend and we are all excited. It's going to be hot over here but where she's playing is real close to the beach so we should have nice cool breezes.

Kathryn will be playing two games today and in between I need to take Ryan for a haircut. I've delayed it so many times already that he really couldn't go much longer without him starting to look too unkempt.

This past week has been mostly spent doing some spring cleaning of our patio. The weather has been very warm so I've hosed down the patio, cleaned windows, dusted cobwebs, beat out some old mats and just did some sprucing up. While out there, I'm sure finding a lot of those black beetles I mentioned before. I think I'm kind of getting used to them now. I'm not so freaked out.

Well, I'm off to the tournament. I hope I can take some decent pictures to post later.
I'll leave with this link for a free Fruitista Freeze from Taco Bell if you like that type of food. It looks delicious, especially on a nice warm day!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mothers!!

Photo Credit: Thank you to Esther!

Weekend Update (the previous one - hee hee)

Aside from the usual sporting activities, we (the whole family) made a trip to a nice library in the city next to us. It's a nice, new huge one. The kids had a ball. They have a wonderful children's section with lots of computers and even a few for younger kids that are already loaded with learning programs. Even 3 yr old Emily could play some toddler games and listen to stories. There were a couple of tables with wooden puzzles that little ones like to play with. Plenty of kids DVD's, CD's, and books on tape/CD. And of course, a wonderful section of books! I would have loved this when I was a kid!

I didn't get a chance to take a peek at the adult books, but I'll get around to it when I can get away by myself. Oh yeah, and this library has self-checkout! It's very interesting how I can just lay some books on this square thingie, and through the magic of radio waves (so said the librarian), it can "read" what books I'm checking out and print out all the information on a little receipt! When I return books, I put them in a slot in the wall and a conveyor belt takes them and automatically sorts them into the proper bin for shelving. You can see the whole procedure on a computer screen. I am quite impressed!

My Emily had a tough weekend. On Saturday, she was being pulled in a wagon by Kathryn, in the kitchen no less, and started to get up while it was starting to move and fell out of it, hitting her chin on the floor. I thought she was going to have some broken teeth because all I saw was her face hitting the floor. She made it through with no broken teeth but a badly bruised chin. It got really red, but no skin was cut. Then on Sunday at church, while busily talking with Ryan, she tripped on the steps and hit her forehead on the edge of one of the steps. I could actually hear it making contact. Steve picked her up, she was crying so hard, and right away a big lump appeared right above her eye. Thank God nothing happened to her eye. We kept a real close watch on her to make sure she was acting normal, we asked her questions and she was able to answer them correctly. She was bruised, but again, no major gashes or anything like that. Then, later on that day, she's running (I guess she was feeling good) from the hallway into the living room and falls again, this time right on her tailbone, but thankfully it's only an inconvenience for a minute or two and she's OK. My word, her guardian angel has been working overtime!
I'm just glad I didn't have to make any trips to the emergency room. I would've hated to be placed under a cloud of suspicion because of all her recent injuries!
Now, she's just a little black on her eyelid and mostly has that yellow tinge that comes after some bad bruises.

I finally finished watching Gone With the Wind. I really enjoyed it. I loved the Scarlett character, even though she was so spoiled and selfish. I have the book somewhere in my bookshelf. I'll have to dust it off and read it sometime.
Now it's back to watching The Waltons. I never saw it when it was originally on TV so I've started with Season One. I haven't made up my mind yet about whether I really like it enough to rent the other seasons, but I guess I like it enough to finish this first one.

Regarding my trees, my plan is to first talk with my gardener. Maybe he has some suggestions. Maybe they need more water or some pruning. If he doesn't know, I'll ask at the nursery. Then as my last resort, I'll call the city again. Since the trees are on the parkway and that's considered city property or something like that, they're the ones that would have to do any pruning or tree care taking.

I think you are now all caught up with things going on in my household! Thanks for visiting!

What's Been Going On

I've been busy catching up on some reading. I've had St. Frances de Sales book Introduction to the Devout Life sitting on my nightstand for what seems like forever. There are so many things to ponder that I was trudging, wanting to savor or reflect on what I just read, until I finally decided to just go ahead and read at a regular pace and just wait for something to really jump out at me. I figured the Holy Spirit would lead me to where I needed to concentrate. So I'm finally making headway with the book and should be finished soon.

Another book that I recently finished but want to re-read is Dressing with Dignity by Colleen Hammond. This book really opened my eyes about how the way we dress can be an occasion of sin for others, especially men. It's made me really think about modest dressing and whether I will be making changes in how I dress. I haven't sorted it out yet but I'm praying about it.

I'm still working on the Minnie Mouse afghan. I also started working on a knitted dishcloth, but I made a mistake, dropped a stitch and will have to do some ripping out of stitches. I've always had problems correcting mistakes in knitting because I don't quite know what to do. My knitting teacher, back when I was taking the knitting class, showed me what to do so I was beginning to recognize exactly what kind of mistake I made and make the correction. Well, I couldn't make heads or tails of my mistake so I think I need to rip out the stitches. I easily get intimidated when these things happen and end up just putting the thing away for a while. I don't want to do that this time. I will forge ahead!

I'm also still trying to finish watching Gone With the Wind. The only time I get a chance to watch it is when the kids are in bed. By then, I'm so tuckered out that I only get to watch about 15 or 20 minutes before I start dozing off! But, I'm enjoying it so far.

I think I have some sick, hopefully not dead, trees in my front yard. There's hardly any leaves on them and they just look so bare! All the other trees in the neighborhood look normal, but somethings not right with mine.

This is what my tree should look like right now. Nice and bushy, giving lots of shade.

This is one of my trees. It looks pretty sparse.

This is the other tree. Quite pathetic.

I called the city to come investigate, but of course no human answered the phone, so I left a message with the tree maintenance supervisor to have someone come out to take a look. I haven't seen anyone from the city around, so I don't know if they came around or not. I haven't gotten a call back either. I'll have to call again this coming week. I'm going to miss the shade this summer!

Well, I'm off to relax for the rest of the night. Shall I attempt to watch Gone With the Wind?