Weather

It was POURING.

In cherry boots, purple raincoat, and purple umbrella tipped uselessly over her shoulder, Monkey2 stood out in the rain, screaming at the sky: Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.

Soon she came back inside. "Mommy, I got wet."

Cages

I moved some things out of the shed for discussion, including the bird cages.

The Monkeys were delighted with the cages and the shoe box of dishes, toys, and perches. My last parakeet disappeared from the family nearly three years ago. Monkey2 does not remember them at all, and when asked, Monkey1 said she only remembered that I had a bird but not the bird.

However, the girls responded to all the pieces like it was a doll house, and they happily put in the perches, swapped around the dishes, and arranged and giggled over the various toys -- bells, mirrors, rings, a ladder. Somehow bird seed for our feeder made it into one of the dishes, and when fruit was mentioned, a strawberry was dutifully mashed into that. Water was added to the bathtub, and Monkey1 ran around the yard with her index finger extended, as if she were carrying a perched bird.

I wonder if it's time...

Strawberry Fields Forever

This morning I drove about an hour to take the Monkeys strawberry picking with friends. On the way we listened to a couple of library CDs with accompanying book: a biography of George Washington, about six times, and Miss Nelson Is Missing, about sixteen times.

Monkey1 liked hearing the words "Mount Vernon" because we biked there last summer; Monkey2 liked that George Washington rode a horse. Of course, we were also driving on the George Washington Parkway, to add to the interest level.

I'm surprised the Miss Nelson book was so popular; we listened to it ALL the way home too. This tells the story of a very badly behaved class whose mild teacher is suddenly replaced with a very strict substitute teacher. Was it the ugly pictures? The naughty class? The ending? I haven't yet asked Monkey1 if she understands why Miss Viola Swamp's clothes were in Miss Nelson's closet or why she sang to herself, "La la la ... I'll never tell." I think the continuous repetitions of the audio CD were partly because she was trying to figure it out.

Our friends' minivan passed us a few miles off the highway, and we parked together at the end of a strawberry field that ran up a little slope, over the horizon. Her three mobile kids piled out with sand buckets at the ready. Not that they filled them. The oldest, who is Monkey1's age, got a huge kick out of stealing picked berries out of my box, to the wailing screams of Monkey2. Monkey2 does not eat strawberries, and her idea of picking them was to let me pick them and her to put them in the flat box. However, theft of our strawberries was injustice beyond belief. Meanwhile Monkey1 picked about ten strawberries into her box, ate them, ran around with her friends, picked another dozen, ate them, ... These pick-your-own places really ought to weigh the kids on entrance and exit, and not just what ends up in Mom's basket.

I came home with ten pounds of strawberries, according to our bathroom scale. Right before bedtime I weighed the box again, noting it was four pounds lighter. Monkey1 should be able to tip the scales and qualify for a booster seat tonight.

Lady Kenmore

I feel I have been neglecting Lady Kenmore.

Upon her arrival, in three days she dealt with about ten loads of laundry. It was amazing the quantity of material she could gather up, quietly spin about, occasionally releasing a tiny amount of water down the slosh sink, and everything came out clean.

I quickly found that while Lady Kenmore accepted large assignments, Mr. GE 's capacity had not increased. So some things get hung up to dry. However, this is not a terrible situation anymore since I moved nearly everything out of the laundry and furnace area to accommodate Lady Kenmore's arrival. (Just don't look in the other part of the basement, to where all the boxes moved.) Not that she needed a lot of space, but I thought the delivery men needed room to turn around.

So today I gave Lady Kenmore a few projects, and she quietly went about her work. So lovely.

A Kick

I've been enjoying the trailers for this summer's remake of "The Karate Kid." I like the look of it, with an American black kid in China, and martial arts are so exciting. However, it made me realize that I never saw the original Karate Kid. How could I have missed this? I know I grew up out in the sticks, but really...

1. In 1984 I was in fourth grade.

2. Violent tv and movies were out of bounds.

3. But I saw "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "The Return of the Jedi" (1983) in theaters.

4. Parental rules make no sense.

5. Why am I only figuring this out at age 36?

And the Little One Said, "Move Over"

Monkey2 has discovered a perk to car rides during Monkey1's school hours: riding in big sister's seat.

Waiting with a Laundry Pile

"This is going to sound so old lady-ish, but I love getting new appliances."

I stared blankly at my friend. In two years of homeownership we had replaced one appliance, and were on the verge of replacing another, but it had been such an awful experience I was not looking forward to another new appliance.

The dishwasher had been doing its business less and less well, so we did the internet research, I took some of my most used pots and bowls into a couple stores and tested how they fit into a few different models, and we placed our order. I think we were given an approximate delivery date a week out from purchase. The next day our struggling dishwasher died. "Just a week," we told ourselves. On the expected evening before install, we received the confirmation call and a time window for delivery. On the morning of install, I received a call from the truck, our item had not been at the warehouse, so delivery would be rescheduled.

This happened three more times.

Shortly before the install actually happened I learned that the error was in stock reading. The particular dishwasher was listed as 1 in stock, so each time our order came up, it was not ordered. However, the 1 in stock was not in the warehouse, it was on the showroom floor. Hence the circles for two months.

So, appliance #2: the washing machine filled with water but would not agitate or spin. It had been making a lot of noise lately, warning us that its time was come. On Friday I walked into the store with a computer print-out of the model we wanted. Type, type, type, swipe... easiest sale of the day, with delivery Monday.

On Sunday after church I found a message on my cell phone that the driver was at our address ready for delivery. We missed him. When I tried to sort it out later, I found that the base was the attempted delivery, and the washer was still due for Monday delivery, but the base had to be rescheduled for later in the week, which would not work because the washer can only be installed with the base... which means two weekends without a washing machine. At least.

Truly, all this fussing with delivery takes the joy out of a new appliance. Buying the car was easier because I drove it home.

What's our next appliance? I want the wheeled option.