We're Having A Heat Wave

Or rather, it has not rained in sometime and I'm too hot to do the dishes. That's a lie. I finally did them but not until 6pm. And I was so exhausted afterwards I had to follow it up with a vodka tonic. Actually, I made that after the little scare I had while I was doing the dishes. I realized I hadn't heard the little kids in awhile. They had been using their squirt guns out in the yard and I was taking advantage of the momentary lull to get something done. I checked around the yard and saw to my horror, they had pried the baby gate at the corner ,enough for their little bodies to slip through, and who knew where they had gone. I ran to the front calling and searching. Then I realized my worst nightmare. Not the one where the kids get kidnapped and your legs are frozen and your voice is gone so you can't scream for help. No. The one where you hear their voices and realize they are standing on your neighbors porch- one of them stark naked- demanding at squirt gun point that the neighbor kids be let out to play.

Fortunately, the neighbor girl had answered the door and while she went to ask her dad if she could play, I tucked Pippin under one arm- his legs kicking and his bare bum wiggling to get down, grabbed Kateri's hand and raced home. Before the dad came to the door, discovered what miscreants he has for neighbors and forbade his children of ever playing with them again. At least I think I did. I just ran and never looked back.

I debated what should be done first. Naked kid clothed, or fix the fence. It has been so hot and as our neighbors on either side work all day, I felt fine letting Pippin skinny dip in the kiddie pool. It was still very hot, so I decided to fix the gate. I searched the garage for a board big enough to cover the opening but nothing worked. Finally, I got the brilliant idea of just nailing the hard pool- which had cracks anyway- to the fence. I'm sure if they worked at it they could figure a say through. And I'm sure Shane will think its just lovely. But at this point I am happy to get a few minutes of peace before they figure out the puzzle. I should get Kateri Rubic's Cube. I'll bet she could do it.
I was gone yestserday, so Shane, being the much more fun parent that he is, took he kids out to lunch, a movie, and Plastics R Us. I think lunch went well. After an hour of advertisments and 20 minutes of WALL-E, Kateri said she was ready to go home now and Pippin was ready to run laps around the theater. So they left for home. But not before stopping to get squirt guns. I had thought about getting some the first hot day we had. I didn't. And I am glad I have not been responsible for the ensuing carnage due to arming the natives. Want to start a war? Give two of the players super-soaker-shoot-your-eye-out guns. And the others the little manual stop and reload every 5 squirts I could spit farther kind. Which of course meant we had to share. Right. Tell that to the Israelis and Palestinians and that is about as enthusiastic as my kids were. So to make it "fair" we'd set the timer and I would have to assist in the exchanges every 5 min. And in between help reload the damn guns. After about an hour of such, I was ready to cram those guns down Shane's throat. He sort of laughed and said he had "only been trying to help" thinking it would give the kids something to do in the hot weather besides whine at me. It certainly did give them something else to do. Shane offered to make it up by picking up Cyril on his way to Jetty for kite boarding. It has helped a bit- as has the mojito mix I discovered in the cupboard. I don't really care for tonic.

Pippin's latest research project has been examing dead bugs from the window sills. Every morning he'd get a plate and tweezers and we'd pick through the available corpses like we were at a cafeteria. Then we'd pull out the microscope.
" A dessicated hymenopterous insect! Why, I haven't seen one of these in years!" which is professor speak for "A dry bumble bee. WHEEEEEEEE"
(Note: he is actually wearing pants in this picture.)
And just to end on a tasty note, here was my version of the fabulous antipasti plate at Girardi's. Which upon seeing, Shane explained he had envisioned a tossed salad all mixed up and maybe with some toasted nuts on top......blah blah blah. have you seen Mostly Martha? No, I didn't do that. I just said I understood how disappointed he must have been and maybe tomorrow we could make that kind of salad and could he be quiet now and please pass the wine. Actually, it was not that great i have to agree. The smoked mozarella was too smokey and the recipe I found the next day for balsamic caramel was much tastier. And Audrey wrote this.

If you haven't seen the film Mostly Martha and have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. It is leagues better than the American version "No Reservations". Oh, and along the theme of restaurants, "Dinner Rush" was another film we enjoyed. Kind of a slow start but lots of entertaining characters.

Well, the kids have converted their pool- we have tw0- into a bathtub now so I guess we'll wash up and get ready for bed. Thankfully, it is cooling off now. The heat makes me crabby. Shane was smart to go kiting, though he did offer to just come home if I needed him to. I should be back to normal temperature and hopefully a couple of the kids will be asleep by the time he gets home.