The List

The list.  The list of things that need to be done for this or that.  The list of things for the wedding.  The list of things to buy for school supplies.  The list of things that need to be done for the boys to go to school.  The list of things that need to be put away.  The list of things that need to be fixed.  The list of groceries that need to be bought to replace that which the boys eat.  There is at least 1 gallon of milk everyday that gets added to that list.

You could put it all into one monster list.  A list that is alive.  It grows.  It changes.  It cannot be completed.  So we add things to the list like, "Have fun", "see a movie", "get sushi", "go hiking", "go kayaking", "go bike riding", "write in your damn blog."

This morning it is very cool outside.  Not exactly crisp, but very comfortable.  Waking up, I started toward the kitchen to make some coffee.  There are three boys strewn about the living room.  One is mine, one is SGG's, the other is not ours.  They were up late watching a movie.  I am hoping they weren't up all night.  There is popcorn all around, and cushions for various incarnations of forts.  There is a fourth boy, SGG's youngest, somewhere else in the house.  I quickly read through email, news, and computer news, then grab a cup of coffee and head outside.

The temperature is around 70 or so, very little humidity.  I call it perfect.  The sun is rising.  I walk around front, through the wet grass to get the paper.  The grass and dew feel amazing to my feet.  There are crickets and other bugs chirping.  There are blue jays screeching and flying about catching chirping bugs.  We can hear other smaller birds in the hedges.  A pair of cardinals has taken up residence in the hedges too.  Occasionally there are some gigantic crows cawing, and we have an Osprey that seems to lose it's way, or get really excited from time to time.  The cat loves to join us on the back porch to investigate all these sights and sounds too.  The tree rats, otherwise known as squirrels, are running all around.  They are cute, but the pine cone chips they chew up are annoying.  I am pretty sure they are throwing pine cones at the cat.  I don't blame them for that last part, but I pick the cat over them.  The mess the squirrels make is horrendous.

We are a little low on creamer today, so I experimented.  NOT worth repeating.

I think a boy on a bike just passed by pulling his little sister on something that looked like a scooter with a string.

The wedding list is nearly complete.  The boys are ready for school.  The chores lists have been posted.  The rules lists have been made.  The lawnmower will be fixed today.  The list of things SGG is no longer allowed to do is growing so that things like the lawnmower don't keep breaking.  The washing machine is next to be rectified, and SGG didn't have anything to do with it breaking.  The ice maker on the refrigerator needs to be investigated, ducting into the the computer room needs to be re-sized, various small problems with my computer network continually plague me.  We are splitting up the nights for cooking and I need to get some groceries for those nights.  Right now, breakfast needs to be made.  :-)

My son's great grandparents celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last night.  You just think about that for a little while.

We went to Busch Gardens yesterday.  We really had the best time.  It wasn't very crowded.  The youngest boy didn't want to ride the roller coasters, so after we road the Lochness Monster and the Griffon, SGG and her son John went to watch the animal shows.  I took her oldest, Michael, and my son Brandon to ride the rest of the roller coasters.  The lines were very short every where.  The Alpengeist was closed.  We rode in the front of Apollo's Chariot.  The boys loved that.  Their hair was blown almost completely backwards from the wind.  We then went back to ride the Griffon in the front row.  By that time we had to meet SGG and John back at Big Ben.  On the way back we went through some of the animal exhibits.  The boys got to "pet" a boa constrictor.  We also saw a wallaroo.  They had pictures of a two toed sloth up and I asked about it.  They said they do have one, but it is in training that day.  That really puzzles me.  What do you train something that rarely moves and just hangs around to do?  We saw an Owl on the way back too.  The weather was so nice, and while there were a lot of people, it really wasn't very crowded.  It really was a great time.