An Overlap of Cousins

We have had a full house the last couple of days; a niece and a couple of nephews from both sides of the family have been bunking with us for some summer fun. Kyle is nearly 14, Richard is 8, and Annabelle is 6, but the three of them seemed to hit it off when they met in Maine 2 years ago, and that warm rapport continued into this visit as well.

Kyle is very considerate of the younger kids, but they have fun together, too. He and Richard played for hours at the pool, yesterday, and there were a few rousing rounds of UNO before dinner, as well. Every one in the house piled into the little kids' room last night to hear a few chapters of Flora and Ulysses, and Kyle sat quietly on the floor until both fell asleep.

Today we took the whole gang to see Earth to Echo, and it may have been a touch too old for Richard and Annabelle, although they both claimed to enjoy it. The main characters are middle school aged, (which would explain my profound affection for them-- they seemed very true to life, and just as I was thinking how much I miss the kids in the summer, I realized a student from last year was right behind me.)

At one point in the plot, when the main girl character is first introduced, one of the three boys is pretty rude to her. His friends question him about his reaction, and one of them says, "You know how it is-- you always fight with the girls you like..."

At which point Richard turned to Kyle and loudly asked, "Is that true???"

Good Eats

Tonight's dinner of grilled steak, french fries, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, green beans, baby carrots, and apple slices was definitely one of the best I've had in a while. (And I have eaten verrrry well lately!) To begin with, the tomatoes came from my garden, and as good as I always think farmers market 'maters might be, they are no comparison.

In fact, these tomatoes inspired me to tell my fellow diners, Heidi, Richard, Annabelle, and Kyle, about how my mom used to stop almost every summer day at the "tomato man"' down the street to buy a couple of slicers for dinner.

"What are some of your favorite things to eat?" I asked them as Richard put another slice of tomato on his plate.

"I love that French toast we had for breakfast," answered Kyle.

"Hot dogs for lunch!" added Richard.

"Like we also had today?" I  asked. He nodded vigorously.

"I love that, too," said Annabelle.

Clearly, I hit the trifecta of menu planning. 

Picnic Boss

Richard and Annabelle are here for their summer visit and among many other delights, that means playing I'm going on a picnic... whenever we are riding around in the car.

For those who are not familiar, the game goes like this: I'm going on a picnic, and I'm going to bring [fill in the blank]. What are YOU going to bring? The object is to have some pattern in mind, so that whenever it's your turn, you give an example of an item that fits your pattern, and the other players have to figure it out by trial and error.

So, if my pattern was alphabetical order, I would say, I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing apples. What are you going to bring? If the next person said balloons, or anything else that started with a B, then I would benevolently reply, You can come.

But, when they guess something outside your pattern, You can't come! is the answer. The audacious rudeness of that reply makes me giggle to this day, as does the shock on the face of anyone who hears it for the first time. Their eyes widen in disbelief and quite often they say, as Annabelle did when I taught her and Richard the game last summer, "That is not nice!"

But now, we're old hands at it, and we picked it up this morning almost as if we'd never had a 52 week hiatus. Heidi started with an easy B pattern, and 6-year-old Annabelle followed with the classic A-B-C pattern. When it got to my turn, I couldn't resist messing with her. "I'm going on a picnic, and I'm going to bring dog poop!" I laughed wickedly, waiting for her to let me come along with my unsavory contribution.

She didn't hesitate. "I'm going to cut that off," she told me with authority.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise, and I looked at her in the rear view mirror.

"You can bring a dog," she said. That's it."

Cupcake Calculations

     2 kinds of cupcakes
+   4 kinds of frosting
------------------------------
     8 choices for dessert

You're worth it, Treatie! Happy Birthday.

(For the record: chocolate or vanilla cake with chocolate or vanilla or peanut butter or earl grey buttercream.)

Unintended Consequences

Who knew that when we put a potted sunflower out on the deck that we would get an almost-resident pair of goldfinches, too? 

When Life Gives You...

Peaches? Make peach crisp.

Cucumbers and basil? Whip up Thai cucumber salad.

Zucchini? Roast it and serve with tahini sauce.

Eggplant? Ratatouille is always nice.

Tomatoes? Fuggedaboutit! We never met one we didn't love.

Don't worry, summer. I can handle it.

Desperate Measures

An inveterate introvert, I know how lucky I am to have Heidi, who is usually more than willing  to approach, ask, order, sit in the middle seat on airplanes, or otherwise interface with strangers on my behalf. Who knows what was happening today? In order to prepare for Richard and Annabelle's upcoming visit, we were shopping for fun art supplies at our local craft store when I mentioned that teachers get a 10% discount with identification. "Why don't you tell the cashier we don't have our IDs because it's summer?" I suggested.

"Why don't you?" Heidi replied.

Just then a former student waved at us. It turned out she was working there for the summer, so as we waited in line we exchanged pleasantries and did a little catching up before she went off to stock some shelves. Moments later, the cashier was ringing up our purchase, and I looked at Heidi with raised eyebrows. She returned the exact same look. I sighed.

"Don't you guys give a teacher discount?" I began. The cashier nodded. "Well," I continued, "we're teachers, but we had to turn in our IDs for the summer." I shrugged. "You can ask Stephanie," I continued hopefully, "I taught her when she was in 6th grade."

"I don't believe a word Stephanie says," the cashier told me. My heart sank. "But I do believe you!" she finished merrily as she punched a few buttons on the register and even scanned an extra coupon.

Fifteen bucks later, Heidi was not as impressed as I thought she might be. "So..." she started, "if there's money involved? You don't seem to have any problem at all talking to strangers. I'll have to remember that."

Drat.