Baseball Dissection

My son loves baseball.  Like, A.LOT.
He loves it so much that, one day, he decided to dissect a baseball.
He wants to know all the ins and outs of baseball-figuratively and literally.

So, we start with an old baseball that was starting to come away at the seams

 By the way, I took all these photos with the Instagram app on my iPhone.  If you don't have it downloaded, do it now.  Ok?  Then come back and read the rest of my post, because, well, that would be the polite thing to do...

My son ripped the leather along the seams

 My daughter helped pose the ball.  This is very important to her.  The girl can pose.  

and inside was a ball.  A ball of yarn

And let me tell you...it smelled!  Really bad.  Like mold and mildew.  

 And, underneath the yarn was a ball.  A ball of rubber. 

A rubber ball.  

 Stinky yarn.

Baseball innards that looks like a face.  

Picasso style.  

What did you do this summer?

Oh, us?  Well, thank you for asking.  Let's see...

Oh, yes, we experienced an earthquake.  That was quite a day.  I thought a tree was falling on our house and we were all going to get squished so I gathered my chickens and ran outside.  My friend, Jen, who is a SoCal native (that's SOuthern CALifornia for us cool people) told me that this indeed is the wrong thing to do in an earthquake.  As she is a SoCal native (again, we're cool) she has experienced a few earthquakes and told me that I should have gone under a sturdy table, or in a doorway, etc...  I am sure you've heard all of these before.  However, being that I am an East Coast native (or, EaCo since I'm cool--right?  That's something that we all say?  No?  hmm... still cool though ;)) I have never experienced an earthquake, but have experienced trees falling over so I ran outside to save myself from being squashed by the tree that I am still sure was going to fall on our house.

Got it?

Let's see, what else did we do... Oh yes!  Survived a hurricane.  You may have heard of Irene?  Now, I use the term 'survived' very loosely.  We have a backup generator and our power only went out for a few hours so we were much more fortunate than some homes and families.  Besides torrential downpours, a few tornado warnings and gusty winds, we fared just fine.  Our county has been declared a disaster area, but thanks be to God, we do not need any assistance from FEMA.

So, we had a memorable summer.  This past August, I have been told, was the second wettest August on record.  So, with all the rain and destroying winds, my poor tomato plants are not doing too well.  They took a thrashing, and well, I just don't want to talk about it.  So much for my homemade salsa with tomatoes from MY garden.  There's always next year--I hope!

I will leave you with one image, and then we are not to speak of my tomatoes anymore.  Too sad...

EaCo represent!

Old Time Movie Stars

We recently experienced a lovely vacation on the Chesapeake. 
Maryland.
Which I once pronounced Mary-Land.  
Once.  
I now pronounce it like everyone else.  Merra-lind.  
Makes no sense to me.  
Like Arkansas.  Should be pronounced R-Kansas.  


Anyhoo, whilst there my daughter channeled old time movie stars.  It was quite delightful.  There must have been something in the water.  


First up: Lucille Ball

Then, the beautiful Grace Kelly:

And finally, Deborah Kerr:

I won't post the photo of Deborah Kerr in this position, as that would just be inappropriate--she's got Burt Lancaster all over her.

Trash Picker

My son has an affinity for Mc Flurry's.  
The ice-cream concoctions that are blended with goodie goodness sold at that fast-food joint you might have heard of.  

hmm...really shouldn't finish a sentence with 'of'.
...of which you might have heard.  There, is that better?

So, after a particularly hot and sweaty baseball practice he politely asked (as all teenaged boys do *ahem*) if we could stop and get a Rolo Mc Flurry.  You heard it right peeps.  A Rolo Mc Flurry.  That would be ice cream blended with delicious caramel Rolos.  

Hold on, I'll be right back...
Love me some caramel.  Or, do you say, carmel. ??  I love them both.

Now, back to my story:
I graciously said 'yes' and off we went.  He finished it on the drive home and promptly threw it in the trash when we got home.  Such a good boy.

A while later we thought the house seemed particularly quiet.  


It's only when it's particularly quiet do you realize how noisy a puppy can be.  There was no scurrying across floors, no stealing socks out of laundry baskets.  It was just oh so quiet.  So, we called our little darling, just to make sure she was still in the house and hadn't snuck out to play with a goat (yes, our neighbor has a goat--that's a story for another day).  After calling out, "Virrrrr-ginnnnn-yaaaaa" this little head popped around the corner:

Did someone call me?  Pay no attention to the cup on my snout.  

It may be stuck, but I don't mind.

It's oh, so DEE-LISH-US.

Today

Today we went to the beach.

It was glorious.

We ate fish and chips.

We played in the water.

We collected shells.

We laughed and sang and ate.  

This picture has me in tears.

These are my babies.

When did they get so big?

I don't like it.

Not one bit.

Well, I love the photo.

But, not the getting older and bigger stuff.  That needs to stop.  

Container Garden

While I wait for this:

to be turned into:

(kidding) (maybe not)

I have these:

  

Some tomato plants (thanks to my wonderful neighbor friend) that I have in a container on our back deck.

I also have these:

Zucchini plants.

The tomato plants are starting to bud.  Is that the right term?

These are the Jelly Bean variety so they will be about the size of a grape tomato.  

Can't wait!!

Hello again, hello

hello?  you still there?  

I'm actually sitting down at the computer to blog.  

hello?

is this thing on?

Come back, please...I'll try to be more regular.  Of a blogger that is.  

Miss you.

Love you. 

Mean it.