Moo

Aidan and I had a great morning/early afternoon today. After running a family errand, we went to Barnes and Noble so Aidan could spend a gift card that he received for his birthday back in March. We verified the amount at the customer service counter and Aidan was thrilled to learn that he had $20 to spend! We spent nearly an hour as he wandered around the children's book section, perusing all the options. He decided on three Pokemon books; I would have preferred that he broaden his purchases a bit, but it was his gift card so I let him make the decision.

From there we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch, where I used one of the umpteen bazillion coupons we have for a free children's meal. Tomorrow, 10 July, is Cow Appreciation Day - go to any Chick-fil-A dressed as a cow and you get free food. A woman at the restaurant gave Aidan the lovely cow "hat", as well as cow stickers and placards that he can wear tomorrow. He told her that he would come back with his daddy since I didn't want to eat there two days in a row. True...but did he need to share that info?

He took off the cow hat long enough to get his hair cut at Great Clips. The stylists there always tell me how much fun he is because he doesn't complain and he carries on such enthusiastic conversations with them. Then home again, home again, jiggety jig where he sat on the sofa, excitedly reading his new Pokemon books.

And a good day was had by all.

BLTs, burgers and betrayal

The tomato plants in James' garden are doing very well and the tomatoes are coming in at a nice pace. We have plenty to eat ourselves with a few leftover to give away. Yesterday I made the first BLTs of the summer and, oh my, they were delicious. I had bought a loaf of five grain sour dough bread from the Publix bakery, the bacon was crisp and the tomatoes were at the perfect point of ripeness. I slathered on the mayo, sprinkled on salt and pepper and nearly wallowed in the deliciousness!

In the afternoon, we went over to the house of Dave and Rita, with whom we have become friends since Dave and James work together. We went to their neighborhood's pool so Aidan could splash around for an hour or so, while we adults stayed in the shade and tried to keep reasonably cool. When we went back to their house, Dave fired up the grill and we enjoyed a very nice Independence Day dinner of burgers, hot dogs, potato salad and watermelon, washed down with cold, hearty beer.

This morning we awoke to find that vandals had wreaked havoc on James' garden. Tomatoes were pulled off the plants and strewn about, cucumbers had been devoured, plants were torn and one was even pulled out of the ground. We are quite sure that we have the neighborhood raccoons to blame; their paw prints were all over this caper. We are feeling a bit betrayed because we have put leftover bread and rice out for them to enjoy just about every evening, and this is how our kindness is rewarded?

It is now going to be a while before we have tomatoes for any more BLTs or anything, and it will be an even longer while before we willingly share any food with those lousy rodents.