And still more stuff rattling around in my head

Automatic sprinklers.

Eric is a landscaper. Remember the yard work he did last year? (note to self, get out there and get some photos so people can see how things have grown!)

About a month ago, he added two zones to the sprinkler system. Now, every morning about six, the sprinklers come on. And everything gets watered in the front AND back yards. All the sunflowers and tomatoes and hydrangeas and boxwoods and little shrubs and bee balm and echinacea...

Until this summer, all the stuff in the back yard had to be watered by moving a sprinkler from here to there and all over the place. Took hours. Now, by 7:15, everything is watered. The man's a genius.

While they were gone, I'd have had to go out there in my leg brace with crutches and try to avoid dog sausage bombs and drag a big sprinkler around and take all damn day to water.

But because my man knows what to do and how to do it, I was spared from all that.

:)
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Laptop computers.

I love my little, cheap, not powerful or fancy laptop. I saved up for it for quite some time, didn't want to take money from the household budget for self indulgence.

I've had it for about a year now.

I know this because Best Buy sent me an email wishing my computer a happy birthday and suggesting it might be time for me to spend fifty bucks to bring it in and let them mess with it.

They don't know I have Matt. Matt, if he can't fix or figure out what needs doing, has a friend who used to do tech support. So I won't be taking my little computer friend to Best Buy, although I take it lots of other places.

It is so nice to have it while I'm sitting around recuperating this summer. I can read, surf the internet, watch stuff on Netflix, chat with my friends (chatting with my friends should actually have come first on the list because it's my favorite thing ON the list but I'm too lazy to go back and change it), blog and email snarky comments to the newspaper.

I can do this from anywhere in the house as far as I know, but have not tried any of it from the bathroom.

Picture me sitting on the tall toilet seat, trying to balance the machine on my knees while, er, going. I think not. And now that I've said it, perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to ask you to picture it.

Sorry.

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Sort of going back to the whole yard thing... I love how things are obviously planned, but overgrown a little bit and allowed to expand and exist without a lot of manicuring. The plants and flowers are looking a little shaggy. But they're healthy and green and exuberant.

Lyssa loves birds and butterflies. She researched what kinds of plants she'd need to plant to attract them, and we have some really cool stuff out there because of it.

She makes nectar for the hummingbird feeder, and we get quite a few of the little guys now. I wish I could sit out there with my camera and not scare them off. They're so cute.

We also feed finches and other birds. Feeders all over the place. Eric keeps buying special suet cakes at the store to attract specific birds. It's an expense, but not a huge one, and the happiness it brings to Eric and Lyssa is worth much more than the small investment.

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Barbecue grills.
We need a new one. Ours is wearing out. We've replaced burners and parts etc, but it's just time for a new one. We got a lot of use out of the very inexpensive one we bought at Target five years ago.

But here's the problem. I have enough money stashed that we can go get one, but Eric won't do it. He looks at grills, says he likes this one or that one, and I say, "Let's get it." And then he gets all nervous about the money and says, "Well, let's wait."

Why don't I go buy one and just bring it home? Because he's the one who does the grilling. And no matter which one I'd pick, it wouldn't be the right one. Even if it were one he said he liked. Because I'd get it, and he'd use it and wish for the one that had the double burner or the one that had the little hooks on the front or the one that had the lid that opened the other way. And he'd say so. Not in a grumpy way, but in a wistful, gosh I should have way. And then I'll feel like I screwed up, even though he wouldn't mean it that way and then every time he cooked and complained that it wasn't heating right or needed this or needed that I'd take it personally.

I need to make that man get a grill now that it's near the end of summer and they're lots cheaper.

Temporary happiness for him and less angst for me.

We grill year round, really. Well, he does. I'm gonna start bugging him about it. In a nice, non-naggy, non-threatening, subtle way, of course.

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Cars. We're going to need to get another one, whether it's for us to drive or for Lyssa to drive. Not only is ours getting older and wearing out, the idea of us just having one car and a teenage driver... well, yeah. And I would like a vehicle that gets a little better gas mileage.
My commute is about 35 miles per day after you add it up. That split shift back and forth thing I do? It accumulates the mileage.
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So that's more of the stuff in my head.
Are you bored yet?

There's always more.
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Cobwebs. Mentioned those yesterday. But why are they called cobwebs? They're not made by cobs, they're made by spiders. I am going to make an effort to call them spiderwebs from now on. Spiders should be getting the credit for all their hard work.

I should start a club and try to get everyone to call them spiderwebs.

We could have t shirts.
Carry signs and/or business cards and try to recruit people.
Wanna join me?
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I went to summer program on Monday and taught 30 kids to tie dye. I sat a lot. I did not haul anything to my car. I did not haul things out of my car. I didn't carry anything heavy. Actually, I didn't carry anything at all. Except me.

My leg hurts a bit, but it's not horrible. However, it is quite a bit more swollen tonight than it has been.

And the 3.5 hours I spent hanging out with the kids in the heat kicked my ass. We were in the shade, but it was damned hot all the same. Not sure if it was the heat or being on my feet a bit. (I mostly sat.) I'm guessing it's a combination of both. I'm really hoping that the three weeks remaining before school starts will be enough for me to finish recuperating.