I think i'm more excited about this than Riley, who's very sad to say goodbye to his teacher, Miss Flaherty, who's done an amazing job with him this year. And it goes without saying that I can't even picture him in 3rd grade. But more than that, the thought of Kylen standing in a school uniform, waiting for his first bus is beyond my comprehension.
I know it's trite, but where the hell did the time go?
Unfortunately the end of the school year for Ri puts me in mind of all of my own last days of school, and it's transferred to my attitude toward work. I'd much rather be in the yard doing anything (short of weeding). I even enjoyed (to the extent a sane person can) spreading the 20 yards of dirt along the driveway in the nice weather. I came home yesterday and enjoyed a cup of coffee on the deck and just relaxed for a bit. I'm determined not to waste a minute of this summer.
Speaking of coffee, we win the persistence award for not giving up on our espresso machine. It seized up because--and get this--you have to clean these things from time to time. It says so right in the instructions. No, really. Something called descaling, which is almost enough to make me never drink coffee to start with. Apparently 4 years is too long to go without doing this. After 3 calls w/ the good folks at starbucks--who, ironically, can't make coffee as well as we can with our machine--a jumbo screwdriver, lemon juice, and most of the other tools in my toolbox, i was able to disassemble the innards enough to clean it all out. This process took two weeks, a shocking amount of swearing, and one never-to-be-spoken-of-again round with a hammer. But that little bugger is tough, and in the end all it cost us was $10 for a new part and the satisfaction (and relief) of keeping an old friend alive and $400 in our bank account. I'm enjoying my first cup right now. Unfortunately the water comes out very fast (which i suspect is what it's supposed to do) and i'd adjusted my mix for the anemic flow we were getting. I'll have to readjust.
And there you have it. Ramblings on the first day of summer, waiting for Riley to come home from his half-day wrap up. Kylen at my side, begging to play on the Wii before the 10am start time. And a rained out trip to Kennywood. We may see Up instead.
Off to cram in some work. Sigh.
A few pictures of the first smores of the season:
