Mishmash

I do realize I haven't written much lately - life is just puttering along and I haven't been taking pictures or recording much of it. The weather seems to be settling in to summer mode - hot and dry - which means that apart from the vegetable garden, everything is drab now. The flowers that made spring so picturesque are gone, the "lawn" is mostly brown (since there isn't much grass left in our lawn, that means the weeds are dying. Oh well. Maybe we will get around to fixing the lawn next year, or at least finding a better solution than letting the weeds take over), and the shrubs are settling in to the "just trying to survive until fall" mode. I've started watering things regularly, and Miikka had his first play date with the hose sprayer the other day. He was The Happiest Puppy Ever. One of these days I really need to get a video of him playing in the spray and put it up here for your viewing pleasure. That and a video of Kirby chasing Oliver...

This past weekend, we finally bought ourselves some proper adult furniture for the bedroom, to replace the ratty dresser we've had since college and some matching nightstands. (Funny story about that dresser - Benjamin and I each bought one for our respective apartments while we were dating - almost identical, except that one went together better than the other. During one of our moves, we decided to get rid of one. Guess which one we kept - yup, the even crummier one. Oops.) The dresser will now go to the baby's room and get a changing table top put on it. It isn't very good for lots of grown-up clothes, but it can surely handle diapers and onsies for a couple of years. Baby won't know the difference. As much as I have wanted to transition away from college and grad school furniture, it has been hard to do, probably because I am rather a cheapskate. Not about everything - heck, I have a $400 pair of boots in my closet (that I LOVE and wear all the time in the fall and winter), and our food budget is pretty high for two people - but definitely for furniture. I think I just don't like to spend so much money on any one item, especially one that just sits there, like a dresser. But it was time. And since we bought decent pieces, they should last for a very long time, which makes the price worth it. Now we just need to get around to painting the bedroom (and the rest of the house), buy some proper chairs for the kitchen table, and a recliner for Benjamin's study, and we will be truly grown up!

My tennis team has been given a place at the state tournament next month. I am happy for our team, but kind of bummed out that I won't be able to play. Even though I knew this was a possibility when the season started, it is still bittersweet. Since I was out of town last year I missed that tournament too; this year, at least I will be here to cheer my teammates on. And maybe bring cupcakes.