I Got Nothing

Things are pretty quiet today. I went to the teacher lunch. There are no snakes or big dogs
chasing us. The flora and fawna are under control. The chickens next door are gone. Neighbor
John is leaving tomorrow for a few weeks and asked me to "try to avoid trouble." That is my goal.

WWGD?

What would Giada do? You know I love her. Whenever I am stumped, I think "what would Giada do?"

Lemon Spaghetti


1 pound spaghetti
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the oil, Parmesan, and lemon juice in a large bowl to blend.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Toss

Hello Sunshine

I have only three weeks of school left. The girls do not finish until after Memorial Day. I hate that. School ought to be done before Memorial Day. Who cares after that! Some schools basically do nothing after the AIMS tests are over. Unfortunately, Miss Brunette is in her fourth week of extreme homework. This week projects due are a take home test (amazingly hard)
of Crusades, Renaissance, etc.; book talk; book talk jacket and science fair exhibit. I think she is about done, with the work load and school.

Blonde Girl's work is winding down, she is spending more and more time outside. They both like the social activity of school. Unlike me, the teacher doesn't write on their report cards "needs to spend less time socializing and talking." I think that was on every report card I ever got! You'd have to check with my mother to verify this fact.

Run Dog Run

Late yesterday afternoon, Blonde Girl was taking photos for her 3rd Grade LOM County Fair entry. She chose photography and she is working on her project called "Weather".

We were walking in the wash, which is across the street behind one row of houses. This dog starts chasing Abby. Abby broke away from Blonde Girl and ran like a maniac from this big golden retriever. The big dog, incidentally, was not on a leash. Blonde Girl was carrying Sam at the time and ran after Abby. I ran after them all. By the way, you can run in crocs. The big dog owner ran after everyone!

Blonde Girl caught up with Abby who was terrified and stood waiting for Blonde Girl to get her. She yelled at the dog, "bad dog, naughty dog" and the owner grabbed him, apologized and went the opposite way of us, mortified.

Both dogs had diarrhea when they got home. Abby was traumatized for a couple of hours. They both are fine today. Blonde Girl has a bruise on her hand from trying to hold onto Abby.

I should have yelled at the lady. But, I was so relieved that Abby wasn't eaten by this

big dog that I told the owner that "I am sure he just wanted to play. " And, probably he did. Blonde Girl told the owner, "it's okay." Dogs will be dogs.

Cactus Flower

We have dozens of buds on the saguaro.
It is really going to be beautiful.
And, we have fully recovered from the snake incident.
The girls slept in Miss Brunette's room and not with me,
which is ironically where the snake was.
We are thinking about getting two more dogs.
Two for me, one for Blonde Girl and one for Miss Brunette.
We may need more snake hounds.

Yes, A Snake

You will never guess what we found in our house! Yes, a snake. That has now been identified as a Sonoran Ground Snake. This is the picture from the Yahoo Image files. Last night I goggled "snakes of Arizona" and found someone who helps people ID their snakes. You know there are tons of snakes here and many of them are venomous.

Anyway, let me first tell you what happened.

We had been watching my friend Amy's little girl (see previous post of the Little Pink Haired Girl). She had been carrying Sam and Abby around since Friday night. So, on Saturday morning

I had her help me put the dogs to bed. She tucked them in and brought in every dog toy they

own. She left about an hour later. Late Saturday afternoon, I knew Sam was under my bed trying to get something. I figured it was a dog toy. We were getting ready to leave. Sam was trying to move his soft, dog bed. He was using his head trying to lift it. I figured there was a toy under the bed, so I picked it up for him. Not a toy, but a snake.

It really startled me, not the sort of thing you expect in your bedroom. I yelled for Miss Brunette not to come in the room. When, I told her why she jumped on the sofa in the

family room and was crying/screaming.

I told her to go get John (neighbor John, next door who may move because of our constant troubles). She did. When, she came back, I said "did you tell him it was pretty small". "No." In comes John with this hook.

I had stayed in the doorway watching where the stupid snake went. We caught him with my

dust bin and broom. On our way out, it got away and was headed under my stove. We

were able to find him so fast because of the dogs. They were all over this snake business.

We got him caught again and released him in my neighbor's cacti.

I later researched the type of snake it was to make sure it was not poisonous in case

these snakes travel in schools, like the fish. We don't know if he came in through an open door

(one was repaired Friday and off for about 3 hours), the dogs brought it in or it was dormant in the house for the winter. I don't like the thought of option three.

This morning John told me he wondered if it came from the attic. I had a trap door put in the ceiling of the garage also on Friday. He told me 20 years ago the people who lived in this

house raised and bred snakes. Nice. "Now you tell me John," was my answer. That sort of thing ought to be disclosed when you buy a house. Love Man, who naturally is away when all trauma dramas happen, said that would explain why no birds get in our attic. Great. My snake looked

exactly like this one in the photograph. It was about 12 - 14 inches long, salmon colored with an orange back (or dorsal as they say in the snake biz).

Completely Off My Croc

OMG, OMG they are selling Crocs for $5.

For the next couple of days, every kind of Croc, every color and all the accessories. The jibbitz were $1. I got some for everybody, except Miss Brunette who doesn't do Crocs.

They are fantastic for preschool as the sand doesn't hurt them! I like the mary-janes.

The other cloggy ones look awful. Blonde Girl loves Crocs. She is going to die when she sees the jibbitz. She was nagging me at the Sunflower for some more. They are normally $9.99 a bag.

These are Love Man's. I got him a compass jibbitz. I may have to take Blonde Girl tomorrow!
You need to support Crocs.
They are in trouble. Teachers can not live without them. Children can not live without them.