Lots of Random Bits (August)

Ticks have been bad this year. The one benefit of my melanin deprived skin is it makes ticks easier to spot. I killed this one with a pair of scissors and prejudice. 

Despite my constant checking, I got bit once at the start of summer by the smallest tick ever. It couldn't have been on long, but it made me extra paranoid that it got through my defenses.

Lonnie, one of Carrie's coworkers, has a son named Prescot who went overseas to Japan to teach. He was in town with his wife, Saki, and Lonnie offered to introduce to them at some point. Carrie set up a Sunday lunch and we met at 5 Guys. 

Shane barely spoke. I was so annoyed. The kid doesn't shut up and when there's someone he could talk to and ask whatever he wants? Shy routine. He wouldn't make eye contact and all the things that he never does normally. Carrie and I kept the conversation cycling, and eventually I got Shane to say a few things. It was fun meeting new people, but a letdown that Shane barely tried to talk to them in English or Japanese. Carrie did get a text from Lonnie later saying they thought Shane had excellent pronunciation for the Japanese he knew.

Speaking of new people, Carrie declared a barn clean up.

The granddaughter of some family friends was coming to check out our barn. She's going to be attending UVA and debating where she can stable her horse. We actually have a wait list for the barn with people calling. This family seems like the kind of people Carrie wants at the barn, so they're currently at the top of said list.

Carrie mowed and then all three of us pulled weeds to freshen up a little.

I went down to check on things and ended up in an hour conversation with the grandfather. He used to test water levels all over the area and has seen the area change (and not change) for decades. We're expecting Ernie to leave us this Fall/Winter, so if they choose our barn the new horse would come near the end/start of the year. 

I finally bought a new board game. Shane keeps saying that Marvel Champions is boring, because you play cards and it's the same thing. I'd like to point out his favorite Roblox game right now is slap battles. You slap people off a platform and it keeps track of all your slaps into the thousands and thousands.  

But I digress. I don't force Shane to play board games with me. I want him to play and I want him to enjoy it (Love is a choice and not something coerced). There was a game I've been curious about that was on sale for $14 on Amazon. I'd play with Carrie or Shane, but he bit first. 

Ideally, I'd have read the rules fully, set up, and practiced before Shane tried it, but when he says, "How about now?" I jumped to it! We haven't played a full game, but we've sat down for the first couple of turns twice. I feel like I understand all the core mechanics way better now....but what Shane really wants is to sit on the phone with his cousins and play Slap Battles and maybe Terraria.

We've had so much rain this summer that the weeds wherever Carrie doesn't mow are HUGE. Kila dived into the weeds to chase after the poop I was flinging on a Wednesday morning (Hopefully, she left any ticks she found behind...). 

We got everything done before Meredith rolled up (the farrier). She brought her dogs.

Kila said, "NOPE!" 

She ran straight back to me. I made her go back down the stairs. Then Loki was having so much fun and I pet one of the dogs without getting eaten. It was enough for her to feel safe and join in!

Shane came out when he heard all the barking and then it was a party.

That same Wednesday, we drove up to Dylan's house at 3 PM.

Kyrie's grown a bunch!

Dylan showed off some of his Legos and the kids talked some.

But you know they hit the electronics hard. 

Eli was sad no one wanted to play Doors at first (which Shane was obsessed with for a while). We were only around for a 2.5 hours or so before we had to head towards swim practice. 

John ordered pizza for his family for dinner and told me what a fabulous deal it was Wednesdays (Large Cheese for $8). I ordered a cheese for takeout right after him! We ran into Dylan's oldest step-brother, Evan, picking up the pizza when we got ours ($10 with tax and tip!). 

I bought a water bottle from Giant ($1.30 after tax for at least a liter) and we ate as we drove to swim! The pizza had a sweater sauce and was thin. I saw why the kids liked it and why the price was low, but it hit the spot. Shane and Dylan can both talk about how much they like it next time they see each other (Shared memories are worth something!).

I'll never capture everything in this blog and that's okay. There's no substitute to actually being/living with someone. Memories fade and I hope these ones bring up some fun ones for Shane at some point. Carrie's mentioned maybe having him look at a random post each Saturday to see what he remembers. Maybe I'll do that. I dunno. I'm almost caught up, though, and I'm going to redefine things when I get there.