Cleaning house and watching Goblet of Fire with Matilda today. I will never, ever get tired of the heartbreaking comic end to the Yule Ball, with a handful of blissed-out dancers shuffling around in mingled exhaustion and unwillingness to let go of the delicious physical presence of a crushed-on person right in their arms, and the stairway outside littered with misery, bitter girls comforting sobbing girls and snarling boys kicking aside bits of fallen decoration and the shattered wreckage of the expectations for the night that they couldn't even articulate to themselves. I seriously wouldn't be that age again for any wealth or power on earth.

I actually don't care that it's there, only that I have to deal with the people who seem to think it's a big horrible obstacle.

I might be a bridethulhu here, but since I'm in the process of planning a wedding, yeah, I would be annoyed if our venue had a big pile of mulch or some other unsightly obstacle that was never part of the agreed-upon contract.

I'm sure a pile of mulch is beautiful to you, but when someone rents your venue, they rent it with the understanding that, unless specifically delineated in the contract, the appearance of the venue will be as they saw it. Actually -- do people pay to use the arboretum for events? If it's free, then they kind of get what they get. But if they paid, I think they're entitled to expect it to appear a certain way.

Will their special magical beautiful pretty princess day be traumatically ruined with a pile of mulch? No, of course not. But that doesn't mean they don't have the right to be annoyed that the venue they contracted with -- and paid for -- isn't as they expected.

t makes note to talk to B&B about landscaping projects

Stopping at Falling Waters on the way back tomorrow because architecture.

Because architecture is a fabulous reason.

Yesterday and today I deeep deeeeep cleaned. Which is really gross in this much humidity. But, dang, I should do this more often.

I need a shock collar to train my brother that sending out basically distress calls the second he can't find someone in the family he wants to talk with. At least clearly state that you just can't get a hold of them instead of "have you talked to X today?" Because I can catastrophize too, buddy. I was napping when the text came in. Clearly not now.

Steph, I agree. What annoys me is that the location of the mulch deposit wasn't my decision, and that there was nothing I could do about remedying it without a week or two lead-time, but I still was the person on the grounds having to deal with the frustration of the renters, trying to be diplomatic about a mess that I didn't make and couldn't possibly solve to anyone's satisfaction. And will probably have to deal with the ED's annoyance once he gets wind of the the wedding parties annoyance.

The rest is me just trying to make myself feel better about my own helplessness.

"Adirondack chair" is my brain's default answer to "going to stretch out and read outside not by a pool".

I want a zero gravity lounge chair something fierce.

Costco. I got one end of season last year for like 25 bucks.

I just took down the baby gate, and posted it on Freecycle!

I feel like I got my house back, but with extra dog.

Jesse, I don't think you're taking the right lesson from lunch: NO BEETS.

That's just wrong. Really I want all beets for lunch.

I've never had anything but canned beets as a child, and even now the memory makes me nauseous. I guess fresh ones are better?

I just took down the baby gate, and posted it on Freecycle!

So Dita's good with Charlie now? Or goodish?

I don't find a great deal of difference between canned beets and fresh. I like 'em both. Pickled is different, of course. But still tasty, for me.