Today is Tuesday, September 7th, 2004. Since the computer is still out of commission, who knows when this will post. Gabriel’s seventh birthday is tomorrow. On Saturday we had a “party” for him at Rollerworld — a local roller rink that the kids like. I put the word party in quotation marks because about half the people failed to show up. I don’t mean half the people RSVP’ed and declined. I mean, that of those who RSVP’ed half failed to show up. It was very discouraging. Poor Gabriel always seems to get shafted. He’s very much the middle-kid and I so desperately want to make sure he doesn’t get overlooked. He’s a great kid who doesn’t complain much and doesn’t demand much, which means his needs tend to be overlooked more than the others.

And how about this: it turns out that there’s a “critical mass” of guests who need to show up to make it feel like a real party! We had a total of 10 kids (4 were mine) and it really didn’t feel festive or very special. I have to come up with a better idea for him for next year. He deserves to feel special on at least one day out of the year. I don’t mean to say he didn’t feel special. I think he did. He had a good time skating around and so did his guests. Nonetheless I feel compelled to do better for him next time.

We also spent a lot of time in the yard cleaning it up. We removed two old miniature kiwi vines that never bore flowers in this New England climate. We had previously gotten rid of some fruit trees that wouldn’t bear fruit either. I dug up and cut in to small pieces two holly bushes and a hydrangea that didn’t quite make it through last winter. I also cleared “the canyon” of giant weeds. The Canyon is a section between our house and the driveway next door. Its more like a four or five foot pit that collects plants and litter. More of the latter than the former. Its always a little spooky because its kind of dark and you never know exactly what you’re stepping on. I have faith that none of it is an actual animal or snake or something.

Last winter I got an outdoor fireplace that came in handy on Saturday. We took a lot of this yard waste and burned it. I had previously stored a lot of the sticks and big branches that had been cleared anticipating something like this. We got the fire going good and hot with old dry wood and then threw on the green stuff. We tried to keep the smoke low by only putting on a little greenery at a time. It took us a couple of hours to go through everything. I kept thinking the local fire department would stop by and make us knock it off. Or the police would come by to put a stop to it. This really took the joy out of the outdoor fireplace.

Many of Liz’s plants in the front didn’t make it through our exceptionally hard winter. So we went to home depot where she bought some new bulbs and some peat moss and whatnot. I got grass seed, fertilizer and a new cross-cut hand saw. I spent some time yesterday seeding and feeding the back yard after mowing the grass. I understand you’re supposed to plant fall grass six to eight weeks before the first frost so I think now is the right time. Liz turned over all the dirt in the front and added the peat moss and some fertilizer to the soil. It looks much richer now. She’s prepared the spot so she can plant her flower bulbs any time in the next few weeks.

After getting a lot done in the morning I took the three older kids fishing in the afternoon up at Spot pond. We didn’t catch anything but the kids seem to be getting better at casting. When we got there the kids really wanted to splash around in the shallow water. I knew it would scare the fish away, but since Ben had already fallen in accidentally I didn’t think it would hurt anything. We had two fishing rods for three kids — a situation I intend to remedy today. And they could knot up a line in about thirty seconds (sometimes three seconds!). I managed to untangle their knots in under five minutes. This meant that most of the time I was untangling knots instead of fishing and they were standing around waiting instead of fishing. They were all better at the end of 2 hours than at the beginning and I think they’re getting the hang of it. They also found one live crawdad and one dead one. We’re hoping they are of no relation to each other. I nearly caught a duck. But no fish. Still, it was nice getting out to the lake and not having too much to do. I’d like to do it again right away, but I don’t think I’ll get a chance. After 45 minutes or so I told the kids that I wanted to fish for a little bit and that they should try untangling their own lines for a while. I didn’t even get any nibbles but it felt good nonetheless. Another thing is that I want to get actual earthworms next time — I always have better luck with live bait than with lures.

Now its back to work. The boys start school tomorrow (9/8) and Chloe starts the following Monday I think. They don’t start at the same time anyway. Ben’s third grade teacher will be doing this thing called “looping” where she will have the same class for two years. The idea is that they can save four weeks at the beginning by not having to get used to each other after the summer. She’s supposed to be very good, so I’m hoping it turns out well. Ben and his first grade teacher didn’t hit it off but I have high hopes for this teacher. I don’t recall her name.

We were in line at Home Depot and there was a very cute little girl who kept smiling in our direction. Then Liz asked Benjamin if that was “Lauren” from school. He confirmed it was and went over to say “hi”. Then she got bashful and didn’t want to talk to him. But when he got 10 feet away she started smiling at him again.

The kids are really excited about getting back to school. They’ve had a busy summer but haven’t seen any of their usual friends even once! It will be good for them to get back in to the groove. Chloe and Grace will be starting dance classes next week or the week after. Chloe will be taking tap and Grace is engaged in something called “Creative Movement”. I don’t know if they learn anything but they’re both really excited to go.

I guess I better get back to work. They’re supposed to announce who got the manager job for which I applied sometime this week. I’m hopeful but not optimistic about my chances. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Oh and there’s a “team building” event this evening at my new boss’s house. It will be fun I think. Its just a BBQ but I know him and his wife and like them both quite a bit and I like the group of people who will be going. I think I’ll be home around 9 or so. Not terribly late.

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