Potatoes in the Mist

I'm going to the Poconos tomorrow. My in-laws have a house there. It's in the middle of nowhere. But the kids love it. Or at least Eric does. It will be Zoe's first time. She's looking forward to scooping her own ice cream. I haven't been there in 7 years. It's a little isolated for my taste, and there's always the chance that a Shining situation could develop. (Kidding. Mostly.) But D bought a bike which I can ride (his father drove it over there today). And I have the option of coming back early. I'll try to take some pictures.

I just finished They May Not Mean To But They Do by Cathleen Schine. The title is a reference to Philip Larkin. Anyway, it was a book about an 86-year-old woman living in New York City, and her family. I really liked it. It struck me I haven't read many books about getting older. And there was this gentle humor throughout.

I took a quiz, "How old are you based on which colors you see? Our perception of color changes with age" and it said I was 25. Nothing like a little flattery from Facebook in the morning :)

We went to my brother's house yesterday for my nephew's graduation party. It was fun (we all went in the pool) but Zoe got 3 splinters in her foot from the deck. One of them was sticking out so I was able to pull it out easily. The other two were embedded. I googled "remove splinter" and found out that you can make a paste with baking soda and water and put it on a band-aid. It's supposed to make the skin swell and the splinter pops out.  

Just read a short story that I really liked. A bunch of quilters were discussing the possibility of a ghost. One of them got scared and left. One of the remaining quilters admitted that it was she who picked her sister's stitches out at night after everyone went to bed - not a ghost. Then one of the other quilters revealed that the stitches came undone each night after the former stitch-picker moved out. She was unbothered, saying that if any spirits haunted the house, she was sure they were benevolent ones.

George Michael is 53...where did the time go?

I'm at my mom's house (my nephew is having a high school graduation party tomorrow). The kids wanted to make a watermelon smoothie, so they put watermelon, strawberries and lemon juice in the blender (simple recipe from the Internet). It came out well, despite the seeds.

The world feels a bit topsy-turvy this morning with Brexit. Some people are saying it will help propel Trump to power. (And Boris Johnson does look a bit like him, at least the hair.) But Bernie has got behind Hillary at last, saying he will vote for her.

I'm reading Anne Tyler's newest book, Vinegar Girl. It's based on The Taming of the Shrew, but set in modern times. At first I was skeptical...a lot of these re-workings don't seem to work...but I like it so far. And it's set in Baltimore, of course.

Just finished Here's to Us by Elin Hilderbrand. Great book. She might be my favorite author :)

I'm discouraged that 56 Senators voted against gun violence prevention last night. But Chuck and Kirsten voted the right way (yay, New York!) And Everytown (gun control advocacy group) is talking about regaining control of Congress in November (entirely possible) and putting gun control on the ballot (as a referendum, taking Congress out of the equation entirely). And I love that Trump has what the New York Times calls a "crippling money deficit" - $1.3 million to Hillary's $42 million. Before he realized how much campaigning costs, he bragged about how he was self-funding and doesn't need help - not the best approach to campaign finance.

Just saw Finding Dory with the clan. It was really cute. A nice feel-good movie with a happy ending. I liked it better than Zootopia.

A Scottish woman likes to post pictures of cygnets on Twitter. It was hard for me to download her pictures, so I found one on Google. Aren't they adorable? It looks like they're saying, "Fancy a cuppa?" or something like that. Today I'm going to see Love & Friendship, a Jane Austen adaptation based on Lady Susan , with my friend T from college. It's supposed to be excellent - 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Brady campaign tweeted a link today...if you click on it, you're connected to a senator's office and you can ask them to vote yes to close the terror gap and vote yes on Senate Bill 551. Worth doing! I went through and spoke to a live person.

I checked the news this morning and was so relieved that Chris Murphy's filibuster was successful...they are going to vote on universal background checks and closing the terror gap...congratulations to him for standing up to the GOP.

Hillary now has a double-digit lead over Trump. I am relieved :)

I just agreed to chaperone a Brooklyn Bridge field trip...tons of walking...followed by a picnic at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Hopefully I won't regret this :)

I cut Zoe's hair and then I got worried that I gave her a mullet. "Business in the front, party in the back." I was trying to layer the sides but it didn't quite work. Then I trimmed a few more pieces and things seemed to improve. The takeaway: it's easier to cut boy hair! Eric's hair is both short and curly enough to cover mistakes. Zoe's hair still looks cute though.

I finished One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid tonight. I always like her books, and the titles are always written in a fun retro font. Anyway, this one was about a woman who was engaged, and then her previous husband (thought to be dead) shows up. It ended the way I thought it should. And then I read a little bit of the acknowledgments (at the end) and put it aside. That brought back a memory...when I was a kid, reading books, I didn't feel I'd truly read them unless I read the foreword, copyright page, everything. That kind of tickles me.

This morning, I got an email from Eric's teacher, saying that they were going on a field trip to the High Line today (near our house) and they only had one chaperone. So of course I went over, and suddenly there were six chaperones (including two grandparents). Eric was very happy to see me, and it was fun to be with the class, though it was hot at times and a little long (two hours total, most of which was spent walking).

We just had a party for Eric on a boat! I was worried it would be a dismal failure, because it was pouring rain in the morning and we got a couple of panicked cancellations. But it was a smashing success! Zoe yelled, "We're gonna die!" when we went to the top deck of the boat. (I don't know why, it wasn't particularly turbulent or anything.) But everyone just laughed. A lot of the grownups said it was the best birthday party they had been to. Eric's friend Bella said, "Great party!" There was music, entertainment, balloon animals, the Statue of Liberty, and karaoke.

Zoe graduated from preschool today. I was a little sad. The school was kind of far away (though not as far away as the private school Eric once attended, which is now closing). Anyway, I feel like she will never get this much attention again (9 students, 3 teachers). She did get into Eric's gifted and talented program across the street (no more commute after this summer - her camp is uptown). It's funny the things you feel nostalgic about. A few minutes ago, I actually thought, "I'll never send a class parent email again."

I'm getting a little annoyed at Bernie Sanders for dragging it out. A Times article says that he is planning to stay in the race *after* California. (He also feels confident he will win California, though Nate Silver feels differently.) Anyway, he's planning to campaign until the Democratic convention, hoping to woo superdelegates away from Hillary. *Eye roll* I can't help wondering if she's getting all this resistance because she's a woman. Supposedly Bernie and Hillary have a bigger gap between them (in terms of delegate count) than Hillary and Obama ever did in 2008. So in ordinary circumstances, Bernie would have dropped out. But I guess it could also be because he has an agenda he wants to push.

Both my kids have classmates with lice now, but neither of my kids got it! I'm probably tempting fate by writing this :)