Outside.

I've been blogging a little over two years now. (This is not a "going to put the blog on hold" message. By the time I got my lazy butt worked up to do it, I'd have chaned my mind.) Over the last two years, I've learned that my ability to be distracted with bright, shiny objects is greater than my ability to stay focused on the blog.

Eeek!

In this case one of the bright, shiny objects of the last couple of weeks is the outdoors. I've mowed the lawn as much as I'm going to (there's an area out back where I just trimmed around the stepping stones--the grass and wildflowers are just too pretty, especially when Ray chases the cat through them). I've been on walks.

Today, though. Today was the big day.

I dug out the inflatable pool and inflated it.

After it was all done, I sat outside and read cooking magazines for a couple of hours (like you wouldn't), decided I needed to learn how to grill, and ate dried banana chips with my shivering, wet daughter. She'd sit on my lap long enough to soak through my pants, then run back to the pool and start dancing around in it.

As for going back in the house, the cat had deposited a nearly headless lizard on he kitchen floor, so you can see that I have no excuse to go back inside.

Tonight I'm going to grill hotdogs and what I've come to think of as Jackie corn: corn on the cob, covered in butter, dabbed with spices, wrapped in foil. Which reminds me. I've been looking for the next thing to cook for my folks when they come out here next (Mom and I sit around and cook, and the kids and my Dad eat something new, which can be an accomplishment). I made dim sum last time...