The Demon Bean

How to tell your coffee habit is out of control?

Your son is making coffee shops out of Legos with little Lego baristas and a drive up window.

I will no longer be bringing the little vice barometer on my morning mocha run.

After I get my mocha, I'm going to head out to the patio–spent yesterday finding the edges of it after I ignored the creeping grass slowly covering the bricks all last summer– with my latest project and curse the wasps that are trying to build nests in the patio umbrella.

Baseball and little boys

Back in May, I bought tickets to see the Spokane Indians (minor league team) this weekend, forgetting that summer in the inland northwest starts mid-July.

Like most little boys, Boybat is impervious to the elements and wasn't phased by the rain or the cold. I, on the other hand, was in competition with my dad as to who could string together whole sentences (quietly) using nothing but curse words to describe how stupid it was for us to be sitting there in the rain.

Fortunately, Grandma Ginny was there to explain what was going on on the field, taught him how to read the scoreboard, remembered to bring a blanket and bought him a stuffed team mascot that he hasn't let go of yet.

He loved the whole experience–the game, the crowd, the food.

After I defrosted and dried out, I realized I had fun there, too. We'll go again.

Not til mid-July, though.

DINKs and garage sales

It’s been so nice out that I haven’t been able to make myself sit down and write this past week.

What I have done tho' is get the "seasonal" yard work almost finished and as a bonus, get the garage cleaned out.

What the hell were you doing cleaning the garage you might ask? I couldn’t find the damned weed sprayer and when I did see the tiny hint of it, I couldn’t get to it. 

Grrr!

Only because it was necessary, I cleaned and organized the garage that has been wallowing in basement cast-offs for the past year. By the end of summer last year, there was a path from the garage door to the inside door. If you needed to go anywhere in that maze of crap, you would need to tie a rope around your waist to find your way back (I exaggerate, but not too much).

I blame the DINK (Double Income No Kids) era of mine and Joe’s relationship. We had disposable income then and I had a home décor bug up my tuckus. When the whirlwind of destruction-otherwise referred to as Boybat-was toddling, a lot of that stuff went into storage and never came out. It made it from upstairs closets, to the basement, to the garage and is now destined for a garage “why would someone want to buy this” sale.

Mind you, I’m not having a sale, I’m commissioning my neighbor to tack it on to her sale, while I cross stitch outside on my lovely patio enjoying the sun and telling Boybat to quit trying to hit the neighborhood cats with his suction cup bow and arrow set.

One year later and a person less

I lost a person and all I can say is, it’s about time! When I say I “lost a person”, I mean I’ve lost over 115 lbs. this past year (which would be a skinny little person, weight-wise). Hot freekin’ damn!  

When we drove to Wisconsin last year, we were able to drive through Yellowstone and see a few sights. When I compared last year’s photos to this year’s photos, I did a little dance that no one should ever have to see (sorry, Joe).

A year ago, I barely wanted to get out of the car to do the hikes and found myself sitting on a bench waiting for my guys to finish their walks.  Last week, Joe and Boybat had to keep up with me on the hikes!

No! I dont want to go back to real life!

Where to start? I know, VACATION!

We just got back from a week at Yellowstone National Park. It was fantastic, beautiful, amazing. I figured out this week that I’ve been there 7 times now and still haven’t been able to visit all the places that I want to see. In all the times that I’ve been there, I’ve never seen it with snow on the ground–until last week. It snowed everyday we were there with accumulations in some parts of the park being over two feet in one evening. It was stunning to drive into there with the snow in the trees and the blue sky.
 

My friend, Stacy, calls it my “Happy Place." She knows me pretty well (which means that I should move to another town where people haven't realized that I'm sarcastic for a reason). 

For as much as I really dislike being outside, nature in general, Raging waters, and walking around in blizzards, when I’m in Yellowstone, life is good. Joe has accepted that when we retire we’re going to volunteer at the park so we can stay there in the summers. I think he agreed because I’m a much more pleasant person when I’m there.

I did get some stitching done when there was down time in the hotel. Picked out some different colors for the Dandy Dreams pattern, with brighter colors.
 

Did I already mention that I finished Lo How a Rose? I’ll put pictures of it up soon.
 

Artists Point in the Yellowstone Grand Canyon

Am I the only one who saw a dragon in this rock?

Holy crap! Look at the snow bank on the road side

Norris Geyser Basin with Boybat

Coming into the park

Please forgive me if I go on about my vacation, I’ll try to keep it down to just a few posts.