My Morning So Far
I worked out very diligently this morning because I really am not pleased with my present girth (My Summer Waistline, brought to you by "Hey, have another hot dog. It's summer!"). When I returned I cut two small bouquets of roses from my garden and arranged them at the kitchen counter thinking that it was Anne Morrow Lindberg (or someone like that) who said something or other about the joy of arranging one's own flowers first thing in the morning and how she was right. Then I started wondering if she knew her husband was a Nazi sympathizer and that threatened to ruin my mood so I stopped and instead poured a cup of very delicious coffee and sat in the back garden, where it was cool and fine, reading Pride and Prejudice.
It was so cool and fine that I finally had to put on a sweatshirt and then to go inside because I still wanted to read but the coolness wasn't allowing my coffee to sustain the requisite state of hot. I sliced open a grapefruit for breakfast, compelled by aforementioned girth, and kept reading. (I'm at the good part, near the end, when Elizabeth realizes that she has misjudged Mr. Darcy and might even love him and of course, as I'm reading I'm picturing Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle so it's even better). I read so long that I started to get sleepy. I laid down on the couch and closed my eyes, The Dog climbed up beside me and I napped, only to wake in a panic thinking I might have slept away the whole morning. Which I hadn't because it was only 9:30am.
And that's a story about why it can be so swell to get up at 5:30am.
In other news, the cool and fine morning seems to be holding. In fact, the sky is the color of slate. It is not dark and glowering but it is definately opaque and it seems to promise that even if it does heat up today, it will be cooler than it has been. This is a very good thing because, not to go on and on about it, but many people here 'bouts, are not fans of the heat. Their ancestors did not come from balmy climes and they carry in their blood a need for dark and cool and salted fish. The city-wide crankiness factor is palpable and if it weren't for the Mist of Niceness The Spouse and I would be no better. A little respite is a good thing.
Plus, I have 2 laundry baskets full of napkins and table cloths which need ironing but it has been too bloody hot. I tried ironing out on the deck yesterday but even that was too much. Today is perfectly suited to the task and very little makes me feel an accomplished homemaker as when I stack freshly ironed linens in their closet and set a little bunch of lavendar on them because I can.
On Sunday The Child was the recipient of severe restrictions in consequence of behavior unbecoming a person not in fact raised in a barn. Yesterday morning she woke up all sweetness and the model of penitance and by way of amends for previously shouting things like "You are so unfair," "Shut up!" and "I hate you", asked if we could have Mommy and Daughter's Day of Fun. This consisted of an alternating pattern of playing a game then sitting under the mister with a cooling drink and talking. We had a very lovely time and the best game of Scrabble we've ever played. Among other things. She was the overall winner of the day's tournament, mostly because she kicked my butt at "Life" (for which she constructed an ATM machine out of a wine box).
I hope she'll consent to playing Scrabble again today. I let her use the Scrabble dictionary to help her along and she was very delighted to discover that "aa" is an actual word (referring to some sort of cindery lava) and "od" is a "hypothetical force of nature". I snicker (to myself) watching her look up stuff and spell correctly. Heaven forbid she should figure out that she is improving her mind. Also, don't tell her that keeping score in Yatzee means using math facts.
It was so cool and fine that I finally had to put on a sweatshirt and then to go inside because I still wanted to read but the coolness wasn't allowing my coffee to sustain the requisite state of hot. I sliced open a grapefruit for breakfast, compelled by aforementioned girth, and kept reading. (I'm at the good part, near the end, when Elizabeth realizes that she has misjudged Mr. Darcy and might even love him and of course, as I'm reading I'm picturing Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle so it's even better). I read so long that I started to get sleepy. I laid down on the couch and closed my eyes, The Dog climbed up beside me and I napped, only to wake in a panic thinking I might have slept away the whole morning. Which I hadn't because it was only 9:30am.
And that's a story about why it can be so swell to get up at 5:30am.
In other news, the cool and fine morning seems to be holding. In fact, the sky is the color of slate. It is not dark and glowering but it is definately opaque and it seems to promise that even if it does heat up today, it will be cooler than it has been. This is a very good thing because, not to go on and on about it, but many people here 'bouts, are not fans of the heat. Their ancestors did not come from balmy climes and they carry in their blood a need for dark and cool and salted fish. The city-wide crankiness factor is palpable and if it weren't for the Mist of Niceness The Spouse and I would be no better. A little respite is a good thing.
Plus, I have 2 laundry baskets full of napkins and table cloths which need ironing but it has been too bloody hot. I tried ironing out on the deck yesterday but even that was too much. Today is perfectly suited to the task and very little makes me feel an accomplished homemaker as when I stack freshly ironed linens in their closet and set a little bunch of lavendar on them because I can.
On Sunday The Child was the recipient of severe restrictions in consequence of behavior unbecoming a person not in fact raised in a barn. Yesterday morning she woke up all sweetness and the model of penitance and by way of amends for previously shouting things like "You are so unfair," "Shut up!" and "I hate you", asked if we could have Mommy and Daughter's Day of Fun. This consisted of an alternating pattern of playing a game then sitting under the mister with a cooling drink and talking. We had a very lovely time and the best game of Scrabble we've ever played. Among other things. She was the overall winner of the day's tournament, mostly because she kicked my butt at "Life" (for which she constructed an ATM machine out of a wine box).
I hope she'll consent to playing Scrabble again today. I let her use the Scrabble dictionary to help her along and she was very delighted to discover that "aa" is an actual word (referring to some sort of cindery lava) and "od" is a "hypothetical force of nature". I snicker (to myself) watching her look up stuff and spell correctly. Heaven forbid she should figure out that she is improving her mind. Also, don't tell her that keeping score in Yatzee means using math facts.
cobbled together by Moi at 9:38 AM
5 Comments:
Congratulations on being recipient of the quote of the day award for the following:
"On Sunday The Child was the recipient of severe restrictions in consequence of behavior unbecoming a person not in fact raised in a barn."
Why, thank you. I kinda liked that line myself but to be recognized by my peers...I just don't know what to say...
I'm totally jealous of your "cool and fine morning"..It hasn't been cool here in over 100 years!..or last March anyway..Congrats on your quote of the day award :)
A fine quote indeed. It's been a little cooler here too for a change.
Sling, Thank you and I'm sorry. I had forgotten all about how wonderful a cool morning can be. I didn't mean, in my joy, to rub it in.
Grish, Such a relief isn't it? I think it got up to maybe 85 today...which normally would be hot for Seattle but our perspective, at least for the moment, has changed.
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