Paula Deen made the best looking corn the other day on her show. She rolled several ears in butter and mayo and then sprinkled them with salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese and chili pepper. Then she cooked them on the grill. Ours didn't turn out so well. I burned ours. But, we will try again.

New Neighbor, Jess, came over an explained why they had ditched us twice. I won't write it here but now that she has explained it totally makes sense. She stayed a while and the kids played. I know she says that Nick is ADHD among other things but oh my, the kid cracks me up. He really is hyper but he is not malicious or anything. He doesn't really do anything that is bad, he just doesn't listen at all. At one point he went inside the house through the garage to use the bathroom. When he went to come back out we heard him running and then a big thud. "Pull Nick, pull, the door opens in!" I couldn't stop laughing.

Smantha and I have been taking bike rides in the evenings and we are loving it. Sometimes we go to Pickerington Ponds and sometimes we go through our neighborhood. We wait until it is cool out and then ride a few miles.

Wednesday was half price day at the thrift store and I made out! I got a Fred Segel sexy dress for half off of $12.99 and a Garfield & Marx suit for half off $18.99. The suit is a black tank dress with a 3 button jacket that is as long ad the dress. The sexy dress is black also, long, backless and has sequins on the front. Samantha whistled when I tried the sexy dress on.

Kelly and I took the kids to Skyline on Wednesday and afterward I sat at her house with the kids until Tim got home so that she could go to half price day also. I sat with Danny on the front porch. He played his Nintendo DS while the girls and Sean ran through the sprinkler. They played follow the leader and I had the best time watching them and reading my book. It was the perfect summer evening and one of those memories that you just want to freeze and experience again and again.

On Thursday Samantha went to Grandmas and Ellen and I went out for dinner. She always talks about Billy Lee's, a Chinese place in Bexley that she goes to all the time so that's where she went. It was a perfect night to go together because her son was doing a ride along with John at work. He was so excited about getting to see first hand what a police officer does. Billy Lee's was really good. I had hot & sour soup which is one of my favorites and crab rangoons and a chicken egg roll. I told John we definitely have to go there next week. I know he and Samantha will love it. After dinner we drove into the city to look at our guys in the police car and then we went to Target. Scott, Ellen's son is going to Israel in a few weeks and she wanted to get some gifts for him to take to her cousin's kids. They live on a moshav which is like a kibbutz but not so much focused on agriculture. While we were at Target we saw Cameron, Cindy's son. He recognized me and said hello. He looks great. The last time I saw him was when Cindy was with Andy. Back then Cam was not very happy because of Andy as well as because of being in that awkward teenage boy phase. I was so glad to see how happy he is now. He just completed his first year of college and has a girlfriend who Cindy says is really nice. Then after I dropped Ellen off at her house I picked Samantha up at Rose's house. When I got there she had the dog, Maggie, out and Samantha was petting her and everything. Samantha usually doesn't want anything to do with dogs that are wild like Maggie usually is. I was so proud of her. Rose walked us out to our car and we stood out front for awhile and watched the squirrels across the street at Joyce's house. Rose and Joyce put peanuts out for them every night. There is a mommy and about 3 little babies and then my favorite, the all white squirrel. I am fascinated by him and could watch him for hours.

This evening I am sitting out front while John works on his garage project and Samantha plays. She brought out her Lincoln Logs and made a house which she put Hally the Hamster in. That hamster is so stinking cute, especially when it is running around a Lincoln Log house. She put a slide and a balcony in her log house. Both of which Hally the Hamster climbed on a few times before knocking them down. Gute & Sandy drove by. We chatted with them for a bit and they are going to come back later for a fire in the fire pit. Gute asked if we had wood because he said he was fresh out of deer. (Last summer we had burned their Christmas lawn decorations when we ran out of wood one night.)

Tara came over to play yesterday and here is a conversation I overheard:
Samantha: I tried to call you.
Tara: I was at my mom's school until 3pm.
Samantha: I called you a couple of times.
Tara: I know you left THREE messages.
After dinner I took the girls to Chestnut Ridge for a walk. Those two crack me up. They wanted to see some plants at one point that were off the path a little. I told them it was okay and walked over to them to show them it was okay. They told me that you are supposed to stay on the path. I laugh but really I am glad that they are very concerned with following the rules. As we finished the rest of our walk we laughed about what a mean dog Ferrari the Daschund is. The girls also enjoyed taking turns reading the plaques about the history of the park that they have along the trails. They do really well at sounding out words they don't know and usually came pretty darn close to pronouncing the big words and proper names correctly. I'm so glad that Samantha has such a nice friend.

This morning we went to some garage sales. The first one we stopped at was the house where the woman pulled out and hit Johnathan's mom last year. I told John how I had picked Johnathan up and then sat with Michelle while the details of the accident got all sorted out. So we walk up the drive way and this woman says, "I remember you" and she gives me a hug. I told John that it was the woman's daughter. After we left John asked if I knew her from somewhere other than the accident. I said no that people just tend to remember me and that maybe it was my short blond hair. He said no, it was more like because I am a dork. Anyway, from that garage sale I got an old pitch fork with out a handle. It's my second one and I put them in my garden as art. I got a candle holder to put out on the deck and an old photograph of 3 kids on a front porch. It is probably from the 1940's and I don't care that I have no idea who the kids are, it is just a really great photo. It's one of those that was hand colored. I put it in the kitchen on the counter behind the fruit bowl. It drives John crazy. I don't know what I enjoy more, the photo or the fact that he is so bothered by it. Then we went to a garage sale out by Chestnut Ridge. The people had a lot of old stuff. They had the Fisher Price parking garage that I had 30 years ago. It even had dog teeth marks on some of the people. the woman only wanted $5 for it and as I sit here thinking about it I am kicking myself for not getting it because 1. Samantha would have had fun playing with it and 2. because it is worth way way more than $5. We did get a bed that fits Samantha's American Girl Doll, Sara perfectly. The woman said her husband had made it 40 years ago for one of their daughters.

As I sit here I can here the bird in the 3 pear trees we have across our front yard. One thing that has always annoyed me about newer developments like ours is that they are totally lacking typically in the tree department. One of the first things we did when we moved in almost 10 years ago was plant oodles of trees. Trees are great. They are good for the environment. They provide shade which is cool in the summer and keeps your grass greener and they look pretty. I just don't understand the people who buy a house, move in and never plant any trees or bushes. They just mow their brown lawns. Anyway, back to the birds. Since we are one of the few houses that has lush maturing trees we get all the birds. It sounds like there are over a hundred of them squawking around in there. John wondered how many there were so he just kicked the tree even though I told him that was mean. Yes, about 100 and now it is strangely quiet.