Today was a great day. I mean a really great day. I haven't had one like this in ages.

It started out wonderful by virtue of the crystal clear blue skies and bright shining sun. Mmm--who doesn't love to see that on a late February morning in Oregon?

I did some visiting and then a couple of women from church came by to visit me for a bit. That wasn't fun--one of them brought her two unruly and undisciplined children who decided that the fun thing to do with the box of toys I brought out was to throw them on the floor in the kitchen to see what kind of noise they would make or where they would slide to. They wouldn't stop moving--they were bouncing off the walls like pinballs, even when she was trying to get them to sit still for a minute while we talked. Drove me batty. This house is in no way suited to such behavior. I have one very mature 8 year old child so our house reflects that configuration. After the bouncing/sit down failed, the little girl (probably 2.5 or 3) decided that it was more fun to throw the toys into my book case (where I have pictures, boxes, candlesticks, and other things in addition to book) to see what would happen. The mom was getting exasperated but was completely ineffectual. She kept saying "I'm sorry" but just didn't seem to be very good at getting her kids to stop their unacceptable behavior. Before I had a chance to say anything, the other mom said "Oh, it's ok." What the? This is *my* house--I'm the one who says It's ok. But it wasn't ok and I couldn't wait for them to leave. And never bring their children back again. I would never never never do that to someone else. What is wrong with her? Criminy!

After the hellians left, I decided that I would work outside in the flower beds. They needed their winter weeds pulled, the barkdust fluffed up, the stalks of dead flowers and grasses pulled, the gigantic, overgrown rosemary cut back, the maple tree thinned out and some old ornamental grasses pulled out from another bed. I loved it--turned up the stereo blaring No Doubt's latest CD, opened the window and went to town. It felt so good to work and get my hands in the soil. Wonderful! When I got that all done, I scrubbed a section of floor in the garage where the cat peed and it dried and crystallized. Man, that was hard to clean up! I had to scrub it with a wire brush!! Never let cat pee harden up on a floor--it will be a bitch to get rid of after that.

My neighbor took Joey and her kids to the park so I decided to catch a few zzzzzs since I'd gotten to bed late. I napped for about 45 minutes--perfect. Then I took a shower and got ready for our outing tonight.

Ed's company made a sizable donation to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and as a thank you, OMSI opened their doors this week to all company employees and their families. We invited the neighbor girl, Ashley, to go with us. It was great! We got there in good time, ate dinner in the car on the way there (the girls LOVED that!). We did some chemistry experiments--zinc-plated a penny and put sulfuric acid on chalk, burned chemicals that are in fireworks to see what colors they made, and melted plastic. It was great fun. We saw a lot of exhibits--did a wheelchair thing where you go into an accessible "house" and up/down some ramps in a wheelchair, looked at fetuses in all stages of development, went in an earthquake simulation, did some physics exhibits with wind and air pressure, went into a big brain and looked at optical illusions. I just loved it. The girls wanted to do more and more and more but we had to leave at 8:30. We stopped at Baskin Robbins for dessert and then went home. Joey went right to sleep with no argument and promised to be in a good mood in the morning. We'll see about that. It was really fun to have Ashley with us--she's one of the nicest girls ever. She said to her mother that Joey was her best buddy. I liked hearing that. Have I mentioned recently that I have the best best best neighbors? Because I do.

I'm just feeling so satisfied with the day--I actually accomplished some things and moved my body and soaked up the sun and enjoyed myself. This is good. Very very good.

--L