Seven completely random quick takes

1.I know I need to pick the lettuce in my garden (already!) but will it grow back? Or is that it? I read somewhere about staggering when you plant lettuce so you can have it all summer, so I'm guessing that's it, and I should buy more seeds (I planted Mesculun). But then why do I need to pick it before it gets too big? So the little leaves can have room to grow and I can get more out of one plant? Can anyone answer this burning question?

2. I've been trying to hunt down a sandbox on Craigslist for weeks now. I emailed a few different people but no one returned my messages. Then yesterday I was probably the first person to email a guy selling this sandbox down where my parents live. We then exchanged four frillion text messages to arrange pickup. And then about a half hour after my parents were supposed to pick it up, he called. I was all set to make excuses as to why my parents weren't there yet, but he was actually calling to say thanks for taking it off his hands (not like it was free, buddy!) and his son is four and too big for it now, but he loved it when he was younger and oh, did you know you could fill it with water too, like a swimming pool, and my two-year-old is going to love it. I know warm and fuzzy conversations with strangers aren't everyone's bag, but I thought it was the nicest thing. My two-year-old WILL love this sandbox. (At the very least he is going to stop digging in MOMMY'S sandbox.)

3. Speaking of text messages, I think I have now Caught On. I'm still not that great with the PHONE part of my phone (several days ago a friend called my home phone and informed me that my cell was dead, go plug it in idiot, but I forgot, and then last night she called my home phone again and told me my cell was dead AGAIN and I was all "oh, I think I forgot to plug it in before" and she was all "seriously, what is wrong with you" but it turns out my phone WASN'T dead it just needed to be kind of reBOOTed and ANYWAY) but I loooove text messaging! I can totally be a high schooler you guys. It's, like, INSTANT EMAIL. How can that be anything other than awesome?

4. As I have mentioned many times before, we visit my mom and dad on Fridays. And tomorrow? Friday? WE ARE LEAVING THE CHILDREN. Gasp! Choke! Blink! Well, we are leaving Jack FOR SURE and let's just say I am packing lots of Molly clothes and diapers and food in the event that 1) we are confident enough and 2) my parents are brave enough to take her. It's sort of spur of the momenty, and there's no occasion, but there's sort of an open invitation for sleepovers at Grandma's house and we are taking advantage. Also because there's no possible way a night at Grandma's can adversely affect the way they sleep at home BECAUSE THEY AREN'T SLEEPING. Have fun Grandma!

5. And speaking of sleepovers, I was not allowed to. Sleep over. At friends' houses. EVER. I think the first time I slept over at a friend's house was my senior year of high school and I'd gone to some horribly boring and angsty high school party and then crashed on a friend's living room floor. This was rather disastrous for my social life in the middle school and junior high years, and I suppose I did survive, but I always told my parents that was the most Neanderthal of all their Neanderthalish parenting policies and I would NEVER do that to my own kids. Except. When I think about it? I don't want to let my kids sleep over at some random friend's house! Poor Jack and Molly. I weep for their tween years.

6. I'm thinking I should do a post about my parents' Neanderthal policies. What do you think, Mom? All about being the OLDEST CHILD and therefore sentenced to watching my siblings do everything I wanted to do YEARS BEFORE I WAS ALLOWED TO. And also all the times my dad growled, "I will Shut. You. Dowwwwwn." whenever I got in trouble in high school, which is now a tiny bit amusing to me because there wasn't anything TO shut down. Except basketball practice, I guess, and OH, HOW PAINFUL, MY DAD SAYS I CAN'T GO TO PRACTICE AND RUN LINES ALL AFTERNOON, WOE! I was, honestly and truly, the most boring high school student on earth. FACT.

7. I can just see the look on my mom's face right now so I better post a picture.

Saturday morning at the Folklife Festival- at the fountain washing off the hippie smell.

 

Comments

[Lindsay]

the main reason I agreed to let my husband get me a cellie is b/c I wanted to start twittering. I'm hit and miss with remembering how to check msgs. but nonetheless I am all wanty wanty for that new blackberry touch now. Have a great time tomorrow with one or none children.

[-R-]

No sleepovers? At all? I have never heard of such a thing!

I love that picture of Jack.

[Becky aka StinkyLemsky]

Wow - no sleepovers?! That's definitely something I haven't heard before. I practically spent half of my summers at my best friend's house (she spent the other half at mine!).

[Lisa]

My dad grows lettuce, and he just cuts out the middle and they grow back for weeks. Then the summer gets sweltering and it all wilts away, but you may not have that problem. I think you need to cut it at a certain point because otherwise it will get bitter and not fun to eat. I think. I've never actually grown lettuce myself.

[Dr. Maureen]

Jack is crazy adorable. And, speaking as the youngest who got to do all those things you didn't get to do, may I just say HAAAA! I point and laugh at you from my position of getting my ears pierced at age 10. My eldest sister still has not forgiven my parents. I also got my own room early on because everyone moved out. And there's lots of other stuff I can't even think of because I got to do it so it was no big deal. YOU know the stuff. The sort of stuff the eldest doesn't get to do because the parents are still all nervous about the kids' safety and stuff.

[Jess]

I looooved sleepovers as a kid. But I think the way it works is that the friends' parents KNOW each other, you know? So it's not just sending your kid off to sleep at some random house.

[Elsha]

The first time I ever slept over was at our next door neighbor's house when I was a baby. I think maybe a year old? Apparently (according to my mom) this neighbor lady and her 12(ish?) year old daughter were just infatuated with me so I was over there a lot and she would let them keep me overnight. Since my brothers were 4 and 6 at the time and my mom was pregnant I'm sure it was nice to have someone who would take the baby. By the way, you can get around the spending the night thing by just having your kids friends spend the night at YOUR house. That way you know what's going on.

[Tara]

I'm kind of wondering about the lettuce thing too. I picked (cut) a bunch and I think some is growing back, but not completely. I DON'T KNOW. All I know is that I had a week of lettuce abundance and perhaps never will again.

Oh! And the being the oldest thing! Totally sucked in that regard. My parents made SUCH a big deal when I came home from a friend's house (at AGE 14) with bright blue fingernails. And then my sister, who is FIVE years younger than me, was allowed to paint her nails "crazy" colors about two weeks later.

That is just one example. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

[Melissa]

I think you should be able to eat your lettuce all summer long...as it grows, just cut off what you want to use at that time...and it should continue to grow. At least, that's what my brother told me? I'm growing lettuce for the first time this year so I'm not quite sure what to expect yet.

Off all the quick takes...I respond to lettuce. Go figure.

[Jen]

I grew lettuce as about a ten year old and I would just tear off the outside leaves for salads and it would continue to grow. I remember this quite clearly, as they got all funny and torn looking. But it worked.

My parents were also Neanderthals. I got to have sleepovers though. However, since my mom always made pancakes for breakfast (thanks, Mom) and my friends moms didn't, mostly we slept over at my house.

[Pippi]

LOVE the picture of Jack in the fountain! Since my little one can walk this summer I want to take a trip down to Seattle just for her (and maybe me) to play in the fountain.

[Manda]

I will be text-messaging you poste-haste. YOUR BAD. you gave me your phone number! HA HA! SHAME ON YOU!
Also?
WE ARE HAVING A SLEEPOVER IN SEPTEMBER! WOO! Bring your Debbie Gibson tape because it is SO ON.

[Sarah]

You said your lettuce was a mesculun mix, correct? If so, you just pick leaves from each of the different plants (you should have several different looking types of plants). They'll keep growing until it gets too hot. If you have heads of lettuce, usually that's a one shot deal. You pick the head and it's done.

I totally get you on being the oldest. We have to break the parents in.

[Christiana]

I get texts from you all the time - through Twitter, of course. Yours are set to text me. And because of the time difference and occasional delay, I sometimes get texts from you at 1 am. Oops.

I was the last girl in my class to be allowed to sleep over. I remember the embarrassment at being picked up from a birthday party when everyone else was getting to stay. And my mom was really picky about WHO I stayed with, even into high school.

[Christina]

I'm kind of growing to hate sleepovers. I made a rule my kids had to be 8 years old but now I'm thinking I should have said 16. Because nobody SLEEPS at a sleepover. Which s*cks if you are the hosts, but also isn't great for the other parents because the next day your kid is totally and annoyingly cranky all. day. long. And then there was the one sleepover where the dad let my daughter and her friend stay up ALL night playing video games. Seriously? Like WHAT? She didn't go back to that house...

[Kate P]

I'm not an oldest child, but the oldest girl, so I feel ya--the baby gets away with everything! :)

That photo caption is hilarious.

[Sheila]

I was the oldest too! And my mom was waaaaaay against us *going* to sleepovers-- she was more than glad to host them. When we did go, she was uber picky about where we went. I couldn't stay at my best friend's house because her mother was divorced!

If you let the lettuce get too old, it gets bitter and tough. Ew!

"I loooove text messaging! I can totally be a high schooler you guys. It's, like, INSTANT EMAIL. How can that be anything other than awesome?"

Texts are awesome! My husband is still catching on to texting and facebook. I still haven't jumped on the Twitter train...