Another Birthday and More Bowling?

The Birthday

Last Sunday we celebrated my dad's birthday a few days early.

He turned two, as you can tell by the candles on the cake...

...and he got some help from Liv and Hannah to blow out all those candles...

Steve and Hannah treated us to this interesting little photo shoot...

And Liv dragged Riley outside to play...

Return of the BullCrip, and Tailgate Teddy

Monday afternoon I realized that maintenance had installed a handicapped-parking sign in the first spot—which means that our old pal Fuggy must have whined enough to get them to relent...

Then on Tuesday, I walked by the window to find... Hardhat, Sr, I guess? ...tailgating all alone on the back of Hardhat's truck...

I'd love to know how the universe comes up with these characters. I swear, each one is more bizarre than the last.

We had lunchmeat sandwiches for dinner that night, after which I went to take stock of our veggie inventory to see how many tomatoes to take downstairs to Jeff and Lillian, and Keith and his wife.

That's when I discovered this little infiltrator...

I can't begin to guess whether that's caterpillar poop or eggs; but I didn't want them on my tomatoes!

So I thoroughly washed everything we had on hand, and then I bagged a bunch of the overstock up to take downstairs.

Jeff and Lillian were appreciative as always; and when Keith's wife answered their door, she insisted that I wait right there while she ran back to the kitchen and returned with a jar of homemade something I couldn't understand.

She gave me some instructions on how to cook with it; and then when I asked her for her name again, she must have caught the Yeah, I've got nothing expression on my face...

So, Keith and Rosie are the new neighbors' names, and it's going well so far: Even when we do hear them making noise, we know there's no deep-seated disrespect like there was from Bitchface, Hopalong, Shovelwhomps, and the rest of the Little Kenyans That Can't who used to live down there.

Dominoes Falling Where They May

Friday evening, we offered to treat my parents to dinner as a thank you for all the times they feed us (and let us use their washer and dryer while we're there).

We eat more Domino's than we probably should—largely resultant from the fact that every order we place seems to qualify us for a free pizza (or some such) the next time we show up... and we're just addicted enough to pounce on that every single time.

Bowling: Burrito-Style

When Athennia went out to do laundry Saturday afternoon, I took the opportunity to put Rosie's salsa verde to use.

Four pounds of chicken thighs for about 20 minutes in the Instant Pot, and BAM...

But it wouldn't be a burrito bowl without salsa of some sort—and God knows we have an excess of tomatoes and peppers laying around at any given time—so I made a huge pan of chipotle black bean salsa too...

And of course some cilantro-lime rice...

Fox-Paw Faux Pas (and Butt-Cheeks)

Yesterday Athennia announced that she was finally sick of the powdered laundry detergent all over the floor in the back of her car; so I suggested that we go over to my parents' house—where we could use their shop-vac, and also give her windows and dashboard an overdue wipe-down.

I called to give my mom a heads up and told her we'd be stopping at the new Dollar Store that just opened up around the corner from us, then at Dunkin for coffee, then popping into Big Lots because Athennia got an email that everything in the store was 20% off.

"But we won't be more than half an hour at most; so we'll see you around 3:00 or 3:15."

— me

That's never how it goes though...

We found some cute little bee-themed bowls at the Dollar Store and decided to run them home so they wouldn't shatter while we drove on Pennsylvania-quality highways.

Then we found an adorable little pumpkin-fox at Big Lots that had no price tag on it; so, knowing it was eventually destined for the trash, we realized the universe had put us there at that exact moment to save it... and we shamelessly sent half the store's employees on a wild goose chase looking high and low for a nonexistent duplicate piece of inventory so they could price it for us.

After about 20 minutes with no luck locating any other foxes or talking us into giving up and leaving without this one, a shift manager finally made us swear we wouldn't bring it back to return it... and she slapped a $5.00 sticker on it and sent it on our way.

I'd say it was worth the wait...

An hour and half later, we got to my parents' and gave Athennia's car a good cleaning.

Meanwhile, Kelly and the girls had stopped by as well; and Liv came out to check on our progress...

So, that was that.

My psyche's still reeling from such a sick burn.

We obviously took the opportunity to check the garden while we were there; and for some reason, our plants are spawning little tomato people now.

We kidnapped the king and the queen so we can interrogate them for more information...