86'n It

Despite our neglect of the garden this summer, we have already started to reap its rewards!

In Bed 1, the zucchini (of course), eggplant, lettuce, spinach, one watermelon, two chili peppers & one yellow pepper made it. Lost some eggplant, watermelon & red peppers.

In Bed 2, the radishes, chard & a few beets were the sole survivors. Lost were carrots, dill & basil.

Meanwhile on the wire, the tomatoes and beans are going strong!

We are headed out Ace to get some more plants today. We are also going to pick up some mosquito tabs for the back of Marc's truck. He has a bed liner that loves to hold water. We don't drive the truck very often, making it a mosquito breeding ground.

In general the mosquitos are horrible this year again. We've eliminated all water holders, cleaned our gutters (Thanks Nonno!), wear bug spray and still get bit. Anyone had any luck with any repellant systems? We are will to spend a little money to be able to enjoy our yard.

Thanks!

(Also, grammar nazis: why do I feel like I need an apostrophe up there in the title?)

We renovated our upstairs bathroom in a rush pre-moving in. This basically consisted of us holding my dad hostage for two weeks while he demo'd, re-plumbed every fixture, re-framed the floor and one wall, and tiled our bathroom. I was in charge of ordering stuff.

I splurged on the Kohler purist faucet, but cheaped out on everything else. I just could not bring myself to spend $500 on a clawfoot shower surround, +$900 on a nice clawfoot faucet and showerhead, $115 on a tp holder, and $274 on two towel bars. Marc gave me crap for it back then.

Well, I hate it when he is right but the shower surround falls apart sometimes, the faucet is annoying, and the tp holder broke after one enthusiastic two year old unspooled a whole roll by hand. Le sigh.

So this time, I at least let Marc pick the new tp holder.

Guess who is in charge of ordering everything for the new downstairs bathroom? Hint: Not me.
Lesson learned.

I think Marc's favorite thing about being a dad is being able to act like a kid again while maintaining the upper hand.
Before he had Franca, he had to get by convincing my nephews Lincoln was shot in downtown Asheville and walking them to our neighborhood pirate house. (Ok, they sort of really are pirates.)
Now he fills his Franca's little head with tidbits about Yoda and Strega Nona analogies.
She's already starting to one-up him on the creativity department. Perhaps her best story to date is how all the headless mannequins of the world just need to head downtown to the 'Wig Doctor' to get better (see photo). It almost makes sense right?

I treasure the traits I got from my father. Like being handy, not feeling personal limits on my abilities (which can be good and bad), problem solving and being adventurous.

And while Franca's inherited storytelling trait might get her in trouble later, right now it's pretty darn cute.

Happy Father's day to my handy dad and Franca's fibbing/fudging father!

Bikini Time after Daddy left! -- Beach Yoga -- Family pic -- Fresh donuts!

Pool Safety -- Ridic Cute -- Strangle Hold -- Supervised Toenail Painting

My Family! Big Thanks to Mom & Dad for renting a terrific house for all of us!

Vacation was great. I'm currently drowning in dirty laundry, starring at a garden almost completely overrun by weeds and dealing with two little girls who forgot how to share. Good times.

More updates when I catch my breath!