The Big DumpTruck

So the big news around here is that there was that a young deer somehow ended up in a convenience store in downtown Fitchburg. This is a fairy urban area, as downtowns go. I know there are areas of trees up the street some, but I don’t know how big they are or how dense it is. Does it qualify as “woods”? The parts of the city immediately surrounding downtown are more residential. Maybe there are woods up behind the old high school. (Sally, are you checking in? You work down there at the Art Museum, what’s the general consensus on where he came from? Out by Burbank Hospital?)

Mom Deer: Fluffy, I need to you run an errand for me.

Fluffy: Aw mom! I don’t wanna!

Mom Deer: Fluffy, no back talk! Now you run to the convenience store and get me a pack of Pall Malls and some 2% milk. This instant!

All things being equal, I’d rather have a deer in a convenience store than an alligator in the pond behind a Pontiac dealership, like they did in Auburn.

The 50 degree days are behind us now, and this week looks lovely. Even if it were raining and snowing and windy and hot and humid, it would be a lovely week in the eyes of a certain seven-year-old who has his last day of first grade on Thursday. Ugh. I own a second grader. I won’t get into the whole weepy “where is my baby!” rant that you all know I can do so well. He’s grown so much in the past year, physically and mentally. I just can’t say enough nice things about him, but hey, you’ll dismiss that as a mom’s ravings.

Last Friday he came with me to my Aunt’s wake, and he was a perfect gentleman. Shook hands with all the new people he met, answered their questions, and didn’t whine too much when we stayed there until 7pm. He was rewarded with a trip to UNO’s for pasta. Today he got his certificate and medal for reading over 120 books (at home) this school year, which grandma and grandpa were able to attend in my place. I was happy to hear that a lot of the kids reached this goal. I love knowing that there are a lot of little readers out there.

So tonight is the next to the last baseball game of the season. I love that he plays, but it is just too hard for me to be involved as an assistant coach – not when I work out of town. I am looking forward the being done the last game, which is too bad, because it is fun. We’ll just keep the gloves in the car and play whenever we get a chance.

Okay, enough of that, then. Anybody got some pie they could share?

p.s. If you can help the Stratton Players in their quest to find 2 size-42 bowling shirts, can you drop me an email? They need them for a play they’re producing this summer.

Happy father’s day, dads! Hope you enjoy the ties!

You know what? Yesterday turned out to be just a really not great day, so today is sort of my do-over. And you know what? I don’t want to do anything. Do that count? We were supposed to go out and run errands this morning, and now it’s 12:15pm and I haven’t done much of anything, and I’m proud of it. Darn it.

Baseball practice this afternoon is the only thing we have to do. I think if we didn’t have that, I’d probably head to Target, but now I don’t have enough time, because I hate being rushed in Target. I’m sorry, but I’m a browser. I love just looking at everything.

Junior gave us a choice, we can either go to Bertuccis or Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. First off, he doesn’t get to give us choices. Second, it will be a cold day in hell…

Tried the Mandarin Orange Poland Spring sparkling water. Not horrid. I’d have it again. The issue is, it smell like orange soda, which I adore, but it tastes like flavored bubbling water, which I also adore, but isn’t the same as a big can of Orange Crush, y’know. So that means I like them all, except for lemon, because it smells too much like dish detergent.

Oh, and when did this obsession start? It was a slow start last fall when I decided to try to cut out soda from my diet (I’m down about 90% in soda consumption, but I reserve the right to keep some Barqs in the fridge.) Then we went on the whirlwind Disney trip in October, and on the concierge level, they had big bottles of Perrier. And when I asked for some to take back to the room one night, they handed me a whole big bottle. I have not been the same since.