Another Birthday

Yesterday was Kayleigh's 13th birthday. Events like parties often make her unsettled; i.e., crabby. Yesterday was no exception. She just wanted to lie around and play her DS. After she opened her presents, she was much more lively and pleasant. Nothing like cash, chocolate, and more video games to get her going. We also remembered to count her coin jar money on her actual birthday, which is when it is supposed to happen, but we usually forget. Freaky. It came to $38.73. Pretty cool for just sticking stray coins in at the end of every week.



We also picked up our ceramics projects from Fired Up Pottery. Last week, we each painted something. I chose a teapot, Eric did a new dish for the rats, Kelsey painted a mug, and Kayleigh did a box in the shape of a snake. They all turned out nicely.



The colors are much more vivid than I was expecting. We've done this sort of thing before at the Hands On Art Studio in Door County, and the colors were not so bright. They must use a different glaze. Fired Up is a lot cheaper than the one in Door County, but they don't have a large selection, and they only do pottery. The cool thing about the Hands On Art Studio is all the different things you can do – last time, the kids each did a mosaic, I did some welding, and Eric painted a couple of bowls.

It started dumping rain in the late afternoon. Our basement filled up again. Joyo joyum. So I put a bucket under the window, and Eric bailed the window wells. Almost nothing was coming out our gutters. Eric had said (but hadn't actually done it yet) he was going to take the covers off – you know those covers that are supposed to let the water through but keep the leaves out? Well, the birds decided that our gutters were a very nice place to make a nest, so out of the way of predators, so protected but airy. Yeah, well, those birds are so drowned now. Eric discovered the rotting, stinking nest during the downpour and scooped the nasty, organic mass out. The water flowed freely after that. Problem solved. Poor birds.