On Friday afternoon after school, Daddy and I went to the Fathers and Sons Outing and stayed at Ensign Ranch until lunchtime on Saturday. It is near Cle Elum. On Saturday, we went canoeing and saw that beavers had been on the island. When picking moss up with the stake president’s grandson, I remembered there were beavers on the Ensign Ranch’s property and we started putting the stuff in the lake on a tree called “the grocery tree”. We had a great time at the fathers and sons outing.

The Gimlet and Thing One just returned from the Fathers and Sons Outing at Ensign Ranch. Although Thing Two was very interested in the proceedings, it was decided that everyone would be happier if he postponed his debut at this annual event for another year or two.

After surviving the Memorial Day traffic to get out of town, we were rewarded with 1/3 pound burgers cooked by our bishop and former stake president. Later we gathered around the campfire to hear a story by one of the counselors in the stake presidency and eat s’mores.

The Gimlet drew the line at two even though Thing One could have eaten three.

After a good night’s sleep (once our 2 year-old cabinmate decided to stay in bed instead of wandering around from bunk to bunk) we had a great breakfast and then played pool and foosball. We then took a walk around the lake. We saw logs that had been chewed through by a beaver about one year ago. We expect the beaver was trapped and moved.

Canoe races were next, and Team Gimlet came in third place (out of four entries). Thing One and the stake president’s grandson enjoyed throwing rocks in the the lake and gathering moss to leave in a tree for any passing beavers. After this much fun, all that was left was to gather our sack lunch and head for home. Another successful Fathers and Sons Outing!

The big rhododendron started blooming this week, creating an arch with the lilac tree. Here’s the view from our front window. The little building to the right is our neighbor’s garage. Her cats hang out on the roof, much to the delight of Things One and Two.

Sixteen years ago tomorrow, the rhodies put on a similar show in time for our wedding day.

Selections have been made for the 2006 Gloria Film Festival, and NR is a finalist! How cool is that?

According to the press release, sixty films (feature-length, shorts, and animations) and 33 screenplays (original and adapted) were chosen to be part of this year’s program. Awards will be made during the festival (August 16-26).

After looking through the list of the competition, I think this is the first time Jane Austen has been up against a sled dog team of poodles. However, I’m confident that she can hold her own … although perhaps I shouldn’t have edited out Henry’s dogs …

At any rate, it looks like our next Utah trip will be in late August.

Each weekday morning, after he finishes music practice, Thing One likes to watch PBS Kids before heading off to school. For a while, our local affiliate was trying out It’s A Big Big World in our time slot. It’s an affable, part-puppet, part-animation show set in a rainforest. The episodes center around the themes of respecting and learning about nature, and diverse species living in harmony. Not surprisingly, predators are conveniently nonexistent; the closest we come is a troubled anteater who feels a compulsion to befriend the very ants his instinct drives him to eat. No wonder he’s the most anxiety-prone creature in the ecosystem! But I digress. The strength of this program is in its catchy, world beat-style tunes. Thing Two doesn’t pay much attention to the animals or their activities, but whenever a song comes on, he’s right there, bouncing away. Throughout the day, we find ourselves humming them (the Moon Greeting Song is an especially nice lullaby), so it would seem that earworms are one of the hidden species of the World Tree.

Anyway, if you have young children of your own, and are looking for fresh addictive music, click on the picture, choose “Music”, and knock yourself out.

One advantage to buying an older house is that the gardens are usually well-established, and sometimes well-cared for. The previous homeowner bought the house new, and when she sold it to us she left us a rather poignant note asking that we please wait on any landscaping projects until spring, when we’d be able to see the existing plants at their best.

Come last spring, we found that she had cultivated a lovely variety of flowering shrubs, which must have been magnificent when she was able to care for them. At present, though, the shrubs have grown out of control … Manderley in miniature, if you will.

I couldn’t do any gardening last spring, but this year, now that the weather is passably warm, Thing Two and I headed out to the back yard: I dug up dandelions and pruned until the yard waste bin was full, and Thing Two sampled the grass and any other vegetable delights he could find.

The back yard is home to two different lilacs (Syringa vulgaris) — one is deep purple, and the other, pale lavender — some sort of hydrangea (much smaller blossoms than the one in the front yard), and a pink weigela (Weigela florida). One of my mail order catalogs assures the urban gardener that this plant’s “compact size fits most urban landscapes.” Ha! As with my front yard lilac, this weigela left shrub status far behind years ago and is now a tree.

The blossoms smell lovely, and attract honeybees, songbirds, and best of all, hummingbirds. While Thing Two and I puttered around, we were joined by the first hummingbird of the season. Last year I could look out the nursery window (back when it was my work room) and watch several of the little avian fighter pilots fight over the best spots. But there’s plenty to go around, even after my zealous pruning.

When The Gimlet isn’t swanning around “business conferences” with the (tax) posse, he can often be found in the basement, contemplating his latest project: re-plumbing the house.

Last year, thanks to the impending arrival of Thing Two, we bought our first home. It’s about fifty years old and as such, a fixer-upper. The Gimlet plans to replace our mostly galvanized pipes with PEX (cross-linked polyethylene tubing). Last week he successfully attached the Manabloc (modular manifold plumbing system) to a basement wall, so it’s all set to attach the various pipes.

It seems like it might be worth recording whether The Gimlet will successfully replace the plumbing in his house in a timely and cost-effective manner … and without calling in an emergency plumber … so stay tuned.

Oh, and Thing One has watched The Incredibles enough times to know what’s really going on when Daddy travels to a remote tropical island for a “conference”.

I’ve been meaning to start up a blog since last summer, but haven’t had the time to sit down and set it up just the way I would like … keep getting distracted by one thing or another:

One Thing (or Thing One, if you prefer), just turned eleven and is finishing up fifth grade. He also received his Arrow of Light award and is starting Boy Scouts. He is getting pretty good on the cello after nearly two years of lessons at school, and loves his after-school art classes. Since he’s been around for a while, most of his fan club know what he’s been up to, thus there isn’t much to write about him by way of introduction.

Another Thing (aka Thing Two) hadn’t quite been born yet when I decided to blog, and now he has just turned nine months old. He has recently learned how to crawl, pull up to stand, and wave bye-bye.

His interests include soft things and chewing on whatever he can find around the house.

GimletBlog will be mostly a record of family activities and observations, with a few extra rambling thoughts thrown in from time to time. Rather than overwhelm the reader with introductions and explanations, I’ll begin in medias res. Have fun, and don’t say you haven’t been warned about sharp, pointy sticks!