I Can't Watch!

Today is a beautiful fall day in NH - so I decided to go out into my yard and snap a couple of pictures of things that you can only see for a few weeks each year.

First, the tree in my front yard (I have no idea what kind of tree it is) has these red things growing on it.

Next, we have lots and lots of these

Anyone who wants to come help with the raking is always welcome!

Then I rounded the corner of my house, and was immediately reminded why I needed to stay inside today:

Yikes! Yes, our garage needed a new roof, and after pricing just the shingles and other materials Kilowatt decided he was the man for the job. But it sure is a long way down, and on two sides the ground is asphalt and concrete.

When Kilowatt (KW) caught me snapping pictures, he said "wait a minute, and I'll climb down and lay on the ground and you can take a picture." Ha Ha, funny.

I remember back when Diva was about 3, KW cut down some trees. Like now, I hid in my office and occasionally looked out to make sure no emergency services were needed. Suddenly there was a 'boom' and the house shook, as the gutter ripped off. Diva yelled "Mommy, is Daddy flat now?" Or something like that.... After determining that the only thing crushed was our gutter, I could breathe again.

So for now, I'm holding my breath, saying an occasional prayer, and trying not to watch.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about that odd shaped garage - no, it will not accomodate either of our vehicles.

Enough, already

I'm sure somewhere there is a website that will gladly tell me how many consecutive days of rain we've 'enjoyed' here in the Granite State. I don't need anyone to tell me, I know the answer: too #&^% many.

This seems a bit unreal when I talk to my friends down south, who complain about the heat and humidity. Our high today might hit 65 if we get lucky, and we are under a flood watch. Again.

Here's the view out my back door:

The observant among you will note that the solar cover on our pool is very high. That's because we haven't drained the pool today, yet. We have to drain an average of two inches out of the pool every other day to keep it from overflowing. The water temperature is up to a balmy 73 degrees now. Needless to say, Diva is the only one young enough to get in that water.

How about the view out my front door:

Here you see the small river running down each side of the street. You may also notice how green the grass is. Lucky for us, it occasionally stops raining long enough to run out and cut the lawn.

Q: How do you know someone is from NH?

A1: They have recent Googled "how do you build an ark?"

A2: They can tell you 10 different ways to remove mold from bark mulch (ickkk.)

A3: When the sun comes out, they run out the door regardless of state of dress.

A4: Misting is considered 'not raining.'

A5: They have seen at least five movies since school ended - a week ago.

Local Theatre

My Mother visited us this week to help watch Diva while I attended classes, given that it was NH school vacation week.  Our kids get the last week of February and the last week of April off as vacations every year.  That's part of the reason why they go to school until the end of June.  The other part of that reason (snow) will probably be tomorrow's post topic!

Last night we decided to head into the city (Manchester) to catch a play at the Palace Theatre.  The Palace is a 92 year old theatre, so it is a beautiful old building.  Our proximity to Boston and NYC gives us access to excellent productions.  Last night we saw Little Shop of Horrors.  None of us had seen or heard much about this, but I was assured there was nothing worse than PG-13 in it.  I have to concur - it was more PG than PG-13.  

Diva attends camps at the Palace, so we typically know at least one of the performers.  For this performance we knew both of the leads - the female lead is the director of the youth program, and the male lead was Diva's drama coach last spring.  They were both quite impressive in this performance.  

In a unique twist, the actresses who played Ronette and Chiffon were familiar faces too, they played in Hercules -the Muse-ical on the Disney Wonder when we sailed in 2005 and 2006.  

Diva is ready to go again.  Of course, she also wants to take ice skating lessons twice a week, go to Destination Imagination nationals, and make straight A's in school.  She's going to be one busy girl!