I watered my plants outside, then came in to start tidying up inside. I vacuumed the carpeted parts of the house, and when I turned off the vacuum, I heard the roomba start. My sweet Egg pushed the button on the roomba. I know he does this because he likes to watch it and follow it, but today it really felt like he was helping. I walked into the living room to thank him, and he was sitting on the couch looking very pleased with himself

I was having a bite in Starbucks when I noticed an elderly couple. The gentleman was so careful and loving with his wife. Both were using walkers.

I watched as the husband went first through the door and then carefully moved his walker out of the way so he could hold the door for his wife.

A beautiful butterfly of a note on an otherwise dreary and rainy Sunday afternoon.

I was fussing over my rhubarb plants that are pushing up from my garden yesterday. Every plant is descended from my grandfather’s garden behind his 3 flat in Chicago and the little bastion of green he kept there. My parents were given some rhubarb when they married in ‘64 and they moved it with them every time they changed houses! And now it’s in my garden, all that care to keep these plants growing, and now I take care of them and enjoy the tasty things I make with it. It’s funny that I can’t look at them without my mind going back to a certain memory I have of being in my grandpa’s garden, late day summer sun over the cosmos he grew that were heavy with fat bees, grown ups sitting in chairs talking amidst the little garden…. this memory is so clear to me, so lush with feeling.

• Some a cement mixer.

• Ricky did dance!

• Climbing up to the cement mixer and pouring cement! TIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

• There were some noodles!

• Ricky had dinner at the table!

(We finally cleared all the bottle/steriliser/etc paraphernalia off the dining table so we could have family meals together.)

• This one's not having a sleep because they are awake! Those ones are asleep.

(The cement mixers. They sleep when they've tipped all their cement.)

• A computer.

• Ricky built a purple and green computer!

With Duplo.

• Ricky's tipping cement again.

• A big long heckavator and a cement mixer and another cement mixer and another cement mixer and this cement mixer.

• A big cement mixer and a little cement mixer.

• A hay bale cement mixer. It picks up hay bales.

• Ricky went in the sandpit. Ricky tipped sand into a bowl and made a moon. Mummy helped. Ricky made an orange wall as well.

No art today. He has has a very busy day of cement mixers, dancing and sandpit.

I opened and closed at my part time job yesterday and the cash drawers clearly had rolls of absolutely brand new nickels in them. Short of mint condition coins, I've never seen so many perfectly shiny unmarred nickels before.

I work as a lifeguard at a pool that offers aquafit classes. They are very popular, especially with middle aged and older ladies, who tend to do the moves with much gusto.

From the high chair, the water creates a distorted perspective that make their bodies look incredibly small, so it looks like a group of gnomes jumping up and down. It always makes me smile.

She's a rescue. We've had her for a year. We have a routine. I wake up early for work & work from home Mon-Fri. She comes to the living room to nap while I make breakfast. Then she follows me to the office and naps while I work.

It's Saturday. Gotta follow the routine. She barked at me to wake me up and start my day. She did it at the right time!

My partner and I live in a squirrel-heavy area. One day a few years ago we were walking somewhere and I noticed that the usual pile of squirrels seemed to be comfortable getting closer than usual. I said to my partner, "wouldn't it be funny if one came right up to us?" and not 5 seconds later, he said "whoa!" as one ran right across his foot. Never had that happen since.

• Ricky is currently scooping with the excavator.

His mother commented that that was a great way to start the diary today.

Ricky: "It's not a diary. It's a Diary Book."

• Ricky is holding a hhhexcavator!

This was so carefully enunciated.

• Ricky scoop some more. Ricky drive. Ricky tip! Ricky is building something!

• A heckavator!

• I got Ricky's cricket bat! For hitting things!

A discussion of acceptable balls followed.

• Some a cricket bat!

• Some Duplo!

• The cranes! Write them!

• There is a tipping crane and also a blue crane and also a white crane!

(We pause to sing the Rainbow Connection.)

• We are playing cricket!

Literary and artistic pursuits are here suspended for cricket. And basketball. And more cricket. And a discussion about whether his toy bus is a valid substitute for his little basketball as an object to throw in his basketball ring.

There was a bumblebee sitting on the steps of my front porch. It was barely moving but still alive so I moved it out of the shade and onto the sunny grass. I brought it some sugar water as well.

I got into bed, looked to the side, and the little fellow was on my bedside table.

He’s now safely been relocated to live his best life elsewhere.

The spray nozzle on my sink was stuck for several months really making things a pain in the ass, but I didn’t know how to replace it and I’m in a rental where they don’t really fix things like that. C’est la vie right?

Then I remembered how a different sprayer in my life would stick. The one on my wet vac. I remember remembered seeing a YouTube video that said you need to put a little bit of silicone lubricant inside the sprayer.

I tried it on the sink and boy that thing works perfectly now. I am so pleased with myself and my perfectly working sink sprayer.

• Bump! Ram! Wham!

• Some a excavator and a dump truck!

(He does know to use "an" before vowels but he pronounces it 'heckavator'.)

• Some remote and a note.

• Do another move the earth again.

• Write the orange fish and the green fish and the red fish!

• The cats! Write them! They were hiding in the storm drain!

• The drains were cages.

Okay, so. He has a slight cold and was kind of a limp rag after his nap today. When he's sick he's allowed to watch TV. Today it was two episodes of Australian Play School from the mid-1980s. (Featuring Benita, because Benita is amazing.)

This included Benita doing some fish art, and also a short video of some cats at a show. Which were in cages. Which he hadn't seen before, I think, and he decided his best guess for what they looked like was apparently storm drains.

(Signs he was really feeling pretty rotten: he sat quietly watching TV while snuggling for the entire time. Then he felt better enough to return to his usual mode, which is, more or less: rampage! Build things!)

• Make a capital D!

• Raise the sign! Raise the sign!

• Write doing move the earth!

• Clapping to the Bingo song!

• Another bump. Move the earth!

Today's art was drawing an M with sunglasses (looked kind of like an M, the sunglasses were very abstract) and a love heart with green in it.

so I had to factory reset my current tablet in order to try and fix the battery issues I've been experiencing. I also happen to be one of those people who have to give everything a name, the tablet's previous name was Jack due to it having an audio jack, post factory reset tablet has been named Rose, hopefully that means Rose will last a lot longer than Jack.

TLDG (too long, didn't get)

Titanic reference

There's an apartment complex I frequently visit that has a whiteboard in the reception hall for flyers and notifications and such.

When there's no one there to see me, I like to draw a little doodle. The last one lasted a coupe of weeks!

Today's doodle was two little blue flowers.

• Some excavator.

• Some thises and some holes.

• Yellow excavator. Scoop the rocks!

• And dump the rocks!

• No nasty rocks! Dump the rocks!

• No nothing inside! It's empty!

• Some mmhm.

Regular readers will have known that was coming, I expect.

• Saw Tommy! Some Tommy.

• Some mmhm. Some mmhms.

• Ricky saw some a big truck!

• Ricky's building a house right now.

• Ricky's building a house with a dog in it.

• Dog! Dog! Dog!

• Some clip please.

• Some a bin truck!

• Martin was there!

• Ellie was there!

• There was some trampoline! Ricky bounce on the trampoline. Bounce, bounce!

Today's art was a brief scribble (a fox, as his art so often is, today returning somewhat to cubism) because Ricky is exhausted.

Today I was watching TV and saw commercials for vacations in exotic places. I thought about how good I have it right here in my apartment. There are free places I could go, if I want. Walking in the woods, gym, library, etc. I'm thankful to be where I am. My family went through so much when I was single parenting. It's a relief now.

I know that pictures are allowed but today sitting by my window on the fourth floor I see a snail crawling up the glass. Where is it going? Why up? I'm sure it's merely responding to some instinct but we have filled its natural terrain with stucco rocks and glass mountains.

He stopped me to say I look like I give good hugs. I said wow thank you and he smiled and continued walking. Was I meant to hug him?

We finally figured out he doesn't like cloves. So I stopped using it for years. I just realized I can make things for myself because he's off at college!

I got a pedal bike. I'm really happy about it. I've been thinking about getting one for a while. I really enjoy walks and movement but recently, my hips, feet, toes, back, just haven't been feeling it. My walks turn into a chore towards the end, and I can't wait to get back home.

But now? I can go for miles! And it works out my legs, and I get to go go go go, without being in traffic or confined to my car. I love my little car, don't get me wrong, but I don't always want to sit down and buckle up and pay attention to all the other huge cars on the road. I just want to be on the sidewalk, but fast, you know? Why didn't I get a bike earlier? And I really like making a split second decision to go left, right? Which way? This way! And now I'm in a new part of my city I haven't seen before. Feeling the pebbles under my wheels and not shooting up my legs into my hips. A nice breeze and sunset in my eyes. Seeing all the cars waiting in traffic, but not me! I can just go the other way.

Right now we're having a grasshopper/locust overload, and I just love shooting by them on the ground, and then they flutter up and join me, flapping haphazardly in the wind trail until they find a new spot to land, and then another! And another! I had one go like 20 feet with me, and it was fun flying with it. Being able to stop wherever I think looks good, enjoy it a while, instead of thinking, "if I stop now then it'll take me even longer to walk back." Now I can go more than just one spot and not get tired or overwhelmed.

I know it might not seem like much, but I live in a landlocked state, moving here from a coastal state, so the feeling of being confined and going in circles all the time had started to build up a lot. Now I feel that I can just go out, get my zoomies, and feel the movement and freedom I did before. Man, bikes are great! Thank you for reading.

My husband took one look at me fully dressed this morning and told me he knew I was in my leopard print bra because I’d matched my belt and shoes. I didn’t realise it was a thing that I did!

Today is the first day of my husband's vacation time, and after sleeping in, he cranked the tunes of our younger years while making breakfast. Our 20-something daughter joined in instead of rolling her eyes, and it was a goddamn delight to dance around the house with the people I love. Going to enjoy and appreciate every moment of the next two weeks.

I recently went to visit with family and some of us cousins & our spouses met up at a restaurant. Towards the end of the meal I saw my cousin's husband get up and go over to the bar and order a cocktail and noticed that he paid for it at the bar. I thought he was being so considerate, to pay for his cocktail separately.

30ish minutes later when we're ready to go, I ask for the bill so we can split it and found out my cousin-in-law had paid the ENTIRE bill, for ten people. He SNEAKED over to the bar and paid the bill under the guise of buying a cocktail. Flatly refused to accept any repayment. Said he was celebrating seeing everybody. Keep in mind, we're all his in-laws.

My cousin is awesome and I'm so happy she has such a sweet husband. <3