We have 300 new pets that live on our dryer.

Conrad has a "No livestock in the house" policy but he got really excited over this new composting method, so now we have 300 worms soundlessly nibbling away at our kitchen scraps day and night. We keep them on our dryer for now since it's too cold outside. It's cute to see how excited Conrad gets over this. I like seeing him care about his new little wormies.

He found them all crawling into the wrong shelf yesterday where there's no food. He said, "Sarah, help me move the worms!" It was so sweet to see him care about helpless worms.

It's a cool system: Just a bunch of boxes stacked on top of each other. Each box has an open top and a grate like bottom. You put the scraps in the top shelf where all the worms eat it. The resulting compost falls through the grate and a week or two later you pull out the bottom shelf and use that rich beautiful fertile compost.

Since the worms like to hang out with the food up top, the lower shelf has worm free compost. Yay!

Oh- That spigot is to let the "worm tea" out. It's high in nutrients. - ahem for plants that is, and I hear it's actually pretty expensive to buy.

Life as a Vampire

I find myself wearing long silky black lingerie gloves of all things in the car. When I bought them online, I didn't intend to seduce anyone with them. I just want sun protection while driving. But NOBODY sells anything like what I want.

Sometimes it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for. I come from a family of engineers who research all the possibilities and inner workings of a thing before they consider buying. Most spouses find it annoying, but customer satisfaction is high.

I'm far from an engineer, but I can get pretty specific about how I want some things to work. Take for example my Porphyria; Gardening gloves are easy to come by, but I recently decided this was the summer to get a set of driving gloves - that I can feel comfortable wearing in public as well. Something that doesn't stand out too much while driving either. I sometimes use red mittens. People are always surprised to get flipped off by my red kermit the frog mittens. - That's a joke. I do not flip people off in traffic. But what a way to emphasize your rage than to do it with red mittens, eh?

Anyway so I bought some gloves. My specifications?
1. Tightly woven fabric- limits sun permeation
2. Dark color - light colors bounce the reflection into my face. That burns.
3. Elbow length - protects arms in short sleeves.

I may just take up wearing long gloves and a stylish hat everywhere I go. Wearing jackets all summer long really bites. I get sweaty and stinky. I always have to explain myself a little when I throw on that "summer trench coat" before I step out into the searing heat.

My first summer in Rexburg I was walking down main street looking for a job and a bank. I was dressed in black pants, black hoodie windbreaker and black sunglasses. As sweet and innocent as I am, I scared an old woman. I had smiled at her, but she studied me up and down warily and side stepped away from me as we passed each other. As I kept walking it settled in that I frighten old people. That bothered me.

Now, my brother Adam wears a heavy and hooded black jacket, thick leather black gloves and sunglasses. I told him he could pass for a Sith Lord. He was about to enter a restaurant when a man who was about to enter the same restaurant approached him and asked, no joke, "Are you gonna' rob the place?" Adam answered no, and the man nodded "I just had to know." I think he had his family with him. And Adam wasn't offended. I mean, what are people supposed to think?

Why black? Because light colors reflect the sun in a painful way. But black has always been a haven. Blacktop tar parking lots are wonderful- Those regular cement ones are merciless.

Anyway- The gloves work okay, but I need some rubber grippy nubs on them because I can't even use my thumb to pull out my debit card and stuff like that. Back to the drawing board my engineers.

Solemnity.... Propriety (Title to be read like the Corpse Bride's pious mother)

At church today a whole family of 7 got up as a group, and the parents spoke while the kids stood around them. I watched them from a big projector screen. (stk conf). The littlest girl was about 3 I'd say. She had blond pigtails and she was so excited to be by the mic. She waved high and wide at the audience from her mom's hip. She was elated and her happy face was like this little ball of energy. She turned to throw an animated smile at her teenage brother behind her and, I missed the inconspicuous rebuke he must have given her, but when she turned back around her whole manner changed; she hunkered down, her lips stuck out like a little pouting duck and her eyes were dark and angry.

Seeing the change was so funny! Because I can recall many times in childhood where I felt like that! I still feel like that sometimes. You give the world your best excitement; but then someone spits on your shoe so to speak because they don't see why anything should be that joyful. Or even worse, your joy has inappropriate timing. It happens to me particularly in issues having to do with formality; a lot of times I don't see why we have to be so somber about some things. Take for example a baby shower or bridal shower; - room full of women. There should be SO mUCh TalkING! But they don't know each other so they clam up and sit like uncomfortable pretty statues. And the longer we sit there the more uncomfortable it gets! So I start talking to break the ice: I either end up looking like a weirdo who talks about things people usually think but don't say; or it turns out well and before you know it we're talking about children or swapping labor stories. At any rate I don't usually see these women much after that, so it's okay.

Rant on meetings and getting lost

I hate getting lost. I do it all the time, and I feel stupid every time. I went off to a scout training meeting, Athena in tow- I didn't get a sitter lined up in time. The training was supposed to be on abuse- recognizing it and all that. It was scheduled for 9am to 3pm- odd? Yeah. I figured I'd do 3 hours max. That should cover it right? Still I had little faith it would be covered in that time.

Well I got lost because the street that was supposed to be named 2nd was actually named something else. I wandered back and forth then finally called Conrad to look it up for me and guide me there. As he gave me directions from googlemaps.com I imagined he saw my little car driving around aimlessly on the map- a big arrow following it around that says: "Here's stupid" I got there half an hour late- irritated with myself and the situation.

Once inside, a sign at the foot of the stairs said, "Scout training session on the left" I was thinking, You sure it's the left? It's not going to change its name halfway up the stairs is it? Inside the meeting no one had children- I knew that would be the case- only 15 to 20 people were there and the scout leader was talking sooo sloooww. He was describing the duties of each leader type; "and the cub master's job is fun because they get to do this, and the weblos are like that." There was no way Athena was going to stay quiet for this; without other kids to counter her the tiniest peep was an offense to the silence.

I asked the guy next to me when they were going to get to the abuse training. He said they were doing it now and that it would last 3 hours. He didn't know that I perceived a joke in his comment; why, yes this would be abuse wouldn't it? Even though I spent half an hour searching for this place I immediately knew I wouldn't stay. I sat there a grand total of 2 minutes, then left. Wasting half an hour to get someplace doesn't warrant wasting an additional 3 hours just because you want to make that initial wasted half hour count for something.

If the meeting doesn't apply to me I'd rather be home. And I'm new to scouting, but so far every scout meeting I've been to is a huge waste of time. The part where you're with the boys is fun and worthwhile. The adult meetings: lame-wad.

I got lost leaving that meeting too. I know, I'm completely hopeless.