Yesterday was a perfect weather day in Seattle. Sunny and clear and warm. We were woken up by the sun streaming in through the blinds. It was the first day in a long time I did not have to think about what to wear in order to stay warm and/or dry. I wore a tank top and sandles.

 

The kids played outside ALL day. In fact, every kid in our neighborhood was out. They played hide-and-seek. They rode bikes. They played in the sprinklers. They created a play and performed it in the Thomas’ backyard (they have a concrete patio that works well as a make-shift stage). They ran from house to house and yard to yard like a pack of animals, barely stopping to eat or drink. You should have seen my poor glow-in-the-dark children in their little bathing suits running through the sprinklers with all their Ethiopian friends. Ebony and Ivory. Although by that time in the day my kids were more pink than white.

 

Jim and I had another kind of fun. We got to be outside all day as well, barely stopping for food or drink. But our day was spent cutting up the neighbors trees and shrubs with a chainsaw and hauling it to the clean-green dump. The neighbors behind us have a 60-foot curly willow tree that has split and grown over the fence and deeply desires to take over our yard. We’ve cut it back several years in a row, but about a month or so ago Jim had taken off about 30-feet and left it laying in our yard. Like some kind of miniature forest. I think by leaving the remains lying in our yard he was trying to send some kind of message to the willow. “Take that you evil Wiken bush! See what I do to you when you come in to my yard? Next time, I cut you ALL the way down!!” At least I like to think he had a purpose for leaving it in our yard for so long, but I can’t be sure.