Of tools and schools and summertime

We're not quite done with Alison's room but she's moved back into it as we work on the final touches to her new,

more grown up decor. Three garbage bags of stuffed animals await new homes, as does a four-foot-tall stack of 

once mesmerizing boks.

Yesterday we did our usual errands. Alison made cookies as she did her chores and at one point got a little snotty.

Not in a horrible way, but just enough past cute to be annoying.

I remarked that I was a bit unhappy with her attitude. We chatted a bit and she went about her business.  She 

was quieter than usual for far too long and I asked if she was OK. "Just trying not to be snotty," she said.

Oh well then.

We chatted some more.

She's not even an eye-roller yet, so I'm not really complaining. She ended her school year Friday with really

great indications of another good year. We celebrated a little bit with a stroll down to Mama Corrolla's. She is

just about ready to admit Mama has a bit of an edge over her favorite, Fazoli's.

And she's not too greedy, either. I was all set to treat her to a zebra print rug to go with her new bedding but 

"That's just too much, Mom."

Not as in, "Oh you've done so much for me already," but as in overkill with the zebra theme. She picked out a 

turquoise shag and one small pillow to help that color punch. We haven't decided what to do with the curtain yet.

While we were in the store, she was eyeing some new books and I reminded her that she could use her 

allowance.

She reminded me that she's still paying off her new retainer after having her original fall out of her pocket at 

Lowe's on a paint run. By the time she remembered where it was and she and Jeff went back, it had been

run over by a shopping cart. She's forfeiting her allowance to pay half the replacement cost.

Don't tell her, but if her report card comes back as good as we expect, the captain is going to forgive her debt.

Totall his idea and a reward for her working hard at her core job: school.

As she's out for the summer, I suspect she'll be trying to expand her culinary skills, and the Captain is all about it.

He came home the other day with a new  kitchen toy: a small blow torch. Because you can't make creme brulee 

without a blow torch..

I'm not sure which of them was more excited when Jeff came home with it. It's second only to his absinthe mister.

He had to have that after his new favorite bartenders showed him how they make this new drink he's in love 

with -- a sazerac. 

It requires you to put absinthe in an iced glass then toss it out. In a shaker, you mix simple syrup, rye, 

Peychaud's bitters and ice. You strain that into the iced, absinthe-coated glass, twist a lemon peel over the

glass, then rim the glass with the lemon.

Jeff didn't want to waste the absinthe by following the recipe as he found it. The guys at the Libertine make the 

drink with a special mister, which I'm sure was designed for something else. But of course we have one of those

things now.

As for me, I'm enjoying my back porch and my yard with the same set of tools I had last year: a newspaper, a

pencil for the crossword puzzle, and my iPad. I guess I did kill the old lawn mower last year and so I have a new

one of those. But the shovel and the spade are older than Ali. So I'm still mostly old school.

Shots today include a bouquet my neighbor surprised me with as a thank you for a little work I did in her yard. 

She's a single mom, and I'm a little lopsided in my debt to Karma, so it's a win-win.

Go here for a look at her old room, complete with dum dum wrapper wall paper: 

http://teamreedblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/spa.html