Oh, my friends. Summer vacation is upon us, and the weather has been rather bleh. The mornings have been socked in with fog and chilly, and the skies don't clear until mid-afternoon. It hasn't exactly inspired me to pack up picnic lunches and take the kids to the park. It also hasn't inspired me to grocery shop, although the lack of milk is going to force my hand tomorrow.

What with my daughter's broken arm - and believe me, I'm tempted to put that in air-quotes but the orthopedic whoever said oh yes, broken, must have short arm cast, bring her in on Wednesday so hello another co-pay - and the crappy weather, my big plans for daily swimming haven't happened yet. And I haven't gotten up at 6 am to walk the dog/myself yet, but I set the alarm for 5:45 and thought about it today.

Seriously, last year I was gleefully waking up at 4 am to begin work, and I keep wanting to switch myself back to that schedule, but something happens around 4 am now, where I fall into a sleep so deep and drooly it is like I've been clubbed into unconsciousness. I have crazy, vivid dreams and if I try to wake up before 6 am, I'm completely disoriented and deeply disgruntled.

In my defense, the dog doesn't seem to be all hot to trot at that hour anyway. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe.

Yesterday, my son's baseball team won a trip to see the San Francisco Giants play the St. Louis Cardinals at SBC Park. My husband and I love to go to baseball games, and we've tried to get the kids into it, but so far we are not successful. We decided to go anyway, and it really was a one-of-a-kind experience.

We arrived at the ballpark at 9 am, and were treated to a special talk by some of the San Francisco Giants players and coaches and broadcasters. My husband sat rapt and attentive, while my girls whined and moaned about being starving.

My son, on the other hand, was visibly and audibly vibrating after having eaten a bowl of oatmeal at home, followed by two doughnuts on the bus down, plus a couple of fruit rollups, a lollypop, a granola bar, some juice, whatever else was in that bag. Holy moly. His brain was putting out a high pitched buzzing noise.

I played with my new camera while the guys were tallking.

Hello Travis Ishikawa!

Hello Mike Krukow!

Hello Tim Lincecum!

Hello Tim Flannery!

New cameras are fun. Of course, it helps if you remember to charge the batteries all the way, so the stupid camera doesn't die when your family gets the chance to walk on the field in the parade. Sheesh. Thank goodness for the iPhone in my life.

Again, the kids were unappreciative of the awesomeness of getting to do that, but DJ and I soaked it all up.

Once we got back off the field, we made our way up to our seats in the bleachers. My 6 year old curled up in my lap, ready for a nap (which, seriously? Why the heck won't she take a nap at home, if she's going to do it?) DJ took the kids to go down the Coke bottle slide (more power to them all, I say.) By the time they made it back to the seats, the game was underway, and my entire butt and part of my legs were asleep from balancing my sleeping kid on my lap.

After a few innings of whining, we cut our losses and headed back to the van. We listened to the game on the way home, and were delighted that they Giants managed to pull off a win.

Back at home, we had a mellow evening, including many jokes that revolved around trying to stick a giant, er Giant, foam finger in places where it just doesn't belong. Number one, baby.

Today, I worked like a mad woman while the kids did their level best to stay out of my hair without destroying anything. They did pretty great actually. One day at a time.

I'm trying to be a non-yelling mom this week, so I'm working on my Lisa Stone whisper of serious seriousness. This elicited a great response from my six year old, who cupped her hand around her ear and said "EH?" like a granny.

The kids have been occupying themselves making flip books using post-it notes. They are pretty clever, actually. My son made one of a plant growing from a seed. My oldest made one of dancing frogs. My youngest broke the mould and made me a series of three notes.

I (heart)

U

+ 100

They are stuck on my wall above my desk. I'm sure it will be a nice reminder when the novelty wears off entirely, and Summer, The Reckoning begins in full force.