Sometimes I can't help but wonder just how much MORE concrete I'm going to have to pull up around this house. Chris rented a jack hammer and went to work on the concrete under the citrus trees in the front.

Last night, after we finished the lights installation, we were greeted by a knock on the front door. When I opened the door, two of my favorite people tumbled into the living room, giggling and calling "Kiiii-itttt!" followed quickly by another favorite person.

Mike, Liza, and Maeryn were on their way some, but stopped by to drop off the truck and some other items, including a pile of books. I handed Mike back two of the three books in the Old Man's War series, having devoured them rather quickly. I received a slew of Percy Jackson and Grimm Sister books in return.

While Mike and I were chatting, Liza and Maeryn wandered around the room looking for something to entertain themselves, with Kris hovering somewhere close. At one point, Liza picked up my foam rollers and asked, what are these for?

Kris picked up the other foam roller and the foam roller sword fight began.

After a few swings, Maeryn tackled Kris to save Liza. She managed to wrestle the foam roller out of his hands, and started swinging it in his direction. She was successful in her subsequent beatings of Kris with the roller, until Liza took a swing and accidently hit Maeryn. That changed Kris' fortune, as the two girls entered a fierce battle for supremacy.

Not to be outdone, Kris retaliated with the Big Red Ball™ move, conquering one of his foes.

There are some peple who are slow to anger but fierce when provoked. When Kris had captured of of his girls, Mike, one of these slow to anger types, couldn't resist any longer. He came in with pillows flying, and balls bouncing off heads, including the basketball which had until this point been a quiet observer of the war raging around it.

The hilarity of the battle scene soon became overwhelming for me. I doubled over with laughter, my stomach cramping so hard it hurt. The battle continued until, well, someone poked her eye out with a stategically thrown pillow, and we all had to calm down while the medic checked out the injury.

After a few moments, said medic asked, "Are we done yet?" To which the injured party said yes and stopped crying. We were all subdued enough that the war was clearly over.

I can only hope the forces battle again some time soon.

Despite my inability to raise my arms, Kris and I put up the kitchen lights today. The sole light in our kitchen for the last month has been a floor lamp next to the window. The light we actually received from the lamp is weak at best, meaning no clean up in the kitchen could be considered tolerable unless done in the daylight.

Chris Holley had painted the ceiling a month ago (uh, yeah), so the lights could be installed any day now. Any. Day. Now.

Inspired by Andy's installation of our dining area light, we tackled the light installation ourselves. We did okay AFTER I added the washers to the light base to keep the screws from shooting through the base holes.

This morning's Velocity workout was 4 rounds of

15 one arm snatch (right arm)
30 GHG situps
15 one arm snatch (left arm)
30 knees to elbows

I have to admit that my ability to lift my arms is severely limited at this moment.

I'm a member of two Freecycling groups. Usually I just skip the subject lines of the emails I receive from these groups, then delete the emails. If I happen to have a requested WANTED item, and I'm no longer using it, I'll usually donate the item to the poster.

This request, however, caught my attention:

Date:    Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:10:00 -0000
From:    Beth <freecycler@notreally.tld>
To:      somefree-cycle-group-im-in@yahoogroups
Subject: [Freecycle] WANTED: Diaper wipe warmer

A diaper wipe warmer. A freaking warmer for diaper wipes. Because your kid's ass should never know the touch of a cool breeze? Because your child actually doesn't enjoy a gentle breeze on his private parts (and if you didn't catch that reference, go back and re-read Harry Potter book 4)?

Come on people, stop creating a generation of wusses. Use cold diaper wipes. IT'S OKAY.

If you still cannot bear the thought of a cold diaper wipe on your kid's butt, warm it up yourself. Stick the package down your shirt and arrange it under your arm to warm it up.

Oh wait. If your kid can't have the touch of cold, you must be a wuss, too.