The following is an excerpt (with commentary by me in parenthesis) of an email from the home front while I was away at the convention.
Dinner was a hit. We had sausage on a stick, fresh off the charcoal grill (read here Hibachi). Also the Rice Pilaf, found in your mother’s pantry. I owe her a box of Trader Joe’s Rice Pilaf. We had corn, salad, and baked beans. Conor struggled to taste the Rice Pilaf, but Evan encouraged him and he ate a full serving. The corn and beans were warmed with 100% solar power. I put the cans on the bricks out back and they warmed to serving temperature.
We went over your wish list of chores. (which was vacuum, clean toilets, wash my car, etc.) Evan decided he wanted to fill the water slide. (a giant vinyl contraption that with the attached air blower, blew up into a slide you could hook water to and it would spray out… my fight against renting a bouncy for B-day parties.) I was busy tending the fire, so Evan decided to set it up himself. He’s certainly learning self reliance at Webelos Camp (cub scouts). He dragged out the slide with a little help from Conor. He set up the blower and filled the water weights. He turned on the blower and it promptly blew the air sleeve across the yard, along with the plastic bag he put on the blower to keep water off. That’s when I was asked to help. I wrapped a bungee cord around the air sleeve (must not have noticed the ties at the end of said sleeve for this function) to keep it attached to the bungee. We tried again. The water slide has this big hole along the slide, and the huge hole in the bottom. It tried hard to fill, but nothing happened. Conor voted to buy a new water slide.
My husband’s family motto… there’s a hard way to do everything.