April Showers

The forecast is for some heavy thundershowers today. We could use it. It's been super dry lately. The old globe has got a fever, it seems.

There's a lot to catch up on. The unicycling is going smashingly well. I am able to turn fairly well (a pretty key element if I ever want to get back to where I started! Otherwise, I just keep going straight down the street), and I think I'm close to being able to juggle as I ride, although I haven't tried that yet. Learning to ride the unicycle is the best thing I've done in a long time. And if any of you all want lessons, I'm happy to teach.

The house has had a lot of lookers, but no buyers. We've been doing lots of gardening, but I have to admit I was a bit sad when I read Duoteam's blog about cucumbers and pumpkins and so on. Because we'll be leaving this summer, we have put in tomatos or cucumbers or cantelopes or any of those things. We won't be here to enjoy them and if a non-gardening buys the house and lets them die, that would break my heart. So we've been planting stuff we can eat and enjoy right now - cilantro, lettuce, spinach, peas, beans, beets, broccoli, lots of strawberries, onions, chard, and some volunteers basil from last year. The back yard looks good, but there are no cucumber tee-pees or tomato cages up. Sigh. The irises from Colorado bloomed this year - I had planted them too deep last year; I replanted them last fall and now they are gorgeous.

Here's a before and after picture of the front yard. We had a dry/bald spot that I re-seeded and it's finally taken and looks pretty good.

In other news, we just celebrated the 85th Anniversary of All Souls this past weekend. It was something I'll never forget. On Sunday, we rented out the Brady Theatre, and had our worship service there. We had close to 1500 people! I had several roles in the service and it felt like such a great way to wind down my tenure here. I've been in T-town for 5 years now, and some of the connections are pretty deep, but I'm slowly letting go and still very excited about St. Paul.

Now, if we can just sell the house! We had another open house on Sunday and several people came by, but no bites yet. We've still got plenty of time, so we're not worried. The house is looking good - it's cleaner than every before.

Sierra is winding down her time with us and I'm feeling sad about seeing her go, but I'm thinking we'll all connect again in Minnosota. It's been great having her here, and highlights have included camping trips, long walks, cribbage games (she's kicking my ass!), movie watching (anyone seen Slither?), and much more. It's been a treat having her here. This Friday promises to be a big hurrah - we'll have J's family here (dad and step-sisters), and we'll all be celebrating her birthday on Friday - with a pinata and many other surprises. There will also be a badminton tournament and who knows what else.

Finally, after many hours of playing Settlers of Catan, I caved in and bought the expansion sets, Seafarers of Catan and Cities and Knights of Catan (I think that's what it's called). They should be arriving today, I think and that may entail a few phone calls to recruit some game playing fools! We've played Settlers with several of our friends and they all liked it. It's a quick easy game.

It's my day off. Time to go unicycle!

Unicycle Adventures

Well - it's been two weeks now, and I'm happy to report that I'm well on my way to unicycle riding. It's been a slow, sore process. For the first couple of days, my seat was too high, so I sawed off an inch and that helped. Plus, it takes a little while to figure out to probably mount the unicycle, so my inner thighs took a beating! If that's too much sharing, stop reading now. As I told people, the good news is, I'm learning to ride my unicycle. The bad news is that I may not be able to have kids. Actually, it wasn't really that bad, and now that the seat is lower, it's much easier to mount. When I first started, I had to lean against a wall or have someone hold my hand as I trashed and crashed. Then, last weekend, I went to a bank down town that a covered employee parking area with a great wall to balance on. I practiced there for a couple of our hours. Then, I began to practice in my driveway, under the carport, lurging from pole to pole and riding along the side of the house. Now I can lurch and trash for about 15 to 20 feet before I need to balance on a wall or pole. So what's it like? It's a rush, I'll tell you that! It's the best feeling ever! I'm hoping to learn how to juggle and unicycle and then maybe to unicycle backwards. But one step at a time. I need to learn how to ride for a while without balancing on a wall first. I'll try to post some pictures later today. Final thought: it takes time to learn how to ride, but it's not as hard I thought it would be...probably the first 3 hours are the hardest and then it gets easier after that!