Sadly, Gatsby's great personality couldn't outlive old age and he headed off to the scratching pole in the sky today. It's been a good run Gatsby. We'll miss you!
Carissa got me started watching April the Giraffe who was supposed to calve back in mid-February. I've been watching her faithfully for about 3 weeks without success. If I'm impatient, imagine how April feels after being pregnant for 15 months. Watching that poor giraffe lay down is almost painful! I'm using April as live wallpaper on my computer at work and all the kids are checking on her throughout the day too. One of them thinks, because of her name, it's an April Fool's joke. Maybe he's right. Sadly, if I want to see April have a calf, I could just YouTube either of her last two calves and be done with it.
Check out the link below if you want to watch a giraffe do nothing all day:
Poor April has become the subject of tons of memes on social media:
We started out the week planning. Planning for new countertops. We've been talking about it for several years. Now it's time for the concrete to hit the counters. Yes, that's right, I want concrete countertops. Nowadays, all weird, here-to-fore unknown projects start with the internet...
...and a video. There is always a video. Stay tuned for our progress. Yes, progress. This project is not going to "sink" like concrete!
This is just a picture of the "Anatomy of One Inch" that I found on my phone. I made this several years ago for my ruler-challenged youth. It's hokey, but it gets the job done.
Another piece of Auburn wierdness. A gold wrapped Mercedes in the Fred Meyer parking lot. The wrap itself is about $3,500. Although it's expensive, that's still tons cheaper than a real sparkly gold paint job. It just looks beyond totally out of place here in A-Town.
The talk of the family was the wardrobe for the family photos that Carissa planned for us clear back at Christmas. Kyanne registered her burgundy wardrobe...
Carissa registered hers and Reagan's coordinating burgundy wardrobe...
...and I had my burgundy face. Nope, that's not bad lighting, that's my face. I thought I'd better get new foundation since mine was so old. New bottle, same brand, obviously different stuff inside now. My skin never reacts to anything, but true to life (and because I'm too old to get zits), I broke out right before picture time! Thankfully our pictures were cancelled due to rain so I didn't need to use foundation or flesh-colored paint to cover up the redness and hope my face didn't blow up after a second time.
After 31 years, we've been thinking about replacing our poor old John Deere lawn mower. The little guy has lived through a lot of projects, and is a big part of our family's memories. Bob shopped Craig's list but couldn't find the mower he wanted and John Deere holds it's value so well, a new mower wasn't too much more. Since we kept the last one for 31 years it was a great value. So we set off to Washington Tractor, where we got our first mower, and picked up this little gem.
I say "little" but it's not nearly as little as our old one. Now we have to clean out the shed so it will fit...and probably new boards on the floor so it doesn't fall through on it's first day in it.
Like new cars, new tractors
Instead of a photo session on Sunday, we went to the kid's house to watch Reagan so they could get some adulting done. Since it was raining and Red Robin wasn't open yet, Carissa stuck Reagan in our car and she climbed right into Grampa's lap. I think my face scared her!
When we got to Reagan's house, Reagan told us we had to be "very, very gentle" with Gatsby "because he is old." She's an extremely empathic little person and continuously amazes me with her depth of understanding. As you can see, Gatsby was happy, but not doing well at all.
Reagan powered through the house showing us all her stuff. Here she shows Grampa her puppy, her new shoes, her bunny, and her new blanket.
Grampa was hard at work babysitting.
Reagan was hard at work being babysat.
I didn't publish my blog on Monday since we were getting our taxes done. We managed to squeak through the process pretty painlessly and then made our usual post-tax stop at Steamer's Seafood Cafe' for our sometimes celebratory and sometimes mournful dinner.
Reagan and the meerkats go nose-to-nose.
Reagan and Dad strike a peaceful pose by the pond at UW. The ducks had other ideas about being in the background of a peaceful photo. Reagan is caught mid-snap to have a quick look .
Since I publish my blog first, JoAnn usually poaches a picture and posts it in her blog. The result of my poaching is Payton with her newly missing front tooth with her brother Carter. I was so excited I got to poach then realized that, sadly, since we share readers some of you will have already seen it. I guess it wasn't much of a win-win for me after all.
Have a good week everyone!
Not to worry--I love seeing my sweet grandbabies anytime and anywhere! And so sorry that Gatsby is gone but she's in good company with Kimi and Kirby!
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