4 July 2005 ... Coffee Time Random

My current coffee concoction is thus: One of my big coffee mugs (today it's the blue one with snowpeople and stars), filled with water and nuked. Add a half scoop of instant coffee, and an equally small scoop of cocoa powder. Then three big scoops of Sugar in the Raw. And lately I've been adding a splash of soy milk (today it's rice milk).

It's pretty good, taking into account that it's almost pure sugar. heh, I'm just not a real coffee drinker. But maybe my life in the Pacific Northwest will change that. Here in town we have tiny little drive up coffee-to-go huts, all over the place. Not that I would waste my money there.

When we moved to Oregon, my Significant Other started the Spider Relocation Program. ie, moving spiders out of our house and into the great outdoors.

What's amazing is that there are so few spiders and bugs that need to be relocated. I'm not sure what makes the inside of our home so bug-free... when the outside is just humming and exploding with bug life. Just step outside and you're surrounded by flying things and spiders and their webs are everywhere and rolly pollies and ants and beetles and dragon flies!

A couple bugs are munching on my poor little pea plants. But that's okay, because I officially have some peas! Yay, I was so excited to see the white flowers turn into pods! happy, happy!

It's been a while since I've lived in a state where fireworks are legal. The kids here have been setting off their fireworks every evening for over a week. I'm sure they're having fun.

When I was a kid, we spent many summer vacations at Grandpa and Grandma's house in Iowa. Fireworks are mostly illegal there, but they live close to the border of Missiouri where all fireworks are legal. We made a little roadtrip to the guy selling fireworks right over the border, and spent a fair bit of money there. :)

Sparklers, of course. My brother and cousin always got loads of bottle rockets and black cats. Those little snap pops, that you throw on the sidewalk or step on. Little things on wheels that rolled and shot out coloured fires. My uncle often got a box of the real fireworks that went up and exploded.

Happy Fourth of July!