Petland kills puppies

It's been a while since I've talked about the evil that is Petland. Protest coming soon!

So what a weekend it’s been! We absolutely loved the springtime weather, although I had enough work to this weekend that my only enjoyment of the weather was sitting outside working on my laptop while the kids and dogs played in the back yard. L. pretty much lived outside this weekend. She’s such an outdoorsy girl anyway, that she spends time outside even when the weather isn’t nice, but if it is even remotely pleasant out, she will be outside from morning until bedtime if possible. H. isn’t quite as robust about playing outside as L., so if he deems it “too hot” or “too cold”, they argue about going outside. Several times on Saturday, H. decided that (at 64 degrees) it was too hot to play outside. He came inside our house and played, and L. just stayed outside. That seemed to work well for them.

Unfortunately, our spring-like weather is now gone and we are back to the winter that will not end. My garden is stirring to life, and we're already behind, as we should have applied 10 yards of mushroom compost already this year. Our bulbs are up several inches now, and it's hard to rake off the mulch, apply the compost, and then re-apply the mulch, without damaging new growth. I spotted the first flowers of the year today--a hyacinth and scilla!

Our date night Sat. was fun. The event started early, so we had to hit the Taco Bell drive through when we got to Madison . We each got a bean burrito, which we quickly ate while parked at Olin Park , enjoying the beautiful old oaks we parked by. Had they included the fire sauce that we requested, I have no doubt that I would have continued with my usual pattern of ending up with a large stain on the front of my shirt, usually in a very prominent area. Because they didn’t manage to provide the fire sauce, I had a very dry, boring burrito, but I did manage to make it through the night stain free, which is saying a lot for me. We went to a play at the University Theater, called Dragonwings. It was a lovely asian play about a Chinese father/son in 1906 Chinatown . It would have been totally appropriate for L., and she would have loved it. I missed her while we watched the play.

While we were there so naively enjoying our play, knowing that L. was safely having fun with my parents, and thinking that D. was safely having fun at her boyfriend’s house, we couldn’t have been more wrong. Now, we have told Dejanique time and time again that hanging out at a friend’s house means you have permission to be at that friend’s house. Only. If she decides to go to another friend’s, or to Taco Bell, or anywhere else in the world, she needs to call and let us know. See where this is going?

We assumed, because we gave her permission to be at Brandon ’s that she was actually at Brandon ’s the whole time. We were wrong. So wrong. The fact that I know we were wrong might imply that she felt bad for violating the rules and came and admitted trolling about. That’s not quite what happened though. She walked in and said, “I know you’re going to be really mad, but just let me explain. Don’t get too mad, okay? I know you’re going to be mad, but…” This is never a good way for a conversation to start. Of the 500 or so scenarios that ran through my head during that introduction, none of them were good. And they all made me mad. She proceeds to tell me that she got a ticket for underage drinking.

Now, had this ticket been issued at B’s house, I would have been disappointed, but not mad. It’s not like we don’t know our nearly 18 year old drinks on occasion, and for the most part has been fairly responsible and up front about it. She was not at B’s house when this happened, however, but he was with her and ticketed as well (as were several other kids that were with them). None of them were drunk, and we know this, because they were all forced to blow a breathalyzer. The fact that they weren’t drunk makes it a little funny to me, because they got punished for drinking a beer—they didn’t even get to have any wild drunken fun. Anyway, as she was trying to explain to us what happened, we found that she, B. and a group of friends had been bopping around town quite a bit that night. Despite all the prior conversations we have had about our expectations of her being stationary unless we are told different, she did not feel the need to call and tell us they were going to be mobile. “Why?”, you may ask, as we did, after so many warnings/discussions on this very issue did she not just call or text. Well, because she wasn’t the driver. She just didn’t think of it. That may have worked better had she not already used the exact same reason just a few weeks ago. So the ticket itself—that’s her problem. She is responsible for paying that, going to court, taking the alcohol/drug class, etc. That’s a fair consequence for her irresponsible drinking (I say it was irresponsible, because had she done it responsibly, they wouldn’t have been in a position to get a ticket). We will be addressing her flagrant disregard for our rules however. I did find it interesting that the police did not call us. They told her they don’t need to call the parents if the child is 17. I find that very odd. If she hadn’t come and told us, we would have no way of knowing. Wow.

M. started a blog for work. I encouraged him to do so, thinking it would be a great way for volunteers and visitors to stay in touch with what’s going on in the gardens. He’s a good writer and a good photographer with thousands and thousands of photos from work, so it seemed like a natural extension for him to blog. What I told him was that it would be a great idea and would only require 20-30 minutes a day at the most. He could just schedule that time at the end of his work day with minimal impact. What my workaholic, salaried husband apparently heard was this, “Since you don’t spend enough time working as it is, what with the fulltime days and the frequent evening and weekend work events, you should do more. You should start a blog for work and update every, single day, 7 days a week, whether or not you even work that day. You should also do it from home in the evenings, so it doesn’t interfere with your work day. You could do it either before or after your requisite hour or two spent reading/selecting seeds/plants for work after L. is in bed. I would love to watch that process. It’s infinitely more rewarding than actually doing something together.” UGH! But it is a very nice blog.