Walkin' the Dog

Early this morning Steve & I walked Reggi on the Indian Hill section of the Crescent Trail. I drive by the parking area every night on my way home and have always wanted to hike up there.

Isn't this tree amazing?

The trail is pretty steep in the beginning but levels off at the top for this nice view. It was fun figuring out what we were looking at from that high.

I went to lunch at Kathy's today, with Nancy, Kim and Crissy. The food was delicious, especially the chocolate fondue for dessert! Simon called me while I was there with a car question and his thoughts on the SAT exam he took this morning. Unfortunately, he's in such a negative spiral that the negativity is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy or something. I went back to the group and they asked me something about Simon and big surprise, I got teary eyed. So I told them stuff and they made me feel much better by telling me that they are experiencing some of the same things with their same aged kids. We concluded it's this generation and their feeling of entitlement - and boys seem to be worse about developing any kind of work ethic than girls. At least I'm not alone. Sometimes I feel like I am.

Starting yesterday, I've pretty much stopped with trying to get that light bulb to light up for Simon in terms of responsibility and work ethic and motivation. Now it's tough love. In one way, it's tough on me because this is not how I want the relationship to be between us. On the other hand, it's pretty easy because it's the only alternative. It's what they say about insanity - doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

His car is at the mechanic's because he's having transmission trouble again. It should be repaired under warranty, thank goodness. When we get the car back, we're selling it now, not when school ends, like he wants. He's not happy, as you can imagine. I don't care anymore. I haven't been happy for a while. It's his turn.

Enough of that.

It's beautiful and sunny here today. I'm going to ask Steve to help me put the deck furniture on the deck tonight. Summer is here.

One of my biggest accomplishments today was buying a cutting tool that I can take on the airplane when Gretchen and I go to New York next weekend. I want to take my needlepoint to work on of course and I don't think you can take scissors anywhere in any luggage. That's what I got from the airline website but anyone, feel free to enlighten me. I haven't flown since before 9/11/01.

This is really the one I wanted - The Stitchery sells them as a set for $12.99.

Golden Thread Needlearts only had this one - the one on the right, specifically. The package of two sells for $3.75. Actually, if they had them both, I still would have purchased the less expensive one, I suppose. The woman at the store told me they've never heard of anyone having these confiscated. I'll give this a try tonight. If it doesn't work well, there's always nail clippers. Or buy scissors in NY and leave them there but that sounds like way too much trouble.