Pumpkins, rims, and chocolate cake

I need to cover a lot of things, so off we go!

Last Friday Mrs Notthat got the gardening bug and spent an afternoon pulling up two cans full of weeds and defunct plants. And she managed to look stylish while doing it!

The garden is still in the tomato, pepper, and maybe zucchini business, but the pumpkins, green beans, and lemon cucumbers are done.

Here is our pumpkin harvest. (I parked my bulldozer next to them to give you a sense of scale. And yes, I do know that's an old joke. Sometimes they are the best ones.) This year's garden has been OK, but not outstanding. This was mostly due to my neglect. And I'll throw in the odd weather this summer just to make me feel better.

The Boy found out that the rims on his Jeep were less than excellent, so he found some replacements on Craigslist. I remember being a teenager once and how this sort of thing would be important to me too. Now it's just seems like a lot of work.

Sunday we invited the grandkids and their parents over for dinner. They had just spent two nights camping with others from Darci's school at Memorial Park, and were happy to eat a meal indoors and not have to share it with bugs and raccoons.

OK, maybe my pumpkin chili can't compete with torched marshmallows, but we had a secret weapon...

Idiot Dog Teddy! No - that's not it. (IDT loves it when the grandkids come over since it means his chances of scoring food are very good. Here he is going after a chunk of watermelon that Darci dropped.) Here's our secret weapon...

Chocolate cake with flowers in the frosting! They were thrilled with this, but neither ate even half of what they got.

The Boy ate cake too. Weird Haired Mom got her jollies by sitting on his feet.

The Boy is starting on another Jeep Improvement Project (JIP?). It turns out that wall-to-wall carpeting is not what a true Jeep should have, so he has ripped it all out and is about to apply some sort of coating that will be weatherproof and rugged. And not carpet. The Jeep is not exactly drivable for the time being.

It turns out The Boy and I will have all weekend to work on this project and others (like watching a LOT of football) since Mrs Notthat is going to Missouri for a wedding - cousin Yrrab (not his real name) is getting married. I get to drop her off at the airport at 5:40 AM tomorrow.

Man, I should really be in bed by now.

That's it - move along...