No matter how much you don't want to

...every now and then, you find yourself agreeing with Jessie Jackson.

On a lighter note, tomorrow is HannahC's 8th birthday party. Her birthday was Tuesday, but the party of course had to be on a weekend, what with it being summer and all. I was today informed that my job was to supervise the children as they jump through the sprinklers.

I can't imagine a worse job. Especially since there will only be a high of 80 tomorrow given the cold front that moved in this evening. I hope they don't break any of the sprinklers. Already, I have large brown patches in the lawn because I refuse to run my sprinklers every day. I'm trying to teach my grass to live on 15 minutes of water three times a week.

I spooled up my new fishing reel tonight. I couldn't wait any longer. It was just sitting there on the kitchen counter mocking me.

This morning, I almost tossed the fishing gear into the truck on my way to work. It was shaping up to be the kind of day where I didn't have much to do in the afternoon, and Carl, Jr., had been carping about how we never sneak off to go fishing. But, at the last minute, I decided that I didn't want to go fishing without my new reel, and I didn't have time to load it up with line before work. So no sneaking off to go fishing for me today.

Carl, Jr., had brought all his stuff. He's very dedicated. I wonder how long he's had all that gear in his trunk.

Next week, unfortunately, will be very busy for me. So I probably missed my one opportunity to sneak off fishing for a long long time.

I need to clean out the tackle box. It's so full that it barely shuts, and most of the stuff I never use and will never use. Like the two copies of everything that comes with a kid's fishing combo. They live their little assortments of jigs and lures, but none are actually all that useful.

We stopped at Harbor Freight Tools this afternoon after lunch. I'd never been there before. Wow, is most everything in there absolute junk! I mean, it was hard to believe the tools were actually meant to be used. They looked like props. But I did manage to find a ratcheting cargo bar for the pickup, which is something I've needed for 5 years. As I was reading the directions, I realized that the person writing them had clearly never used the thing, as the way it actually worked and the way the directions said it worked bore very little resemblance to one another. I also loved the part where it told me to be sure that I was wearing approved safety goggles and work gloves before adjusting the bar.

I think I'll head off to bed now. Nighty night.