15 May 2009

Did a little planting this afternoon --- put some petunias in a terracotta pot, and sowed some herb seeds (basil, parsley and dill) in small plastic containers. Also, sowed some Alyssum seeds - 'Mountain Gold' in a terracotta strawberry planter. It may be a little late for these, but we'll see what comes up.

Got some rhubarb today as well. I don't have any of the ready-made pie crusts that I've grown accustomed to using. I used to make pie crusts from scratch using a recipe from an old Amish cookbook, whose author I believe was on the Crisco payroll. That has gotten to be more time-consuming these days, but I may give it a try tomorrow if we pick up some strawberries. And as Garrison Keillor says, you need to make sure to use "six cups more sugar than how much you think you need to make it really sweet." Rhubarb is not for the faint of heart, don't you know.

Played a little game of catch with my nephew, using a tennis ball. I think it may help get him acclimated to fielding, learning proper form for catching pop-ups and grounders. And the softness of the tennis ball removes the negative of getting beaned by a baseball while learning these things. Kids who get beaned early on can become afraid of the ball, producing a slight wince and hesitation which can lead to even worse things. I was at a game last year where said nephew was hit smack on top of the head with a practice fly-ball throw (the coach didn't have an ice pack in the first aid kit either). After a bit of crying he got back up and took a few more throws before the game started. Throwing like that today reminded me of when I was younger, and I would throw the tennis ball off of a basketball backboard and catch the bounce in my baseball glove. I would literally be out there for hours at a time.

Still musing over the season finale of LOST that aired on Wednesday. It is my steadfast opinion that this show is the best television series, ever. To this point, I've discussed individual episodes on a message board site, and I think I'll just continue that route. Posting my thoughts here at this point in the show --- with five seasons worth of thoughts and theories to go through --- would be far too daunting to start.