New Adventures

I heard a celebrity say recently that every summer you should try something new. I can't remember who said it, but I liked it and thought it sounded like a good idea. I was able to do just that already this summer. In fact, I did two new things in the same weekend. One I would classify as fun, the other as disgusting. A couple of weeks ago, on a Friday, I got to ride a Sea Doo for the first time. I was getting kind of late in the evening so we didn't spend much time on them, and I could see that they would take some practice learning how to drive them well, but it was fun. Carly was with us and she really wanted to get on one with me, but she didn't have a life jacket yet. I'm hoping we'll be able to ride them again soon so Carly can try now that she has her own life jacket.

The other new thing I did that Sunday was get a tick off Carly. It was so gross. I have no idea how long it had been on her, but the body was about a quarter of an inch long. After several unsuccessful attempts pulling it off with tweezers and trying burnt out match tips I used a string with a slip knot in it. I cinched it down around the tick as close to Carly's skin as possible and then pulled so her skin formed a tent. After holding tension on it like that for about five minutes I tugged a little bit harder and the thing came off with a small, thin circle of skin attached. It was a pretty slick method I had read about on the internet that allows you to apply as much resistance as you like without the fear of squeezing the body. The entire tick came off and we didn't have to dig any parts out.

If I can get these images to load I want to share photos of this night blooming plant as it blooms. Our friend Ricky gave me a start of Sacred Datura and I watched one of the flowers bloom

the other night. Now this tells you just how dull my life is when I get all excited over watching a flower bloom, but it was exciting. I could actually see the thing opening up it went so fast. Ricky has been raising these for a few years and he got his original seeds from his sister in Mississippi.