how flipping lawn is your green?

Since everyone else is blogging about it, I might as well join in on the fray with what I did to beat the heat yesterday.

I guess it all started late late Saturday night/Sunday morning when I realized it was 4am and a very stale 95 degrees in my apartment - even with the windows open and fan blowing on me. So I grabbed the spray bottle and spritzed myself so that the fan would cool me off. That worked only temporarily and I decided a cold shower would do the trick. I think I finally ended up passing out somewhere near 6am due to sheer exhaustion from the act of trying to keep cool.

When I officially woke on Sunday morning I took yet another cold shower and coordinated with Lindsay about hitting up the Flea Market at Fairfax High. Since it was cloudy and starting to sprinkle we thought it would be perfect, hoping against all hope that the heat would break. First we grabbed some Loteria Grill tacos as fuel for our adventure then we were off to the Flea Market just as the sun decided to grace us with its presence. A force that all in Southern California were forced to deal with yesterday. The heat, the asphalt, all of it was too much. We walked around and sweated profusely until we just couldn’t take it anymore. I vowed that the next time I’d go back would be mid-November, when the heat finally subsides.

Back in the lovely AC’d interior of Lindsay’s car we were debating on our next stop. Movie? No, too crowded. Target? No, too crowded. Just drive around in her car? That was the option I was leaning toward until Lindsay said “I know, let’s go buy a kiddie pool!” We thought that Big Lots had ‘em so off we went. No such luck, unless we wanted a clown-pool. Next stop – the dreaded Target. Again, no such luck…however we both got fancy new shoes in the process. Third and final stop, “G” Rite Aid. We really didn’t think they’d have kiddie pools and at this point all we wanted was a big fan and some Gatorade. It turns out that every retail establishment within a 5 mile radius of our location was sold out of fans….and kiddie pools.

Back at the Compound™ we decided the only way to enjoy the rest of the hot summer late afternoon was to water the lawn. We proceeded to attach round sprinkler head to hose, place it directly in the middle of the lawn, grab some porch chairs, chips, berry pie and Gatorade and sit just close enough to get our feetsies wet. We basked in the glory of it all for a while until Lindsay decided we should plant some flower seeds. Great idea! Gardening! Not having the proper tools for the event we improvised with a large spoon and a knife sharpener. It was truly a sight that her neighbors most likely got a kick out of watching…me stabbing the hardened soil with a knife sharpener. So we plant the seeds and water the soil…then all of a sudden we notice about 5 million ants in the soil running around carrying little white things. Perplexed was I and freaked out was Lindsay. (She recently had a little ant problem in her apartment.) After a quick google search we realized that we had disrupted their home and they were transporting their little ant eggs elsewhere. Lindsay, fearing they were making a beeline for her bedroom, decided to try and kill them with Lysol and Windex. I suggested we head on down to OSH and get the more “official” type of ant killer.

Exhausted from our ant killing rampage and basking again in the pre-evening coolness we were discussing our dinner options when Lindsay blurted out that she could really go for some mayonnaise.

Me: “Mayonnaise?”
Lindsay: “No, Mani’s!”

And so it was to be. A great dinner topped off a somewhat productive day of searching for a pool but not coming back empty handed and playing “god” to a few bajillion ants. No one had more fun than us.

*ant killers enjoying a baseball game (regarding the guy in the background, i can neither confirm or deny that he is an ant killer)

x

Comments

[Laura]

You win. You definitely had a better Sunday than we did. We didn't even bother going outside. Mayonnaise...lol. Thanks for the laugh.

[shannon]

i really did hear mayonnaise and i had visions of her eating a huge spoonful of it...disgusting.

[Joe Valdez]

Great entry, Shannon. What I would have given to have played Mister Furley for the day and watched you guys go on a killing rampage in your garden. Where did you learn to appreciate the little things? Here's my stamp of approval J&V

[shannon]

thanks joe. it was probably one of the best, most fun, sundays i've had in a while. just random and funny, hanging out with a good friend. you need those every once in a while...especially when you are on the brink of insanity.