My longstanding procrastination regarding backyard play equipment for our kids ran head-on into Marie's discovery of a guy on craigslist from our neighborhood unloading a used playset for cheep. That's what I spent Saturday doing. As you can see, it all got done in the end, even if I muttered a few choice words at various nuts and bolts that didn't seem to be doing their fair share. We almost didn't get it done, though. I went over to Ricky's house (the guy that was selling it) and he kindly assisted in the partial dismantling of the playset. We then hauled it out to his front yard. Having no rig to haul the pieces over to our house with, I called Home Depot (both of their trucks were out) and then Uhaul (yes, they had trucks and they were 19.99/day plus 1.20/mile). Great, I said, and headed over to the sketchy liquor store/uhaul franchise. There, the loser owner proceeded to say that he had no 19.99 trucks left, only 29.99 trucks. This crock (along with the multitude of signs warning of dire consequences if rip-off insurance is not purchased) affirmed U-Haul's place in a select group of truly disgusting American institutions. Needless to say, I left and drove over to Home Depot. Someone had returned one of their flatbed trucks, which I rented for 19.99 (no per mile charge) thereby saving about $30. Ricky helped me load the playset onto the truck, and we then re-assembled it in our back yard. Asha and Jerome love playing on it so far, and spent some time on Sunday kneeling in front of the patio door staring longingly at the swings and slide.

A quick thanks to Jules for the Flat Stanley letter. This is a picture of an engrossed Jerome reading the letter to Asha. He loved it, and his class was very impressed, not only with the letter but with the fact that Flat Stanley was trapped in a Suburban in some place called Kennewick, WA.








Lastly, the Easter bunny came. I don't know why neither Marie nor I are big sticklers for family holiday traditions relating to the lesser occasions, but everything below Christmas for us seems to be off the radar. Anyway, Jerome mentioned to Marie that he thought that the Easter Bunny didn't really come, and that it was just his dad that had put out all the candy. When asked why, he referenced as proof a comment I made to Marie that Kai probably wouldn't enjoy looking for candy, because I hadn't put any low enough for him to reach. I guess he's gotta find out sometime.