I started the morning off by catching up on some work.  Amanda started cleaning up around the house and such in preparation of a jewelry party she was hosting later today for Jenny Cain.  Once Milly went down for her nap I went outside to mow.  I wasn’t able to, however.

You know those stories you hear about people who call on a professional for help, and it turns out they were just doing something stupid, like they forgot to plug in their computer, and that’s why it wouldn’t turn on?  Yeah, I did something like that today.  The mower wouldn’t stay on.  I could start it and it would go for maybe a minute.  I called a few different people looking for advice and the common theme was that it sounded like the mower wasn’t getting gas, so the gas that had been sitting in the mower since the last time I used it (well before winter) might need to be emptied out, or there could be something clogging it.

I finally went to ask my neighbor, Dave Narron, about it.  There’s a thing you can turn to stop the gas flow (in case you need to run the gas out of it), and it was turned off.  It’s hard to fathom how stupid I felt.

On the plus side, it made me look at the oil, which was low, and I cleaned off the filter, which is ragged and dirty and needs to be replaced.

Amanda needed some things for the jewelry party and I needed to replace the filter, so I ran out to Wal-Mart for her.  I was in a really good mood on the way there.  I had some good music playing on the iPhone (plugged into the car), the weather was nice out and I had the windows down.  I knew it would make my hair look terrible, but I took my hat off and let it whip around in the wind because it just felt so nice.

I couldn’t find my filter, by the way.  It wasn’t at Wally World and it wasn’t at the Auto Zone right next to it.  I’ll have to go to one of the mower specialty shops around here.

I was thinking a few days ago that Milly should have a small ball.  A big one would be too big for her to do much with right now and she’s got some very small plastic ones, but I wanted to get her one of a size that she could pick up and play with.  While I was at Wal-Mart I looked at some but the ones that were the size I wanted to get her all had pictures on them, stuff like Hannah Montana or some cartoons.  I ended up getting her this rubber, I don’t know, frame(?) of a ball.  She was pretty intrigued with it when I first gave it to her.

But anyway, I got home and mowed and Amanda continued cleaning and getting things ready.  Jenny Cain (I don’t know why I like calling her by her full name) showed up a little after 3:00 and set up some jewelry.  Ladies trickled in after that and I sequestered myself in the office to get a bit more done.  I did come out when it was time to feed Milly then went back in when the second wave of ladies (Amanda’s mom and her friends, who had been at the Azalea Festival literally all day long) arrived.  I did come back out and talk to them later though.  They were, of course, fawning over Milly.

So I guess Amanda and I have officially decided we’re not doing Grow Zone anymore.  I’m going to miss the kids, but we just can’t do it every week like they want.  Milly doesn’t handle back-to-back sessions well and it messes up her schedule for the whole day.  Maybe we can get back to helping there when she’s a little older.

Zach Dotsey