Speaking of what Grace does and does not eat...

One of the reasons Kurt and I call her "monkey" is because she loves bananas. She loves bananas the way her "cousin" Eliza loves yogurt. Gracie is definitely a banana fanatic.

This morning during breakfast, she wolfed down one banana and asked for another. Generally I don't like to give her two bananas because I don't want to use them up too quickly and therefore have to make another trip to the commissary, but our bananas are looking a little ill already. So I gave her another one.

I mentioned this to my friend J who was a bit concerned that poor Miss Gracie PooPoo would be constipated as a result.

After not one, not two, but, unusually for Grace, three (count them -- uno, dos, tres!!!) dirty diapers today, I don't think the word "constipated" is applicable to my daughter.

Yuck.

I feel like I'm up to my elbows in poo.

Maybe me and Mike Rowe (of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs) could commiserate. He's normally covered in poo as well. Poor guy.

I think God and/or Mother Nature has heard me bitching about the cool weather, and is now getting me back with interest. We're talking possibly 95° on Saturday.

Fortunately it won't be long-lived; temperatures should go back into the 80s for next week. Now THAT is perfect summer weather. 80°, a nice breeze to enjoy in the shade, hot enough to make it worth going to the beach... oooo heaven.

Today is absolutely gorgeous as well. I took J running around some errands today (her son needed some items from the uniform shop on base since he's in Sea Cadets), and I stopped by the consignment store on the way home where I found a really cute Little Tikes tricycle that was sturdy enough to leave outside. My mother-in-law gave Gracie one for her first birthday, but I worry about leaving it outside because it's not very sturdy. This new one I bought today (new to me, anyhow) was only $12 and already sort of sun-damaged, so I won't be upset if it gets more sun-damaged. Gracie loves it too.

So once we got home at noon, Gracie and I went outside to play in the sideyard. For some reason, she was really clingy at first; maybe there was a rock in her shoe or something because every time I put her down, she cried. Then I convinced her to try out her new tricycle, which she loved. I sat in the shade and enjoyed the warm sunshine and the cool breeze. I'm telling you -- this area has lovely summer weather. It's only rarely too hot to spend time outside. I'm loving eating dinner outside on the deck almost every night, going outside with Gracie at any time of the day and have it still be cool, and generally just getting a lot of fresh air. I'm almost glad we don't have air conditioning; I don't like a house that's shut up all winter with the heat on and all summer with the air conditioning on. You've got to have your windows open at least some of the time. Plus usually the air conditioning makes a house too cold for me, and I end up freezing my butt off all summer.

What I don't get, though, is why my power went out yesterday!! I'd just gotten off the phone with my father, who called me to check on me and because I hadn't talked to him in forever (I normally just talk to my mom when I call home), and I was about to sit down at the computer to email him a link when I noticed that all the lights on my cable modem were out. I checked the cable box in the living room, and it too was out. Dangit!! That was about 5:15pm last night. Around 6:15pm I realized the power wasn't going to come back on early enough for me to make dinner (I was just going to nuke some leftovers, but the microwave doesn't work without electricity!), so I took Gracie out to dinner at a local fish house. I had crab-stuffed baked shrimp...... YUM!! It was a cross between stuffed shrimp and shrimp scampi. It was a good thing I didn't have a job interview or a date after dinner last night; there was sooooooo much garlic on my shrimp. Yum yum!! Gracie was supposed to have fish n' chips, but she didn't really touch her fish and only ate her french fries dipped in tartar sauce. She had a good lunch, so I guess it was all right she just had fries for dinner.

I kept calling the house to see if my answering machine would pick up because that would tell me if the power was back on. It still wasn't back on by the time we finished dinner at 7:45pm, so I went to Walmart. I didn't need anything, but it's the closest large store to my house, and I didn't really feel like going all the way to town. I managed to spend only $20 too. That's shocking. I normally can't get out of Target and/or Walmart without spending at least $50.

I got tired of Walmart quite quickly, and decided to just suck up the power being out and head home. Fortunately by the time I got home, the power was back on!! I held my breath from the moment I arrived in the neighborhood because the last time the power was out (for three days!!!), all the other streets in the neighborhood had their power restored at least a day before my street got power back. But I'd left the porch light on so I could tell right away if we had power, and it was glowing when I pulled into the driveway. I think the power was restored just 15 minutes before I arrived back home. Now that's timing!