Day 6- Coming to you live

I am live blogging tonight. As in, doing the activity while I type. Don't know about where you are, but we just had a whopper of a rainstorm here (hallelujah). So the temperature has dropped dramatically. It's wonderful. I came outside at about 9:00 which was just right to watch the sky go from lavender to cobalt to navy. The air is damp, but not oppressive.

But that's not why I'm out here. I'm out here for the nature symphony. And it's amazing. Crickets, a few cicadas, and FROGS!! Good lord, the frogs and toads are having a heyday. What's really cool is that there are different tones of their sounds. Deep croaks at times and mid-range calling. But just a constant cacophony. It's not annoying. And it's not overwhelming. I could be out here with a book and the sounds wouldn't phase me. In fact, if I was anywhere near a screen porch, I'd probably sleep outside tonight and allow the noises to lull me to sleep.

Did I mention the lovely, clean ozone smell on top of the croaks and chirps of nature? It's like the icing on the cake at this point. Everything just feels cool and fresh and right. The occasional "drip, drip"'of leftover raindrops falling off the pine trees doesn't hurt, either. I think if I had a few friends out here with me and we were either making S'mores and/or telling ghost stories, I might just think it was a little slice of heaven on earth.

PS- my apologies for any typos in today's post. No working internet right this second means I'm coming to you live from the iPhone. :)

Day 5- Sizzzzzzle!!

Today's suggestion was given to me by the lovely Jaime D. Being a Florida girl, like myself, (even though she lived on the OTHER coast) she also grew up knowing the meaning of the idea of a HOT summer. She said that she and her sisters used to love frying eggs on the concrete. Since I am visiting Jaime today, we decided that would be a wonderful experiment seeing as it is easily in the mid 90's here today.

Enter the egg! Many thanks to Jaime for the donation, by the way. Egg in hand, we headed out!

I had to be instructed on the correct cracking method. Tapped it on the curb, dropped it on the street and TA-DA!

And here we go!!!!!

Well...

Um...

Let's just say that after a minute and a half, pretty much NOTHING CHANGED! I'm not kidding! That dadgum egg didn't change ONE BIT!!!! Grrr... Was Georgia pavement THAT different than Florida pavement? We were out there a good long while and everything just stayed...eggy.

We decided that maybe we should give it some time. Perhaps it needed more like...an hour to get to a more fried consistency.

So, about 3 hours later, we came back to find this:

This gluey mess. The yolk was just this side of petrified. It may have been one of the foulest things ever. I didn't ACTUALLY think that it would look like something that would arrive on my plate at the Cracker Barrel or anything, but I certainly thought it would be more successful than this. All I can assume is that I did not do something correctly in the cracking/egg cee-ment distribution process. Guess I need to take an online class or something. Or maybe Jaime should teach me her technique. Maybe then I can have y'all over for summer brunch at some point. As of right now though, my concrete cooking is-

Day 4- Movie Madness

Today's summer event was the kiddie morning movie. We all remember this, don't we? The local movie theater would show an old kids' movie and it would cost $1.00 to get in and there were really cheap snacks? I remember seeing "The Wizard of Oz," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," and perhaps my favorite "Bugs Bunny's Arabian Nights- 1001 Rabbit Tales." I have loved movies for as long as I can remember and I seriously chalk it up to all the old ones I got to see in the summertime as a kid.

Well, there just so happens to be a theater here in Athens that does kid's movies every Tuesday and Thursday. And, like the theaters in Tampa in the 80's, they charged a whopping dollar a ticket to get in. Woo hoo! Snacks were a little pricier- $1.50 for popcorn and $1.50 for a drink. (I seem to remember those being only 50 cents a piece when I was little. Inflation. I tell ya!)

Now, before you get all weirded out that I was the 34 year old woman going by herself to a kiddie movie at 10:00 in the morning on a Thursday, have no fear- I took my 4 year old along. What was our movie du jour? Wait for it...

Beggars can't be choosers, I guess. (Note to self, next time check out the entire summer lineup BEFORE choosing which week to go. Could have seen "Megamind," "How To Train Your Dragon," or "Despicable Me" if I'd planned a little better. Anywho, in we went.

The theater was about half full. A GIANT school group came in and sat all around us right before the movie started. The adult part of my brain went "Ugh. They're going to annoy the crap out of me!!" Then, I reminded myself that this was a KIDS MOVIE. THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE. Plus, when I was 6, I didn't even notice any other kids around me; I was so excited to be in the cool, dark theater with snacks at 10:00 in the morning!!!! Are you kidding me???? So, I adjusted my attitude accordingly.

Lights down, snacks up, DVD player on? WHAT? You read that right- the movie was a DVD. We watched the guy in the booth get to the menu on the DVD and select "Play Movie". That was...odd. But, it got the process started a little faster to not sit through loads of previews.

The movie was...well...not so good. But, all the children in the theater behaved accordingly. They loved it. And an hour and a half out of the heat is always a good thing. A lovely morning was had by all and I think Tuesdays and Thursdays might become movie mornings around here.

Day 3- Hmmm

Today's idea seemed like it would be an easy one. I decided that I needed to do what all REAL kids do during the summer. When you were thirsty, what did you drink? KOOL-AID, OF COURSE!!! Now, I know this may not sound like such a big deal to some of you readers. I know there is a relatively large chunk of the adult population that does still drink Kool-Aid. I am not one of them. I couldn't even tell you when the last time was that I did have Kool-Aid. So, off I went to Kroger...

Wow. There are a lot more choices than there were 25 years ago, I have to say. "Watermelon Kiwi?" "Berry Blast?" Thank goodness I was able to unearth what was my favorite sort of jammed in the middle and pushed back from the front. "Tropical Punch." Armed with my tiny envelope of artificially flavored and colored (but caffeine and gluten free, thank goodness!) beverage, I hustled home to mix it up.

Ok, one envelope, one cup of Splenda, and 2 quarts of water. (Oh, and for all you purists who want to try to tell me that the only real Kool-Aid is made with sugar, my parents never allowed me to have the sugar Kool-Aid. I only ever had sugar-free. And I'm sugar-free now. So, get over it.)

Look at that. Two quarts of smiley pitcher goodness. Remember when the Kool-Aid guy would crash through walls and stuff in the old commercials and everyone would get so happy to see him? Oh yeah!!!!!

So, I poured myself a tall glass and prepared to be WOWED. The first glass, not too bad. The second glass, still pretty good. Once I hit glass number three, though, I gotta be honest: my taste buds were kind of over it. My 34 year old self reeeeeeally missed my sweet tea.

My goal was to drink the entire pitcher. You know- when we were kids and all we drank all day was Kool-Aid. Unfortunately, I failed in my task, friends. I couldn't do it. But don't worry. The pitcher is still in my fridge. I'll just sip on it over the next few days. Day 3 experiment complete. Perhaps not the tastiest one yet. But, still kind of fun.

Day 2

Today's activity was suggested first by the fun loving Andy C. His recommendation? Popsicles. Well, technically, it was a push up pop (which I ABSOLUTELY love, by the way and probably ate my weight in as a kid). However, since I live in a cool place called Athens, Georgia, I have other options. Options that I decided to take full advantage of.

Enter The King of Pops (http://www.facebook.com/kingofpopsathens)!! Want the greatest popsicle you've ever put in your mouth? Take a gander at the menu below for what all my options were today-

After some SERIOUS soul searching, I went with the peaches and cream. Mostly because Gus (the super cool Popsicle Dude shown in the below photo) recommended it and they are also almost out of them.

Gus produced my peaches and cream popsicle from the the depths of the coolest dessert dispensing machine in town and it looked a little something like this:

Can I please just tell you how incredibly fantastic this popsicle was? Holy smokes. It was like the greatest peach milkshake I'd ever tasted only frozen on a stick. Sweet and creamy and fruity, but never overwhelming with any of the flavors and dee-licious!! As I casually strolled through downtown Athens enjoying my treat, I knew I'd made the correct choice for today. There was this tiny cool breeze that snuck up on me and for a second, it wasn't too hot. It wasn't gross. It was warm and and sunny and I was 8 and just enjoying a summer treat. The only thing missing when I was done were the awful stained teeth that our childhood popsicles used to give us.

PS- If you're in Athens and you can get to downtown near the Globe and the Georgia Bar from between 1:30 and 6:00 in the afternoons, get you some King of Pops!!! Tell them I sent you. It won't get you anything, but it's always nice to get a shout out, right?

Day 1- part dos

Today's assignment was pretty easy since I was planning on having some of the above anyway. But, Ashley M. was the first to suggest eating extremely cold watermelon. See that picture? That would be said cold watermelon and it was HIGHLY enjoyed with a big smile on my face. And yes, I slurped appropriately like an 8 year old. I'd say this little project is off to a goooood start!

Day 1

Every project has a starting point. This is mine. I have some unexpected free time this summer. So, let's do something random, shall we? This will be where I will be reporting my summer activities/assignments and where y'all can tell me what childhood summer activities I SHOULD be doing.

So tell your friends. Tell your friends' friends. And live vicariously through me as I live vicariously through you!