Rattlesnakes and Lazer Tag!

              The rain affects many things in our lives...our backyard is lusher.  Spent a little more time grooming and getting Kimmy's garden closer to how beautiful she kept it...The animals are more active.  Tonio and I took Bella for a walk early this morning and counted 11 chipmunks, 3 rabbits, lots of quail and too many lizards to count.  There was still a lot of standing water in the wash, too.
              Andrea's van.  Well, maybe it wasn't the rain that made her need new tires, but, none the less, we went to pick up Breanna and Lexy while she went to take care of the van!  Autumn and Antonio were so excited to get to spend another day with these two!
             Rain does make the grass grow.  And when we all pulled up at Angie's home, to check on her new bionic knee, Mark was busy cutting the grass out front.  He has their front yard looking like one out of a magazine.  Two tiered, framed with railroad ties, the grass golf course perfect.  But, the rain also brings the humidity, making cutting grass a perspiring proposition.  Angie is doing remarkably well and she was excited to see her grandchildren and feed us eclairs (anybody find Tastyklairs anywhere??), chocolate covered strawberries and blueberry muffins!!!   Tonio made Angie get well cards, and took a picture of one.  He used various sized lines to fill in his happy guy and proudly told me that 'Mama taught me how to do this'.

             Rain makes us hungry.  Despite the treats, we needed food and went to Viro's for the Italian Wedding Soup.  Rosa and Vito just returned from the east coast (how ironic, going from that humidity and coming back to our monsoon humidity), where they got to check out Niagra Falls (Kimmy and I enjoyed the falls in 1989), the Statue of Liberty and all of the NYC sights (we made it to the city multiple times).  And they were excited to see all of the bambini.

            Rain makes the bambini grow.  And Tonio turns 8 on Monday, so we all went from Viro's to the dollar store and stocked up on party favors for his bash (thanks for the tip, Kim!).  But, we hadn't any rain yet, so the kids were thirsty - Eegee's!!  The flavor of the month is watermelon and Breanna talked Tonio and Autumn into trying it today - they loved it!
           And, rain brings out the snakes!

              I went out to my truck, barefoot, passing this guy by no more than a foot and never saw it...until I was heading back inside!  I am not a snake killer ('A man's got to know his limitations' Clint Eastwood), so, I quickly called my neighbor Brian, a direct descendant of St. Patrick, the most feared snake killer in history.  He came over with his long shovel and took the snake's head off with one blow!!

                                                             Snake nuggets anyone?

                  And, the rain shuts down amusement parks.  We went to Funtastics tonight.  I had 7 in my car, we met Brad and he had 3 of his kids, and Bianca and her husband David, there.  The kids were looking forward to race cars, bumper boats, etc.  As we approached, a hellacious monsoon eclipsed us.  Funtastics closed it's outdoor operation for the night, so we could only play video games and play lazer tag.  We played two rounds of lazer tag and had a blast, running through their 3 level game field.  Breanna and Tonio were so cute, protecting each other. And Brad's son, Tanner, was a terror - he killed me four times in a row before I finally got him once and ran in the opposite direction!  David was the highest scorer among us and seemed to materialize out of no where and blast you.  It was a good workout and the kids all had a great time.

                 The rain cools things off...and it was beautiful, stepping out back tonight - everyone stayed awake - and it smelled so good.  The clouds were beautiful, but we could not see the stars.  The rain made Tonio feel sad - 'I miss Mama', he told us and we hugged him as we looked to the sky to tell Kim goodnight...

              Love,
                      Dave