But at least it's humid - I went outside with the kids this morning after their breakfast, as I often like to do. Besides, you have to make sure that Timbonator doesn't wander off into the street or neighbor's yard. At 8AM this morning it was a little over 70° but the humidity was over 90%. I know it's a tired cliche but it really did feel a little like a sauna. As the day progressed the humidity slowly dropped to 55-60% but the temperatures skirted just shy of 90°. The kids didn't tend to stay outside long.
Grandma - Yesterday afternoon Grandma K and her friend, Ray, came by to visit. They were going to take a short cruise along the northeast and padded their schedules so that they could visit family in this area. They arrived around 2PM and stayed about five hours. This was grandma's first time seeing our place in Milford. Her last visit was the same morning as the tragic terrorist strikes on 9/11 when we still lived in Nashua. While she had seen the girls last month, this visit gave her a chance to see the boys and how much they had grown. She bought our dinner that night - Chinese from a neighborhood takeout. When the girls and I dropped her back off at Ray's brother in Amherst, we learned that Ray's brother's neighbor is Claire's teacher from last year.
TV - When I got home from work yesterday, I was annoyed to see that the combo TV/DVD in our bedroom was stuck again. The DVD tray was jammed open. This would be the third time of returning it for repair. Argh! So this morning Claire, Daniel, and I went to Manchester to return it. I had hoped to have it exchanged for in-store credit, but somehow they lost track of the first repair, so they claimed that they had to try to fix it because they couldn't find the original work repair order. After Claire and Daniel waited patiently while I took care of the paperwork, I took them to the food court for some frozen treats.
If BestBuy gives up on it, I think I'm just going to pay the difference and buy a 17" LCD TV and some cheapo little DVD player. RCA also makes a nice model with a tray-less DVD player built in. The DVD slot and all the controls are on the top of the flat panel. It could be useful for keeping little fingers from messing with the controls.
After the food court we went over to Sears. I picked up some supplies for routine maintenance on the tractor: new blades, fuel filter, air filter, oil filter, spark plug, oil. I also needed to pick up some spackle to repair some wall damage done by the kids. Between the TV repair and the trip to Sears I was proud of how well Daniel behaved. He even cooperated with me taking him to the restroom before we head back out to the van to drive home.
Pool - We tried to take the kids this afternoon to the Milford pool, only to have our hopes let down. It turns out that yesterday was the last day of the season. Aww man! I had my heart set on doing some jumping in the deep end with Claire. She and I love that. The pool certainly would have been refreshing with the hot, humid weather.
We finished off the day by giving the boys fresh haircuts. Surprisingly this time it was Daniel who was calm for the whole thing while Michael and Timothy both cried because of the noise. I also called a local piano teacher to ask about scheduling Abby for lessons soon. The teacher will call back soon after she makes her schedule for the upcoming year.