Compartment 14B

Cheap family outing and missing BlogHer. 2008-07-12 - 3:02 p.m. Today we took Grommet strawberry picking for the first time. (Technically we took Biscuit too, since he couldn�t exactly be left behind, but since he spent the outing in a Moby Wrap and didn�t actually touch any strawberries, I�m reserving the first �official� strawberry picking outing for him for a later date. Like maybe next year.) It was definitely a success, and I credit that to not trying to do too much. We showed up and had our containers weighed, put sunscreen on, basically ventured meanderingly across the long field once, turned around to do the same on the way back, and called it a day. Grommet got to carry and fill her own little bucket and was pretty good at distinguishing the good from the unripe or overripe once she saw a few examples. We got a satisfying number of strawberries � enough to snack on in the car and have a reasonable amount to arrive home with � and they didn�t cost much at all: $3.50 for the whole batch and it was entertainment for a couple of hours if you count the anticipation and going there and back. Plus the car smelled heavenly. I love the taste and smell of sun-warmed strawberries, and the only smells that reminds me of summer as much is the smells of coconut and sunscreen. ------------------------------- I�m reading about all the anticipation around BlogHer, and I am sad that I won�t be going this year. I just wasn�t in the cards financially, and was too complicated with a 6-week-old baby. This would, of course, be the year that Sundry, one of my all-time favourite internet writers, is going. Dooce is also attending and I have to admit that I would have been curious to hear her speak, even if that does make me kind of a sheep. And I�ll miss seeing Marilyn this year too. (I�ll miss seeing Zoot as well, but she�s not going this year either.) Oh well, there�s always next year. And who knows what I'll be up to by then? Before - After All content � Shawna 2003-2010 That means no swiping my stuff - text, images, etc. - without asking. P.S. If you're emailing me, replace the [at] with @ in the "to" line. Oh, and if you put the word "journal" in the subject line it'll have a better chance of making it past my junk mail filters. recommend me HTML and design help by Jo hosted by Diaryland