Olive Sprouts

Dad is at men's forum. They're discussing the just war theory tonight. The boys are tired out-- we went to Mrs. Klaus's house and they played with her boys and Mrs. Kinney brought her three kids over too. They took turns jumping on the trampoline, joyfully ate popsicles, and built with blocks. Now they are asleep, no doubt recharging so as to have more bouncing-off-the-walls energy.

I've been listening to four cds lately. U2's 1980-1990, U2's All that You Can't Leave Behind, Nora Jones' Come Away With Me, and Fine China's You Make Me Hate Music. I have my favorite songs, of course- Bloody Sunday, The Sweetest Thing, Beautiful Day, Grace, New York, Seven Years, Painter Song, and Rock Can't Last Forever. I put them all in the living room cd player yesterday while I baked mom's cake. She and dad went out to a brewery for lunch. I made a one egg cake from my Joy of Cooking that I'd never tried before, but looked simple. It turned out well.

Tomorrow I have my first driving lesson. Dad and I have accumulated about twelve of the required hours, the lessons will provide six. I practiced switching lanes on the freeway last time we went. Easy so far-- traffic was light.

I've just started Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's First Circle. I regret that I have abandoned August 1914 for now. I do hope I'll have mustered up the will power to finish it someday, but First Circle was tempting me away till I couldn't slog through the muddy Russian ditches with constantly changing soldiers. As I told my mother, when you read an abridged (but still heavy book) edition of War and Peace without finishing another book, that book is officially on pause.

I finished the toucan painting. Now I need to figure out what to do with the one for my Oma's 70th birthday. Its a green vase with yellow flowers, i think tulips, but they still need work, so who knows, on a red and periwinkle background. The red is a tablecloth. But because of how far up on the canvas, the plain red needs something in the foreground. I'm thinking a tulip lying on the table, like a lady left her flowers for a moment to answer the door, or a sprig of babysbreath. I do know I'm going to need to do a few trial runs. I'm kind of over my head anyway with the shadowing and the depth of the flowers, although I do have a plan. lol, though, who knows if it will work? I do have till the night of April 15, though, so if it works a few late nights should finish it off, except for finishing touches. Dad's agreed to make a frame for it. I'm thrilled because he usually uses a honey colored pine, which he used for two bookshelves and for my table, and I think the coloring will look great with the bright, clean colors of the paint.