No, I’m not tripping.  If my readership of 1.5 recalls, there were these large mushrooms (at the school on the way to A’s).  Yesterday they had opened up to these umbrellas!

Also, while gardening I discovered this starfish!  Actually, two types of okra which are finally maturing.  Good thing Avdi likes okra!  Without the kids here, we can fix whatever we want.

The water has receded, but the garden is a total weed jungle!  It was hot and humid, but since my work inside was done, I tried to restore some order outside.  I’m recycling cardboard boxes by laying them down between rows on top of the stubborn weeds.  I did some more weeding and found some more veggies struggling to make it.  The “afterthought” tomato row is really thriving.  I cleaned up the herb garden and trimmed back some of the giant flowering plants.

Avdi and Jess were working in the office, kid-free, so I tried to be as quiet and unkidlike as possible!  Later, Avdi and I went to the hardware store–I know , exciting, but any outing not involving working around kids is refreshing.

Today will be a different kind of erev, not featuring the usual preps.  We may just go out for dinner!  The freedom!

Avdi got home, and behold–the house was clean!  The “lake” that was the yard was still flooded, but it was receding.

Best of all, Avdi and I got to go out to Soulard, a gay STL neighborhood where the country’s second largest Mardis Gras is held each year, and checked out pubs.  The first was Venice Café, where I couldn’t stop taking photos!  That’s the only way to describe the place, it was such a kaleidoscope of color and eccentricity.  We had drinks and checked out the crazy array of sensory sights.  I was in hippie heaven.

Then we went to McGurk’s Irish Pub, where I had their own excellent stout, and we listened to a couple of musicians playing traditional Irish music, which I loved.  The evening was almost like a mini-vacation for me, getting to do stuff with Avdi.

While everyone’s vacationing at a Great Lake, I’ve been holding down the moat.  Note the raindrops on the pool.

Yesterday, Avdi’s official birthday, I tried something different with the challot–I sweetened them and filled them with a rich cinnamon sugary raisin filling, then rolled them up, brushed on a sweetened eggwash and seeds, and voilà!  Cake!  I made three kinds of fish, a chana dal coconut curry with rice, sliced homegrown cucumber, fresh fruit salad, and etc.  Of course Avdi got the requisite homemade bookmarks, along with other special gifts.  Since E’s pie was the birthday pie (with candles), we just had Shabbat candles and lots of leftover desserts from the party.  (There are also lots of leftover beers to choose from!)  I’m hoping despite Avdi’s exhaustion, we made his birthday memorable.  Now he and the kids are preparing for their trip to Chicago.

Not to make light of the flooding, but I find it hilarious that the pool was in a lake, and E was floating along on a pool floaty and splashing through the lake.  (It wasn’t sewage this time, as the sewage canal somehow didn’t overflow.)  But there were waterbugs in the lake–now how did they get there?

Anyway, Birthday Beer and Boating (with Badminton out front) went splashingly!  I walked over and set up, with some help.  I tried to make it extra festive.  I was exhausted by the time people showed up, so I adjourned to the pool with beer.  By then Avdi had pumped out much of the lake, so one could squish over to the pool.  E baked a gorgeous (and I assume delicious) birthday pie (“we really do like pie”) and luscious brownies.  I baked oatmeal cookies.  Lots of people brought lots of good food.  Badminton did occur after all, out front, as mentioned.  Avdi eventually got to relax with beer!

The best part of our little mini-community is how it has turned into a safe place for friends and kids’ friends all across the queer spectrum or neurodiverse spectrum to hang out and feel at home.  They always have intelligent conversations around the patio table, or just have fun.  The main thing is trust and support are being built.  Gradually more friends join us.  Diversity with common ground is strong medicine!  I love to be a part of it.

Notice I didn’t mention 4th of July once.  And I did not fall on my face one single time!  A success!

Well, at least it didn’t rain on our Parade!  Now it’s t-storming and threatening to rain on Avdi’s Birthday B&B scheduled for tomorrow the 4th of July (and their parade).  Great timing, MO!  It’s hard to play badminton in a flooded swamp.  We may or may not be able to do a rain date on Friday.  We may have to just rein it in…side (SWIDT), not ideal.

Also, A and the kids are about to drive to Chicago to hand them over to their Mom for the rest of the summer in Michigan.  Then Avdi will get a much-needed break, part of it away from home.  I guess I’ll just be house-sitting and doing the usual.  The garden never takes a vacation.  I can’t even remember the last time I got to.  But it’s all good.

One of E’s garden plots (the one with all the huge sunflowers) has been blooming.

I thought this heat would dry up the garden, but instead it’s gone wild.  I actually found a big cucumber in there!  The corn is tasseling, the beans are beaning, the afterthought tomatoes are getting tall, there are peppers after all, and the squash and melon plants are taking over the world and flowering.  Speaking of flowers, the okra is forming its beautiful pale yellow hibiscus flowers.  Lots of other flowers are blooming, finally.  And the herbs are berserk!  The only setback is the weeds, also going berserk.  Hey, how’d that selfie get in there?!  These weeds, I’m telling you!

Well, I finally made it to an STL Pride!  It was massive.  Every color, gender ID, orientation, and flag were represented.  It was inspiring to see.  The parade itself (we missed most of it; it went on for hours) was impressive and all-inclusive.  The fest took up many closed-off city blocks downtown.  We (Avdi, E, Y, and I) took the light rail MetroLink there (another STL first for me) to avoid having to find parking.

E&Y, having begged to go, got there and became insecure and perverse, as they do, so Avdi (who was already exhausted and not feeling well from dealing with kids) and I were unable to just meander around seeing the sights.  He had to accommodate their contrary moods and whims.  We did get to visit the History Museum (Missouri military history) for E’s sake.  See photo of Y checking out an “ancient” phone booth.

Still, I’m glad I got to go and see hundreds of thousands of STL queer folk feeling free to be themselves and strut their stuff, and all the orgs and services and businesses supporting the community.

E drew the chalk pigeon.  They’re on a pigeon craze right now.

The highlight of our erev Shabbat meal was a huge all-homegrown caesar salad with croutons made from older challah.  There were too many varieties of lettuce and greens to name.  I made a vinaigrette-style caesar dressing to go with it.  Roasted [potato, sweet potato, and carrot] fries on the side.  Ironically, the kid who is the most autistic (particular) about food, S, persuaded me to make a caesar salad, and he asked for seconds.  The other kids, all “ewww vegetables”, were pretty enthused as well.  My evil plan at work.

I’m hoping to join the Avdi’s for one of STL’s big Pride events tomorrow (all weekend event).  It’s the corporate (Boeing) sponsored Pride, so we’ll forgo marching in the parade itself with the Jewish contingent, so as not to find ourselves in an ethically compromised/difficult  position if pro/anti sides get antagonistic.  I’m just looking forward to going to a big STL Pride event (one of several during the year).

This is a good year for bee balm (Monarda), as you’ll see from the photos.  Lots of bee action.

Firstly, (as my Gson S would say), thanks to Avdi for the undeserved but appreciated shoutout in SIGAVDI #100   https://avdi.codes/welcome-to-devseeds/ (back atya) which predictably brought me a momentary uptick in curious visitors and viewers before they too fell asleep from boredom.  To them I say, welcome back anytime, if only to get away from code for a moment.

Also please note that I am the original cringey garden metaphorist in the family, whether Avdi knows it or not.  All of life can be summed up in some botanical metaphor or other!  It’s genetic.  End of unsolicited plug.  And now back to regular Blahg programming.

I love seeing these baby black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on the dill.  One measure of garden success is all the species of butterflies and pollinators doing their thing.

E made these great doughnuts from scratch!  They love a challenge.

Every so often one of the kids will pick up on Avdi’s ongoing stress and low spirits, and just stand close to him or give him a hug.  It shows they’re learning they’re not the center of the universe, and others work hard to make their lives secure and cared for.

It actually rained and didn’t flood the yard, it was so dry, but did my watering for me, so that was a good break.  The garden is relieved.  And the brutal heatwave is temporarily tempered.  I was able to resume walking round trip.  Injury be damned!