Reading: I'm about a third of the way through Tarzan. Tarzan, raised by apes from the age of 1, teaches himself to read! Yes, read, even though he has spent practically all his life with non-verbal creatures. I think Edgar Rice Burroughs intended Tarzan to be an admirable and heroic protagonist, but he comes across as a smug little prig. Disney is often (justly) criticized for bastardizing source material for its animated features, but anything Disney does with Tarzan has to be better than this.

Throwing Puddles at Stones

The local meteorologists had been predicting torrential downpours for yesterday, but the promised rain didn't appear until evening, and then it was only a light drizzle. It's too bad, really. The grass around here is beginning to show the effects of weeks without rain; there is a kind of beige tinge to the green.

Tab was out this evening at a viewing so the boys and I ate dinner by ourselves. After dinner Daniel and I made cupcakes for Miss Dawn's birthday. A few months ago she had mentioned that her birthday was June 18, and I thought it would be fun to surprise her.

Daniel helped by putting the paper liners in the pan, adding the oil, water, and eggs to the mix, and turning on the mixer for me. I used a boxed cake mix and canned frosting: I may be a thoughtful mom, but I'm also a mom who is way too busy to make cupcakes and icing from scratch. Looking at the containers, I noticed that there are supposedly twelve servings per cake mix but thirteen servings per can of frosting, both of which were the Betty Crocker brand. Curiously inconsistent.

While the cupcakes cooled on a rack, I took the boys for a walk. Daniel was happy to be able to use his umbrella; we haven't had much rain lately. I put the twins in their light-weight jackets with hoods.

The rain was just a gentle spring shower, the kind that is a pleasure to walk through. We garnered a few puzzled looks from several passersby we encountered, people rushing along, heads down, in a hurry to get indoors and out of the wet. We're among the few in our neighborhood who walk for pleasure, and we are probably the only ones who walk in all sorts of weather.

I suppose I must have looked a little daft; I wasn't using an umbrella or even wearing a hat or hood. The rain on my face felt soothingly cool after the heat of the kitchen with the oven on. Raindrops streaked my glasses, making it difficult to see through them. I took my glasses off and put them in my pocket.

None of the animal pets we like to visit were out in this weather, but the birds were singing as loudly as if it had been a sunny morning instead of a rainy evening. Doesn't rain bother them? I would think their feathers would get soaked.

It hadn't been raining long enough for many puddles to form. The boys were happy when we finally discovered one near Miss Jean's house. They like to drop stones into the puddles--"throw puddles at stones" in Stephen's mixed-up word order--and watch the ripples.

Then we went home to dry off and eat some of the extra cupcakes.

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