Huma lupa licious is delicious

humulus lupulus i.e. hops

Up north in Bellaire, Michigan, there is a craft brewery that I have visited on a couple of Michiganders. Short's even sells a bicycling jersey covered with hops with its title best seller that I considered buying. Cool graphics! But green isn't the best color for jerseys, one needs to stand out from the scenery (yellow and orange are better) and it was sort of pricey.

A warm humid summer afternoon, perfect for nursing a Huma lupa licious (now being distributed Downstate!) on the patio. Even though it was raining back at home, the rain didn't come yet to where I was eating with a friend celebrating his birthday belatedly. Crispy Amish chicken strawberry salad too and the train came lumbering by close to where we were sitting. (less pleasant, a family of tiny mice lived within the branches of a vine close to where I was sitting scampering to and fro throughout the meal).

Earlier in the day, another example of executive functioning gone awry(or non-existent) and screening tests done without any common sense.

For Maya's 4 year check-up, a vision screening test was performed a month ago. She was asked to identify increasingly smaller objects on a page at a distance. Did she know what these objects were? Not really. Three times, she called a 'flag' a star. Now the flag contained a star, one fourth the size of the flag. Does she get credit for having the visual acuity (the alleged point of this test) to identify that?No. Must have follow up with an ophthalmologist. No common sense here. Also she has passed all the screenings at her school several times.

The follow up was to have occurred Tuesday. As I failed to record this and remind Naomi, she missed the appointment (I had wrongly assumed that UM would have reminded her). It was rescheduled for yesterday but I said I had plans and would not go with her. She calls here in a panic (I was out running without a phone) saying she has no money for the meters, what to do? Steve:
You figure it out!!! 
Later as I get out of the shower (carefully budgeting my time), another panicked phone call. Naomi only had so much money harvested in floor mats of her car, the appointment was taking way too long and meter will run out. Please feed her meter. I hurriedly put a sun dress over my dripping body and drive the 4 miles with a handful of quarters. There is 4 minutes on the meter and believe it or not, a metermaid is standing by. Extra fun, it is a blue meter which although it is on a city street, some how f@*@*ing UM owns the meter and its fines are triple that of  city meters. I feed the meter. Nothing is registering. I immediately assume since the meter has a 2 hour limit, it can't be fed beyond that (later I realize that the meter is broken, she hadn't been there 2 hours yet). I call her. No answer (meter still winding down). I text her. No reply. Finally she answers my call but says she can't come out that very moment because she has to hold Maya as they put in the drops to dilate her pupils. With a minute to spare, she runs out holding Maya. She has since learned of the 'free spots' which she should have asked about in the first place or remembered because she was there herself 2 years ago. Meanwhile, the cloud cover hadn't come yet and poor Maya has dilated eyes with a full sun shining. I ask her to keep her eyes closed while Naomi reparks.

So much for my carefully time-budgetted plans. Extra fun: Steve was taking an extra long, extra steamy shower where my make-up is stored upon my return. I slap it on any which way and I am off.

Oh, and at some time late into my lunch (appointment ended up lasting 3.5 hours), I get a call informing me that although they detected a mild farsightedness common to 4 year olds and will be outgrown, she had normal vision.

Quelle surprise!!!!

I am fighting off a cold and will take a rare day off from exercising in the hopes that the cold will go away (though if it stops raining, a slow bike ride shouldn't hurt much...)

This has been the week of anniversaries of marriages that have failed: first Josh's 8 years ago and then Naomi's only 3 years ago.
She was a pretty bride.......

With ex-sister-in-laws (from both sides), ex-cousin-in-law, ex-bestfriend. Only her sister is not an ex.