Sweeping for Ice Cream

For one month of the year Nancy is unable to make any "old man" jokes. Since today is her birthday, she is the same age as me until I tick over to the next digit in July. For her birthday, I got her the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel and Jillian Michaels' new Yoga Meltdown DVD. I forewent running this morning and instead tackled some of my outstanding "honey-do" list. I mowed and edged the grass, trimmed the bushes, cleaned the oven and overhauled the vents on the dryer.

So I'm well ahead on points for the day.

While I mowed, I got Gavin to sweep the grass cuttings off the path. An old lady wandered past and was very impressed with his work, especially when the cheeky devil claimed he'd also done all the mowing, and that he was sweeping "to earn ice cream".

I stayed up late last night playing chess with one of Nancy's cousins. It's been a long time since I played chess. I used to play my dad - he was a very sneaky player, and even now we're pretty evenly matched. I taught Nancy a few years ago, but she got mad when I kept beating her so refused to play me any more.

Gavin has that same sneaky streak, so he may be a good opponent in a few years time.

But only if he can learn some patience.