Breaks in the Rain

We're just waiting for breaks in the rain these days, that's what it feels like.  I feel like we live in Southeast Asia during the monsoon season.  It's hot and it's sticky, and it's rained off and on most days for the past 3 weeks.  The lawn is a big puddle, the kids and dog are always damp, and our towels get musty after one day hanging on their racks in the bathroom.  After 3 consecutive beautiful summers, I guess you can say we've been spoiled into expecting every summer to have endless sunshine with only an occasional overnight shower.  Poop.  Or 'beat your own luck" as Aiden would say (still trying to figure out the correct usage of that one)...

Our praying mantis egg cases hatched on Andy's birthday

We are making the best of it, though.  Grandpa Dada drove up this past weekend (in the rain), and we even managed to do a few things outside between the torrential downpours.  We walked to the New London Barn Playhouse and back for a kids musical production of Tom Sawyer (very cute) and played various sports in rapid succession on the driveway in the afternoon.  Jeanne and her boyfriend Joe came over before dinner on their way back from a week-long vacation in the White Mountains and we put everyone to work making homemade pasta.  Since Joe is Italian, we tortured him into doing most of the dough rolling work- and he must have some genetic aptitude, because our pasta came out much better this time than last... not one big lump, at least!  We would have eaten it outside on the deck, but it was pouring.

On Sunday we said goodbye to Jeanne and Joe, and headed to Manchester for another Fisher Cats game.  I have to say we lucked out with the rain there- it was very hot and steamy- enough so we had to abandoned our assigned seats and seek some empty ones in the shade which were much more pleasant- but it did not rain.  The Portland Sea Dogs whumped the Fisher Cats good, but we're okay with that too.  Haley got her hat signed by the Sea Dog's mascot, Slider, just to prove it.  On the way home, we hit a nasty thunderstorm just as we arrived back in New London.  The rain was slanting down on the minivan's windows at what seemed like a 90 degree angle to the ground, and no amount of windshield action would provide a clear view.  When we rolled into the driveway, we just sat there for 10 minutes, waiting for it to get a little less "insane" out there.  Today... more rain.  And tomorrow... more rain predicted.  It's crazy like that here.