Jennifer's Joyous Journal

Productive, Relaxing, and Delicious

We had a good Saturday yesterday. Though I didn't get what I wanted accomplished I did manage to strike some long overdue items from my personal Honey Do list...not the least of which is all of my laundry, including a couple of loads of sheets and towels and finally installing iTunes on my computer.

While I was slaving over the washer and dryer, Stepan took the time to make some delicious baguettes for a neighborhood crawfish boil that was scheduled that afternoon. After a brief visit from Elizabeth and Jonathan, during which she was barred from my library for pointing out grammatical errors, Stepan and I took Homer with us to meet a friend and his daughter at Old Settler's Park for a wonderful afternoon of kite flying.

Addie, our friend, has a sweet little kite similar in style to the one I got Stepan for his birthday but smaller and faster. Addie has obviously had his longer than Stepan has. I was amazed at how well he could handle the kite...it was especially amazing to see him send the kite into a screaming dive bomb to the ground only to halt it mere inches from the ground in a perfectly calm hover. Stepan got progressively better at handling his kite through the 2.5 hours we were at the park. I can definitely see the appeal in owning, controlling, flying expensive kites better now than when I bought the kite. I also got to fly the kite, but decided not to push my luck too much:

The first time I flew it I broke the leading edge spar in a hard crash landing against a hidden rock. If not for Addie's spares, our kite flying adventure would have only lasted about 30 minutes. The next time I took the controls, through no fault of my own, one of the support spars went flying and we had to spend 5-10 minutes looking for it. At least I didn't fly it into a thorn tree like Step did :-) (the kite is fine). Sometime next week, Stepan is going back to World Wind Kites and will purchase some spare spars of our own.

Homer got to chase around with other off-leash dogs, went swimming in the lake, and barked like a mad dog after the stunt kites that were dive-bombing him. He didn't seem to like the noise they made as they swooped through the strong afternoon breeze. And unlike some dogs who actually attack kites (I've seen it happen), once the kites stopped making noise, Homer would happily turn his back on them and trot away...perhaps content in the knowledge they had succumbed to his will ceased all their incessant flapping.

Once we returned home, Stepan headed straight out to the crawfish boil with our baguettes. I needed to take care of some of my laundry so I didn't go with him. I swear I was no more than 5 minutes behind him, but by the time I got to the park all of our bread had completely disappeared. Next time we attend a neighborhood crawfish boil, I fear we'll have to forego the kite flying and spend the entire day making bread for it. It was a great party. The host has connections in Louisiana and had a friend bring over about 70 pounds of live crawfish. After releasing about half a dozen in the creek, we managed to eat all but maybe 10 pounds of it. The cook/host would boil 15-20 pounds at a time with carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sausage, corn, and garlic. Once a pot was ready the whole thing would be dumped on a table in the park and we would gather for the feast...no plates, no silverware, just our fingers and a trashcan. It was great...does anybody not see why we love living where we do?