Psycho Killer

We have at least two more young raccoons in the crawl space and garage. They are sort of ruining my life because Duncan barks at them all night as they're prowling around and once he gets started it takes him FOREVER to calm down enough that I might possibly go back to sleep. Last night I was trying to think of different ways to kill the raccoons. They were huddled together at the top of a ladder and completely vulnerable to my attack. I was so sleep deprived my best idea was to duct tape a kitchen knife to a broom handle and stab them. I was seriously getting ready to do it when I realized a steak knife isn't going to kill anything. I mean, I suppose if I was extremely full of rage and insanity, maybe I could kill something, but poking a raccoon with a steak knife on a stick probably won't even cut it, much less kill it. It would just be extremely cruel. Poke. Poke. I gave up on my killing spree and spent the rest of the night in my recliner, hissing at Duncan to be quiet every 5 minutes for the remainder of the night.

Logan and I went out to breakfast this morning for the first time since school got out. He's either had camp or baseball all summer so it was nice to have some one-on-one time with him. We then did our big weekly grocery trip at Wal-Mart. I offered to get him some "special" school supplies but he didn't even want to look. I didn't push it. We went to the sporting goods department and looked at baseballs instead.

Kaylin, Duncan and I went to McNaughton Park in Pekin for some exercise and fun playing in the creek. There was a new horse trail since the last time I was there and we took it by accident rather than the trail to the creek. It was full of horrible burrs that embedded their long spines into my fingers when I tried to remove them. Poor Duncan got some of them buried in the pads of his feet deep enough that I had to separate his pads to see them. He was lying on his back on the trail refusing to move. I felt terrible because the first couple of times I looked at his feet I didn't even see the burrs. Once I pulled them out he was fine and actually wore himself out tearing around the woods and creek. Kaylin had a good time searching for frogs and tadpoles and wading in the creek.

We came home and napped in front of a Disney Channel Phineas and Ferb movie. It's been the best weekend I can remember for a long, long time. I did lots of cool stuff on my own and with family. I got plenty of rest and managed to get my chores done. I think tonight Kaylin and I are going to paint some rocks. I want a pig rock. Logan's out playing baseball, Kaylin's playing capture Duncan in the blanket, Gene's making dinner (his choice) and I'm writing. It's a perfect summer afternoon. The kids have one more week of day camp at the Riverplex and they go back to school. I'm not looking forward to homework and structure. Ugh. It's been a great summer and I don't want it to end!