It's raining today--the day will likely be filled with Blue's Clues and building tents for Andrew and James, and maybe I can get some more cleaning done today. It's impossible to do any housework during the week, because even if I can leave Andrew to his own devices for a while, he wants to help me do everything, which is counterproductive to say the least.

We do need the rain--the lawn, which was cut on Thursday, was starting to look a little brown and crispy in places. Not to mention not having to water the garden, although with the state of my tomato plants, I'm about to give up. They have some sort of tomato plague, and one-by-one, the plants are just wilting. Fine one night, wilted the next morning. So, we've speculated about the causes--Wayne said cutworms were the culprit, so I went out and put rings of toothpicks in the dirt around each stalk. Two more plants bit the dust after I did that, and having not checked today, for all I know, they're all kaput. I read this morning in the local gardening column that black walnut residue can be toxic for tomatoes, so that could be it too--our yard is full of walnut trees. Whatever the cause, it's pissing me off. The yellow squash and zucchini plants seem to be doing fine (knock on wood), and I still have one cucumber vine (the other one having apparently suffered the same fate as the tomatoes--sudden death). Oh, and I think the peppers are okay--but I'm still sick about the tomatoes.

I watched the Wimbledon finals, Serena vs. Venus, yesterday. Wow. I'm not a tennis fan, but watching those two play each other was amazing. I really did think, along with everyone else, I guess, that Serena had it in the bag after the way she started, but Venus apparently has more endurance and came back with a bang. They're both amazing. I feel for them being in that impossibly tough situation of wanting to win so badly, but at the expense of a sister, especially one with whom you share such a close bond. And their parents--poor dad had to leave the country rather than stay and suffer through it, and their mom watched from the stands, clearly not wanting to look too happy or too miserable at the ups and downs of the game. I can't imagine. It was great to watch, though. --T