If you know the song "There's a Hole in the Bucket," then you'll get the title reference. If not, just look at the photo. Dear Jeffrey decided to get a loudly chirping cricket out of the snake's terrarium (intending to feed it to the bluegill or bass), so he set the heat lamp (which was temporarily off because it's on a timer but was still hot) on the carpet. He failed to catch the noisy cricket but did put the screen top back on the terrarium. What he did not put back was the heat lamp. Did I mention that it's on a timer? A half hour later, after coming out of the shower, he smelled something burning and accused Elizabeth of burning some food. That was when he noticed the heat lamp. And the smoldering carpet beneath it. After he and Elizabeth applied ice to cool the area down, she made him phone me. You know it's never good when a kid opens with "Da-a-ad" and then launches into a long story. And the kid always underplays the damage ("it's kind of melted"). Thank goodness the carpet, foam padding, and/or wood flooring didn't catch on fire.
It's been over a month since I've posted to this blog. School/work has a way of intruding and taking up lots of time. September seemed very busy, getting back to school for all of us. Jeffrey started high school and Andrew moved up to middle school; both are doing great. The boys also played soccer, Jeffrey for the Eagan HS freshman team and Andrew in the Eagan Athletic Assoc. We just finished this past week. I coached Andrew's team (my last year of coaching soccer!) which was fun because we had so many of his friends/classmates on the team. And it was enjoyable to watch Jeffrey's team, since I had coached 5 of the players when they were younger. Elizabeth has a busy junior's schedule with 3 AP classes and other activities. I can hardly believe that college is on the horizon. She went to a college fair last week and is prepping to take the PSAT this week. Because she's so busy, she is taking the fall season off from her climbing team, but she did participate in a bouldering competition last weekend and finished 2nd in her division. She also had a dozen friends over for a fun homecoming get-together this past weekend, so she's not just hitting the books.
