Of all the dumb things to need to repeatedly replace... toilet seats.  I replaced the garbo plastic ones about a year ago with wooden seats.  A while back the one in my bathroom ended up snapping at the back making the seat loose - so I replaced it (again), this time with a slow close.  Now the one in the downstairs bathroom broke - right in the middle of the one side - snapped the whole way across.  Thank GOD I was not the one using it at the time or my personal insult and embarrassment would be unbearable.  Let's be honest, I'm not tiny, but I don't think I'm break a toilet seat every six months fat.  That said, what brand do really really big people buy, because hook me up.  At $30-60 a pop this is ridiculous.  I will also note that in all of my years adulting I've never had an issue with toilet seats before; none have ever broken at the mount point, in the middle of an 'arm', and none have even wiggled loose.

A quick update on all things garden:

I have pulled two good sized fist fulls of pea pods from my garden so far.  They're crisp, tasty, and a great snack.  The tomato plants have all started to form fruit (I love how cute the little romas look).  Finally some basil took from seed and is starting to grow - still no lettuce to speak of, I guess I need to try again on that.  The potatoes are a bit of a mixed bag from pot to pot.  I guess we'll see how they turn out.  The beets and carrots are looking good.  The radishes have lots of green growing.  The brussels sprouts look like they've stalled out -- which is what tends to happen w/ anything cabbage or brocolli/cauli-related I try to grow.  I never did buy pepper plants - I guess I still could, I do have a few buckets that either didn't take or never got something planted in them.

I was irritated w/ my local Starbucks and their shenanigans (more on that in the last paragraph if you care) and started hitting the one in South Fayette before Avery's Saturday jiu jitsu classes instead.  They still do the bags of used grounds for free -- so I have snagged two bags and distributed them to many plants including my hydrangeas, so I am hoping for a nice pop of blue tones.

I guess we'll see how we weather this extreme heat.  I couldn't keep enough water drained off of the catch barrel for weeks on end, but I am pretty sure it is going to dry up quickly now.

Starbucks.  The local one plays the game where they disable their order ahead way too often for my liking.  It irritates me because they're essentially making the wait in the drive through even longer because no one can order ahead, right?  At least this case shows up in the app and you know, so you can chose to not order.  The other bull crap game they play is that sometimes they just slap a sign on the door saying the 'dining area' or whatever they call it is closed - drive through only.  THIS is not something you see on the app until you get there, which means I can't just run in and quickly grab my drink (which I've already paid for) -- and the drive through is usually wrapped and a nice 15 minute wait, which I don't sometimes have to spare.

It is remarkable how much longer taking a half day on Friday can make your weekend feel.  I'm in the use or lose time frame for vacation hours.  I've tried to use all year, but every time I have time scheduled off I use a smaller amount due to longer hours on the days leading to it.

Friday we made a late lunch and then headed to the town park pool.  I haven't been there since 2023, but I sure do appreciate it.  I had the joy of watching the girl go off the diving board, rope swing, and slide in the deep end with confidence.  While she may not be fast yet, she's officially a capable swimmer.

We did a bit of running yesterday, which included buying some school clothes for the upcoming year and snagging goodies at Trader Joe's.  Today was relaxing, including some time on the couch with Church on my lap -- those are the best naps.

Foster kittens are queued up for spay/neuter in a week and a half.  They are doing great and I have officially gotten purrs from all three.

Avery and I were away on the first cruise of the summer for a bit over a week.  While we were gone the kittens have gotten so big!  Venus is trim and has long lanky legs.  All three have made great progress, and as I suspected before I went away, they are now ready for freedom in the foster room.  This gives them a lot more to explore and play with, but also some space to romp and wrestle.  Two of the three are of weight so it's time to reach out and start getting their shots and spay/neuters lined up.  I'm hoping to get them through the process quickly as that makes them available for adoption - and heaven knows when they still look like kittens it is even easier to gain interest.

As to our cruise, we were on Symphony out of Bayonne.  A day at sea, Port Canaveral (we stayed on), Nassau (we stayed on), Cococay, and two more days at sea.  This is the same itinerary/ship we will take later this summer.  The ship is Oasis class, so there is plenty to do.  Avery barely made the cut on height at 4'4" (52") and was able to ride the flowrider!  She enjoyed it when it wasn't split during busy times.  As always she was loving the rock wall.  This time our neighbors were onboard, so she had someone to ride slides and get in the pool with.  She's treading water and swimming quite well, so it's also the first time where she could get in the pool w/o me hovering (the pools are too deep for her to stand (fun fact about cruise ship pools).

Cococay was delightful as always.  Girl wasn't as interested in the free slides as she has been in the past, and wanted to focus more time on the Oasis pool where she swam back and forth and we worked on her stroke and breathing.  I'm very excited for another week of swim team practice and her first swim meet as a result!  It will be nice to have an official first time on the 25 free (which is likely to be her only event).

Food was ok.  That's something that has been going downhill for years.  Specialty dining - this is the first time I've done a 3 night package.  Chops was quite good.  Hooked disappointed me compared to having it on Icon, everything here was so bland.  Izumi was yummy again.  I also had credit for Playmakers from booking this package - which surprised me, making my last day snack free.  I do like their garlic fries, and now I've learned how good their pork sliders are too!

Back to work this week - and a bit of business between swim practice/meet, Church and Zero's vet appointments, a massage appointment, and now a hair appointment.  I realized right before we left for vacation that Avery's hair is knotting easily and causing her trouble to properly tend to on her own.

I had to kick the heat on the other day to take the chill off of the house.  Today it's 85 out there.  Summer is definitely here.  The girl started a summer swim team on Monday.  So far so good.  It's a bit odd as parents can only go watch on Mondays.  I'm trying to create a habit of walking the building during that time to get some exercise in. I wish I had a summer off with sleeping late, swim teams, and VBS.

The kittens are doing well and we're finally past the daily medicine doses.  Saturn is slowly realizing that my hand is acceptable in small doses.  Mercury will let you hold him a bit longer than everyone else, unless there is an opportunity to play.  Venus was straight up purring this morning and she gets elevator butt when you scritch her.