It’s been raining more or less non-stop for over twenty-four hours and it is quite gloomy outside. The worst part of it, I think, is that we have to take the dogs out several times a day, which means standing in the rain several times a day. They’re not terribly quick about getting down to business, either, which means that we can get pretty wet while waiting for them.

It’s been mostly a quiet, uneventful day around here. Lydia has her cousin spending the night tonight and she’s been occupied with that, one way or another, all day long. She even cleaned up her room earlier, which really surprised me. I usually have to beg and plead and threaten and cajole, then most often end up doing at least half of the cleaning myself. For my part, I tidied up in the living room and kitchen, and baked a loaf of banana bread that Olof and I have already eaten most of. Now I’m just waiting for the next ten minutes to pass so I can watch my baseball game, and Olof’s upstairs popping popcorn the old-fashioned way for the girls.

Oh, wait … I just found out that I have to go upstairs to find the popcorn before Olof pops popcorn, the old-fashioned way, for the girls.