I ate a beetle by mistake today

I did. The kids were riding their bikes down towards some friends' house and we stopped to pick golden raspberries at the home of a friendly neighbor. Despite the sun's abrupt disappearance at the end of August, these people's berries are actually still ripening. We were happily picking and eating when suddenly I noticed this horrible taste in my mouth. It was part raspberry, part just WRONG. I spit it out on the ground and there it was - a beetle that I had partially eaten. I put it out of its misery and will never look at that group of raspberry bushes the same way again! Luckily, the kids didn't notice and I didn't say anything. I did notice after that that the raspberry canes were crawling with beetles, so I guess I'm lucky I only ate one!

In other news, we had a nice family morning this morning. We had a friend over for dinner last night (this was big for us - we have no social life in the evenings anymore). We had spaghetti with homemade tofu nut balls - like meatballs without the meat and soooo good - and salad and bread and all that good stuff. We had lots of yummy sourdough bread left over this morning, so we decided to make it into french toast. Good move. Yum. The kids even ate most of it, which was impressive because it was new and therefore deserving of much suspicion.

Then we went out to a new nature park in an industrial area of Portland. Apparently it was a garbage dump in the 90s and has been cleaned up and turned into a nature area. It was literally in the middle of factories and run down houses, so, shall we say, it didn't really fit the neighborhood, but it was still fun. We checked out the lake there and had a snack and wandered around the short trail there.

Seriously, Portland, what is UP with the gray weather? Nonetheless, the lake was pretty and boy, the algae was blooming!

Then, we hit a nearby park to do some more playing. Mateo showed off his skills at sliding down the fire pole and was very proud.

Then, we came home and I took the kids out on their bikes and then came that unfortunate beetle.

Here's hoping this afternoon is mellow and free of any more accidental insect ingestions. I'm thinking I might take the kids to the library and then I'm gonna dunk them in the bath. Maybe we'll make cookies. It's raining, again, again, again, so cookie making might be just what the doctor ordered. In the meantime, Portland, you need to get your act together and give us the gorgeous autumn that we so richly deserve after such a pathetic excuse for a summer!