The cars are repaired, but the tires aren't replaced yet. I am going to put that off just a little longer. I got distracted over the weekend by Benjamin's desert animal report. He chose to write a report on the desert quail. He also had to do a presentation on it in class with a visual aid. I totally blanked on the visual aid, so he didn't have one. I guess I just assumed that the visual aid was the damn model of the animal he had to do with the report. Guess not, since he got a point off for not having a visual aid. Brigid did the model -- and it was fantastic! She filled a pair of pantyhose with socks and made the body, and then on Sunday night (the traditional time to finish any project that is due Monday morning), she had Benjamin arrange the feathers how he wanted them, and then she glued them on. My contribution to the quail was the color the eyes on and the head plume. We decided that on Sunday night, after bedtime, the legs of the quail were totally optional. The decoration of the pantyhose took a long time, and Benjamin didn't get to see the whole finished quail until the next morning. Brigid is calling it The Ugly Bird.

There isn't much going on these days. It snowed here and now the washes and Tanque Verde Creek are all running. This means that it takes 10 minutes longer to get anywhere since the roads are closed to all traffic. (If you decide to take the chance of crossing the wash, you will get a ticket for unsafe driving. If you get caught in the wash and cannot drive out, the sheriff will charge you for the effort he is going to put in getting you out of the wash.) Ron is leaving for Colorado for a couple of days tomorrow, and I am planning on spending the afternoon at the creek letting the guys play in the water. The flow is slow enough now that they won't get swept away! I did haircuts yesterday and Elias and Benjamin are still sporting the mohawks -- they are really getting long! We put gel in them today so that they would stand straight up. James went back to the regular hair cut.

Baseball will be starting soon, and swim team starts on 7 April. I am bummed that the guys' favorite coach is moving to Nevada and won't be coaching this year. I hope they find a couple of really good replacements.