Hank will not eat green vegetables, except for asparagus, and occasionally a pea pod. I tell him he's a candidate for scurvy and that his teeth will fall out. He looks at me like I'm crazy.

The Peruvian fresh asparagus season has begun. This week it's on sale for $2.69 a pound at out local super market, and it's excellent. In my opinion, it's much better than the American asparagus we get in the spring. But there is controversy.

Washington is the top asparagus-producing state in the United States but the Peruvian yield of "...9.5 metric tons of asparagus per hectare in 2002, compared to only 3.3 metric tons in the U.S." combined with much lower labor costs has driven many U.S. asparagus farms out of business

The real controversy is that Peruvian asparagus growers are able to export their crop duty free under the Andean Trade Preferences Act. The Act was originally crafted to encourage Peru and other drug producing South American countries to convert agricultural production from drugs to food.

According to the Drug Policy Alliance "the U.S. Department of Agriculture now buys millions of pounds of unsold asparagus from Washington and Michigan farmers to distribute domestically as part of its food aid programs, a direct result of the U.S. government's subsidization of Peruvian asparagus farming." Most observers do not believe coca production has been reduced, although for a variety of reasons Peru is now a stable prosperous country. This is in great contrast to the 80's and early 90's when the Shining Path and other revolutionaries had destabilized the country.

This observers conclusion is that the quality of the Peruvian asparagus product is the foundation for its success. Hank agrees.

The four of us went in the backyard on a beautiful afternoon. Skipper took some shells, acquired earlier in the day at the beach, to decorate 'his' flower garden. Hank picked up a little football and tossed it to me. I tossed it back. He caught it - something he couldn't have done just a few weeks ago. We played catch for a couple of minutes. He even put a spiral on his throws.

The football got by me and when I turned around, he had a soccer ball at his feet which he kicked in my direction. I dropped the football and kicked the soccer ball back to him. We played for a couple of minutes.

The soccer ball got by me and when I turned around, he had a bat in his hands and said "ready". I kicked the soccer ball away and picked up the nearby whiffle ball. I tossed it underhanded toward him and he whacked it hard down the left field line where it bounced off the fence. Skipper returned from his gardening and grabbed the ball.

He moved a lightweight play slide midway between Hank and me and perched on the top. He threw me the ball and said "play". I realized Skipper was imitating the referees that he had seen officiating at the US Open a couple of weeks ago. From there, the rules of play became very complicated, involving bats, whiffle balls, the discarded football, the sand box, and a requirement that Sarah throw the ball to me after he had retrieved it following a pitch to Hank. Eventually, Sarah escaped inside, and I said "Is anyone thirsty?"

It poured rain today. The end of Ivan. We watched cartoons. We went to the library. We went to one of those McDonalds with a big indoor playground. We went to my mother's. And then all of a sudden, around 2 in the afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun even came out. We headed for home. "Lets drive by the Brown football stadium and see if they're playing the game." I said. "Drop me off at home." said Sarah.

So Skipper and Hank and I headed over to the stadium. There were maybe a thousand people in the stands as compared with the expected 5000. There was plenty of parking nearby. "Lets see if we can get in for free." I said. We parked the car and walked through the gate. No one paid any attention to us.

We sat down right behind the band. Brown was winning 21 to 7 in the 3rd quarter. Brown scored two more times. This was my interest. The boys had other interests. "Why is everyone wearing plastic bags?" asked the 3 year old Hank. "Why are they carrying that man off the field?" asked the 4 year old Skipper. "I like the band." said Skipper. "What is the shiny one with buttons?" asked Hank. Answer - a trumpet. And for the rest of the day Hank was making trumpet sounds with his mouth wherever he went.

This morning Skipper woke up and sneezed a few times. He also complained about a stuffed up nose. He told Sarah that he needed to go to the Doctor when he got home from school. Skipper has never before wanted to go to the Doctor.

When I dropped him off at school Natasha the greeter asked him how he was. "Not too good" he said. "I have to go to the Doctor after school."

Sarah called me at work about 3. "Skipper insists he needs to go to the Doctor" she told me. "I've made an appointment for 5:30." "OK" I said.

I got home and took Skipper to the Doctor. The nurse escorted us into the examining room. "What's the matter with him?" she asked. "My heart hurts, I have a sore throat, and I've been sneezing all day." he said.

Dr. Allen came into the examining room. He had seen Hank a couple of times before but never Skipper. "Those are interesting symptoms you have." he said. He listened to Skipper's heart, looked in his ears, and down his throat. "Everything looks clear." he said.

"I've got a little bug in my nose. Look in my nose." said Skipper. Dr. Allen looked in his nose. "Looks OK to me." he said. "Is everything all right at home? Is school going OK?" asked Dr. Allen. "Everything is fine." both Skipper and I said.

I discussed the possibility that Skipper might be constipated, although he'd told me on the drive over that he'd pooped earlier in the afternoon.

"Have you been pooping every day?" Dr. Allen asked Skipper. "I haven't pooped in eight days." said Skipper. Dr. Allen wrote a prescription for a laxative. We went home.

I presented my Treasurer's Report to Hank's Nursery School Board Committee tonight. There are 14 members on the Board. Me and 13 women. I'm glad that's over with. Gab, gab gab. The whole meeting took an hour and a half.

Both Skipper and Hank started school today and were happy about it. They go to different schools which is good because they spend so much time together. Hank is desperate (Sarah's words) to make his own friends. I agree and the three day a week schedule will make that easier. Skipper is a real skipper and his crew must obey him. It's a little too much sometimes.

They were both very proud to walk out the door with their backpacks on for their first day. Skipper marched into his classroom at the Lloyd School today barely saying goodbye. He was happy go lucky when I picked him up, but before going to sleep tonight said "I'll be glad when the summer comes so I can do whatever I want to do."

It was cold this morning, so we decided not to go to closing day at the pool club. Instead, we drove around and went to yard sales. We acquired Yertle the Turtle (50 cents); a Batman and the Riddler walkie talkie set ($1.00); a Millennium battery charger ($5.00) to charge the batteries that will be drained by the walkie talkie; a children's all leather Davy Crockett type vest ($1.00 plus the horrible odor later detected); a board game ($1.00)that the boys actually enjoy playing and requires them to act like chickens, monkeys, a child on a swing, a ringing telephone or other assorted animals, actions or inanimate things depending on what color they land on when they spin the dial; a bed table (50 cents) so they can bring mommy breakfast in bed (fat chance).

Back to work tomorrow.

I was recently appointed Treasurer of Hank's nursery school which explains my recent infrequent postings. It has taken more time than I expected to organize the numbers.

I will be off work tomorrow and through Monday and then back to the grind. Our great investment this summer was joining the Swansea Swim and Tennis Club. Sarah and the boys are there at least every other day, and I have been joining them on the weekend. There is a big pool and a little wading pool, 2 tennis courts, a beach volley ball court, and an enormous sandbox which is where Skipper and Hank spend most of their time. There is also a snack bar where pizza strips and drinks are 50 cents, grilled cheese $1.25, and a hamburger with fries $3.25. You can't beat it. They close on Labor Day.

The boys have made new friends as has Sarah, but the swimming is progressing slowly.