lovely

I just had to add this shot to my blog - isn't it beautiful? The best photographer I know personally sent this to me and it is AWESOME! It was taken after the freak storm we had last spring (the one that wiped out the cherry trees this year). The photographer is Terry Spears who has some of his best work out on flickr. These beauties are bleeding hearts, one of my most favorite flowers in the world, right up there with violets, daisies, and lily of the valley.

Swimmin' with da fishes

Oh happy days. I figured out how to edit a post that I've published! No longer will I fret if I fat finger a URL or whatever blunder I let slip through the cracks. I think I am far too lazy to go correct the link I screwed up on a previous post though, it's all water under the bridge now.

Yes, it's summer for me. Today, we went to Grayson Lake and I went swimming. That's always the official start of summer. We had blue gills and minnows swimming with us, some of the blue gills were rather big, Emily was afraid of them. She was also afraid of the butterflies. Is this really my kid or was there a mixup at the hospital?

I saw lots of people picking blackberries along the highway today. That's a job I don't miss one little bit. We used to be handed buckets and told we couldn't come back until the buckets were full. Hmmmmm...what if we'd never come back?

I wanted to post pictures of Grayson but my cable is lost in the abyss of the rat-hole room. I think it would be quicker and easier to declare it gone forever and just order up a new one. That's the easiest way out for me anyway....unless of course, my dear sweet daughter knows where I can lay my hands on hers???? Perhaps somewhere in that den of germs you call a bedroom?

Link error

It ticks me off that I screwed up the link in the previous post. I hate making a mess of things. I can't find a way to edit a post once I've posted it, but it seems to me I did that once a long time ago.

We need to go camping. This weekend was supposed to be the Louisville trip but looks like Erin has something she has to do Saturday which screws Louisville. We could still camp though, Grayson Lake is not too far and we could come back for Erin's thing and then go back out afterwards. Only down side, it's likely to be horrendously crowded out there, being the weekend of July 4th holiday.

The summer is slipping away. Not enough weekends! Emily starts her 2 week intensive dance classes next week, that's gonna suck. More being tied down. Also, I need to call Mr. Chapman and schedule those lessons..somehow fit those in. And, piano will start up again next month. I need to devote some time to my beloved piano....I have been neglecting him lately, and I never did get to try out those paint pencils I bought. If we could win the lottery, I would have time to paint, play music, lay in my hammock and dream....assuming I could find the *^@&*^&*^@ thing. Where did I put it??????

un-blogged

I was reprimanded by my sweet daughter for not blogging, so here I am, blogging about NOTHING again. I just read her blog and I have nothing so exciting to report about. I did get to play several rounds of golf, even got 9 in at my most favorite course in the world, Shawnee. The skies opened up on us after we walked off the #7 green (which is my most favorite hole in the world, the river hole). We took cover under a tree which worked out OK until the wind started blowing the rain horizontally. We tried running around the tree to find the most protective angle but there was none. The wind was whipping around in all directions. PLUS, we started hearing thunder in the distance and since we were already as wet as we could possibly get (of course neither of us had an umbrella), we decided to run for a shelter building two holes back. We were halfway there when the first streak of lightening flashed right over our heads. Over along the creek was a back-hoe and dump truck. We took cover under the truck until the storm passed. We finished our 9, soaked, but once the sun came out, I was fairly dry after 20 minutes or so. It felt like my clothes were steaming. It started thundering again on hole 10 so we got a raincheck for the rest.

I went shopping with Sarah last night. She is such a trip. We had Mexican salads (the kind in the shell) at La Finca's. They were OK, but I don't think I'll be going back there for awhile. We went to the mall and Sarah talked me into buying clothes for me and her. I would have spent way more on her if we'd had time.... I never buy clothes for me in stores, and I'm still undecided about whether I'm just going to return the outfit I bought for me. I think I bought it on impulse, not because I wanted it.

I am home alone tonight. The little girls are still gone to geek camp and Sarah is visiting Dale and Jerry is at a training seminar. HOME ALONE!!! No telling what I might get into. I could build a small bonfire in the living room if I wanted to, or shave a cat (or dye him blue, which would be way better than shaving him).

He's b-a-c-k!!!

I thought Jack had left us for good, but the girls went into the woods and called him, and he came back. We were all so happy to have him home again. He had gone missing for nearly 2 days. He has been staying closer to home since returning to us. Here is a picture Sarah took of my Jack.

I found a milkweed pod today on one of my "freedom" walks today. Sometimes I just got to get out of cubicle world and see something besides paper and taupe, gray, cream, and ecru walls, furniture, and carpet. The milkweed has two seeds left in it so there is hope that I might one day grow my own milkweed plant. I intend to try.

TGIF - I live for weekends. I have to take Emily to Portsmouth tomorrow to try on and buy her tap shoes. I should cook for the folks this weekend, I didn't make them anything last weekend. Clean house, work in the garden, and anything else I can get into.

Out Catting Around...

Molly left last night and chose not to return. Erin said there was an obviously MALE cat hanging around and I'm hoping Molly hasn't decided it's time to start a family. I couldn't give her any medicine this morning because she didn't come home. I'm supposed to take her to the vet tomorrow to recheck her eye and schedule her surgery...so we don't have to worry about kittens. Kittens would be awesome, but I don't want any more cats and I fear we'll have trouble finding homes for kittens. There are always kitten ads in the paper.

I'm taking the afternoon off today. A breath of FREEDOM. I can't wait to get outside and see what happiness feels like, and it's a perfect day today for it.

Molly

I suppose we are officially owning Molly now. After two months, there's still been no lost ads in the paper and since she has totally moved in on us, we'll keep her. I have an appt to take her to the vet this evening. We'll have her checked for worms, get her shots, and have her eye looked at (she either got stung or scratched in the eye - looks gross). I have no picture to post of her, I don't think anybody has taken a picture of her. She's getting better looking as she gets older - the rest of her fur has grown long to match her fluffy tail.

As for Jack, he has disowned us since Molly moved in. He only comes home now if we call him. He'll come in for a few hugs and a bite to eat, then he's yowling at the door, wanting to leave again.

Next up on my to-do list, call an exterminator. The ants are back. I HATE ANTS. Maybe I should start raising ant-eaters...they're similar to cats.