home again

They say you can never go home again, but we came pretty close this trip...

Hens and Chicks don't mind the arid heat.

Ferns showing out in the shade garden.

Sister's cat, Mr. Anderson, is a prude.

He only drinks water out of the faucet.

Pretty flowers in the flower bed begging for attention.

Tulip Poplars.

I love this tree.

Sister's fun jewelry.

More to come, but for now I'm too tired to tell stories. Must entertain my mother-in-law instead.

The Hater bought me a bottle of my favorite wine. And he did the laundry and cleaned the house so I wouldn't have to worry with it this weekend. He's too good to me.

my (neighbor's) dog has fleas

And they've come to our yard to play...

Not my toe.

Look what we found in the backyard when playing in the pool today. We're pretty sure we're the only house on our street that doesn't have dogs. And our cat doesn't go outside, ever. So we're blaming the neighbors for the fleas we found outside.

Fortunately, the bug-spraying people are coming tomorrow. We called and they're going to add their flea-formula to the regular formula. But I have to wonder what good it will do as long as the neighbors' dogs have fleas...

And now we're all imagining that we have fleas. Gross.

Besides that, we've had a great visit with The Dorks. Hopefully they won't be taking fleas back with them as a memento from the trip.

like van Gogh, except with intact ears

I have discovered a relatively new little business in the town adjacent to us that offers walk-through painting classes. It's not quite paint-by-number, but there's a leader who literally tells you what to mix and where to put it on your canvas. And you can bring your own goodies, snacks, beverages, alcohol, etc. Good times.

This is the one I did last Saturday. I painted with a lady who works with me and we ended up seeing another person from our work, too. Super fun.

It looks very okay. Still not really happy with it. I think the big shadow looks like a bad GI bleed.

But it was fun and that's what matters.

Last night Mom and I went to do the boots! We had a fabulous time. Don't they look great?

Baby, not to be outdone, colored/markered/stickered a picture for my cousin who is currently in day three of college football "two-a-days". The inside joke is that he was a 4-H chicken judger in high school. Anyway, he's a good kid and needs good vibes, so if you have it in you send some Andy's way. He's still got more than a week of these practices.

Tomorrow, more artful adventures on the docket. We're going back to the art/play place.

We're enjoying The Dorks' visit. I think they're having a pretty good time, too.

8/8/88

Yesterday I wrote the date and had an instant memory of writing the date on a paper in school on 8/8/88. I had great intentions to write about it yesterday, but that did not happen. Such is life.

I have distinct memories of this happening when I was in the fourth grade. Except I've done the math several times and I had to have been in the fifth grade. I remember writing it on my paper and the teacher telling us that it would be eleven years before we would be able to write such a fun date again. I was writing with a dull classic yellow #2 pencil, but other than that, I don't remember anything about it.

9/9/99 was noted. I was student teaching (can't remember if it was the third or fifth grade rotation). I tried to impress it's corky neatness to them, but nobody seemed into it.

10/10/10 was fun, too. The Hater and Baby and I celebrated with dessert.

We've not made plans yet for 11/11/11 or 12/12/12, but as my years are numbered to celebrate such silly things, I'm thinking it calls for nothing less than a party. And definitely dessert.

reprive

We finally saw some rain last night. It was brief, but much appreciated. We're getting another mini-shower right now, or at least we were when we came in from church. I'm so very thankful to see this wet stuff - it's been a long time since we had a good, steady rain.

I don't even care that our humidity went from muggy and uncomfortable to even more sticky and oppressive. The land is so dry; we will be very fortunate if we make it to the fall without major fires.

Baby is pumped. She wanted to come in and put on her jacket and shoes to play in it. If it's still raining in a little while that will be exactly what we do. For now she's pretending to put her stuffed animals and Daddy to sleep; a new and exciting game where she pretends to be in charge. I try to get her to play it with her babies instead of with us because her babies will be content to lay there and sleep and not be tempted to get up like The Hater and I do.

I have been summoned to help check on Daddy, who Baby reports is asleep. She insists that we need to "go check on him". And so we shall...