Whee! Almost all my plants have sprouted!
Gladiolas are looking nice. Bachelor's buttons and marigolds are going wild! I've got peas reaching for the trellis, and a couple moonflowers are opening tentatively; a bunch of the herbs and flowers are starting to rear their crumpled little heads. Sadly I think lavender was a dead end AGAIN this year, and ironically enough, the dandelions refused to grow. Screw that!
Mom visited last weekend. It was really cool--we didn't even squabble, except for when I got all bitchy over her insistence that I pee too often and need to see a doctor. She did as mothers do and provided for her eldest child copiously, presenting me with new bookshelves, a new shoe rack, and a new set of drawers for my kitchen, plus some stuff from thrift stores that I wanted. She even took me to the eye doctor, as I'd been needing to go for several months, and paid for a prescription for a new pair of contacts (plus backups!). She liked my banana bread and coffee cookies (which flatters me), and she took me out to dinner at a steak place where I got the four-side meal and gobbled it all. Whoopee! We had a heartfelt chat while putting together the bookshelf, and I uploaded her digital cam pictures for her--all in all it was a great visit. I just wish I had remembered to show her my freaking DDR pad. I want to show her how it works.
Going back further, I had a visit with Stacy and a visit with Meghan. I went to Stacy's on Tuesday afternoon--she lives in a beautiful house out in the boonies, with her husband and her daughter. We were going to plant in her garden, but I wasn't in the mood (though I did give her some of the seeds I'd brought). Mostly we did baking--we made our own pizzas, yum, and baked some great banana spice loaf bread thing with lemony glaze. We were planning on making brandysnaps but it was just too much to do in one night, and beyond that we also soaked raisins in brandy and threw them in applesauce. Yum upon yum. She gave me a bunch of leftover stuff from our exploits, so I was forced (oh noooo!) to make banana bread again the next night--gave a loaf to Jeaux, and the other loaf I mostly ate myself (though my mom got a hunk). Anyway, Stacy and I created and consumed food in the company of her daughter and husband, and after they retired we just stayed up late talking about writing and all kinds of great stuff. She's a good friend for such things.
Meg's visit was good too--though shorter than most. Katie was with her this time and we ate at CiCi's, shopped, hung out and watched TV, listened to the Wicked soundtrack, watched An Evening With Kevin Smith and The Tenth Kingdom, and entertained Katelyn and ourselves with various music and food. We even got to go to K-Mart because my esteemed friend Mike had given us the coupons for friends and family day. I got baking supplies!
I don't think there's much else to mention, except that I'm putting in extra hours revamping Bad Fairy when I have time around my social obligations and, well, work and sleep. And updating this friggin' thing. It's going really well. I'm being very bold with my tearing apart and restitching--haven't been this bold with actual re-creation editing since adding chapters to Ivy part 3. It's exciting and a bit scary. I hope everyone will enjoy what I've changed.
At work I'm reading Mirror Mirror. Damn, he's re-written Snow White. I really gotta step on it before Maguire does Sleeping Beauty too.
Notes:
Yeah for Sprouty! Well, hurry up, and send me Bad Fairy already! I'll publish it by hand if I have to. [katqueen]