just to recap...

ok, so this from the daily kos...Let me see if I have this straight: in the last few days members of the GOP have savagely screwed the unemployed, protected the bankstas, trashed Thurgood Marshall, implied rape and incest is part of God's plan, defended BP, threatened to either end social security or screw over 20 million plus people who have paid into the system for at least 20 years by making them wait until age 70 to see their benefits, and screwed homeless veterans with children. That about it, or is there more?

a trip on the horizon

ok, so....i booked a trip this morning on Expedia, with airfare from Lexington to London through Charlotte.....only the single stop.....and 4 nights at a South Kensignton hotel that managed to have only good reviews in non-Expedia forums....along with a bus/fully escorted 12-hour side trip to Stonehenge/Bath/Windsor......all for far less through Expedia than I could do on my own using RSteve's hotel picks...go figure.....

painter's remorse

ok, so.....i stained the upright and cross pieces of the deck.... all sides......which involved getting out the ladder and carefully holding the paint can in one hand while i leaned in and painted with the other.....clearly this side was never stained when the deck was built.....neither was the fence or gates.....or trellis..........but i digress from the remorse part.....i should have left my glasses in the house, and covered my hair, and drank more fluids....as now my hair smells of paint remover and i feels quite out-of-sorts.....and now that i have started in on the gate nearest the deck...the rest of of the fence looks wretched......and old and frail.......could be a long summer of staining

saturday and sunday

ok,so.....i got up early on saturday to plant the amethist mist heuchera plants that i have accumulated from the half-price tables of area road-side nurseries....12 in all.....in the space once-removed from the trellis rose....and then i cleaned up and drove to h-burg for the first annual books and arts festival to hear ed mclanahan read......holding my book-club (hard-back) copy of a natural man in hopes of a dedication.....enjoyed the reading from his newest work.....which included tales of high school basketball, courting of young women, and egg-tossing drive-bys......he did dedicate my book...to my eldest who knows him....and i bought the newest volume as a gift to my eldest as well......and then back by the plant-stand by the taco bell to buy their last remaining heucheras (6 of black currant) to put behind the deck......at half-price.....too hot to actually plant them soi watched wimbledon tennis, and then world cup soccer.....gentle readers......i have spent 25 years, give or take, watching children of varying ages play the game, and i have yet to recognize 'offsides' when it happens.....ah well.....but i digress from the heucheras....which have lovely burgundy foliage.....a pleasing contrast to the grey of our fence/deck and the silver of the lamb's ear....those that i planted by the trellis rose look out of place.....so i will move them elsewhere and figure out something else to place by the rose......my sunday morning was less ambitious...coffee on my terrace studying the lesson to teach, then a last-minute rush to water the beds before getting ready for church....i impulsively selected a little worn pair of strappy sandals, which broke when i stumbled on uneven pavement coming in from the parking lot.....i took them off and walked the rest of the way barefooted.....i suppose as god intended.....we are waiting for grandma to come home from church to eat lunch.....our youngest found her cell phone under her sofa, so she is not likley to call and let us know where she is....she so rarely goes to church that i never thought to make a plan with her for afterwards.....there is a sweet rain coming down now, with just a hint of thunder in the distance......a gift....as we cannot go out to stain the fence until it has dried......might try to take a nap in the downtime......

nightgown gardening.....

ok, so i got in an hour of weeding, trimming and other assorted garden maintenance chores before 8:00 am......i even tackled the task of staking up the shasta daisies, which have become so leggy as to fall backwards into surrounding plants.....all this work while still in my nightgown....and robe for a short time until it got too hot and too damp from the dew.......the downside of this weekend habit of come-as-i-am work is that i cannot wear the same nightclothes to bed, and my fingernails get pretty nasty for lack of gloves......the upside is that i get a lot done and still maintain the illusion of leisure......a woman who is still in her nightgown is technically lounging about.....and a working woman needs to have lounging about time.....

weary

ok, so.....the week really got away from me....in so many ways at so many levels.....dealing with my mother's decline has started to resemble a video game......just as i resolve an issue, another issue is revealed which takes the magnitude of the scenario to the next level......i have no hope that the shuttle will go off and the russian dolls will dance as they do when one wins at tetris......and i feel all the sadder for admitting that i feel no hope as we hit the three-week mark of the 'grandma takeover'.....i know that i am not the first and certainly not the last to struggle with this reality.....

ok, so we watched this quirky Dave Eggars film on netflix last night.....it is a sweet piece about a couple who search for the pefect place to raise the daughter they are expecting after they discover that the parents they have moved cross-country to be 'near' are moving to Belgium just before their first grandchild will be born......they visit friends/family in Phoneix/Tuscon, Madison, Toronto, and Miami before realizing where they really need to set down roots......I enjoyed the movie......cnanot say that others with me like the talk/talk sort of non-action film....

digging up daylilies

ok, so.....given that i was already hot and sweaty after my 5k walk this morning, i changed shoes and headed out to do battle with nature.....on this morning i chose to dig out the daylilies that had been between the privet hedge, now gone, and the limelight hydrangeas that are now the back-bed focal point......and when it was all over i had a huge bouquet of daylilies....a flower one does not usually consider for cut arrnagements.....but given that the bottom end of each plant was gone...might as well enjoy their single 'day' on my table.....

twenty-nine

ok, so......it just occured to me that tomorrow is a triple-dip day of sorts....sunday at the band festival, father's day, and our 29th anniversary.......which means that monday is our eldest's birthday.....he was just starting his cross-country bike trip this time last year.....this year he is getting ready for his rhine ride.....i do treasure all of the years we were able to celebrate birthdays together, but i suppose it is most important that we were together for the first.....

brass band 5k

ok, so.....i got up early and walked the brass band 5k.....out of nostalgia mostly....the race directors have been doing this event in some fashion for 12 years.....the first version being the montessori run for reading......all four of us did the event.....which was memorable as my best ever 5k time- just over 30 minutes.....a feat accomplished not out of fitness or competitiveness, but out of material protective instinct.....my youngest (at the time) child was jogging with me slowly through the green acres course when he decided that he wanted to go faster....and he took off in an outright run.......i can recall panicking over potential hazards, like 'would there be somebody at the intersections to make sure he doesn't get hit by a car' and i took off running to try to catch him......for the record, there was no catching him.......i thought of that episode this morning as a mother of five we know asked me if her little one could walk with me to the pavilion after i finished the course.....the mom called after us 'i just want to make sure somebody is with her when she crosses the road'......

commencement and closure

ok, so.....we are trying to get back to status quo after a very long weekend of commencement activities in New Jersey. We missed the P-Rade, which is a transitional activity between The Reunions and Commencement. This parade is a procession of classmembers, wearing their distinctive class beer jackets. Seems this year's event was led by a 105-year old member of the Class of 1920. Wow! Kinda wish we had been there, but we were driving the obligatory 13 hours from Ky at the time. Sunday's Baccalaureate was our first taste of the pomp that is Princeton graduation. The procession, led by a mace-bearer and gonfalons (residential college banners) filed solemnly into the Gothic-style chapel, which we watched from a remote location given the restrictive size of the chapel. Jeff Bezos, '86 spoke of choices and challenges. Next came the Class Day procession, whereupon the Class of 2010 filed into the Cannon Green wearing their own jacket (orange and black and white with 2010 across the back), and listened to several student speakers as well as Charles Gibson '65, who regretted skipping out on his own Class Day. We did not arrive in time to find seats in the shade, and ended up moving our chairs when the heat became offensive. Box lunches followed, then on to the departmental receptions. French and Italian had a relatively small graduating class, so the reception held in Rockefeller College's vaulted common room was intimate and convivial. Commencement festivities started early with the finding of the shadiest seats possible that still had a decent view of the dais. The salutorial address was given in Latin, with the text provided. Clearly, it is a testament to the caliber of Princeton professors that they laughed heartily at jokes in the presentation that alluded those of us who do not know this ancient language. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was on hand to receive an honorary degree, which was a special moment given her health, and the state of the current SCOTUS nomination. The president of the university gave the sermon, and then it was on to Forbes College (our child's residential college) for the actual presentation of the diploma. The reception was quite lavish with white table clothed tables under huge tents and a lovely champagne buffet lunch. Whew.......a three-day lovefest. The diploma is entirely in Latin, and the only words i recognize are his name, and Summa Cum Laude. We are so very proud. And thankful that his summer internship with the Princeton Community Garden project is manual rather than acedemic. A little downtime might be welcome after the rigors of the intense final semester. I hope that gardening's cerebral qualities will be healing and restorative.