the garden

We've had several meals with green beans, but most of the garden hadn't been doing much of anything except get more greenery--not anything to eat. The tomatoes are 4-5 feet tall and, until a couple of days ago, didn't have any tomatoes! But I now have 3 green balls that I can only hope will turn into tomatoes. I also have picked 4 cucumbers in the last 3 days, and there are 3 more that will be ready in the next few days. They are taking over the garden, wrapping little tendrils around everything near them. They're actually creeping up the back fence. If the deer don't eat what's creeping, they might take over the world. I have 6-8 pepper plants, and they have nothing even resembling peppers on them. The corn, a big surprise, is already 6 feet tall and is showing about 4 ears. I have no idea how to tell when they're ready, but I suppose someone in my family of farmers can help me out. The broccoli that I had completely given up on now has decided to get little green...broccoli on it.
Ah, my boring life of watching the garden grow.

Snake Season

I can't believe it's already snake season. Actually, I think I expected to see them earlier, and when I didn't see any, I hoped that last year was a fluke. Or maybe I already got them all. But, alas, I didn't. I killed two when we got home from breakfast this morning. It took forever--they're fast and wily, it turns out. I'm quite sure there's one more in those hedges, but it hasn't turned up again (and I've been frequently checking). Last year I used my "snake killing shovel," which I had by my side, but today I found Jon's golf clubs more useful. I don't think he'll ever use his driver again, which, if he were a sportsman, might mean something.

I want to take a nap, but all I see when I close my eyes is slithering. (Or Slytherin, but I'll review the Harry Potter series later. We're finally done with it.)

We embark on our cruise next Monday at about noon. We'll go to Key West for a day and then we'll go to Nassau for a day. We booked passage for a cruise to Cozumel, but as you can see, Cozumel is no longer on the itinerary. Thank you World Health Organization.

I'm delighted the semester is finally over, that papers and presentations are graded, and I don't have to deal with that group of students again. There were, of course, some diamonds in the rough, but I had an all around bad vibe from this group for 16 weeks. And having to fail 5 didn't help matters. This wasn't 5 out of 50 students, or 5 out of 30 students. I failed 5 out of 18. Now that I think about it, it's really unfair to say I had to fail them. They failed themselves.

swimsuits

Why are bikinis such a huge trend? I wouldn't wear a bikini when I was 16, and I certainly won't wear one at 31. We're going on a cruise in 13 days, and every one-piece swimsuit I've seen is in a plus-size.

Oh, yeah...we're going on a cruise!!!

more kitties!

Here are some pictures of my kitties, who are basically my kids--be patient with me, this is as exciting as my life gets!

Here's Bailey at Jon's old place. "May I help you? What, haven't you ever seen a cat just sitting patiently in a cupboard under a sink before?"

Here's Remy, also at Jon's old place. She thinks she fits here; we beg to differ. She could not care less.

Ginny: "Wait, you can see me?"

Remy again. "Yes. I was taking a nap in the pantry. (And yes, I understand I'm not supposed to be here.) Just close the door and walk away before I kill you with my death stare."

Ginny and Bailey. Biggest two-headed cat EVER.

Ben Folds in Ann Arbor

Out of the 20 pictures that I snagged the night of the concert (February 18), I wound up with 2 that were any good.

The concert was GREAT! He played a lot of his newer stuff (a bunch from Way to Normal and from supersunnyspeedgraphic), but, of course, he tossed in some old favorites, like "Army." I really wish I'd written down the set list, because, typically, I can only remember a handful of songs he played.

My two critiques would be that 1) there were just too many people on stage playing too many instruments (FIVE!) which made the music sound almost cacophonous at times. The other two times we've been to his concerts it was just Ben, bass, and drums, but I would love to see just Ben sometime. 2) Also too many songs were too slow. I felt like many of the newer songs, especially, dragged; I kept waiting for them to pick up the pace.

Overall, the show was really good. Our seats were in the front row of the balcony and proved to be some of the best seats I've ever had for a concert--unimpeded view of everything. Despite my two minor complaints, I wouldn't hesitate to buy tickets for another show.

I missed the entire opening band while I waited in line for a t-shirt. There was one person working the booth, and she seemed rather...unmotivated. I got back into the theater and waited and waited, and finally the lights went down. Unfortunately, it was not Ben Folds who came out, but the University of Michigan glee club. What?! I waited, rather impatiently, for them to finish, and then had to keep waiting for Ben Folds. When he finally came out, he gave us a really good show, though.

I will soon write about the great Ben Folds concert that we attended last week, but I need to upload the pictures first--what's the point of writing a concert review these days without pictures?! So, since I haven't bashed/reviewed a book in a while, I'll get caught up.

After my Last Templar experience I moved on to a book entitled Katherine, by Anya Seton. As I've mentioned, I'm a fan of historical fiction, especially English history. It was on sale, so I ordered it. It's about Katherine Swynford, lover and eventual wife of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. It was a bit slow going at times, but I honestly attribute that to its copyright date, 1954. The more recently published and written historical fiction is geared toward the reader who is easily bored and needs constant plot advancement (or, in lieu of plot advancement, sex). But Seton's 500+ pages are well written with elegant descriptions (even of unpleasant situations) and well researched details. Overall, pretty good. I enjoyed it.

Next was Marley and Me, which my mom lent me. I haven't watched the movie yet, so don't tell me how it ends. :) John Grogan is hilarious, and I laughed out loud throughout the book. His descriptions are vivid and clever, showing off his wonderful style and obvious intelligence. I literally cried through the last 20 pages, but the book is completely worth reading despite this inevitability--I know that some potential readers will be turned off to the book because of its sadness at the end just like they are turned off to movies with sad endings. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but just skip the last 20 pages if you don't like to cry. It's really a good read.

Then I read Susan Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone. It's young adult sci-fi, so it was a pretty quick read. Unfortunately, it was formulaic and therefore really, really predictable. Just call the children Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. It's very Lewisian in formula but lacks the joy and wonder of Lewis' fiction. This is probably because the book takes place in Cornwall rather than Narnia, but my judgment against it stands. Puzzlingly, I will probably eventually read the other books in the series, and I think this is because of the mysterious Great-Uncle Merry, the Drew children's (whose names are actually Simon, Jane and Barney) secretive, not-really-an-uncle uncle. I think that the second book in the series, The Dark is Rising, is being made into a movie--eek! I generally hate it when they do that, but in this case, there isn't that much to ruin by making a crappy, expensive movie of it.

I've moved on to Firstborn, the last installment of the Time Odyssey series that Steven Baxter co-wrote with Arthur C. Clarke (one of my favorite authors). I doubt the late Clarke had much to do with this novel, however. So far, 80+ pages in, it's quite dull, but I'm attempting to reserve judgment.