I canceled my lawn service this year and bought a mower. I needed to pinch back my budget and the price of a mower + paying my son was less than the service. Sometimes he has mowed for free too.


Why do people work so hard to have all their grass the same type of grass? Do you think it's worth all the chemicals and weeding? If my lawn was a church, it would be Unitarian: all species welcome. I kind of like all the variety.


I weed whacked for the first time of the season and was deaf and buzzing for an hour afterward. I'm sure I'm not very efficient at it yet. I went out and bought ear protection.

On Friday, I mowed my front and back yard for the first time in my life. It was much harder than I expected. I didn't realize how many things I have to mow around, including my new compost cage and little garden. I'm open for any advice for a novice mower.

Back by my new garden are thriving irises & peonies that the previous owner planted. Some of the irises were lying forward onto the grass. It was tricky trying to lift the irises without releasing the deadman's grip on the mower. The irises kept flopping back onto the ground. I though, "These are suicidal irises." Wouldn't that be a great name for a band? The Suicidal Irises.



So my first attempt at a garden is an ongoing experiment. The tomatoes I planted as seeds inside and then transferred all died, as did the zucchinis. The peas are doing pretty well, and I have two surviving bell peppers, but they are really small still. I replanted some tomatoes seedlings and they look promising - especially because of all the rain we've been having. I went ahead and put the cages around them so they know what high hopes I have for them. I have some cantaloupe sprouting in a pot I'll transfer into the garden where the zucchini's abandoned hope. I'm going to plant some pumpkins too.

My brother sent me this helpful link, if any of you are looking for some good recipes for Mother's Day.
thisiswhyyourfat.com

Today is my son's 14th birthday. Although I recognize that I am a bit biased, I think he is absolutely adorable. Last year had a lot of difficulties for him, but I am so encouraged by his attitude lately (despite his last report card.) He has been so helpful, mowing the lawn without being nagged. He's had a recent enthusiasm for his own fitness level, which is inspiring. He's gained a lot of confidence in lacrosse this year, wearing his bruises as badges of honor (see him about to score in the picture.) He's excited about high school in the fall, especially ROTC and Japanese. His sisters and I appreciate the hormonal balance he brings to our household, leaving fragrant pieces of equipment around the house and car.

How can I have two teenagers?

What do you remember about being 14?

In case your not one of the millions who has watched this clip of the "Britain's Got Talent" sensation, Susan Boyle, check this out. I bet you'll get goosebumps. She's absolutely adorable. (They won't let me embed it, just a link.)

A mystery...

So last Monday I was driving my kids home from scouts when I suddenly pulled over. A new paperback book fluttered helplessly in the middle of the road. I love books. I made my daughter hop out of the car and get it like we did with the black box turtle, even if she was rolling her eyes as she did it. "Mom!"

So the book is Joshua Harris's latest, "boy meets girl." He previously published "I Kissed Dating Goodbye."

At a quick glance, the previous reader diligently studied the text, underling and highlighting passages. Then there are some places where the reader couldn't hold back a retort, the feminine handwriting jotting "Ha!" in the margins or "OK...."

The book, as I imagine its predecessor was, has a very traditional Christian perspective on the roles of men and women in marriage and how that affects the efforts of single Christians striving to remain pure until marriage.

For example, a list of questions a man should consider when trying to determine if he should marry begins with, "Am I prepared to lead my wife spiritually and serve her in every way?"

Later he encourages women to avoid leading while dating to give your boyfriend a chance to practice leading for when you are married. "How else can you practice for the time when you will follow your husband?"

But she didn't get that far. Her notations stop about a third of the way in, in the chapter that offers the sage advice of allowing room for friendship before premature intimacy, suggesting, for example, that you pray together, discuss sermons, and read the Bible.

So why do you think the book was in the middle of the road? Did she drive off with it on the roof of her car? Did she throw it out of the window? her boyfriend? a girlfriend?

Let me know if you want your book back.

I've decided to start composting. One reason is because in a year or two I want to start a kitchen garden, but my soil is so sandy. So I thought if I started composting now, maybe next year I'll have a healthy patch. Also composting is good for the environment in general.

Do any of you compost? Any advice or warnings?

If you've never been to Memphis, you should put it on your list of places to go. Mark & I had so much fun! (Well, he had to work for some of it, but I got to play!)

First let me tell you about the food.
We ate some delicious ribs at The Rendezvous, which has a comically carnivorous menu. While listening to jazz at BB King's, I feasted on fried catfish, sweet onion hushpuppies, french fries, fried green tomatoes and some of Mark's pulled pork bbq. Mmmmm. We decided to pass on the deep fried hamburgers at Dyers, which boasts that they haven't changed their grease in the 90+ years they've been in business, although after watching the video on their website, I think I might have to try it on my return trip.

My drink for the weekend was the Presbyterian, which was mostly ginger ale and bourbon. I figured that counted as church.

On our third day, our bellies were a bit overwhelmed by the grease and the bourbon, so we ate at Circa, a fancy schmancy restaurant on the way to the Orpheum to see the hilarious Menopause, the Musical. Dinner was fantastic and the show was affirming to me, but I think a bit scary to Mark.

When I staggered out of the zoo on Saturday, a bit lost and hungry since only one snack stand was opened and the tremendous line was cluttered with fussy children, I serendipitously found the Cafe Eclectic, which had "regular and rebel side dishes", a wide variety of teas, and my favorite, lemon soup.

It was a good thing I found this little organic haven, because I had just listened to Jane Goodall speak at the award-winning Memphis Zoo and now I don't know what to eat. I'll have to tell you more about her and her various causes in another post.

Of course I went to Graceland, which was mobbed. Elvis seemed very much like a sweet, local boy who loved his momma and his hometown. I wished I had more time to read the graffiti on the gates.

The Civil Rights Museum, built onto the Lorraine Motel was sadly informative, and also mobbed with visitors from all over the world. I was overwhelmed with sadness at the balcony where hate won a battle.

I had wanted to see Mud Island and Sun Studios, but alas, I ran out of time. We did stay at the Peabody and we got to see the famous ducks coming to and from their beautiful fountain and in their ornate rooftop home. I enjoyed a morning in their spa to get my weekend off to a relaxing start.

I'm going to Memphis soon, taking advantage of my sweetheart's federally funded hotel room. He has to go to a conference. I'm going to Graceland. Should I sing at Elvis' grave like the guys in Spinaltap here?



I'm also planning to go the the Civil Rights Museum. The hotel where MLK,Jr. was assassinated has been converted into a museum. So in a way, I guess I'm going on a ghost tour in Memphis.

Has anyone been to Memphis? Do you have any restaurant or club recommendations?

I just drove up to Mark's, where he met me at the door with a kiss and a Cabernet. I passed a truck on the road that had written in big letters on the side TROJAN HORSE. In small letters it said U.S. Mail.


So I wondered what was inside?
Angry Greeks?
Rancid olives?
Dear John letters?
Financial Statements?

Despite the fact that I have excellent opinions, people don't always agree with me. Perhaps it is my manner of delivery. For example, I just got scolded for bad manners on Facebook for calling Rush Limbaugh an ass, which I thought was understated. I held back my whole flaming rant. I can't imagine that I hurt his feelings. I think he traded those long ago.

But at the risk of stirring more controversy...

Did you hear about the latest issue of "Quilter's Home" magazine? It was banned from JoAnn's Fabric stores for being too controversial! Of course, I dashed right out to Barnes & Nobel and picked up their last copy of the magazine for my quilting friend, Anne.

The controversy is the subject of the quilts. I read about it in the Washington Post, but was a bit disappointed by the moderately offensive article. One, for example, is a tribute to Viagra. Another depicts a gun-toting Jesus. Another, called Southern Heritage, shows lynchings.

Who are these radical quilters? Who knew quilters could be radical? I have my fingers crossed to win my friends' quilting bee's pretty beachy quilt in a raffle. Who knows, next year if they stitch something more sensational it will help their fundraising efforts. Have you ever seen a radical quilt?

Judy Chicago is a modern artist who is most famous for her painting, The Dinner Party. The painting shows a table prepared for a dinner party with famous women. Each place setting is unique to the guest.



This is Women's History Month. So stealing Judy Chicago's idea, who would you set the table for? I'd say a table with more than 8 people is not conducive to conversation. So with which 5-7 women would you want to dine? No rules about living, dead, real or imaginary.

So I think I would pick
Mary Magdalene
Margaret Sanger
Sojourner Truth
Laurie Notaro
and probably Amy Ray & Emily Saliers (the Indigo Girls)

Of course I wouldn't mind having dinner with my twin, Michelle Obama. And it would just be nice to have all my girlfriends over to dinner - especially the ones who live far away.
And my grandmas would be great to see again. My son wanted to see Aphrodite, my daughter Ella Fitzgerald.

So without thinking about it too much, with which women would you care to share some fine wine, delicious food, and a few hours of conversations?

So while I haven't been posting, I've had some interesting experiences.

One is that I've had the opportunity to help with the Sudanese quintuplets that are spending their first year of life in America to get good medical care outside of a warzone. You can see a picture of these adorable babies and read a bit of their story here.

I saw a call for help in my church's bulletin. I was happy to join the Church Lady Brigade from all around the area to pitch in a weekly shift to help with the care and feeding of these tiny beauties. I'm at a stage in life between babies, so this was just the fix I needed. I go once a week to help, which also includes laundry, writing thank you notes, running local errands, and eating delicious Sudanese cuisine.

One lucky day I got to help with bath time. Not only did I get to bathe one of these new little people, I got to rub jojoba oil on their dark chocolate skin, the tiniest massage I ever gave.

Their crowded little apartment is actually quite orderly and peaceful.

On Valentine's Day, my sweetheart took me to see the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He has a subscription to the BSO for the "Symphony with a Twist" series. We saw them around Halloween use children's toys and paper bags as instruments. Once they performed the soundtrack for the Charlie Chaplain movie, "City Lights."

The BSO's conductor, Maestra Marin Alsop, is the first woman to conduct a major American orchestra. She's wonderful, as you'll see in the above clips. Yesterday's performance included some music that she had been tracking down for years. Alsop was intrigued by the pianist and composer James P. Johnson who wrote "The Charleston" and was renown for his "stride" piano techniques that made him one of Harlem's most famous pianists She found some of his surviving relatives and one of them had some of his music stashed in the attic. Alsop brought the music to us all last night. Can you imagine? It was a powerful piece entitled "Drums."

Yesterday's twist was Savion Glover, a world renown tap dancer, who accompanied several of the pieces. I wouldn't even say what he was doing was tap dancing so much as podiatric, paroxysmal, percussion. It was wonderful!

I love living in a time in America when everyone is saying the phrase "stimulus package." I always grin - and most often keep my comments to myself.

So it was great to see Julie last weekend. I know I could have "shared" her with more people, but she was already subdivided with visiting her mom. So I'm a Julie hog. Sorry local friends.


To maximize our time, we took our moms out together. Julie's mom lives on the other side of DC. So we picked her up and went over to that new 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon. It is such a thoughtfully designed memorial. I had wished that there was a plaque explaining the symbolism of it all, but we did eventually figure it out. I'm sure it will be even more beautiful when the landscaping grows in.


The memorial has a bench for each person who died in the crash. Their name is engraved on the side of the bench. Underneath each bench is a stream. The names of any family members also killed in the crash are engraved on a plaque in the stream under the bench. This was more common among the passengers than the Pentagon victims. There appears to have been a family with two young children.



The benches are arranged by year of birth of the deceased. Also, if the bench is pointing toward the Pentagon, the person died there. If the bench points toward the Air Force memorial across the highway, they died on the plane.

It was very moving. I am so impressed with people who think of these details in their design.

Parking, however, is a major issue. I played the blonde card and just parked with the construction guys in an adjacent muddy field.

The next day, Julie & Mark & I went to a cool art museum in Baltimore that displays the works of artists who received no formal training. Some of the galleries were arranged by the artists' disease, like OCD art. There were autistic murals, bipolar mosaics, and schizophrenic paintings. It kind of made you think we shouldn't necessarily try to wipe out these "diseases." You couldn't take pictures inside, but here are a few from outside. It was very interesting. Mark posted about it too, so check out his pics & comments.