Tulips & Ferns

My favorite tulips are blooming, the orange pink ones, and since the grape hyacinths are still blooming too I've got that one little patch of purple and orange pink that makes me smile every time I see it, and I see it a lot since it's right next to the front stoop.  All of the yellow and red garden tulips are blooming and in the bed right behind the house the ferns are sprouting higher and I see a few flower stalks peeking out of the lilies of the valley.  Oh, and I watched a chickadee inspecting the birdhouse there too.  We've seen hummingbirds at least a couple times a day on both the near and far feeders, no orioles lately but they're kind of skittish and only come at certain times of the day.  I should go out and see how the orange half is doing, they hollowed out the first one I put out.  I'll go right now, hold on... well, the orange looks unpecked.  Dang it.  Wonder what we have to do to keep them coming back.

I sort of managed to follow Durwood's suggestion and relax yesterday, only it wasn't relaxing just doing nothing, it made me nervous and jittery to just sit and do nothing.  I didn't like it.  We went to walk around Costco in the afternoon, that helped a little.  We got new electric toothbrushes and had lots of quality snacks from the tasters but we agreed that it's not worth the $55 annual membership fee to us.  Granted they have lots of goodies and their meats and deli and bakery items are primo but they don't have a lot of the items we regularly buy at Sam's so that $55 is fifty-five dollars that we can apply to other things like vacation stuff.

I knitted a bit on the bib.  It goes fast and I think I like it.  I didn't like the hole I saw at the edge of the bib and collar, and I really didn't like the dropped stitch that made the hole, but my trusty crochet hook and I managed to corral it and hook it back to line up with its pals on the needle, sneaky little thing thought it could slip away.  Not in my knitting.

I made a pan of cornbread sausage stuffing and grilled the Cornish hen, both were delicious and made enough for tonight. In reality there's stuffing for quite a few more nights; it makes a big batch and I don't know how to cut it down since it uses a can of cream of what you have on hand soup and I don't think I could cut that in half.  Although I suppose I could dump it into a measuring cup, whisk it so it's smooth and well mixed, and then only use half, tossing the rest.  I think it's a sign of getting old that a single Cornish hen makes 2 nights' suppers for us, but it's good too because now all we'll need tonight is a veg.

May 19--Mesopotamia, Mastiff.  The dog was on her, all hot breath and sharp teeth right in her face.  Beth held herself as still as her jangling nerves let her, trying not to cry out or run.  "Down, Baby, get down," Rita said with a giggle, "Beth doesn't like kissy."  Oh great, Beth thought, she thinks the hell hound is playing with me.  Beth gathered up all her wits and patted the dog on its broad head.  "Nice doggie."  When Rita told her that she had a dog named Baby, Beth had pictured a lap dog, not a behemoth that had a part-time gig as a pony.

I'm taking my laptop in for its annual clean up appointment so posting this week will be catch as catch can, especially tomorrow when I'm not at work.  I'll try though because I know you miss me when I'm gone.  (Yeah, right.)  Anyway, it's a gorgeous day so enjoy it.  That's an order.
--Barbara