Rototilling - done been did! The Rat! Women's fields....

Amazingly enough, we actually got the rototilling done on Saturday. Brian did it.

Before tilling...

I cut suckers off the tree outside our fence;

Suckers - cut off. 

Now kids can walk past on their way to school without getting hit in the face with those tree suckers;

...except school is closed for the season. 

Paving the road to hell with good intentions, that's me; 

I are a paver - 

- that are my destiny.

Here are before and after shots of the yard. As you can see, the weeds I knew not wot of are mostly gone.  

...after tilling.

We left the garden, the lilies, the area where tulips are planted, and the weeds around the dogwood alone - guess I'll weed those areas by hand.

The dogwood has wild strawberries growing at its base. They don't taste good. The birds aren't eating them either. 

Maybe they aren't really strawberries, but they sure look like 'em. Faux strawberries.

~~~

I got my hars did and a mani/pedi on Friday! My nails are PINK! Very, very pink. I like 'em. Brian even likes 'em!

My hair is a lot shorter, and is basically a, well, bob. I think I'll be stuck in a bob for the rest of my life. Short bob, long bob, bob's yer uncle. But it looks pretty good. The har artiste straightened the HELL out of my hair to make sure he'd cut all the proper bits off (he hadn't - once again, I was in front of the mirror cutting off the strays the next day). Brian SAID he liked it, but the next day was glad when it went back to its normal curlinessiness.

BUT, when we went to our Favorite Bar, the owner told me he liked my hair, so I showed him my pink fingernails as well. He said, "you must be gearing up for something special!" And I said, because I'm a fool and never take things seriously, "Yep, I'm having an affair!"

Please note - Brian was sitting beside me laughing.

ANYway, the owner took me totally seriously, got all embarrassed, and left after mumbling something. Then the bartenders (female that day) were giggling about it, and repeating the situation to each other ("in front of her HUSBAND!"). 

Oy vey.

Was that one of those times for a filter? 

~~~

What else did we do this weekend? Well, we went to our Favorite In the Summer by the River Restaurant and drank beer while watching the river roll by. The ducks were amusing as ever: 

DUCKS' DITTY.' 

All along the backwater, 

Through the rushes tall, 

Ducks are a-dabbling, 

Up tails all!

Ducks' tails, drakes' tails, 

Yellow feet a-quiver, 

Yellow bills all out of sight 

Busy in the river!

Slushy green undergrowth 

Where the roach swim-- 

Here we keep our larder, 

Cool and full and dim.

Everyone for what he likes! 

WE like to be 

Heads down, tails up, 

Dabbling free!

High in the blue above 

Swifts whirl and call-- 

WE are down a-dabbling 

Up tails all!

Made up by Rat in Wind in the Willows

I love Wind in the Willows. It's a comforting book to read when ill because it's slow-paced but has interesting characters. When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, I took agin Wind in the Willows because of a library commercial on the tv which featured the book (so I never actually read it until 7th or 8th grade). The commercial made the book sound sappy and boring. Well, probably lots of people (with no imagination) actually think the book is sappy and boring; which is sort of like thinking the original Winnie the Pooh is s&b. 

Side Note: When I look back at my stint in college, there are things I wish I had done or known:

1. I wish I had known there was such a thing as studying Children's Literature; I would've been good at it. Don't know if I would've wanted to teach it afterwards, but should have at least studied more literature, if not Children's Literature.
2. Taken a watercolor class.
3. Studied marketing - not the sales part, but the artistic & writing side of it; the creative side.
4. Studied computers - I wonder how many females were studying computers back then, when it was such a brand new thing? Since I'm not a mathematical person, I may not have done well at it. But, since I'm a logical person, and like to get to the root of problems, I might have done well at it after all.
   
   I took a test in college to see where my interests lay/lied/lo.... The guidance officer who gave me the test told me it hadn't worked for me, since the test showed my interests lay more in traditionally male areas than female. 

Am I a guy?

That was a stupid test. More to the point, that was a stupid guidance counselor. The traditional fields the test showed I was NOT interested in were teaching, nursing, maintaining a household, etc. Hunh!

Women's Lib hadn't come quite far enough to help me at that point. I just said, "ok," and was maybe a little proud that my interests weren't traditionally female (because traditionally female roles SUCKED!). 

But I ain't no guy.... 

mj