Ah, the sweet smell of success...
Mood:  don't ask
Kevin decided that the compost pile he started last fall was ready to be used, and it was my task to distribute the fermented goodness all around the tomato plants. I dutifully got my pitchfork and pail and opened the bottom of the composter.

Sweet Jesus in a birchbark canoe! That was the most disgusting, vile, fetid and nauseating thing I have ever smelled in my life. Imagine every diaper filled with green baby shit you’ve ever smelled, add in a healthy dose of swamp gas, and garnish with a bushel of rotten potatoes, and you’ll have some idea of how it smelled. Oh, and crawling with all sorts of worms and bugs… It took a supreme effort of will to not heave my guts out while filling the bucket. I dosed the back veggie garden, and went inside the fenced yard to tend to the cherry tomatos behind the garage.

Jack bounded up and decided that this stuff was pure nectar and ambrosia. As I was trying to put the goo around the plants, he was rolling in it with glorious abandon. He proceeded to EAT several large chunks of it as well. Blergh.

Needless to say, neither one of us felt like cooking that evening, so we went out to eat. AFTER I took a shower and loofah’d most of my epidermal layer off.

Starry Eyed Surprise
Mood:  special
Tuesday, I got to take Cole as my “date” to the Bradford Little Theater appreciation dinner. Every year at the end of the season, they have a potluck dinner to recognize all of the volunteers. Awards are handed out, and they have a raffle for prizes and props from the previous year’s shows. The big smash hit this year was “A Year with Frog and Toad”, and the prop that everyone wanted was Snail’s backpack. Cole won it, along with Toad’s swimsuit and flippers, and the prop microphones I had made for “An American Daughter”. He was kind enough to give me one of them back.

There were tables groaning with all sorts of delicious food… and Cole came back with an empty tray. Damn fussy eaters! He eventually ate 3 cookies. (I couldn’t take him back to his mom on a sugar jag/empty stomach, so I took him to Burger King. Hey, if I’m his soulmom, I’m entitled to spoil him!)

It's been one week since you looked at me...
Mood:  chatty
Ok, okay... I haven't written anything in over a week. Mea culpa. Fact is, nothing much happened last week. Kevin was in Boston and I sat at home most of the time playing KOL and watching movies. Yes, I did have a PD film festival, thanks for asking.

Things did start to pick up on Friday. After work, I drove to Cleveland to meet the hubby and we spent the night there. The next day we drove to my parents' house, and got to spend a little time with them and my sister & her hubby. And of course, my favorite "niece", Sheba the Akita!

Then it was on to Toledo, the Glass City. Kevin's great uncle Lou was celebrating his birthday/retirement. Free beer! Live polka band! Carty Finkbeiner! (the nutcase mayor of Toledo) Did I mention it was over 90 degrees? That and the ever-so-joyous (NOT!) reunion with the mother-in-law made it pretty much unbearable. Kev and I beat cheeks as soon as we could.

Drove home yesterday, caught up on laundry, picked up the dogs from the kennel today (now THAT is a joyous reunion!) and had grilled lambchops, basmati rice and broccoli rabe a diavolo for dinner. So now we're all caught up again!

Happy Birthday!!!
Mood:  celebratory
Amazing how two exceptionally cool & inspirational people I like have the same birthday today! Maybe there's something to that astrology crap after all?

Happy Birthday Laura! Always remember, someone has to be unafraid to lead the freak parade!

Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday to my favorite actor, the one and only Dink! Here's a pint of Guinness to both of you!

Mood:  lazy
Not much happening around here these days. The weather has taken a turn for the worse, getting cold, damp and dreary. Also, Kevin's gone to Boston for some IT training, so I get to batch it all week. Start collecting bail money now. ;)

Friday was the 24 hr. Walk for a Cure event in the park behind our house, so the dogs were hysterically barking most of the time and I didn't get much sleep, staying up all night watching movies, reading books and playing KOL.

Saturday, Diane and I went out to breakfast with Laura, and took a little walk/stroll/perambulation down the Crook Farm trail. None of us had been on it before, it's quite pretty. (Except for the part where you go past the water treatment plant... there's a nice spot of yang in your yin!) I gave Laura a little silver Liberty Bell charm (to commemorate our trip to Philly) for her birthday. Then I basically spent the day watching movies, reading, playing KOL and napping. I enjoy the solitude, but I miss Kevin.

Goooooaaaaallllll!
Mood:  cheeky
Saturday, I went to Casey's soccer match. Cold and muddy weather, and stupid me wore my nice pink slip-on Chucks. They are completely caked. I'll have to hope they wash up okay. But Casey's team won in a decisive victory, yahoo!

Afterwards, I got to accompany Kathleen & the boys to Walmart. That was an experience in and of itself. I know she reads this, so let me just say "No, I will not go grocery shopping with you!" :)

Then we all ate pizza, did art projects and watched movies, and Kathleen made donuts for dessert. Yummers!

You never see them in the same place at the same time...
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Deep Thoughts
Are Thomas Dolby and Alton Brown the same person?

Uncanny!
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Deep Thoughts
Friday night, Kevin and I took Cole to Olean to see X-Men 3 for a very fun (and geeky!) time. He's such a hilarious kid. I hope he took away the message of the movie - simply put, that it's okay to be different even if other people don't think so. I've been a geek my whole life, but it's only been in the past few years that I've come to see the value in it. Hopefully, Cole can feel confident in himself and be spared the self-doubt I went through.

Enough philosophical pondering over a cheesy summer blockbuster! Speaking of which, apparently you can't have one without Sir Ian McKellan and/or Ben Stiller. Oh, and don't forget to play "Carmina Burana" in the trailer! Never fails...

Nature red in tooth and claw
Mood:  sad
This morning, as I was attending to my morning toilette, I heard Shui (our Shar-Pei) barking like crazy and Kevin shouting at Jack (our Shiba Inu), followed by Jack snarling like I’ve never heard him before.

Turns out a rabbit had found its way into our backyard unbeknownst to Kevin, and when he let the dogs out this morning, Jack immediately ran it down and killed it. At least it died quickly, but Kevin was hugely upset. He got incredibly mad at Jack last year when Jack killed a nest of bunnies. Both of us are incredible softies when it comes to animals, but I tried to tell Kevin that he couldn’t blame Jack for following his programming.

Shiba Inus are one of the world’s oldest known dog breeds, and they’ve been bred for thousands of years to hunt small game – Jack was just doing exactly what his genes told him to do. So I wrested the poor dead bunny from him, and congratulated him on his skill. He trotted around like he was king of the world. From a Taoist perspective, nothing happened that should not have happened. But it still didn’t make me feel any better about the whole thing.

Rub me the right way
Mood:  lazy
Tonight, I had an hour-long massage from Larry at Lisa’s Hairport. Ummmm….. he used hot stones all down my back and legs. Damn, that felt awesome! He’s a very very good massotherapist, I recommend him highly. One caveat: he talks a lot more than I would prefer, but he is good enough that you can forgive him for it. He likes to tell you the muscle groups he’s working on, and the type of techniques he’s using. That’s fine, but just shut up and let me drift off please. That's what I'm paying you for.