First frost last night. A plastic bowl of water on the porch had significant ice in it, and there was a light coating of frost on the porch railing and the grass in the upper meadow. I hope some mosquitoes died.

My sister-in-law, she of limited advanced cognitive capabilities, has just dedicated a photo on Facebook to all of those in the military being shipped overseas: an image of a flag at half-staff. :-(

Dear Moms of my students:

If you are bitterly complaining in an email that I have failed to send you a vital piece of information, it is best if you don't send that as a reply to the email you're telling me I neglected to send to you in the first place.

Why, yes, I do archive correspondence. Why do you ask?

Sincerely,

Mrs. Agelena.

"Dear Mrs. Agelena ( Read more... )

The forecast shows as dry for several days. The path through the woods is swamped in several places, and there's a marsh at the southwest corner of the field. I took some time to clean out the birdfeeders on the deck. They've been soaking up rainwater for a while. The feeder that contained sunflower chips was absolutely disgusting. The bottom ( Read more... )

I got to enjoy my deferred birthday present last weekend: U2 was kind enough to play a concert in Norman, Oklahoma. Mike isn't a big fan, so he used the money he would have spent on 2 mediocre tickets to get me one really good seat. We drove up last Sunday. The concert was at 7 pm. I attended the pre-concert dinner while Mike and the dog kicked ( Read more... )

I spent another hour today with the pressure sprayer in the woods, showering poison ivy with Round-Up. This was spraying trip, part 2. Part one was a few weeks ago, when we focused on the ivy that was closest to the trail that Mike cut. The leaves had shriveled up and mostly fallen on those, which made it easier to step over/on them to get to the ( Read more... )

I am slightly less panicked than I was last night. We've done much online research about the planning commission's recommendations. Apparently, they've been discussing this for a good while. It appears there are three potential routes. One of these is bad news for us, but the one that the commission seems to be leaning toward won't hit us directly ( Read more... )

I am currently home....alone. Why? BECAUSE MIKE IS AT WORK!!!!!

Today was his first day. :-)

As always, I've managed to find a plethora of ways to avoid grading the papers that languish, still, in my tote bag. This is getting to be a problem ( Read more... )