whoa missed a couple days

Every time I talked to Regis today and asked him what he was up to, he said not much. When I came around the corner onto our street, I saw a waist-high and lot-long pile of brush and leaves from the garden. My garden looks great! The fern leaf peony looks very hearty, Mom, and I have several poppies seeking the sun. I'm determined to move some things around this year...an Edgar Allen Poe hosta that seems to love the back fence but is going to come out to the front yard. I wonder why someone would name a beautiful hosta after that strange dude.

Here's the fern leaf peony. It started out on Mom and Dad's farm and has lived here for close to ten years. The first five years of its life, I threatened to pull it out by the roots and throw it in the compost pile. Then it got one bud on it, the next year two, and now I think (ta da) we have five!

This is our crummy front sidewalk that will be repaired next week. I tried to show how it bows in the middle and I didn't get that very well, but you can see that it doesn't square up with the door very well. The guy that did this work was a goofball.

Here are the crummy front steps that will be repaired next week. Same dude built them. They looked like this almost from the first winter.

Here's a laughing frog with a poppy plant and a few weeds. At least he isn't covered in leaves and now he can bask in the sun.

Tiffany sent a phone picture of Elliot smiling today. It looked like a real, deliberate smile. Very cute. Ella, take some pictures of your brother for Nana and Popop. Have Daddy teach you how to email.

Betty and I went back to the pool on Tuesday. Nancy came, too. The water was warm and it felt great. I'm going tomorrow but I think I'll take Friday off and have coffee instead.

Betty's mama passed away this morning. Wishing her a peaceful passage and sweet memories for her family.