lawn care contests in the neighborhood

In our neighborhood, there is some competition to see who can keep their grass the greenest and tidiest in the summer, who can rake their leaves first in the spring and fastest in the fall, who gets their sidewalk shoveled first after a snowstorm. We usually choose not to participate. If we do happen to participate, it's an accident.

I have an inclination toward oppositional behavior and if someone tells me I can't keep my garbage dumpster in front of my garage, I am all the more inclined to do it. I would not fare well in a neighborhood that had convenants.

Regis and I are thinking of buying a pickup camper and moving to Arizona to live in an asphalt retirement village. Hysterical laughter. That would be the second to the last thing we would do. The last thing we would do is to drive down the highway in an RV the size of our current home.

Age is such a funny thing. A young friend of mine, one who babysat for my children when they were small, said something about being middle aged. Wait, wait...what? Does that make me upper middle aged...or old?

I went to my favorite shopping site yesterday, the consignment store. I found two great bargains. The first was a long cardigan that I loved but it was 48 dollars and a little big in the shoulders and underarms. I hung it back up and moved on but as I did, Kim went behind me and marked it to half price. For 20 bucks, I'll keep my arms down.

The other item is a chenille coat by a New York designer. You can look it up. Kim said it had just come in and she had it marked at 50 dollars but gave it to me for 20. Whoa. I hit the jackpot. It would not be everyone's taste but I love it. This is one that sold on Etsy but mine is dark teal.

Vintage Norma Kamali Orange Cotton Chenille cocoon coat, oversized Cocoon collar which can be worn as a hood, oversized and wrap style, can fit any size, 2 patch pockets on the front. Great Deco design! One of Kamali's famous coats!

I can't resist a good deal on an interesting coat. Why wear some boring thing from Penney's if you can wear something that looks like a chenille bathrobe? Wahhahahahaha!

I'm going up to Betty's this morning to play with Ella and Alex. Ella wants to chalk my hair again which will be a riot. It didn't wash out of my hair right away last time so I had multi-hued hair for a couple weeks. My feeling about that is it's just hair and you may as well go around with a rainbow on your head as not.

These are called pig wings. They're pork shanks that are usually not used but someone in the meat industry figured out that they were pretty good. We had them at a party last week and loved them. Trying to track them down was not easy. We finally found them through a friend of mine who works for a food distributor. We're making them Sunday before or after the trip to the pumpkin patch.

Enjoying my Kickapoo coffee this morning and listening to Shuffle Function on KMSU. Woodrow had a wild streak from 5-6:00 but now he is slumbering peacefully in his little bed near the window. It's his favorite spot. He watches the leaves come down and he watches the birds in the feeder. The squirrels really get his attention.

That's the news from our corner of the world. Happy Thursday!