Fair warning on this post: Things related to Bachelorette festivities will be discussed. If you are faint of heart and/or easily offended, just don't read it.
Bet you're wondering where I've been, now that I'm temporarily unemployed for summer months, yet not blogging, so you're thinking I'm probably sitting around, doing nothing? You are mostly right! BUT I've also just returned from a lovely, relaxing weekend, lakeside with my... ladies. Wanted to say another word there, but, um, well... next time. I should also mention that this was sort-of a substitute for a Bachelorette Party. Prior to the weekend, I made everyone promise that there wouldn't be anything profane. But we did end up spending a fair amount of time singing the South Park version of the Game of Thrones theme, anyway.
So in preparation for the weekend with my ladies at the lake, I put together these gift bags that would embody relaxation and fun. And then to spice it up, I thought, wouldn't it be funny to also give them something trashy? But stick with the lakeside theme... Romance novels. But then I procrastinated, and realized that I didn't have time to order these, er, novels? on the interwebs as I originally intended. Because life gets busy, right? And then I found myself, standing alone in the back corner of the Barnes and Nobel, trying to select quality titles from the Harlequin Romance Series display. To keep things simple, I opted for the straight-forward titles like Seduced by the CEO and skipped over the more complex Pregnant by the Cowboy CEO. It's a funny thing, to look down in your arms, and realize that you are cradling nine horribly-embarrassing pieces of evidence. So I flew through that process as fast as I could, arranged all of the spines so that they were facing my body, splayed out my palm over the top book and bottom book, and made like I was carrying an inverted accordion towards the cash register. And I hoped the whole way that the cashier would be a woman, so that we could make jokes together about my discomfort, but it wasn't. It was a nice gentleman with a beard, who greeted me and asked haltingly if I'd found everything I needed as he began to sort through my selections. That's when I started explaining myself. These aren't all for me, they're for my friends. We are having a girl's weekend. I thought it'd be funny. Please don't judge me. To which he responded, Oh, don't you worry. I think that's a *fabulous* idea, and in my opinion, any kind of reading is good reading. Shout out to Barnes and Nobel for being so open-minded! In conclusion to this section, buy the Harlequin Romance Series books from B&N: They get it. And if you are still embarrassed about it, go ahead and make yourself an alternative cover.
I'll be discussing the actual weekend a bit more in an upcoming post on workout life balance (maybe I have a blogging disease?) so I won't go into much more detail here.
While I was gone, there was so much fun stuff happening here on the ole' homestead! Which makes up for the fact that one of the garden beds has basically escaped into post-production mode, and currently looks like this.
Whoa!
But there's some fun learning to be done here! Because what does happen to a garden when you just let it go?
Arugula gets pretty white flowers!
Leafy lettuce falls down!
Radishes keep radishing!
And chard is still so chard-ie!
There was also a little trouble happening in Tomato Nation, so E swapped out the terra cotta pots that they were living in for a more favorable spot next to the garage. It's only been a couple of days, but we are holding out hope that these bad boys will take root and get over the transplant shock soon.
Grow, toe-mates, grow!
AND now, what you've all been waiting for... WHY IS THIS POST CALLED SUMMER SURPRISES? It's because of these pleasant summer surprises, silly!
The basil is going crazy!
We can make lots of dillweed jokes!
Sunflowers are looking like they'd like to flower!
Okra is coming up! Side note: If you think okra is slimy and gross like my Mom-mom thinks, I'll tell you how to make these bad boys de-lish when they are ready! Stay tuned!
toe...
...MATES!
And for those of you who were just thinking, "I wonder what an eggplant flower looks like?"
I GIVE YOU EGGPLANT FLOWER!
AND FOR THE REST OF YOU... LOOK, BABY DECORATIVE GOURD!!!
Now, for the happiest news of all, I spread the joy of another baby.
CACTUS BABY! Seriously, it's pretty cute, right?
In closing, as we say in my house, OH-YEA (that's actually hard to write because we say it as one word, without the Y sound...) and the celebratory *High Five*
- K