Macy's least favorite past time....

Do you want a bath?

Those words strike fear and loathing in Macy's heart every time she hears them. In fact, she can recognize the word "BATH" when you spell it out. I started calling it a scrubbing a while ago, but now she knows what that means too.

She really hates the running water



and refuses to enjoy being scrubbed



and especially hates waiting for the shampoo to do its job



and always tries to get out before it's time.



She doesn't much like getting dried off either.

Start'em out early...

My sister, Sandra, called today to tell me about Clay's (my nephew) latest antics. She said she heard him crying and went to see what the matter was. She found him holding one of his thumbs with his other hand. She asked him if he had smashed his thumb, he said no. She asked him what was wrong, and he said, "my Aggie hurts!". Confused, she asked again what was wrong. "My Aggie HURTS!!!" he said. Still confused, my sister asked him to show her what hurt. Very frustratedly, he shoved his tiny hand in her face, thumb up in a Gig'em sign, and said, "my AGGIE HURTS, Momma!"



(For those of you unfamiliar with the handsigns of the Southwest Conference, click here)

Speaking of Aggies, I am officially a "card-carrying" member of the Aggie family now - I got my Aggie ring on the 13th! The Aggie Ring is the most recognized symbol of the Aggie spirit, and can be easily recognized from across a crowded room. I am very proud of it, and now, after only a week of wearing it, feel naked without it:





My very good friend Libby, who started graduate school the same semester as I did, also got her ring that day, and we had a grand old time doing Ring Day stuff.



Libby and I have shared a lot during our graduate school years, and I am very happy and very proud to have shared my ring day with her. My mom, Phil, Jamie Rae, Karla (and Arnie and Karla's dad) and Chelsey all came out to help us celebrate, as did Libby's husband and son. Sadly, I didn't manage to get any pictures with anyone but Libby! Terrible oversight on my part, and I'm very disappointed about that (no offense, Libby). It was a great day!

The lemon saga is over!

I got my car back about two weeks ago after having had it in the shop since January. It turns out that the problems I was having with it were due to a "bad" part that had been put in last summer when the air conditioner went out. On the one hand, Hooray! my car is fixed, but on the other, what the ??? Why didn't they catch that 8 months and 6K miles ago?

Anyway, I'm just glad to have my own car back.

The garden begins...

This weekend, I managed to put my garden in - well, most of it anyway. I planted beans, squash, okra, watermelon, cucumber, and "Early Girl" and cherry tomatoes. The big cage thing at the end of the garden is my bird-proofing for the tomatoes. I got smart this year and put it up before I planted the tomato seedlings.



The potted plants (mostly herbs) have been growing for a while, and are doing nicely:



I still have a few seedlings that are not big enough to go in the ground yet. There are several varities of herbs, hot peppers and beefsteak tomatoes:



The rows look really nice, but were a lot of hard work. Last year, I had a lot of drainage issues, especially in the larger upper part, but my neighbor, Roy, says that I won't have those problems this year.



Macy doesn't like the rows, though, because it isn't as easy for her to wander in the garden.



The only thing I am concerned about is whether or not the soil is really warm enough for the okra. That's the thing I look forward to the most. I am going to plant some more seeds in a few weeks in my Jiffy pellets just in case. Dave has never even heard of okra before, so I am especially looking forward to having a good harvest this year. Also, Jamie Rae says she has an amazing recipe for squash soup, so I'm hoping that this year won't be as wet and that the squash won't mold out again like it did last year.