Journal

Hurricane Ivan is petering out over Alabama, and Hurricane Jeanne is likely going to miss the site of Tim's Birthday Golf Outing (or so I hope). And what comes next? K? That's right, when it gets upgraded from the Tropical Storm it currently is, Hurricane Karl will be on its way.

Jonathan doesn't like mustaches on men or cards - he specifically doesn't like the King of Spades and the Jack of Diamonds (they both face forward). I said, "but Jonathan all of the jacks have mustaches" - he said "not all of them". How many know which jack doesn't have a mustache? I certainly didn't. Jonathan said the jack of clubs doesn't have a mustache - sure enough he's right. Over the week we played multiple games of Sorry, Rummy, Junior Monopoly, Adult Monopoly, Perugo, Battle and started him playing Euchre with the help of others. And Pat taught him how to play Five Card Draw which was his game of choice if Pat was around. For the most part, if Jonathan is awake he wants to play a game. We even had a continuing game of Adult Monopoly. Sometimes Kayleigh would join us by sitting on my lap and watching us.

Kayleigh is delightful with her big, wide grin and really funny when she laughs. She also has a spectacular yell. It was a fun, busy week and wonderful to see everyone on Saturday, have a pedicure on Tuesday and have an excellent lunch at Mezzaluna with Jennifer on Wednesday.

With a herculean effort, Pat has cleared out the weeds, debris and rock behind the granary. He made a wooden "sled" to load the rocks on and pulls it behind the Gator over to the increasingly big rock pile. The rocks are way to big for us to pick up together. It is looking very nice now behind the granary and Pat will be able to mow there. And he has completed the job despite an awful allergy from some unknown cause but definitely local because he was fine in Austin.

In the last two weeks, I have planted two Red Maple trees and one dogwood (I think that is what the trees are but I can't find my tree identifier that Arbor Day farms sent with my twigs a year ago), eight mum plants and a groundcover for the slope. We're still harvesting tomatoes and cucumbers.

Altho' not ready for a garden tour, the landscape is a vast improvement over four years ago - if one saw it before, they can really appreciate how it looks now.