birthday dinners

As a former home-schooler (daughters now grown), I am now teaching French to a local lass who is being home-schooled on the internet.
I think it is impossible to learn a language this way. You need to hear it and more than mechanical voices. Anyway, we have been having fun and I am amazed at how much French I have retained after more years away than I will ever admit to!
So we were sitting in my dining room conjugating the verb être, when in walks eldest daughter. The one who no longer lives at home. She has come over to cook a dinner for her god-mother's bachelor brother for his birthday. I have just spoken with said god-mother and was under the impression that this meal would include strip steak. ED had also just spoken with her and was under the impression that lasagna was on the menu. As Eldest Daughter said 'it's as if my phone has a filter on it that when I say one thing, she hears another!'
So she made the lasagna and took it an a birthday cake over and birthday boy seems VERY happy. so I guess the confusion was worth it! Always nice when we can do something for someone else, isn't!?

The potatoes and radishes have sprouted. Pumpkins, squash, and cukes went in yesterday, along with the tomato and pepper plants. We tried to start our own plants this year. Back in Feb. but NO luck. A few sprouted but nothing matured enough for transplanting. I wonder what the secret is?

planting

OK, I'll bet we are not the only ones expanding our garden. It is a little ironic, since for the last several years we have been shrinking it. But I have a fruit cellar and I know how to can and freeze and otherwise preserve quite a few things, so we are expanding again.
My peas are about to blossom and the onions look great. No sign of potatoes yet, but they are in the ground. Last night TheaterTech, TT, and I planted the other root veggies, beets, carrots, radishes, that sort of thing. It was the worst time planting I have ever had. And I have seen a few seasons!
The bugs were voracious! On a whole bugs ignore me and I ignore them. They have their job, I have mine. But last night they were going for ME and I have the welts on my face to prove it! I have hiked, camped and traveled in swamps and never used repellent. If they wanted their few drops of blood, ok they had to live too. BUT last night was the worst. At one point I went to brush something from my chin and my hand came away like a war victim! Blood everywhere! This is more than the agreed upon drop!!
TT went out this morning to water the rows we planted and was back in minutes hollering for the bug spray. Took some searching, but finally found some from who knows when. Hope it helps him.

playing with words

One of the things my offspring and I have enjoyed doing is creating parodies of our favorite songs. We also enjoy listening to great parodies (Yay "Weird Al" Yankovich) So my place of employment is having a competition to write a parody of one of 25 well-known tuns from the 50's to the present to exemplfy the company's mottos, programs etc.
These are easy songs, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, or American Pie are 2 of the chosen. So I doodled for a few moments and wrote one to American Pie. A colleague was also attempting to write something and she couldn't believe I had done something that quickly. It got me to thinking.
I play with words all the time. I once wrote a weekly column for a newspaper. I have kept a diary for 37 years, I have a spiritual journal and now I am blogging. I just enjoy playing with words. Getting my thoughts on paper (at least metaphorically!) is almost therapeutic for me.
I am not funny like the blogger at 2Thinks to Share (who is great by the way at http://www.isanotherday.blogspot.com) nor necessarily deep. But I am trying to share with my heart and soul. With honesty
No one really cares. And I don't have a lot of followers. But I write for me. When I wrote for the public I did trivia - so you may see some of that here. I just haven't decided.
Meanwhile...thanks for reading.