Sunday, June 05, 2005

Grand Old June Sunday

I feel such giddiness about having a blog. For today, at least, my second day in publication (Is that what you say? Probably not. I'm really green to this and part of my sense of accomplishment is actually just having been able to figure out how to do it at all.) I'm feeling a little obsessed. Everywhere I go, I think, "I have a blog." It's a little like having a new love in my life. And I also look around me, wondering, "Does he have a blog? Does she have a blog?" As if there were some secret society of which I've become a secret member. I suppose this is probably true.

Went with the family to St. Paul's primo beginning-of-the-summer event--Grand Old Day, a huge street festival with a parade, bands, and the first taste of Minnesota's beloved fried State Fair food. We saw a lot of the parade. The low point for me was the huge entourage in green supporting our traitor of a mayor Randy Kelly, a supposed Democrat who supported Bush in the November election. That he even has the nerve to run again as a Democrat makes my blood boil. Mr. Kelly himself was present at the parade. I steeled my gaze and stared through him as he walked by, the bravest I could muster in the form of a political statement. The high point of the parade? I suppose it was the Macalester College bagpipe band. They're pretty cool to hear. I'm not all that much of a parade booster, though. It was OK.

Then we headed over to the kids' area, where my son got a heel blister sliding down an inflatable slide thing called "Ironman," which ruined the event for him. He sat nursing it in a corner with my husband while I accompanied my daughter on the pony ride and to a petting zoo. We managed to extricate ourselves as the sun became quite hot and the kids crabby--and no, we didn't even eat any Fair food (my husband and I have lived in St. Paul for fourteen years and we've never even been to the State Fair, but that's a topic for another day, perhaps).

At home I decided to do a little gardening. We bought our house in October, and the yard has lots of trees, shrubs, plants, plenty of weeds, but also many gifts from the previous owners--peonies, hosta, purple yarrow, coneflowers (not blooming yet), some roses (one that didn't make it through the winter that I've already replaced with a wild rose that needs no special winterizing), rhubarb up the wazoo, Japanese iris, and my most-prized acquisition, a jack-in-the-pulpit, tucked under a very tall old white pine out front. I've always enjoyed gardening in a lazy unaccomplished sort of way. Today I went outside, took a few pictures to post here, and decided to mow the lawn rather than deal with the weeds. And then it started to rain before I finished the front, but all in all it was a pleasant afternoon. Now my thoughts must turn to Monday, and work obligations, and the fact that I have to fly to Chicago Tuesday afternoon through Saturday.

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