Like a pig

After a couple of months of me zigging when Bill was zagging, we're back in the garden together. Sweet.

Pop Quiz: How do you know your rosemary is out of control?
Answer: When you need a chainsaw to prune it.

We slaved like - well, slaves - this morning, freeing the granite from the rosemary's clutches, weeding, mulching and reducing the sumac thicket to what we laughingly consider a manageable size.

But here's the best part - we had a nice big pile from clearing the orchard and today was a burning day. By the time we were tuckered out from gardening, there was a bed of coals - I kid you not - six feet long and three feet high. We cut filbert suckers for skewers and sipped a cold beer while our sausages sizzled. A great horned owl lit on the top of the little fir tree, silhouetted against the western sky. It looked like a really big black cat (except for the flying part).

We went back long after dark and sat watching the sky and the glow of the coals. Even with fire-glazed eyes we saw the Milky Way clear across the sky. It was a nice respite from the thundering feline horde in the house, but we couldn't stay out too late. We think they've figured out how to use the internet and I caught Bungee with my credit card yesterday . . .

Breakfast at Tiffany's it ain't

I spent yesterday on a clear liquid diet and then spent the evening drinking ONE GALLON (I kid you not) of a product jokingly named "GoLYTELY", and then shitting my guts out. The prize for all this was getting a colonoscopy this morning (good report!). I am, of course, overdramatizing (blame the anesthesia) - it's not really terrible, just mildly undignified. Luckily, as we age, we learn a) to maintain a modicum of dignity at the worst of times and b) to care less and less about maintaining a modicum of dignity.

And the hits just keep on coming

So, as I said, the wedding was a romp, a rollick, a fest o' good spirits. The day after, we woke feeling smug and laughed about having a blank calendar ahead of us. That lasted about an hour. Then our sneaky firstborn and her equally sly husband, who had been keeping the secret for three months, finally got to tell us we'd be grandparents in the spring!

One minute I'm smiling over one couple; the next I'm grinning over the other; and then I laugh out loud because life is good.