It’s always nice when you leave the house and have a nice surprise waiting for you. It bodes well for the rest of the day!
Sadly, our sunflower has gotten so heavy, it’s tipping over. But it definitely gave me a great view of this praying mantis.
I found out what those monstrous plants are growing in my front yard. Castor beans! And do you know that the castor bean is one of the most poisonous plants in the world?
In my pictures of the plant you can see little spiky pods by the flowers.
Inside each pod are three beans. Eating two to three beans is all it would take to kill you.
I mentioned a while back that I (oops!) planted some unmarked seeds near the front of my yard and they turned out to be giants. I think (hope) the plants have reached their full height now so thought I would share how crazy huge they have gotten.
At my sister’s baby shower, the one for which I made my kick butt banner, my mom and sister also stepped it up with the crafty skills. We were all very self-congratulatory about how awesome we made everything look. And why not?
My mom and sister made some great cake pops.
My mom made a great diaper cake.
My sister made a wonderful vegetable “pizza.”
My mom mixed some delicious fruit punch.
And we had a super cute clothesline* full of baby outfits along the one window.
I don’t want to speak for either my mom or sister, but I think the key to creating a cute atmosphere for a shower is to be completely paranoid that you’ll host a dud event. We all pulled from a resource of girly skills I’m pretty sure we didn’t know we had. And the result was beautiful!
* Before leaving for the shower I mentioned to Wonder Boy that I needed to grab our clothespins. He got all excited and told me to stay put. He ran upstairs and came back with these adorable bird clothespins. Apparently he bought them for me last Christmas but held them back as a gift because they took him over our spending limit for gifts. A wonderful August surprise gift!
Last night I attended the Neko Case concert and it was wonderful. Okay, so maybe it was the My Morning Jacket concert, with opening act Neko Case. I know where my allegiances are and why I attended the show and it had nothing to do with My Morning Jacket. A while back I saw the New Pornographers live and Neko was playing with them. I used the concert to be able to cross “See Neko Case” off of my 100 list but that was sort of a lie. The concert was okay but the sound was terrible and she was so quiet. It was not at all the Neko I wanted but I adore her so much that I gave myself the event.
Now my friend Ronald Reagan says that when I went to Morocco several years ago and gave myself the continent of Africa that it was a lie because I didn’t stay overnight in the country or continent. I think that’s absolutely absurd. Delicious and I experienced complete culture shock, a lot of which was due to the dramatic differences in sexual equality between there and here. While it was a short visit, it had a huge effect on me and I got more out of that day than I have from much longer trips to other places. (The argument is a moot point now that I’ve been to Ghana.) If Ronald Reagan had called me out on Neko being crossed off my list, that would have been a real discussion and I might have admitted being wrong. Which I don’t do often.
But people, last night I not only SAW Neko Case, I was like 12 feet away from her. And it was beautiful. She was beautiful. Her voice was beautiful. I wish my phone took better pictures so I could illustrate what I saw better but this will have to do.
I don’t think this picture makes it look like I was as close to the stage as I was, but you’ll just have to trust me on that.
Some entertaining points about Neko’s set:
My Morning Jacket was good. Very good. But I was so relieved when Wonder Boy said he was ready to go. By the end of the show, I just hurt.
The sound on this video of Neko Case from last night is better. Because I didn’t take it.
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