What did you get for High School Graduation?

So, what did you buy with your high school graduation money? I'm rather embarrassed to admit, but I bought a Walkman. Pretty cool for 1983, huh? It served me well at Carleton.... especially late at night.

So here's an amusing BBC article about the Walkman 30 years later...

Hobbled Runner beats me to it

Once again, the Hobbled Runner beats me to a post. Granted, he took this picture, so I guess he can post it first!

It's true... there are tomatoes growing right by my roses. And I did go a bit crazy and have way too many tomato plants. So, these are in pots out in front.

Any good answers to his question of why the edible stuff has to be in back??

They do come in threes, don't they?

What a week. Granted, Ed McMahon was old, Farrah had a terminal illness and there's already talk of Anna Nicole similarites with Michael Jackson's death, but still, to lose so many of our childhood icons at once.

I remember feeling so grown-up when I would stay up and watch Johnny Carson when I was babysitting. (it was that or Dick Cavett, no cable around there in those days!). I may not have always understood their joking in my younger years, but there was always something comforting about seeing Ed and Johnny spar.

And Farrah, gee, she married the six-million dollar man, remember? And I sure wasn't a big poster buyer or anything, but you couldn't doubt the power of those Angels, even though she was only one for a year. And I lived in Texas back then. Her influence on hair in those years was legendary.

Oh, I think we all have already missed the little boy Jackson was. But during my French class trip to France senior year, the biggest homesick moment came while hearing "Billie Jean" over the speakers at Les Halles while shopping. He was definitely a worldwide sensation at that time.

I Won, I Won!!!

I think the karma from my fertile plots buddies has rubbed off -- I won a Firstreads book from Goodreads today! I have entered in the past - probably 5 or 6 times, but never won. Just went after Julie won and entered again -- and won! So I attribute it all to you!

Book will be interesting: An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town. Given the fact that Julie won a YA book, and I won a, what, historical travel something or other type book, there must be some sort of formula they look at..... ok, so I did "enter" to win this book, but still.... curious!

Will let you know how it is!

I love my library!

So, I'm about halfway through my free Erec Rex book, and it's great - Harry Potteresque, but not at all a pale imitation. I'll post a full review on Goodreads when I'm done. Today I stopped by the library (to pick up the 5th Percy Jackson book, yeah!) and told the librarian about Erec Rex, and how surprised I was to find out that there is only one copy of the first book in the seriesin the county system, and the second in the series isn't in the county system at all. A few keystrokes later, they had ordered a copy of each, plus pre-ordered the third book, coming out later this month. Isn't that great??

More Rain Optimizing...

I know I've blogged about my rain garden in the past, and probably have even posted a picture of this Lupine before, but it's so cool I'm going to post it again.

It's the first color in the rain garden in the summer. It's lovely. And this year, it's got purple flowers to go along with the pink. Very interesting. I may have to investigate why.

Last year, this plant got me a spot on the Friends School Plant Sale blog. The picture here is that same plant... and I'm going to send the Plant Sale people another picture and see if they know why it's purple. I'm thinking perhaps it's a cultivar that's reverting???

Rain Barrel - Finally!

I have been wanting to install rain barrels for a few years, and we finally did! They are not the fancy kind from gardeners.com, but they are recycled food barrels. No idea what originally came in them!

It was not a difficult task, but we are not very handy around here, so it was a bit of a project. It seemed a bit odd to be sawing off perfectly good gutters... but it was for a good cause. John tackled the project and even wrote about it.

Now, we just need some RAIN to test them out!!

Lucky

Well, a mere week or so after being made aware that there are giveaways at Goodreads, guess what...I won one! Thanks J and J, for telling me about this! Not only that, it was something that I had seen a while ago and had thought might be a good candidate for A's reading list as well as mine. Now it's out in paperback, and I'm getting a free copy! The Dragon's Eye is the first of the Erec Rex YA series.