Smokin' grass and doing mushrooms

with my son and his friend Alexander...

over the campfire. Michael and Alexander went mushroom hunting. Michael did find one morel, but somehow it managed to get smashed and lost before they made it home. They did build a fire in the fire pit and tried roasting some frozen breaded mushrooms on sticks over the the fire. The breading burnt and the 'shrooms stayed frozen. So Michael heated a can of beans and they fire-roasted corn tortillas and ate beans and tortillas. I roasted hot doggies and enjoyed my carnivorous self. Michael got out his Mega Death hot sauce and Alexander ate an entire drop and survived. Alexander kept putting grass from my mowing on the fire so it was a pretty smoky affair. They also ran down to the park and filled their shirts with around a bushel of pine needles and REALLY did a smoky burn with those...

I did achieve a couple more items on my list today. I cleaned the front part of the house, including sweeping, which is rare for me, to be truthful. I also did something social, heck TWO. I answered the phone when someone called. My friend Deborah from Tennessee. We talked for fifteen or twenty minutes and got caught up. Her husband died a few months ago and she has had a really hard time coping with it and finally went back to work last week and wanted to tell me about it. She is going to go back full days tomorrow and is really excited. I am really happy for her. He was her life. They did everything together, EVERYTHING. She is feeling really good about being able to move forward and feels like she knows now that it is what he would want her to do. Also my friend Stephanie got a new puppy and I walked down to her house to meet the new puppy. She named her Molly, which is what I always thought I would name my next baby/ pet. It's a black "Labradoodle" which should be a nice, big doggy. Another big voice to add to the twilight bark in the neighborhood. YAY. Wait... Maybe I was social THREE times today. I also talked to Alexander's mother, Rebecca when she dropped him off. That's pretty good for me when I started out feeling so bitchy and hormonal! I could have hidden in my room, refused to answer the phone and ignored Michael and Alexander, too. I guess we should all applaud Excedrin Migraine formula and naps....

I didn't ever get out the sewing machine, however. I feel a little guilty about that, because I would like to solve the chalk falling out of the bag dilemma, but at least the table is cleaned off so if I choose to work on it this week it will be easier to start. I haven't called Renee either, about her stuff in the garage. I am not feeling well enough to be assertive, I guess.

Having the fire today made me want to have a party soon. I love summer parties with cookouts and fires and outside and in. It's much more difficult with no back door and making the deck pretty useless, but we manage anyway. time to start thinking and planning. I think I want to invite Alexander's family also and maybe another of Michael's friends and his family and try to add to my "party friends." Start to get a more diverse crowd. Sometimes I feel a little shy about it because they have more stuff than we do, but they all know I am a single income household and that is just life so I need to just get over it.

Happy today for: free rocks. Yesterday we went to one of the road cuts and brought home a a laundry basket and a milk crate full of limestone chunks. I put another layer around the edges of two of the garden spots. I have some more left and will do more, probably tomorrow. They sink in a little more each year, so need a little reinforcement occasionally. Plus, I want to start some areas by the corners of the driveways. I think we need to do another rock collection adventure. Then I can outline the areas I want to do by the driveways and do the thing where you put newspaper down to start killing the grass to make it easer to dig up. Then I can plant some cheap annuals this year and start thinking about putting some perennials in later.