"Dove Calming Nights Body Wash" So let me get this straight. The "body wash" and "soap" industries have convinced us that we need to shower every morning (despite the fact that medical research has proven that it is really bad for us to do so), and now they are promoting an evening shower? So you can sleep? Stop right here and think people. In the past 200 years how many cases of allergies were reported? Few, in fact very few. In the most recent 200 years how many cases of allergies have been reported? Millions. Why? Because an obsessive compulsion with bathing and showering has completely stripped the human body of all of its natural defenses... which is why there are so many allergies reported today. A child raised in a completely disinfected environment who is required to bathe every day has absolutely no, none natural defenses against alergins..none. Does anyone realize what these companies are doing to us? Everyone derides Europeans for not showering every day and yet the instance of allergies and disease in Europe is much less than it is in the US. Stop, think, these drug and soap companies are slowly killing you. Their entire agenda is to make you completely dependent on them, do not allow them to do it.

Do not decide to listen to a CD of common bird songs in your area when it is pouring with rain outside and therefore every cat you possess (ooops I'm sorry every cat that chooses to reside with you because it suits said cat at the moment), is in the house and sleeping on every horizontal surface BECAUSE when it comes to a one on one between cat teeth and claws and computer speakers, guess who wins?

I spent the morning in my vegetable garden, turning over and weeding my four raised beds and planting various veggies. (Including tomato plants, I am a mater racer of the first order, probably going to be running around like an idiot in a week or so covering them up to protect from a late frost.) It was wonderfully peaceful and not only felt but sounded like spring. The birds were merrily singing, and I would cock my head occasionally to try and identify a particular song. The male Red Bellied Woodpecker was heartily rapping on my metal gutter in an attempt to convince the females in the area that he is the hard-headed (literally) stud of the neighborhood and they would be simply nuts to pass him up. As the morning wore on lawn mowers, sleepy from their long winter hibernation, sputtered into life all around me, as neighbors prepared to give their lawns their first haircut of the year. Cabbage white butterflies danced in the air, looking for some unsuspecting cabbage to lay their eggs on, and occasionally stopping to feed from the bright yellow wild strawberry flowers. I made a mental note to plant some mustard for them, their caterpillars love it. To my utter delight and surprise I saw two Eastern Tiger Swallowtails sail above my head. Their flight is not supposed to begin until May. My instincts were right, it is going to be a good year for butterflies. In my turn around the garden I noticed that Spring was truly upon us. Hosta plants, always a sign of the times, are pushing their spikes above ground having hunkered down beneath the soil all winter. My Elephant Ears, a plant I am told I can not over-winter here, are again coming up for their fifth year, bigger and better than ever. And, the most joyous harbinger of Spring, the apple blossom and my prized Lady Banks rose are blooming. I had lusted after a Lady Banks for years and last year I finally managed to find one (wouldn't you know it, this year they have dozens of them for sale at Lowes.) Almost as if by request, this afternoon we had a heavy rain storm, which saved me the chore of watering in all the plants and seeds that I had planted. In short order I should be harvesting fresh radish and baby lettuce leaves for home grown salads, which are so superior to the store-bought kind they are almost beyond comparison. Come summer, when the temps are reaching the upper 90s, and when I sink my teeth into a tomato still warm from the sun, I will remember this day, the most perfect Spring day when I listened to the Earth wake up, and I, like the birds just reveled in the season.

So yesterday evening I came home from work, tidied up as I usually do, put away a load of laundry, packed my husband's bags for the next couple of days, and did some dishes. I then sat on my patio, in the screened gazebo, with a nice glass of wine and chilled. (a large glass of wine that is, I am a large glass of wine type of girl, ask anyone who knows me). So the boxers came out to join me and shortly thereafter Lucky came out to join us all and sat, quietly, minding his own business, under the patio table. At some point, Cueball took it into his pea sized brain to attack Lucky. This is a stupid thing to do on two counts a) Cueball hardly ever wins, Lucky with his much longer and sharper teeth almost always gets the better of Cueball's saggy jowels and any blood that is involved comes from Cueball, and b) Cueball knows that the result is going to be me grabbing him by the collar and dragging him off which results in him being put in some sort of "jail" for an hour or so. In any event, before I could get my hand under Cueball's collar he managed to knock over the patio table on which of course was my very large glass of red wine (Yellow Tail Shiraz-Cabernet) so the patio table went one way and the glass of wine went the other, landing for the most part on Cueball's back. Once Cueball had been dragged off to "jail" I realized that he had been the recipient of the entire glass of very red wine all over his back, and he was, not to put too fine a point on it, now purple. So I have a purple boxer. I have thought about bathing him but you know, I think he should be required to suffer being purple for a while considering his transgressions, I think that perhaps walking around like a purple poof for a while will do him the world of good. Of course, that is making the assumption that Cueball actually thinks about anything, and the jury is still out on that one.

but my husbands kids want more photos on the web that they can use as wallpaper on their computers in husband's office.... so forgive me for this indulgence.... I give you the West Columbus High School Marching Vikings, the best band in North Carolina as far as I am concerned but then again I am a little biased to say the least...:)