time flies

another random picture of the cats--sera in a box, a big box.

time flies when you are doing other things...i haven't even put an entry in my regular journal...i have been going though fish guts and id-ing who is eating whom, but that gets old quickly. i have also been sewing...a bunch...i have been asked to demonstarate/teach a pattern i came up with, to two different sewing groups...as a class at the original place in june... www.cottonfieldsnc.com ...and in the rocky mount quilt guild in september! i can't believe it! i am so excited and a bit scared, but that is how my life goes.

one of my advisors has not given me a number grade, but 3/4 have passed me and so i will be getting a copy of the paper i need to have signed and get it signed to become a candidate. i will offically be a PhD Candidate after that occurs and then life will proceed in the manner it has been, but one hoop has been jumped and it leaves only a few (dozen) (not really) more. guts are the priority at the moment, i plan to teach next fall, so i need to get as many guts done in the next 4 months as possible, i think i have ~1,600 +/- left to do...no probem, right? well, i guess i need to give up doing anything else for a time, huh?

i have been reading a bunch of books on CD using my mp3 player, i love it--that is how i get through the guts, but my co-workers are constantly asking me questions and talking to me without getting my attention first and it frustrates the hell out of me and it pisses me off...who will learn first? i am not sure...i hope they do. i love listening to books. i need to get some books back to the library and also get some more...what fun!

the farmers market opened last saturday and i got the BEST strawberries-EVER-they are locally grown and yummy...got more on friday morning and we just need to get some more poundcake and then we are set...yummy! i didn't and still really don't like strawberries just plain, but these are really good and i will eat them all given the oppertunity, the ones at the grocery store are OK, but not as good...they are from CA, and maybe cheaper, but not as tasty...thinking about them makes my mouth water...i need to get/make some pound cake soon.

so, we have tons of goldfinches (boys and girls), brown-headed cow birds (boys and girls)(obligate parasites on other bird's nests, but they are preaty), nuthatches (?), morning doves (?), cardnals (boys and girls), some kind of sparrow, house finches (boys and girls), a wood pecker out front, a brown thrasher (way cool), the anole (lizard) chickadees, mocking birds (nest out front with 4 eggs) and bluebirds (nest box out back, also with 4 eggs)

got some plants too...some verbina (mint-like plant that will probably take over, but it is preaty with purple-white verigated flowers), carolina jasmin, creeping phlox (purple), and an aprocot-colored zinnia that the woman said i could dry the old flower-heads and plant them again next year--yea-- the wisteria was beautiful and huge this year, i think i will need to prune it back again, later. the azalias are huge and pink and the dianthis (simple, small carnations) came back this year and are growing like gangbusters and flowering all over the place (ok, just in 4 plants, but i am happy, i didn't think: a) they made it last year, and b) that they might be perenial). one of the fringe trees that fonda attempeted to kill (it was surrounded by weeds, so i can't fault her too much...) a few times in ohio, has seemed to survive the trip to NC and the transplant from one place to another...it seems to be off to a good leafy start at this point. i also planted a hydrangia last year, it is seems happy too, at least leaf-wise, so far. who knows what this year will bring in the plant department...the cactus and suculants managed to make it through the winter this time, i tried to kill some of the succulants last year...they are much more suseptible to drying than the cactus...surprise (not!)!

OK, enough for now...peace.