• I drifted off to sleep last night with the rumble of thunder and the roar of the wind outside my windows and woke up to a bright sunshiney day.  In my book, that is a win win situation!  I love thunder at night and sunshine during the day.  It's a winning recipe for making things grow and speaking of things growing, I managed to conquer the lawn over the course of a couple of evenings last week and I'm almost sure it will have to be done again very soon.  I am happy to report that twice now, I have even mowed the steep west ditch and that ditch has had me freaked out for a very long time.  Last year I would just leave it and hope that someone else would do it.  I would have accepted any random act of kindness but people just drove by.  Imagine that.  It did get mowed  a couple of times when it got to the point of driving my brother nuts when he would drive by.  He couldn't understand my fear of the dreaded ditch but it didn't take him long to realize my fear was quite real and nothing was going to change it....except time.  I plotted all winter, snearing at it when I would leave for work, telling it to look out because next summer was going to be different.  And different it is!  The first time I did it, I gritted my teeth and watched as my knuckles turned white on the steering wheel with each pass but the second time I was whipping my cap up in the air in a circular motion much like the cowboy that has conquered the bull....well, maybe not quite that bravely but I didn't grit my teeth as much and my knuckles stayed flesh colored.
• On May 27th Robin Crosby and her two daughters, Emilie and Maggie traveled to Salem Massachusetts to see Robin's brother, Dawson Mertz.  They had a wonderful time.  While in Salem they took a trolley ride, visited the House of Seven Gables, The Witch Museum and made a stop at Ye Olde Pepper Company which is the very first candy store in the United States.   Their journey was extended when they traveled to Boston.  While there they walked the Six Mile Freedom Trail, toured the USS Constitution, took the Duck Boat Tour, saw the Boston Marathon finish line, visited the Boston Museum of Science, Paul Revere's house on the Freedom Trail, checked out the "Cheers" bar that is now a restaurant and then walked through the north end which is reminiscent of Italy.  Their travels continued onto New York City where they appeared on the Today Show and actually got to shake Al Roker's hand.  They checked out the top of the Empire State Building, did the Double Decker Bus Tour of NY, went to the Museum of Natural History, saw the 911 Memorial, went to Time Square and attended the broadway play "Wicked."  Before leaving NY they also saw the Statue of Liberty.  They were able to make it to Hampton

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