The Kindness of Neighbors

Sorry for the blog break, folks. I've been one busy bee. And I'm addicted to Mafia Wars on FB (join my mafia!!).

On Saturday, my sister and I took a couponing class at the Grammaland campus of the university. I learned a ton about how to save big money from the lady who keeps this website. Then I left the kids with Megan so that I could host a party at my house.

Our good friend, John Paul, who I've talked about before, was in an independent film called Dead at the Box Office before he died in 2006. After 3 years, BJ and I thought enough time had passed that we could watch it, so we bought a copy, invited some friends, and had a blast. JP would've loved it.

Watching him act wasn't as emotionally hard as the gag reel. He used to quote movies all the time, and there was this one scene, a sound check, where he was doing Sean Connery from The Hunt For Red October. I had to go have a little cry in the bathroom after that, because it was him, you know? Watching him pretend to be someone else was different. He had different mannerisms and posture, even his voice was different... But for that one moment, I caught a glimpse of my friend as he really was, and I missed him terribly.

The audience, BJ, and I went to Denny's after that, and were out until nearly 2:30 am! We laughed a lot. It was just the kind of get-together that JP would've loved.

On Sunday, my sister met me halfway and we traded kids and cars back. The kids had a lot of fun and not much sleep, so Sunday was a bit of a behavioral nightmare.

My wonderful neighbors split all of the daylillies and hostas in their yard, and brought me a ton of mature plants to put in my front yard! They are so awesome!! I'll post pictures when they fill in a bit - right now they look a little disturbed. I hope they grow, because as I've posted before, nothing else does. All the stuff I put in last year? Dead. Even my phlox didn't creep. I got Crappy Phlox instead of Creeping Phlox, I guess.

I'm going to embrace my yard's shadiness and plant things, from now on, that have a chance at growing in the shade. I'm not sure that the lillies have a prayer, but we'll give it a go. Do you think I'd get in trouble with the cops if I put some grow lights on my front porch? It would be like an episode of Weeds.

My neighbors across the street were having a family party (their daughter's first communion) and the neighbor's brother came over when he saw me gardening and offered to help. He put in the entire front garden. I guess I was doing it wrong. It was so nice of him to help, but it was a little uncomfortable, so I kept making jokes about how I'd finally perfected my "damsel in distress" look, and maybe if I brought the laundry out to the front yard someone would do it for me. I gave him a couple glasses of rum punch, left over from the movie party, to fortify him, and the garden looks terrific. Or it will, when the plants stop being all droopy from being moved and stand up. I hope it fills in. If not, I'm going to just pave the entire yard.

The kids went to bed at 7 pm and stayed there (well, they snuck into MY bed, but they stayed asleep) until 9 am! It's totally hosing up our nap schedule today, but oh well. It was a nice break after a busy day!

Now I'm coming down with a cold so we're taking it easy today. I need another cup of tea, I think...