It’s basically rained for two weeks, so it was super nice of the sun to come out and for everything to bloom and be lush and green for homecoming. The wildflowers just blew up in the front and back yard this week, and some late blooming gladiolas are really providing a nice pop. I’ve got a keg of Fat Tire on the back deck, lots of good eats in the kitchen, about a dozen people with dozens more coming, and there is going to be a shindig here tonight. I’m super pleased everything looks good.
Chat with you all later.
MobiusKlein
What is rain?
eclare
The house and yard look great!
NotMax
Willow tree is too close to the keg.
/somebody had to say it
ruemara
It looks really lovely. Very Americana.
Also, quite the batch of possibly decent news to close out the day.
NotMax
Curious as to what is that flag. Republic of Tiedyenia?
Patricia Kayden
Have a great time at your shindig. Sounds like fun. It’s supposed to be a nice weekend here in the DMV — no rain and lots of sunshine.
Dorothy A. Winsor
This is the second and last time today I’ll announce that The Wind Reader is officially released today. Twitter synopsis: Street kid accidentally tells true fortune for the prince and is dragged into the castle to be the royal fortune tell and stop an assassination plot. Good news? Food and warm bed. Bad news? He can’t tell fortunes.
Thanks for your patience.
?BillinGlendaleCA
There are rumors that it might rain here next week, I put off taking the Prius* to the car wash just to be on the safe side.
*Actually the Toyota dealer owes me a car wash, but they’re up in the hill country.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden:
Every time you folk from that area say “the DMV”, the first thought is that you live at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
frosty
@Patricia Kayden: I’m sorry, I’ve lived and worked there and DMV is just dumb, and yes, it already means Dept of Motor Vehicles. Why can’t you just call it the Tri-State Area like every other TSA in the country? //
khead
So, my wife’s bro is in a hospital in south Jersey. When we got the call last night it scared the hell out of us last night to the point where Mrs. Khead went to AC today. The docs first thought he had a blood infection but it turned out to be a blood clot in an artery leading to his colon. So, he’s ok but headed to surgery eventually. Here’s the cool thing tho – he works for Chickie’s and Pete’s (if you live near Philly you know) and made sure a shitload of food was delivered to all of the folks taking care of him.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Obligatory.
;)
eclare
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Same here! Especially since I need to go there to renew before next Wednesday.
debbie
The back yard must have dried out very quickly.
debbie
@NotMax:
A variation of this.
Gin & Tonic
I have studiously avoided the “news” yesterday and today – it helped that I had an important deadline – but it feels good. And after today’s rain it is supposed to be clear and beautiful for the next few days, which makes Mrs G&T’s and my planned long (anniversary) weekend in the Finger Lakes looking really good. No major plans, just sightsee and drink wine, and probably bring home a couple of cases. Oh, and several more days of trying hard to ignore the “news.”
trollhattan
@MobiusKlein:
“Water from the sky.” AS IF.
debbie
@debbie:
This is the one I like the best. When they first appeared, the signs were up by the house and I couldn’t read them. I thought it might be some sort of jingoistic retort to John’s sign, but when I finally came across one closer to the sidewalk, I almost wished I had a yard.
Gin & Tonic
While most of us, I think, are pleased for you as well, I can’t help but note that none of us seem to have been invited to this “shindig.” Probably an inadvertent oversight on your part, right?
debbie
Alas. No reading comprehension today.
geg6
Sounds nice, Cole. And the house is just lovely. And I agree about the weather. So sick of rain! And so happy to see some sun.
The stress of the week has really taken a toll on me and this, while still trying to get over whatever respiratory virus I had almost three weeks ago and which hangs on forever, apparently. I’m going to try to relax, have a glass or two of wine and watch as many episodes of Season 1 of Downton Abbey until I can fall asleep.
Aleta
Nice colors.
rikyrah
House looks lovely. Have a great shindig ??
Mary G
Your fucking old house has turned into a home. I know you will be grouchy about all the people being around, but I suspect you will manage to have a good time.
Aleta
Is there a service that will bring hot springs to my house this weekend?
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
I was holding together pretty well until Shouty Drunk Daddy testified yesterday. That set off a totally separate set of bad memories, which was tons of fun. ?
Oh well. Going out to dinner with G tonight and then a lazy weekend. The following three weekends all have writing stuff happening, so busy but fun.
daize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thank you for letting us know of the release. It’s already on my Kindle!!
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
It was so horrible. How can they even think of considering such a person to be on the Supreme Court?
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: Your Drunk Daddy theme got me going, too. My father was an alcoholic prep school-to-Yale kid as well – same class as George H W Bush. And he could get shouty, and pissy, and arrogant and snotty as hell when he was drunk – he lost both friends and positions that way, until he went into rehab and got himself straightened out. But I tell you what – he would NEVER have pulled a scene like that. Never. He would have been revolted by Brett Kavanaugh – he really believed in that “conduct becoming an officer and a gentleman” code, and he would have considered weeping in self-pity and lashing out with nutty conspiracy theories to be beneath him, and indeed beneath any man of his social standing.
funlady75
unlurking….your home looks good .
C Stars
Nice house! Wish I was going to a party there tonight. Instead I’ll be cleaning my my grungy-ass house and trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. Pity party!
CliosFanBoy
Last week our youngest dog Sonia had an operation to remove a small, hard lump from an anal gland. The surgeon told me it was most likely cancer, noting “I’ve not seen one that wasn’t.” Today we got the lab report. Negative, it’s NOT cancer!!!! Thanks for the good thoughts. Having lost our eldest, Rocco, in late August, I wasn’t ready to handle that.
CliosFanBoy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I prefer DelMarVa
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
My dad was not a true alcoholic, but he was a problem drinker in social situations, probably because of his untreated depression and anxiety. He could have booze in the house with no problem, but if he went to a party, especially if he was already under stress, it was a bad situation. Lots of yelling and pretending to be asleep so we kids didn’t get yelled at, too.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Willows in the blog are closer then they appear.
Mnemosyne
@CliosFanBoy:
Phew — glad it was good news!
TenguPhule
@Aleta:
Those are called volcanoes.
NotMax
@Aleta
Only available as a package deal including a troop of snow monkeys.
:)
EricNNY
Beautiful John Cole.
dp
@eclare: Yes they do!
JanieM
@debbie: @NotMax: I thought NotMax meant the flag hanging from the porch post, not the poster thingie stuck into the ground.
*****
JC, the house looks like it’s from a storybook. Lovely job. Every time I see pictures of it I want one, then I remember the work…… (I live in an apt. at the moment.)
NotMax
@JanieM
Yes.
Redshift
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I grew up here, and I agree. “The DMV” is relatively new (widely used for ten years at most), and I hate it.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@CliosFanBoy:
Not the same thing. The DMV (DC/MD/VA) refers to the greater Washington metro area. Delmarva is the peninsula containing parts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. It starts about 50 miles east of Washington at its closest.
Redshift
@Steeplejack (tablet):
And that’s why we used to call it the DC area, until somebody decided it would be cute to mix it up with the Department of Motor Vehicles.
stinger
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s on my Kindle!
stinger
House and grounds look super nice and welcoming, John. Have a great party!
dnfree
I like the porch railing, and it is the appropriate height for the age and style of the house. Our last house was a Victorian, and when we re-did the porch, current building rules called for the porch railing to be 42″ high, so people don’t back up and fall over it, apparently. We thought it over and decided to put in a railing that looked right and just wait for the city or someone to come around and complain. No one ever did, and it’s still there 20-some years later.
Duane
I’ll be there about midnight Cole. You can go to bed if you want, just leave the back door unlocked and don’t drink all the beer. Set a shovel out and I’ll move that willow tree.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Sounds a bit like the plot of the classic 1959 Malay film comedy Nujum Pa’ Belalang.