Hi to everyone, and happy day before the 4th of July. Things have been busy and time has been flying by so quickly I can barely keep up with everything. I had friends visit, got busy busy at work, then family arrived.  I have skimmed through LJ as best I can, and I apologize to anyone who posted something mondo important to which I should have replied.

The Husband (westonochse) and I celebrated our fifth, yes, fifth wedding anniversary this past weekend. As I told almost everyone who asked or offered congratulations, "Yes, can you believe it? Five years and I haven't throttled him yet!" We spent the time at a swanky Tucson resort where The Husband manged to find an awesome deal, we ate (boy, did we EAT), saw Rise of the Silver Surfer (awesome), and even hiked in the very hot July sun on Sunday morning. We picked up the teenaged daughter for her summer visit by driving to Phoenix on Sunday evening (when she was supposed to have been flown into Tucson; boo on America West Airlines-- their treatment of passengers, particularly a 16 year old girl, goes so far beyond shabby that we weill never, ever, fly on them again). We now have Mom, Dad, nephew, daughter, and miniature Schnauzer staying with us for a bit. It's a houseful and actually great fun (yes, I really mean that). The look on Goblin's face when itty-bitty Finny grumbles at him is truly comical. Tomorrow we have a cookout planned with my Dad and a couple of work friends coming by to join in.

The menu:

• Citrus Orange Achiote Pulled Pork
• Chipolte Coleslaw
• Corn Pudding with Green Chiles
• Red, White & Blue Jello Triffle
• Von's Famous Deviled Eggs
• Whatever other yummy thing we find at the store.

Hardly any work on The Super Secret Project, despite having some time off work.  Really need to buckle down on that.  My good intentions just aren't getting me anywhere.

New pictures in some of the galleries:

    In the Dawgs Gallery, check out "Futility" and "Only If I Must."

    Life Shots has a picture of me and Dad, and me and The Husband's Blue Elvis.

    Arizona Stuff has a couple of shots of a new creature, and the latest update on the Cactus on Steroids.

    Friends has a couple of shots showing recent pals visiting.  Since we live so far away from everything, I have to import my pals, often from the east coast.  Shira comes from there, as do Marsha and Beth, while Michelle lives it up in the California sun.

Dad tells me he's adopted a little girl from the local animal shelter, a Russian Blue named Sushi (now there's a name for a cat!).  That's good news-- he's been lonely since cancer took Sugar several months ago.  Sushi is being spayed right now, and I can't wait to meet her and add her picture to the melting pot that's the Internet!

I'm not sure my self-imposed deadline thing is working.  I started with a bang, then began to get serious side effects regarding the dry eye problem, which is getting worse instead of better.  It's hard to concentrate on developing a character and plot when every time you blink it feels as though the edge of a knife is being dragged across the surface of your left eyeball (then add feeling like you have several sharp shards of sand in it besides).  We're going to try a call to the opthamologist tomorrow and see what, if anything, can be done to get our insurance to allow me to see him again... assuming such a visit would actually accomplish anything.  Eye drops burn and make the eye blurry, thereby making me even more cranky and miserable.  ::hmph::

In the meantime, the living things in the yard are enjoying the warm days and cool nights that have finally arrived.  A few pictures from the Spring 2007 Gallery:

  

  

There's more if you follow the Gallery link above-- I didn't want to bog down the LJ. 

The baby bunny?  It was in play-dead mode and our highly hunter-oriented dogs (especially Ghost, who theoretically has a much more developed sense of smell because she's deaf) literally walked right over it.  The only thing that would have been funnier would have been if they picked up their toes like it was a mud puddle.  The bunny could have fit in my cupped hand.

Upper right: Flying Saucer Cactus.  SEVEN blooms at once.  The cactus was much chubbier originally, and the blooms sucked everything out of it.  If you click on the photo, you'll note the stick I had to use to prop it up because it was literally bending in the middle from the weight of the blooms.  Oh, and at this point it was still in the way small pot we bought it in, because we were afraid transplanting it during the bloom would harm it.

Top left: Ghost.  She appreciates the flowers, too.

And finally, bottom right (no, I don't have to go in order, so there): CHERRY TOMATOES in our potted containers!  Three of them on this plant, one on another, buds on yet another.  And we have jalapeno buds on our pepper plant!  Clearly we need to buy 80 acres and start farming.

And overalls.  Yeah, we need overalls. 

...does not extend to everything.  Our inside plants seem to grow quite nicely, including a huge philodendron that I've had since 1981.  Of course, nothing on the inside is particularly difficult to grow, although The Husband (westonochse) recently brought a new palm into the household.  I'm hoping that does okay with my rather inconsistent watering.  One thing that is thriving is the little spidery-type (no, I can't remember its scientific name) cactus that is hanging in front of the kitchen window above the sink.  I bought it about a month and a half ago and it took until two weeks ago for me to find a hanging planter with which I was satiisfied.  It likes me, it likes its new home.  And today it showed me:


Check the gallery (link below) for another amazing close-up shot. 

While any citrus-type tree we bring home seems to be doomed from the start (and tomatoes don't fare much better), I can do okay with my three windowboxes full of herbs.  There are also other things that much appreciate our futzing over them:


And finally, I give you the Danger in Our Front Yard:


If you have a few seconds, there are more images in the Spring 2007 Gallery.  Each one can be clicked on and magnified mondo times (up to about 2200 x 1700), and some of the bloom shoots are just incredible close-ups.  I'm quite pleased with this little digital camera/video.  It appears it's good for more than Great Dane Videos. 

Wait-- is there life beyond Great Dane Videos??!