What's blooming?

We're at the time of year where there is so much going on in the flower beds that I can't even name all the things that are in bloom. I think I need to spend some time with L's flower charts to give a full account.

Our three years of careful weeding appear to have paid off totally this year. Sure, some things have grown out of place, but the bulk of the front parkway is currently full to capacity and there are several places where there are actually little tableaux of blooms: some going full blast, others with set buds. One of these has blood red peonies in front of the silver-green ground cover that has white flowers on six inch stalks (we have a lot of this and I have no idea what it's called). Behind the peonies are irises that are starting to open. And next to the irises on one side is a desert rose that is starting to set its flowers. Behind all that are the shasta daisies that will close out our summer as everything else starts to brown. Money plants are scattered here-and-there in this whole area. Amazingly: the daffodil greens are now almost completely hidden in this area. I barely had time to deadhead them in the past couple weeks as the greenery of all these other plants has filled in.

No wonder there were so few weeds there: there's very little bare ground for their seeds to fall.

What's also blooming is my excitement about China. What's not so cool is that I am starting to feel overwhelmed by preparations. I've been approved to hire a temp, but now I've got to fill the position and get them trained up. This in addition to school and the regular work load, which in the past couple months has included a new committee. I persevere, but it has not been the most pleasant part of my career.

Sunday night junk food

I'm a little disturbed sometimes by the amount of frozen junk food that we eat. I was feeling snacky, and L finished the salsa, so I just pulled a bunch of taquitos out of the toaster oven and am dipping them into sour cream and sirachi sauce. Don't ever accuse me of being a food snob.

The only bit of snobbery I still cling to is for malted adult beverages. hmmmm...ESB.

I gave up any pretense of serious studying about a half hour ago. Nothing like proofreading your last will and testament to make you want to, er, each frozen junk food dipped in sour cream and drink beer? Anyway, it seems like a good time to get the house in order, and the envelope had been sitting on the coffee table for several weeks unopened. (Although L claims to have opened it previously.) So now it's catching you up with our happenings.

Even though the China trip is funded and applications have been accepted, there's still a heckofalotta paperwork to go through. Sent off a fax earlier today. Still need another round of shots. And I have to get the bill paid. But the plane ticket is bought!!! And two Chinese librarians have responded to Hui's posting to a bulleting board--so I might have a conversation partner waiting for me at BeiDa.

What's Bloomin':

• Lilacs (first time in 4 years. It's all about the pruning.)
• Tulips (almost finished)
• Camilias (still hanging in there, but dropping hard)
• Money plants (just starting)
• Azalea (wow! It's super showy this year.)

the irises are starting to set their blossoms, the rhodies look like they'll pop anytime, and there's all sorts of other things that are threatening. Look out May!

Where the action is.

It's at work these days. Dang am I busy.

Remember the hand-held game where you would move numbered tiles around by sliding each one into an empty space: essentially moving the empty space around? I feel like that's been my life with a new committee I've been working with. I find myself standing in the middle of a big room scratching my chin mumbling to myself "if we put the hamsters in this corner, we can put the monkeys in that closet over there, then there will be room for the kitties."

What's worse is that I've been doing it with my regular duties as well as I am inheriting a little bit of space and need to shift a whole lot of stuff around. I hate making mistakes when doing shifts. The wasted time is really hard to take since it's such a precious commodity.

The new quarter sees me making more of an effort to keep up the geographical writing. Leaving to do fieldwork in 11 weeks gives me quite a bit of imperative to write as well. Got to get organized.

A big shout out this week to Informant A and his posting of my requests to a Chinese language message board. The responses have started rolling in, although I'll be damned if I can read them. But I'm starting to know how to order food in a restaurant. 家常豆腐 anyone?