Well, I started out so happy that spring was here... I relished the first warm days and of course, overdid yard work to the point of exhaustion... I have found several ticks already and experienced the joy of 1/2 hour of tick removal from the back of my arm. Now I can see why I am the family member that went into the medical field - it is definitely not Jerry's forte. I sincerely hope that the times I have removed ticks from our dog Pip that it has not been that painful or traumatic.

Do they make "Frontline' for people?

My spring happiness seems to have been short-lived. I think a lot of it has to do with the turmoil at work - it is hard to enjoy the rest of your life when you have such upheaval in other areas... and it is havoc that was not anticipated or welcomed. How can a change in management make a 'living hell' for 40 nurses lives? Well anyway - the asparagus is up - and it just doesn't taste very good... The lilacs are out - but the purple ones are getting old and scraggly - this will probably be their last year; and I just don't feel as excited about the white ones... (Does that make me a lilac racist?). I was able to bring in a sizable bouquet of the purple - and the smell buoyed my spirits for a few days - Those were then replaced by the delicate, lovely scent of a few tiny lily-of-the-valley bouquets... Now if I can just get some peonies to grow in our yard the trifecta of my favorite spring flowers will be complete. No one can say I am a 'high-maintenance' woman - I would have those 3 flowers (or daisies) over roses any day! I really actually dislike the smell of roses...

I have searched high and low the past 4 springs for morels in our yard. I was so certain that our 10 wooded acres would house one little area that those delicate morsels would want to live....No such luck! This year I wasn't going to waste my time or energy looking for that hidden treasure - and low and behold - THE most gigantic morels (almost 2 pounds of them) were growing about 20 feet outside of our back door! After much research - (I didn't want to kill us or inadvertently get us high) - I cooked up about $40.oo worth of the fungi for Jerry and I. Jerry loved them - but again my foul mood appeared - they just didn't taste as good as I remember them. All the anticipation - all of the 5 years of hope - and I really didn't enjoy them... Yes, they were rich and delicate - but nowhere near the orgasmic experience that I had imagined... Oh well - maybe the psychedelic mushrooms would have been better after all.