NY, NY

We'll see it, in full color, on Sunday. But don't expect the iPhone to record such dramatic lighting in my blog snapshots.

The Giant Slide

On Saturday, our neighbor had her 4-year-old birthday party. Her parents are terrific -- they rented her a blow up slide that filled the back yard! Fortunately, Morgan was kind enough to invite me and Ned for a ride on the slide. Too. Much. Fun.

Saturday night at Crechale's

Good food, great company, PLUS we sang the birthday song three times in an hour. And the jukebox--wow. If we had a truck, we'd have offered to buy it and take it home with us: Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, Hank Snow...oh my! I can't believe we've not been to Crechale's before--it's exactly the kind of restaurant we love. Thanks for dinner!

In Jackson

Contemplating fish theft from MA's house. No laws were broken.

A Vicksburg Perk

Sunset over the Mississippi River.

Cheers to Marvin's Birthday!

Happy birthday to our brother-in-law from Texas!

A trip to Faulk's

Mary Beth went to our favorite garden store this week. We'll plant these just as soon as Sunday's cool weather passes. Chocolate mint has got to be good!

Lasseter Luck/Italian Fest Flashback

I didn't register to play "Bocce for Bucks" because I figured I'd just be throwing away $5. So I watched the competition from the sidelines and, after it was all over, I tried a roll just for fun. The object was to get the bocce ball in the circle. A ball on the line was acceptable. I rolled this from about 30 feet. And, of course, I hit the circle. Had I not been so cheap, I'd have won $200. Of course, then I'd probably not have hit the circle. Lasseter Luck.

Europe, here we come!

We thought that Ned's meeting was in London, but we were wrong. It's actually near Amsterdam. Whatever...it's all Europe. We booked tickets today: we have a flight into Amsterdam and a flight out of Paris, so we'll definitely see both of those cities. Everything else is up for negotiation after my stack of travel books arrives from Amazon. Woohoo!

Garden, Day Two

Newspapers are between the rows, for weed control.
Landscape fabric is in place. Tonight, zinnias are in beds and we have three hills of squash planted. We forgot to take photos of the herb garden, but we were in a hurry this afternoon. There was home brew to bottle and a GREAT neighborhood cookout tonight. Thanks, ladies!

The garden begins

Mary Beth sprayed the Round-Up last week, thus the dead grass. It made for easier tilling.
Ned loads the year's worth of compost to the tarp for hauling into the garden. We think it saved us from buying about 20 bags of dirt...not bad.
After tilling, Ned forms rows. On Sunday, we'll add landscape fabric and a few plants (we're planting in stages this year.) Back by the shed, you'll notice MB's news herb garden. Close up photos to follow tomorrow. For now, we're tired and very sore. Who knew some of these muscles even existed before today?

Incredibly clean feet, for having just grape stomped

Dinner at Sandy's

Great company. Fabulous food. Fun Thursday in Vicksburg. Thanks, Sandy! And, though MB missed ND in the NIT, I was able to catch up on the W here.

Happy 2nd Anniversary, Sarah & Brian!

Patrick's coming for a visit!

MB went grocery shopping today in preparation for baby brother's
arrival. Ned's excited, too. The cabinets haven't been stocked with
this much guy food since he's been married! Move over, yogurt.
There's beer for the fridge.

Supper tonight

Broiled flank steak, bean salad, asparagus. Yum.

Italian Fest Fun

Grape stomping in Cleveland

We await the results from the second round competitors. We stomped a respectable 7 cups, second place, in our round.

Call us "Team Micelli" (it kinda sounds like Mitchell)

Tonight, Ned and I are driving to Cleveland. Cleveland, Mississippi, of course. We're looking forward to awesome spaghetti, visits with friends and family, and -- hopefully -- a championship in the Italian Festival's grape stomping contest. Photos to follow...

Marriage

We went to see a barbershop quartet tonight in Vicksburg. MB's on an advisory board and promised to help with the crowd. Then, since date night was underway, we went out for trashy Mexican (that's Mex food that's all cheese). Now, we're into the Tums and getting ready for bed
at 9:15. Ah, married life.

Upon return from travels

We found everything had sprouted! Everything, that is, but the peppers.

The UM gift bag pays dividends.

See this photo in Time magazine. See the handoff on my friend, Tom's, blog.

Ned left me for Florida today.

He's at the beach for a conference. I'm trying not to be jealous, but it's really hard.

Wasp Adventures

Unlike the beautiful Wasp of Marvel Comics, the wasps that have taken up residence in our attic are none too pretty. We just found them this morning, when we saw six hovering inside our living room windows. Seems they've been living in our attic, and today they decided to take a little trip down the AC vents to check out the downstairs. For more information on the Marvel Wasp, see here. She's got quite a story. For more information on our wasps, stay tuned. We're off to buy poison. Home ownership is OVERRATED.

Friday night on the porch

Thanks to photographer Olivia.

Favorite grocery sign ever

Somewhere, I forgot, Louisiana. What does that even mean, "Where prices are born?" It's like they loved the second part of the line so much it didn't matter if the first part made no sense. This is posted as I stand in line at the Vicksburg Post Office. 23 minutes and counting. Now 5 ahead of me. V,WTF?

Looking for plane tickets

Ned has a conference in London this May. This time, we were ready -- passports are in hand. Here we are searching for plane tickets. Anybody have suggestions on where to eat in London? No Hard Rock Cafe, please.

Gardening begins

Last night Ned and I planted all our little seedlings for spring.
We'll have peppers and tomatoes aplenty.