A Good Way To Waste An Hour On A Frosty-Sunny Morning

The transmission is acting funny in our pink Explorer again...

And it's a good thing, too.

Because if it was in full form, Cory would not have taken it for a test drive last night.

And if he hadn't taken it for a test drive, he wouldn't have noticed all of our neighbors covering their flowers and trees...

When he arrived back home, we sprang into action, covering everything that breathed - so to speak.

9 toddler fruit trees
2 nearly infant lilac trees
Scads of perennials
The odd perennial herb, or two
6 Surprise Rosebushes
3 Fully-Expected Rosebushes

You get the point.

I was a sheet-flinging fool.

I tucked my babies in tight whilst humming "Onward Christian Soldier" and willed them to stay strong.

(I also resolved, just like last year, to buy some $1 sheets at the thrift store rather than hauling out the good stuff every time Old Man Winter pulls a fast one.)

The early morning found us outside, crunching around in the frost to unwrap our sleeping beauties.

Cory said we would need them again tonight, so I decided to hang them on the line to dry until later.

If you know me at all, you know I loved this excuse to hang some sheets.

I don't know what it is about me and clotheslines....

Incidentally, by a showing of hands, who has literally been clotheslined by a clothesline?

Happens to me at least twice a Summer.
I'm a little disoriented, right at first. Then I'm kinda annoyed. Then...I laugh. Every time.

Today, before I knew it, I had plumb run out of room on the lines.

And I ended up firing my assistant. She wasn't as helpful as I had hoped. If she's honest, she'll just come right out and admit that she misrepresented her skill-set during the interview.

She seemed to take her unexpected loss of employment in stride.

Hey, if you're going to find yourself jobless, you might as well be wearing footie jammies and imitation Crocs when you hear the news.