<p>SBmom - I’m glad you had fun at your 25th! Was it HS or College? I had my 25th HS reunion last fall, and it was a blast! Great that the weather cooperated for you.</p>
<p>Gladmom - thanks for the lesson in lawn care. I learn something new on CC everyday. Yesterday, I learned “The Llama Song” (posted by binx on the llama thread)…lol.</p>
<p>Oh you Northerners, quit bragging about your first lawn mowing… we are well into the “crud, are we sure we can’t afford a lawn service it’s 95 freaking degrees outside” season.
On the other hand, I have never been tempted to pay someone to shovel our snow!</p>
<p>I bet if you get a couple of llamas in your backyard, you’ll never, ever have to mow your grass! I guarantee it. Imagine sitting in the shade on your deck with a glass of ice-cold beer in our hand and watching the llamas do the job! Priceless. You’ll never have to spend your monies on fertilizer either :D</p>
<p>Gladmom, your husband is smart to do that. Let the
grass reseed itself.</p>
<p>I’m ready to do away with grass entirely.</p>
<p>Hi, lawn. Glad to see you. It’s been months. I’ll mow you, just don’t go away again like last October. </p>
<p>Although putting snowballs in trick-or-treat bags was fun.</p>
<p>^^Oh, noes. I just regressed. I promised not to mention snow.
Summer = conversational Lent. Must come up with new non-snow topics and not be ABN (Another Boring Northerner).</p>
<p>Thanks to the Southerners for keeping us honest!</p>
<p>BTW, what’s up with all those slow-driving people with the Florida license plates? They’re baaaack, and I have to allow an extra 15 minutes to get anywhere. But I love the snowbirds and their funny stories about swimming in February. So transparent, really; 51% of calendar days spent in Florida means they can pay lower Florida taxes, and not New York taxes. I hope my mind is that sharp when I’m older. </p>
<p>Where’s my carpetbag???</p>
<p>BunsenBurner - LOL. I wouldn’t mind owning a llama or two, if it were allowed - I just don’t think they would be too happy in my itty-bitty back yard…lol.</p>
<p>We did away with the lawn years ago. fashionable brick patio with a flower bed surrounding it.</p>
<p>Can’t say we miss the grass.</p>
<p>One alternative to a lawn is native plantings. Half of our 50’ x 150’ lot is grass and the other half is composed of prairie and savanna perennials native to our area. The flowers are gorgeous with different species coming into bloom in many colors and sizes from May through October. They don’t have to be mowed, but they take more time than just pushing a mower over the same area takes. They need a certain amount of weeding and care. We do it for the beauty, the feeling of rightness in having the species that were here before the plows, and the seeds we collect for planting elsewhere.</p>
<p>We have a cicada chorus in our neighborhood! It’s a 17 year locust outbreak, and there are scores of little carcasses lying around, and many more live ones in the trees, humming for all they are worth. They are sort of cute, with big red eyes, and they don’t bite or anything, so that’s nice.</p>
<p>We had our 17 year cicada emergence last year, and there were gazillions of them around. Even though the individual cicadas are cute and harmless, it was very loud and overwhelming. Most of them have red eyes, but there is a rare variety with blue eyes. It was kind of fun to try to find those.</p>
<p>My S was born in 1990, a month before the last emergence. I was fine with it, but my 3 year old D was petrified and it made for a difficult summer.</p>
<p>Pulling from page two (or is it three?)…</p>
<p>Ahh, what a nice day! It is not raining, and the little birdies are sooo cheerful in the backyard today. Gotta go water my garden and clean bird poop off the deck…</p>
<p>The cicadas are more numerous now, and I just discovered the buzzing is even louder on the other side of the street, where there is a treed ravine. Wow! Sounds like a Martian invasion. :eek:</p>
<p>I don’t envy you, mommusic. My S and I were reminiscing today about the LOUD cicadas last year. It went on almost all day for months, with some quiet at night. During and after a rain it would get quiet, but then would rev up again and was especially horrible when it was hot out. There is this cycle of a crescendo of noise, then getting a bit softer, then another wave of loud stuff and on and on and on.</p>
<p>One good thing about the experience is that we now SO appreciate our lovely quiet neighborhood. And there are no hordes of cicadas flying around everywhere bumping into our faces and landing in our hair and clothes.</p>
<p>I liked having those cicadas, but we have less in the city with our
younger trees. Younger on average.</p>
<p>Hello, Sinner Peeps!!</p>
<p>I just got off the phone with sluggyD who is in her last week of classes before graduating. My sweet sluggygirl is a chip off the ol’ block:</p>
<p>sluggmom: So, how are your classes going?</p>
<p>sluggrad: *Omigod, I’m so tired!! I’m on my way to campus, I have to get on that @!#ing bus, and I feel like I’m going to throw up!</p>
<p>sluggmom: Well, you’re almost finished. In less than 2 weeks, you’ll be a graduate. Maybe, you can shorten your schedule today and go home early. What do you need to make things a little easier?</p>
<p>sluggrad: What I need is for people to let me get some :::bleep!:::ing SLEEP!</p>
<p>Lol, uh huh…a chip off the ol’ block. :D</p>
<p>Can I get the cicadas to swarm and go bite the ba$tards who are building the development across the creek? All we have around the SF Bay Area are a bunch of overfed termites who have no interest whatsoever in biting human beings. ::::chomp::::chomp:::: :)</p>
<p>Hey, I just ran across a couple of long-time-no-see names on another board. Man, CC’s got industrial-strength staying power!</p>
<p>I solemnly swear to stay in Sinner’s Alley until I can no longer hoist my own petard. :p</p>
<p>What is wrong with this picture?</p>
<p>We are leaving slugg to carry on a monologue with herself??!?</p>
<p>Not on my watch. :D</p>
<p>Hello, slugg. Carry on.</p>
<p>And, snoopy minds want to know (“inquiring” minds is too euphemistic for what I am)… who did ya see on those other threads?</p>
<p>slugg my girl,</p>
<p>You know it’s something when the overfed termites are so well fed that you are out cutting up your own branches.</p>
<p>Congrats to your girl!!</p>
<p>Chicky just turned in her last final yesterday. She called to say “this is it, I am so tired that I don’t know when the last time I have been to sleep”. </p>
<p>Stupid me and my response: so go to bed</p>
<p>Chicky: No way!! I’m gonna take a nap and meet friends so that I can enjoy senior week!</p>
<p>Chicky doesn’t have time to sleep, sybbie. I know because I saw ads for what must be her new business. Who else would be running “Bag, Borrow or Steal?”</p>
<p>[Bag</a> Borrow or Steal™ - Borrow or Rent the Latest Authentic Designer Handbags Purses Sunglasses Jewelry and Accessories](<a href=“http://www.bagborroworsteal.com/]Bag”>http://www.bagborroworsteal.com/)</p>