the penguin and the badger

The ferry was as old-timey and belchy as I had hoped; there was both real fireflies and Firefly with lemon in the backyard; a strawberry-custard pie made during a late-afternoon thunderstorm; we ate ice cream and walked to the beach at Grand Haven; Apples to Apples was busted out for the first time in GRR; I now own an ancient Chutes and Ladders board with some recent captions. A lovely mid-June weekend, and a really nice way to break in the new place.

The ferry departed at seven-thirty yesterday morning, so we drove up to Ludington as the sun rose and the fog was starting to burn off the fields. Everything was pink and fuzzy green, and it hit me: it's summer.

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Last night was whiskey and Budweiser and a kitten and a screened porch. Equally fantastic. I love having smart friends.

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The new neighbors have been met. The passports are laid out for our upcoming trek through Canada. I fell asleep on the sun porch couch with the newspaper tented over my face.

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I actually have a list of things to do once we return from North Carolina. The highlights:

*at least ten new poems
*consider second ms.
*finish/revise healthcare marketing essay
*get final-final-final edits to press
*learn how to maintain/edit web page (this one should be pretty funny)
*teach self CS3 (ha ha ha)
*organize last two years in photo albums
*clean out recipe binder and make new meat-only binder
*read about eighty new books that I keep forgetting we own
*read all the Carver, O'Connor, Barthelme, Hannah, and Brown we own
*perfect one bread recipe


It's a hard life. I know.