Good Stuff

FRONDLY: Sunday was Mother's Day, and I was gifted a palm tree by Christian. It's only about four feet tall now, but some day, it could grow to 30 feet or so. It's still in its pot, which made it just tall enough for me to sit under for a few moments on sunny Monday. I pretended I was in the tropics for a bit. Christian joined me for a few. 

But to be honest, it wasn't too relaxing. There was a pair of little birdies who really didn't want us relaxing right there. They were keeping their beady eyes on us and got closer and closer. We figured they had a nest nearby. 

They were persistent so we got out of their hair - or feathers.

In other yard action, we are relocating the bee hive to our west yard that's full of clover. We discovered a couple of months ago that our bees didn't winter over, unfortunately. We're not sure what happened. The hive was well insulated and we had treated for mites.

What was really surprising was when Christian was taking it apart to move it, he didn't find a bunch of bee corpses in it. Somehow, they're all gone. We have to think something got into the hive and was a grave robber, because bee bodies wouldn't just disappear on their own. 

While cleaning the hive, Christian found a couple of huge honeycombs our dearly departed honeybees had built. Pretty impressive.

The weird ol' irises continue to pop up around the yard. They'll be gone as quickly as they came. Many of them are looking past-their-prime already.

In other random news, I have to park this link here: https://www.cameo.com/v/6087866ee9c065001d586bb7?utm_campaign=video_share_to_copy

It leads to my Mother's Day present from Rick and Ken, a personal video from Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-Wee Herman. 

I've been a fan of his since the early 1980s, when he used to appear on the David Letterman Show regularly. When I was very pregnant with Rick (in 1985), I went to see "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" in the theater and I laughed so hard, I thought I might go into labor. 

When Rick had a Halloween costume wedding, Christian and I dressed up as characters from that movie. I played Pee-Wee, who happened to be dressed as a woman in one scene, when he and Mickey, a convict, we trying to elude the police. (It strikes me I still have that turquoise sweater somewhere ...)

About the last public thing Christian, Annabelle, CJ, Kennedy and I did before the lockdown was go see Paul Reuben's one man show at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. He was charming, and it was downright poignant in parts. 

Anyway, what a funny, thoughtful gift, Rick and Ken gave me. 

SIGNED UP: Today was the first day new students could sign up for classes at Bellevue College for Fall 2021. That's when Annabelle is eligible to start Running Start (college as a high school-aged student), and so we were ready to pounce on that opportunity.

In doing some research, we learned the site would go live at 6 a.m., so by 5:59 this morning we were at her computer, ready to strike.

The early bird got the worm. Annabelle got the Japanese II class she was after (it's a tough seat to get, we were told). She also signed up for an intro to psychology class (potentially her major some day), and an English class.

I have to say, the website she was on to sign up looked like it was from the 1980s. Right after she registered, it crashed, hard. Fortunately, I think she's OK, as I do have an emailed receipt for paying her fees for the quarter. 

Now, the big question is will classes be in person or not? Time will tell. ...

Annabelle went back to bed after registering. I was way too awake, so I got a couple hours of work done while being flanked by a pair of snoring Havanese. 

FALLOUT: CJ is working hard in his World Cinema class. There's a lot to read, watch, and write. In hopes of getting a solid A, he's also doing extra credit. Recently he prepared this infographic talking about the impact of COVID on the film industry.

I hope you're able to read it. I tried to make it as big as I could. It might help to click on the individual images.