My Grandpa's Green Thumb

Cody and I got home the other day from our Trinity Alps trip and my aunts Ruth & Jan were in the kitchen. They asked me if I noticed how nice the backyard looked for which I said I thought it looked great. They then pointed out this tree that had been looking rather dead while I was gone. It was now a bright vivid green. Being without my glasses and not very sharp at the time (I'm sure due to the 28 miles we hiked on our trip - check out http://bearacondabeware.blogspot.com/) I was amazed at how revived the previously "dead" tree looked and almost couldn't believe it was the same tree. They laughingly told me how he just soaked and soaked it and it was now quite healthy. I wasn't sure why this was so funny, but I was happy for the poor tree who I had long ago given up as dead and had even tried to tell my grandpa to get rid of it.



They then directed my notice to the table to point out something else that was "new" in the backyard. Being far away and without my glasses on I was only able to make out something that looked like a can from the kitchen window and when I asked them if it was a can of some kind they started laughing quite hysterically. They then asked me what color the top of the can was. "Green??", I replied hesitantly.. is this some kind of trick question?? My slow brain was taking FOREVER to realize that something was a bit off here. And then it came to me... my grandpa has spray painted the dead tree green!!! He cracks me up!! I never know what odd thing he is going to be up to. I love it!

Tales from RT.

I just now downloaded some of the pics from the Romantic Times Convention that I attended in Pittsburgh last month with my mom, my aunt Renee, my sisters Dom & Manda, and my brother Brian. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, RT is a writers convention put on my Romantic Times Magazine. You see published authors, editors, readers, aspiring authors, booksellers, publishers, and members of the press there. There are lots of workshops and fun events like the vampire ball, fairy ball, and more.

We had a jolly good time at all the events we went to, especially the 1920's party that we hosted. We had tables for Texas Hold'em, which us girls had to learn to play (Brian already was a master).









I also loved getting ready for the fairy ball with aunt Renee (AKA the "batty" aunt - due to her wings of course).









We got to stay in the presidential suite (1st time for me), we got taken to the airport in a stretch limo (another 1st) & we got to ride 1st class on the plane (not a 1st!). It was all grand fun, especially seeing mom's red face when the stretch limo pulled up - that was too funny!





Anyway, We basically lived the high life (or what I imagine the high life to be) having strawberries with whip cream when ever we wanted and being really silly. Me and Renee tried hard to watch Juno on the plan at the same time, but my audio was all messed up and kept making everyone sound demonic. By the time it worked I only got to see 1/2 the movie. Grr! However, I did read a nice book by Mary Balogh who I met at RT- she was very nice - and I got to laugh at Renee who kept crying during both films she watched. It was very cute!

So overall, not bad for a weeks worth of work!