Reading: I am feeling restless and can't decide what I want to read. I have started 3 different books in the last couple of days but none are holding my attention.

Eating: Tonight we are trying a new recipe I got from Kraft.com. It is a ground beef skillet dinner. Will let you know recipe once we try it.

Gardening: The sunflowers are coming in! Well, some of them anyway. I don't know if something ate the seeds or nibbled the plants or what but there is a section where none of them came up.

I planted some new flowers to replace the verbena that didn't really take. They are white vinca. They are really very pretty and seem to love their new sunny home. I also planted the rest of the dusty miller I bought way back when and then didn't get planted. I filled my 2 deck boxes with them. They look pretty cool.

Mrs. Quackers is doing well. She left for a while yesterday afternoon but was back before sundown so maybe she is back to stay? It may be time to incubate!

We had our second application of organic weed control applied yesterday. It is sticky (something about being made of molasses) and smells like something, though I have not yet figured out what. One more application--I will let you know how it works. There is a woman who lives along the bus route who was out with a blow-torch, burning her dandelions down to the root. Apparently she is opposed to chemicals. I didn't see her do it but a guy on my bus did. I had just seen the aftermath and thought that a terrible fungus or something had infested her lawn. It looked like big ugly blackheads. The grass has filled in now and it looks much better so she may be on to something.

Reading: I finished Harry Potter over the weekend. Oh my gosh! I loved it! I can't wait for the next one. I think I will go back and re-read the others because there is a lot I have forgotten (for example, is Wingardium Leviosa the spell for opening doors or for making things float?). Anyway, my recommendation is for everyone to read this series! Run now and get started!

Other than another book for work (trying to squeeze one last exam in before I get laid off), I do not have anything new started. I may re-read The Cliff Walk which we read for bookclub a few years back. It is the memoir of an English professor who is not granted tenure (laid off) and how, after 100 rejections, he gets a job helping build houses, something that he never would have considered before. The full title is The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found.

Eating: We had lots of wonderful food for the Fourth. As soon as I get the recipes, I will share.

Gardening: We have a duck who has made a nest and laid at least 8 eggs in our new landscaping! We have named her Mrs. Quackers and are now learning more about ducks. I found this site about the reproduction of ducks (see the section titled "April and May"). We discovered the nest last week when Eric scared the duck (and she scared him) while turning on the spigot to water the shrubs. We called the Humane Society because we were afraid we had scared her off while she was incubating the eggs (there were 7 eggs at the time). We learned that they can only lay 1 egg per day (so she had been there a week without us knowing!) and that they do not starting incubating until they have a full "clutch" which is 8 to 13 eggs and at that time she will sit there until they hatch (29-31 days!). We thought it was a little late in the season to be laying eggs but the Humane Society guy said that maybe her previous nest got disturbed or destroyed. I will keep you updated on Mrs. Quackers and her family.