1. Man.

The last couple of night I go to sleep fine and sleep until the middle of the night and then BAM I'm wide awake until light comes. Then of course I doze off so that it's utterly impossible to wake up when I need to get up for work. And WHILE I'm awake I begin the middle-of-the-night worries.

Last night I worried:

we wouldn't have enough people for CynthiaFest
we wouldn't have enough food for CynthiaFest
that the house wouldn't be clean enough
that I would never fall asleep again
about money
about the boys
about CynthiaFest
about whether the stains would come out of my newish grey dress
about things I have to get done at work
about how to coordinate a Pie-Off I want to have at a house concert this fall
about bothering Ernie with my restlessness
about why Ernie wasn't being bothered with my restlessness
etc. 

Then I kind of repeated the whole thing until daylight before beginning to succumb to weird images in my head which I knew meant I was getting sleepy.

Geesh.

And I know, I know…..everything will get done and everything will be fine. Just those middle of the night thoughts….

2. The other day I paid Owen $5 to be quiet for five minutes. I kid you not.

This child. This child of mine is absolutely wonderful and I adore him and…..he never shuts up. If he's not talking, he's singing, if he's not singing, he's whistling, if he's not whistling, he's whirring or thumping or shrieking or laughing. He is never ever ever ever….quiet.

First I begged him to be quiet for 30 minutes so I could get something done. He just laughed uproariously and cheerfully said, "no way, lower your expectations people!" He finally agreed to five minutes and let me tell you it was heaven. He did turn the pages in his drawing notebook quite LOUDLY but I let that go. I gave him $5 and we both giggled. I assured him it was a one time deal. Desperate times folks….desperate times….

3. My friend Jennie Kauffman posted this miraculous picture of Ernie and Tom Broeske at a party back  in 81 or 82. There is Ernie's beloved grey sweater. Lord there's nothing cuter than record store boys….. And good god no, I have no idea what they were doing with the phone and the oven mitt…..

3. And of course in other news….CynthiaFest is almost here!!!! A picture of my beloved Phil Lee from facebook this morning:

And a fabulous one of Steve Scariano (The Jans Project)

Please think about coming to CynthiaFest….it's going to be a wonderful evening!

4. Every morning we drive down St. Mary's road and there's the most beautiful patch of thistles right by a fire hydrant in front of one of the round barns. We finally stopped and took some pictures but it was breezy and I didn't quite capture it.

5. And last but definitely not least….look at these pictures my friend Gail took in her YARD (just down the block from us) of these owls!