Today we had our quarterly birthday celebration at work.  Instead of having cake for each person’s birthday, we decided to have a big lunch party once every three months.  This time we hired a caterer to do a BBQ party out on the lawn between the office building and the church.  We had barbequed chicken and beef brisket, baked beans, coleslaw and cornbread.  For desert we had a huge white cake with strawberry cream in the center and chocolate covered strawberries on top.  I wanted to nap all afternoon!

Since I wasn’t hungry when I got home, I spent the evening outside until it got dark.  Watered all the plants and discovered more Murphy damage.  This dog just won’t quit digging.  When I’m home with him on the weekends, he just lays around, never getting into the flowerbeds.  So why does he insist on digging while I’m gone?  Maybe he’s pissed off that I’ve left him alone.  He’s not digging up the large flowerbed at the end of the yard any more, but is finding other places to dig.  Seems like he spends the day prowling the yard and digging whenever he finds a spot that looks good.  I can’t barricade everything and I don’t think the pepper I sprinkled did any good.  I don’t want to use mothballs (which I know will work) ’cause I don’t want to have to put up with the smell.  The next thing will be anise.

Also discovered something wonderful and something awful with the new petunias I have in my hanging pots outside the family room windows.  First the wonderful–they have an absolutely fabulous fragrance!  As close as anything I’ve found to night blooming jasmine.  In case you want to try them, they are called Ramblin’ Petunias.  Now the bad–just like all the petunias I get, they are infested with those damn worms!  I don’t understand where these worms come from.  They’re some kind of small caterpillars that eat the blooms on the plants.  I’m going to try picking them off as I find them to keep from dousing them with pesticide.  For some reason my yard seems to attract these damn worms.  No one else I know has this problem.

Maybe I wouldn’t notice all these garden troubles if I didn’t spend so much time in the yard.  But you all know that’s not gonna happen.