Best. Wife. Ever

The first week after school is out is usually when I take the time to catch up in my garden. I often say that I love the garden in the summer, but not so much in the spring. That's because in the summer I go every other morning or so, pull weeds, prune and fertilize plants, and harvest the bounty of our springtime labor. But that's only if we actually get the garden in. The spring is full of must-do tasks both at school and in the garden, and it is really hard to find the time to get everything done.

That was especially true this year-- a combination of teaching so many more kids and bad weather kept me behind, and even though we got some stuff in, a busy June made it impossible to keep the garden weeded. My plans were also to leave town for a visit with my mom a couple of days after school got out. So I asked Heidi to go with me to the garden on the morning before my flight left. "Don't worry about it being such a mess," I told her. "Just water it if it doesn't rain. Try not to hate the garden while I'm gone, and I'll clean it up when I get back."

Heidi doesn't love the garden, but she loves me, and so she agreed. Even so, I was a little worried about it, especially since we are heading out of town to visit Heidi's parents a few days after we get back, and "How's the garden?" was one of the first questions I asked when I picked her up at the airport yesterday. She was vague but positive, and I thought I appreciated everything she had done.

That was until this morning when I was opening my birthday gifts. After I was showered with an awesome t-shirt, sweatshirt, 2 pairs of shorts, a camp shirt, Bombas socks and t-shirts,  and a gift certificate for a facial, Heidi told me there was one more thing. She pulled out her phone and handed it to me. "Do you know what that is?" she asked.

It was the garden, but not the way I left it last Sunday. In the week that I was gone, Heidi enlisted the help of family (thank you Treat and Emily!) and friends (Lauren, Lauren, and Traci) to completely weed it out, put down landscape fabric, and mulch over everything. They put hours and hours in to get my garden into the condition where I really can do some projects I never seem to have time for, and actually enjoy it.

I literally wiped tears of gratitude and joy as I scrolled through the pictures, and it felt as if a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. I honestly didn't realize how worried I was about the garden.

But Heidi did.

PDA

I thought I'd spare Heidi the anxiety of looking for my mom's car on the crowded curbside outside of baggage claim, so I parked in the massive garage and found my way along a meandering route down and around and back up to the 14 carrousels in the arrival hall.

The  roundabout path from parking to passenger underscored how rare it has become to actually enter an airport these days unless you are  traveling.  Long gone are the times when friends and family greeted flyers at the gate, waving cheerfully at the end of the jetway, but it is also increasingly uncommon for anyone to stand outside of the security exit to welcome their wandering kin.

But today as I stood at the baggage claim scanning the moving crowd right and left, looking for the one who I was there to meet, I did witness a couple of reunions. Two little girls bounced eagerly in a collapsible wagon waving a hand-lettered Welcome Home Daddy sign. "Ya'll stay seated!" the smiling man the waited for commanded them as their mom rolled them toward him. "Safety first!"

And across the carpet two bearded young men with huge backpacks held out their arms in glee and crab-walked toward each other before engaging in an elaborate hand-slapping ritual that dissolved into a big bro hug. Chattering in Italian, they thumped each other's backs all the way to the escalator.

It was right then that I finally caught sight of Heidi, and although our reunion was just as happy as either of the other two, it's safe to say that it probably went unnoticed.

Humbling

I thought it might be fun to watch the Women's World Cup quarterfinals as I completed a workout this afternoon. What would be more motivating than jogging along on the treadmill as 22 elite athletes dominated the soccer pitch?

Uhhhhh...

Perhaps "motivating" isn't quite the right word.

Clear Your Arteries!

It's big news around here when they release the list of new foods for the state fair. Long ago Minnesotans expanded the classic fair menu way beyond the standard hot dogs, ice cream cones, funnel cakes, and cheese curds, pioneering all manner of other fried things (twinkies, oreos, grilled cheese bites, etc) as well as anything on a stick-- for example, pizza, spam burgers, bacon wrapped tater tots.

New for 2019? Deep-fried Dilly Dog, Duck Drummies, Feta Bites, and Deep Fried Tacos, wait for it, on a Stick! And these are just 4 items on the list of 38.

But hey guys! The Fair is the traditional end of summer marquee event. It's not even the Fourth of July, yet! What's your hurry?

Time Zones

The Twin Cities are considerably west and north of where I make my home, but I have had the interesting fortune to travel here three times in the last three months, making it much easier to compare the seasons between here and there. The midwest as a whole experienced an extremely wet spring with lots of devastating flooding. As a result, the farm fields were too wet to plant, and so in addition to the difference in zone, the variation in conditions has put the farm fields up here waaaay behind. Where the corn by us is waist high, here it might be six inches, and the soy beans are no more than teeny sprouts striping the newly dried fields

Here in the cities, the lilacs are gone, but the peonies (which disappeared from our neighborhood in mid-May) are going strong. But it was that mama duck with her three tiny little ducklings paddling the edges of the pond behind my mom's place who really convinced me that, despite the predicted temps in the 90s this weekend, summer here? Has barely begun.

Thanks!

Sometimes, at the end of the school year, a generous family or two will send in a thank you note from the student with perhaps a gift card. Many of these cards are for coffee-- they are not wrong to assume that a lot of educators run on caffeine for at least part of the day-- but some are a bit more general. This year, for example, I received a 25 dollar pre-paid American Express card, which was a very thoughtful gesture.

I generally like to use my gifts on something specific that I can mention later on if I happen to see the benefactor, and that was what I was planning to do, but since I was headed out of town almost as soon as the year was over, after I wrote my thank-you note, I peeled the shiny gold plastic from the cardboard and placed it in my wallet so I wouldn't forget about it.

Yesterday I was in line at the big wine and beer store ready to pay for a few six packs for my visit with my mom when Heidi called. It was rather a challenge to complete my transaction and have a conversation, but I overcame the distraction and it wasn't until the cashier told me I still owed 24 cents that I realized I had given him my gift card instead of my actual AmEx card. I dug out a quarter from my pocket and lugged my bags to the car, laughing. That particular purchase probably wasn't what the family had in mind, but...

I sure am enjoying it!

Still on Duty

On the first real day of summer vacation, I was lounging in the swivel chair in my mom's living room, TV murmuring in the background, making plans for the day (doing a Target run, grocery shopping, poke for lunch, maybe some board games in the afternoon, gumbo for dinner), texting my sister in Paris, and chatting about this and that.

All of a sudden, I heard Alex Trebek read an answer that was relevant to our conversation. "Listen for it!" I told my mom. "Poke!" I announced at the same time as the contestant. "It's what's for lunch!" I grinned.

"Wow!" my mother answered. "Your brain certainly is busy!"

"I can't help it, Ma!" I told her. "After 26 years of teaching, I need to at least have an idea of what they're talking about anywhere in the room." I paused: there were no new texts on my phone, and on TV a commercial blared I Need a Hero. "It's my superpower!"

Maybe *Vacation* will sink in tomorrow.