Meanwhile at the Monk house…

…Things have been busy!  Let’s get the important stuff out of the way:

Growing…

My herb garden is no more.  For whatever reason *cough-lackofwatering-cough* all the herbs have shriveled up and died.  I have decided I am not a very good grower nor harvester of herbs. Next year I will plant flowers in the same pots and see if they survive.  If I want kitchen herbs, I’ll likely put them on my kitchen window sill, where I may remember to water them more than once a month.

The raised garden is giving us tomatoes, strawberries, peas, beans and lots of  zucchini.  And to think I was worried about the zucchini! I threw some water at it and it came back with a roar.  I’ll probably have to start ding-dong-ditching the stuff on unsuspecting friends and family soon. Oh, and it looks like we might get acorn squash too, but sadly the pumpkin has given up the gourd.

Seeing…

In other super-important news, I’m going to finally get new glasses. Turns out my eye prescription is just fine, it might have been a bad batch of contact lenses that has been giving me fits for the last five months. (I’ll also get new contacts).  I do wish I had clearer vision in one eye, but as the Dr. said: “You just aren’t seeing well out of it, even with correction.”  She blames not enough breaks from the computer screen.  I blame lack of chocolate.

Reading…

The other day I was invited to hang out with the Powell’s SF book club in Beaverton, Oregon.  The book club decided to read my collection of short stories: A CUP OF NORMAL and hoped I’d drop in so we could discus it.  This was the very first book club I’ve ever chatted with, so I was nervous but I needn’t have worried one bit!

Everyone was lovely, and kind and thoughtful toward the stories and having me there.  I might have babbled on too long, but they were great about it, and I felt like I could have hung out with those terrific people all night!

So… THANK YOU, people of Powell’s SF book club  for having me, and also for being such a fun, intelligent, vibrant group of readers!  You, simply, rock.

If you’re in the area, the book club meets on the second Tuesday every month at the Beaverton store.  Great people, great discussion, and hey–they even had cookies!