Yesterday, I went on an eight mile nature hike through some local bogs. I saw a lot of mushrooms including some edible puffballs and what I was told was a "Death Angel" mushroom. We also ate some wild blackberries and saw a family of turtles, a wild rabbit, lots of dragonflies, a salamander, and a few frogs.

Yesterday evening, I watched an outdoor performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" performed by some college students. Not Shakespeare's finest by a long shot, but a fun, goofy romp in the woods. Still, I have to wonder why a bunch of Celtic faeries are creating mischief in ancient Greece. The ending is a bit weak too. The love story wraps up and then Shakespeare has to tie up some loose ends by performing a play within a play.

At the end of the performance, one of the male actors made a real life proposal of marriage to one of the actresses. It was kind of cute and everybody stood up and clapped.

Today, I spent the day at my sister's house eating barbeque and swimming in the heated pool with my youngest nieces. The weather was perfect, the food was good, and the pool was wonderful.

We also saw some old home movies (transfered to video) of our family from when I was two. Momma looked so pretty, even after six babies. My granddad who died when I was four made a brief cameo. It brought tears to my eyes because I can still remember how much I loved him. We left the home the videos were shot at when I was three, but I still can recall a lot of it.

I have vacation this week except for Tuesday morning when I have a hearing to attend. I'm going to head off to the coast and go swimming in the ocean for a few days afterwards. On Saturday, I'll go on a ten mile hike followed by more swimming and barbeque. I also have a few books to read, and of course I'll keep practicing at the keyboard.

Could my life suck any more?