1. More news in the world of throw-back fashion:

Yesterday I saw this girl at Beth's school. She was older, like maybe a high school student volunteering at the school, or an older sister/youngish aunt picking up a kid. But this girl. She was wearing neon-colored socks with little black Keds. And not just any neon-colored socks. She had one hot-pink sock with her black Ked on her left foot, and one neon-green sock with her black Ked on her right foot.

This is exactly the kind of thing I would have worn in fourth grade. I LOVED neon green and pink, and I loved to coordinate my socks and my Keds with my outfit.

How can this possibly be cool again?

2. Evie is feeling much better. Giggling and running about the house and eating and generally being adorable. Thank goodness! I couldn't have taken much more of the whining.

3. However, I'm trying not to get too happy about her return to health. Mainly because I am just crossing my fingers and hoping against hope that whatever she had is not now silently incubating in our bodies, ready to make its slow, stealthy way from family member to family member, sickening each of us in turn, giving me not just one week of sick and whininess, but three or four weeks of sick and whininess. Because sicknesses are like that. They're dirty sneaky little guys with no respect whatsoever for a mother's sanity.

4. I just read Farm City, a book about an urban farmer who grows a giant garden and raises chickens, ducks, bees, turkeys and pigs in the middle of the Oakland ghetto.

So, I'm definitely not planning to move to the ghetto, and raising pigs/slaughtering turkeys does not sound at all appealing to me. But chickens? For eggs? The idea is kind of growing on me. Though I don't think our lot size is big enough to legally keep them here in Albany. But maybe...someday...

5. Beth is saying she wants to grow her bangs out. Which I'm cool with, if that's what she wants. It is her hair, after all, and it's not like she's asking to dye it neon pink (actually she would like to do that, but I'm saying no to that one for now). But I'm dreading the growing-out stage, because her hair is SO fine and thin and flyaway that no hair clip or barrette I've ever found has been able to stay in her hair very securely. How am I going to keep her hair out of her eyes for the several months it will take to get it long enough to tuck behind her ears and pull back in ponytails?

6. Two gardening questions, in case some random gardener happens to read my blog and wants to come to my rescue. First: I think my clematis is dying. Its leaves are gradually turning brown and falling off, starting with the oldest ones closest to the vine, but now spreading to the newest growth as well. I'm no master gardener, but this doesn't seem good to me. What do I do?

Second: I have a big lilac bush that doesn't bloom. The first spring we were here, I think it bloomed a little. I don't remember. The second year, a few blooms. Last year, nothing. Not a single bloom. What is wrong with it? If it doesn't bloom this year, I'm ripping it out and planting something else there. I love lilacs, but what I love about them is the flowers! If it doesn't bloom, it means nothing to me. Yep, I'm heartless like that.

7. I never know what movies are out anymore. I never go to the movie anymore. We don't have cable or satellite or anything so I never see any previews or anything anymore. BUT: my husband has a trip out of town coming up and I'm looking for a good girly movie or two to watch while he's gone. What's come out recently? I feel like there are probably movies that I have wanted to see, that I didn't actually get to see, that would be on DVD now, but I can't think of any. Recommendations, anyone?


More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.