Seven with Moogie's hand

Precious, huh? Look at those grey eyes. All the six other kids have brown eyes. This one has my dad's eyes. Moogie is Klingon for grandmother, on Seven's maternal side.

Had lunch with M. yesterday, polenta made from heirloom corn hand ground, and ratatouille. Yum. Then we took Bindi down to Shell Beach where she splashed in the muddy sea water, and oddly didn't smell any the worse for the experience. She went in deeper than she ever has before, but still not deep enough to need to do the dog paddle.

After, I stopped by my community garden, and got into a flurry of weeding, which it badly needed. I must have punctured a vein on my right hand with a rose thorn, cause a big purple bump rose up immediately, has gone down some now, but is sore and still raised. I think it was in the same area as the anesthesia needle I had for my second knee surgery, which was a big honking needle, so maybe I'm still not healed there completely. Whatever. It's always something. I pulled up all my carrots to ready for planting a fall crop, and gave a bunch to a strolling couple who had come to see the gardens. Another woman who was walking around looking at the beauty said to me, "This place is so ALIVE!" Truly. By far my favorite place in town.

Came home and entertainingly, there was a "House" marathon on the telly. I stayed up much too late watching back to back episodes, including some I'd only seen parts of. Mark your calendars: September 21 is the 2-hour season premier of "House," and he's in a psych hospital trying to detox from his addictions. Hugh Laurie is such an amazing actor. Did I mention I really like "House?"

Shout out to CSA: Right after you told me Ripley was your favorite superhero, there were two showings of "Aliens" on the tube, and I thought of you.

Stopped at three tag sales yesterday. Found a funky old fashioned telephone marked $30 -- she let me have it for $5. A couple of things that will make nice gifts, a book on horses for S., and a really nice manatee tile for a buck. I surely don't need more crap, but buying nice things for almost nothing and giving them away is satisfying.

Today I'm going to try to get myself to Old Saybrook for the grand opening of "The Kate," the new theatre built there is honor of Katherine Hepburn, who lived in the town for many years in her family home on the water. The traffic yesterday was way bad, but I told my friend that if I get on the road and it's too congested, I'll just turn around and come back home. Later I'm meeting another friend for an early meal. He's up from NYCity.

Got myself to go lap swimming on Friday, although it was very hard to get into the pool. First I went into the hot tub to warm up, then tried the pool. Too cold. Then I went into the warm therapy pool and paddled around a bit, then tried the pool again. Too cold. Finally I took a long hot shower, and was then able to get into the lap pool. I swear, since the cancer and radiation experience last year, my core temperature has dropped. It's very annoying, esp. with winter coming on. That trip to St. John is gonna be my salvation in December.

Chicken photos below were taken at a small farm when I was in Michigan. A friend of my family grows corn, grapes, apples, squash, beans, etc. on about a half acre of land, and has a chicken coup with gorgeous birds, the ones with the fancy feathers? The place was immaculately kept, really beautiful.