Altogether too long.

I was planning to post yesterday but . . . at nine in the morning my dad called, could my husband take him to the hospital? He felt short of breath and just generally bad. The docs let him go home yesterday afternoon. He's been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Mom came down with stomach flu, so I ended up handling much of the outside-the-hospital-coordination.

Hemi is at that awful defiant stage. Yesterday afternoon he threw a book across the room in an act of pique. I told him "No, don't throw books." He threw himself down on the floor to scream and bang his head. I'd had enough of the temper fits, so I pulled him back up, put his little hands down at his side, and told him he could scream as much as he liked as long as he stood with his hands at his side. Well! It was an hour and a half before he finally gave in and stood quietly with his hands at his sides. Clearly he thinks he is the boss, and I've got to work on that attitude of his. Two is quite old enough to behave tolerably when he doesn't get his own way, and he'll be two the end of this month.

So with the one thing and the other yesterday, we didn't get outside to play and I didn't get much done. This morning was gym class, and Hemi behaved better than usual, but not really well yet. I suspect I'm going to have a few more major battles with him. I do find the advice on this website helpful: http://www.raisinggodlytomatoes.com/

My husband dug up half the vegetable garden space on Saturday, if the weather holds dry enough he'll do the other half this Saturday, then I'll arrange the horse manure with our friend who's got some to get rid of. The seedlings are growing great guns: everyone who comes by admires them.

The folks at the Butcher Block are now taking orders for organic produce. I placed mine today when I picked up our fish and meat. NPR had a very interesting interview on the subject of how what Americans eat has changed in the last forty years on Radio West today. We do like that show host, Doug Fabrizio is his name. He does a very good job of keeping his own biases out of his interviews. Not perfect, but very good. Better than any other show host we've heard. He has folks with a wide range of opinions on his show. Did you know that corn syrup was invented in the '70s, and was first introduced into food (Coca Cola) in 1980? Or that Americans eat 63 pounds of corn syrup per capita each year?

I can't wait to be able to plant the garden and get our own fresh vegetables. Cheap and fresh picked, what could be better? Oh, I already got my first sunburn of the year, fortunately not a bad one. I sat outside for half an hour while my husband worked on the garden. Oops! I didn't realize even I'd burn that fast with SPF 15 on. It's gone now: I slathered it with cocoa butter lotion, and it had vanished by Sunday morning. It's April 11th, I have another month and three weeks to wait to plant. Well, it might be okay to plant lettuce a little earlier than that, but the tomatos and stuff have to wait. I'm getting impatient. I'll have good big plants by then, for certain.