Taking my Dutch out for a Walk

Tomorrow I have company coming over, so instead of cleaning the house, like any sane person, I went to home depot and spent $90 on soil, plants and a shovel so I can make MORE of a mess. "Hi, I'm Annie, won't you come into my messy house after spending exactly 30 seconds on my front porch?"

I'm going to make the woman do the interview on the porch or in the back yard so I can bask in the half planted pansies.

I usually don't shop at Home Depot for my plants - I feel a need to support our local nursery (used to be Pierson's Mill, now it's just "The Mill" - upscale, n'est ce pas?) but after two trips there so far this spring, walking away with a flat of plants, some gloves and a $70 receipt, I knew that for the volume of dirt (we have clay dirt, I have to mix a lot of peat with it. I sound like I know what I'm talking about, huh?) I'd have to hit home depot or take out a second mortgage.

The gazebo I was so proud of last year was destroyed by a blizzard (the snow piled up on the roof, froze, and the huge chunk of ice weight down the roof and collapsed the gazebo. The gazebo is dead; long live the gazebo...

So Gerry saw one at Sears (where America shops for Gazingoes) and bought it. He put it on my credit card (yes, we have separate cards and accounts, part of why we're so happily married!) and it was quite a surprise to return home from Canada and find a $300 charge for who knew what at Sears. I thought, "Oh! A Mother's Day Gift!" - but it's just the gazingo, which is a kind of MD Gift (if he puts it up.) Yes, I know it's gazebo, I like to call them gazingoes.

Perhaps I can put off the house cleaning if I go get a manicure (after all, my hands HAVE to look good for the photographer. Did I mention a photographer is coming? Maybe he can do a portrait of my dust bunnies...) The timing is really good, because I need to have two shots taken for my books (you know, the tweed jacket with elbow patches shot on the inside back cover?) I tried to get either of my editors to agree to use my drivers licence photo, but no go.

So I have to get my Dutch on, as it were, and sweep the porch (and the rest of the house) like the woman on the Dutch Cleanser label.