Dinner at my sister's place (Amy)

Amy had me over to her place last night - she marinated brats in beer & onion, and then cooked them on the grill.  Wow - outstanding.  We also had corn on the cob and macaroni salad.  I came home with a container of salad that I will have with my lunch today!  

We both agreed there is nothing like Cincinnati German food!  I'm sure it's the same wherever the Germans settled, but Cincinnati has a special flavor - maybe it's a combination of German-Irish heritage with some Greek and Southern U.S. thrown in.  All I know is that I miss the food.

Amy also let me take cuttings from an oleander bush in her yard.  This morning I went out into my back yard intending to do some weeding, and lo and behold I found a big bush with red flowers - an oleander.  I think this might be the first year it's bloomed since I've been here and I just never noticed it before.  I don't go out into my yard much.  I took cuttings from it as well and have all the cuttings in a pitcher of water hoping they will develop some roots.  I want to plant them along the back fence.

While I was back there I tried to tidy up a bed of heather that is also full of fox tails and next to a demon plant with leaves that sort of look like holly - barbed everywhere.  I cut the branches and then have to be extremely careful handling them.  In the meantime I had to stop for a while because my socks were full of fox tail barbs.  I even got one in my arm which was not pleasant to pull out.  The heather is all woody at the bottom and should probably be pulled out and replaced with something else.  I'm not much of a gardener so I don't know what.

Here is the oleander, and you can see the heather mess to the left:

I recently ordered a dress I saw on one of those never ending selling tv channels.  I fell in love with it at first sight and ordered it.   The package shipped from Nashville on May 20th via UPS and finally arrived today, May 28.  It was shipped several days after I ordered it, so I've been waiting two weeks.  Yesterday I mailed a package at the U.S. Post Office - Sacramento to Philly - and it will arrive in two days!   Even if I sent it ground mail it wouldn't have taken a complete week.  I love the Post Office and think their service is the best - certainly better than UPS or FedEx - at least in any instances I've had to be on the receiving end.

The dress hanging in the bathroom to get any wrinkles out.  I tried it on and it fits perfectly, and drapes beautifully.  Now I have to find some sandals to wear with it.

Oh, and by the way, I mailed my package to Ara at one of the stations manned by a human being inside the post office.  On my way in, I passed people lined up to use the various unmanned kiosks in the lobby.  For myself, I would rather stand in a line to talk to a person than I would to push some buttons on a machine, and in fact there was no line inside and two postal clerks on duty!   I love it when the federal government works as it should!