Chickity-Doo-Doo Laid to Rest

Snow has fallen on our neighborhood, and though it will probably melt tomorrow, I'm pretty sure we've gotten away with the Chickity-Doo-Doo on our lawn. This is unadulterated, organic, chicken manure fertilizer - and it smells AWFUL. We waited until late in November to spread it on the grass, but when I left for work the next morning, I noticed the smell all the way over to our next-door neighbor's yard. If we were lucky, no one saw us putting it on the lawn and no one will be able to figure out what the stench is from. When the snow fell this week, we rejoiced that the stuff would sink into the ground and disappear from the air. Will have to wait until next spring to see how it works!

J.A. Jance in Person

Today I went to the library to hear J.A. Jance, the popular mystery series author, talk about her writing. After seeing her publicity photo on her website, I thought she would be nice and grandmotherly.

Wrong. For instance, she is very tall and is quite imposing standing behind a lectern on a stage. What was most surprising is that she sings at her appearances. She told how her parents and their 7 kids would drive from Arizona back to South Dakota for regular visits with the friends and family they had left behind when the father was advised to move for his health. Their mother liked to sing, so they entertained themselves on those long car trips by harmonizing on a considerable repertoire of songs. She demonstrated a hilariously gruesome country song about heartache, death, and coffins. Then after describing how terrible it was to be a smart 7th grade girl who happened to be 6 feet tall, she told how she eventually became unlikely friends with Janis Ian, who wrote At Seventeen. She closed by singing the entire song, unaccompanied. Brava!