Why I don’t support the Organic Trade Association, boycott Dean Foods, and eat mostly unprocessed foods. The argument that maintaining strong organic standards will result in fewer organic products is illogical if the resulting food ISN’T ORGANIC. People should be allowed to know what they are paying for.

Via Donna Myers on Facebook:

Federal ‘organic’ label’s integrity under fire
Consumers who pay up to twice as much don’t always get what they expect

Just woke up from an after-work nap. Now I’m sitting in the gazebo with an electric fan blowing on me, enjoying the fireflies that just began their show.

My weekend started at 4 pm today - “worked” through lunch, if you can call most of what I did today work. I did get some files cleaned out, which provided me with some colored paper to recycle into handmade paper this weekend.

Also found some nice copies of a woodcut of a medieval weaver in the recycle bin in the copier room. I’m tellin’ ya, trashpicking pays off. I get Tyvek envelopes, packing material and cancelled stamps that way too.

I am being lazy indeed, except for laundry, taking out the trash, and pulling a few weeds.

Hip status: a little worse than yesterday, which was a little worse than the day before. So I’m listening.

Sandy just informed me that he has tomorrow off. He is the only person I ever met that never knows what holidays he has off or how many sick and vacation days he gets a year. And it is not because he is not informed.

I love my job but I treasure my time away from it. In a choice between more money and more time I will always pick time. Of course, I can because I make enough money to get by, unlike days of yore.

My mind is more and more consumed by my upcoming cruise, which is nine days away.

I made a collage in my journal about Terrilynn and that made me feel better. It’s nice that I can bring up all of her comments with my blogging software, but I’m sorry that I didn’t save our emails to each other.

Now I have to figure out what to do with my dear husband for three days that won’t be too hard on my hip. We’ll probably go downtown on Saturday.

Okay, I just saw what really happened to Terrilynn.

She curls her toes in the sand, as Dr. Reynaldo Bellissimo, the hot young physician who cured her completely of cancer and whisked her and Liam away to this island paradise, rubs lotion on her back. She sighs with pleasure as Sven, the cabana boy, refreshes her margarita and hands her the latest Janet Evanovich novel that just came in on the boat. He’ll be back in about an hour for her pedicure and foot massage.

Liam runs up to her and hands her a shell that he found while windsurfing in the lagoon with his new Polynesian friends. They look up to him as the leader of their group because he is so very cool. Jiana, the prettiest of the girls, adores him.

The only thing that Terrilynn regrets is that she can’t contact us and that they don’t grow those speckled butterbeans in the South Seas that she liked in North Carolina.

I wish you well, my friend.

I don’t know if it was the steroid shot or just the fact that my inflammation was reduced for the first time in ten months but boy, was I energetic and happy last night and this morning. I still am, to a more normal degree, but I overdid it a bit so tonight I’m going to veg out with a book. This morning I was creating poetry about resurrection on my walk to work. Of course, it’s all gone now.

I did some shopping last night, and I use any excuse to go to Ed McKay’s. Last night I bought a copy of The Decorated Page by Gwen Diehn, a book that has been on my wish list for a while (it’s the best book I’ve seen on the subject yet, I think), and a biography of Walker Evans, one of the photographers I studied about in my course. And a bunch of freebies, some to alter and some to read. Like a couple of Walter Mosley mysteries, and Moo by Jane Smiley. Score! I’d link to these, but since Amazon is not inclined to do business with me any more, y’all can search for them your own selves.

I canceled my business license with NC a year ago since I hadn’t had any sales in a while and I kept having to pay fines for not reporting my quarterly sales of $0. I figured that if I am going to make a bunch of books for sale, and since there seems to be an Internet sales tax coming somehow for NC, I’d better get another one. It is easy as pie to do these days. You can do it online, it’s free, and some businesses will sell to you wholesale if you have one.

I am not a businessperson. Or a money person in any way. I am an ignoramous when it comes to money. I don’t do my taxes. We get audited fairly often. I live within my means and I pay off my credit cards every month. I get by.

I did not eat breakfast or dinner yesterday and I was not hungry last night or this morning. Maybe steroid shots are the way to go for weight loss. Kidding, of course.

My new clothes came from Deva! I bought a pair of pants and two shirts. The fabric is naturally crinkled so they will travel well. When I took them out to try them on, they immediately attracted every cat hair in the room. I hemmed the pants in the studio with Stitch Witchery, brushed off as much hair as I could, and immediately packed them for the trip, so I hope to have at least one nice outfit without cat hair on it.

I also have two other packages on the way that I’m excited about. One is a larger mould and deckle (of sorts) so I hope to make larger sheets of paper beginning this weekend.

The other is another book that I’ve been wanting: Keith Smith’s Non-Adhesive Binding Volume I. I know how envious you must be, but try to rise above it, okay? You can look at it if you come to my studio and wear gloves. This series is self-published and it is supposed to be one of those things that any serious bookbinder should study. Since I don’t really have a teacher and UNCG doesn’t offer the kind of instruction that I want, I figure that I can work through the Keith Smith books.

Okay, I’m going to go be lazy now.

Thanks for your well wishes - they seem to have helped because I am much, much better today. In fact, I feel better than I have been in months, so I must be careful not to go crazy and overdo it in the garden!

During my down time, I created a new Etsy shop. There won’t be anything for sale in it until after I get back from vacation (so, late July, early August) but I’m excited about it. I’ve looked seriously at three different shop sites and I ended up coming back to Etsy because it seems to be the most attractive and user-friendly. I’ll post a link here when I’ve tested it and loaded some items for sale.

I guess I’ll need to renew my North Carolina sales tax license since I think that the state gov is about to crack down on Internet sales tax.

Bought a new carry-on bag at Target. I decided that it was time for me to get one with wheels instead of dealing with a worn-out duffel bag for a change. It’s purple with polka dots. It cried out for me to take it home, I swear.

Dug up some tiny new Yukon Gold potatoes in the Back Forty, to go with the few green beans I’ve picked. The Green Zebra tomatoes are leading the way with the first tomato. The dill is going to seed now. It is so good to have fresh dill with egg salad, or green beans, or fish, or anything, really.

The Violetto artichokes are blooming. I just can’t bring myself to pick them because they are so beautiful. I’ll have to plant some more ordinary ones for eating next year.

We put down pine needles on the paths where the wood chip mulch washed away in the flood earlier this month. I’m not sure that this will be helpful for the Ph of the soil, but it is certainly much easier and will be less likely to wash away. There is the added bonus that this seems to make my husband much happier, and he seldom takes any interest in the yard or garden.

Holy cow, I kinda hate to complain because I know a lot of people who deal with a lot worse read this blog, but that steroid shot in the hip was a real muhthah. I had myself convinced that it might be a little worse than a normal shot in the hip because of a pep talk that my department head gave me about his shots in his knee. Boy, was I wrong. The doctor said it hurt so bad because it was so inflamed, and that I did good because sometimes they have to hold people down!

I had to stay in the office a while because I have a history of passing out after shots, and with this one I was nauseated and every time I tried to sit up I went right back down. At least I didn’t have a panic attack, because I sure felt like one was imminent. That would’ve been frosting on the cake for sure. I hate a panic attack worse than any pain.

So, I tried to go back to work, but kept feeling worse, and finally Dawn drove me home where I’ve been laying on the bed bored out of my skull. I wish I had a great book to read but I’m grateful for the laptop.

I hope that I don’t have to have another shot. He said that the next one wouldn’t be as bad, but I’m not sure I believe him! Maybe this one will take care of it. I have to take a course of oral prednisone starting next week.

The good news is that the hip joint itself is structurally fine. It’s those damned useless little bursa sacs that have been causing all the trouble since last September.

Anyway, once I get healed up, I’m gonna show all y’all how to get down. I’ll practice up on my moonwalk.

By this time less than two weeks from now, I’ll be on a cruise ship off the British Columbian coast, hopefully in a hot tub with a Captain Morgan drink of some kind in my hand, watching the sun go down.

Finished a slim altered book that I think would make a nice travel journal. The map was already part of the book. The first and last pages and the painted paper on the inside covers is from the batch of artichoke paper I made last fall. The inner paper is mulberry paper that I bought for my printmaking class that didn’t get used.

I made a lot of covers in this style, so now it’s time to get crackin’ on putting these babies together.

Slept a good part of the day. Sometimes it’s as if I just have to stop and recharge my battery.

I’ve almost finished making a book. I’ll try to get a good photo tomorrow. The binding is very simple, but it is wildly and beautifully painted. I’m going to tie some beads to it and it will be done.

I’m heavily influenced right now by the hydrangea, echinacea, alliums, bees, and fireflies in the Back Forty.

I think that the bird that sang so loudly in the very back was a ruby-crowned kinglet instead of a Carolina wren. I looked up a photo of a Carolina wren and it did not match at all. I haven’t heard it lately, so they may have moved on or I might not be attuned to it, since my attention is more on avoiding bugs.

I’m no longer an Amazon affiliate- they cut off all of us in North Carolina because they don’t like a tax law that is expected to pass. It pisses me off a little, since I’ve been one for ten years. But I wasn’t making any money at it; it was just a fun little bookseller fantasy.

I made an A+ in my class. My first A+ ever, since they didn’t give them when I was last an undergraduate, and quite frankly I probably wouldn’t have tried hard enough to get one back then anyway.

Feeling pretty impatient for these tomatoes to speed up and give me that mater goodness. I’m spoiled when it comes to tomatoes.

You may have noticed that I’m posting every day. I’m trying a different idea - posting in Facebook kind of snippets and really trying to write something about my day every day, even if it is just that the weather is hot.

Best comment seen all day: “Thank you, Michael Jackson. Love, Mark Sanford.”

Headachy, probably allergies, I hope. Came home early and took a nap.

Green paper is dry and is in my super-technological paper press - a stack of boards and books. The one with the ginkgo leaves embedded inside is nice and I’ll have to press some more leaves this fall and winter for use in paper.

Things to do:
Clean the bathroom.
Admire myself in the mirror.
Finish laundry.
Watch MJ videos on VH1.

If you only watch one Michael Jackson video, this should be the one.