PromQueenSubdued

Today, to banish my iPod blues, I am listening only to the Barenaked Ladies. 'Cause even when they are pensive, they are not melancholy. This morning as the princesses were eating breakfast and I was making  lunches "If I had $1,000,000" was blaring out from the speakers in the kitchen. This was, of course, because the hubs was out of town, Breakfast is a lot more staid when he is around, Newspaper up. Pretty silent. But not today! It was HIGH-LAIR-EE-US to hear the 3 of us doing the echo parts: "Haven't you always wanted a monkey?" "But not a real green dress; that's cruel." And warbling out the chorus: "If I had a $1,000,000, I 'd buy your love." Great healthy relationship, altruistic, democrat mantra message to send them off to school with, don't you think?

Part of what has me cheerier is that tulip plants have appeared in the local grocery store. I love tulips. I grow roses, but I covet tulips. They do not do well down here in the swampy south. Bulbs tend to rot in the ground before they bloom. And it does not get cold enough. So when the still planted ones begin emerging in the stores in January for $6, I buy one each week until my birthday in April.  They last all week.

One thing that I adore about tulips is that each day they are different. First they closed and upright, like a Roman legion in tight formation. But as they continue to abide, they loosen up. The blooms splay open. Then the  stems curve and bend. By the time they are ready to retire, they look relaxed. There is a beauty in their early rigid incarnation, but my favorite stage is the more laid back, casual end. I can see how the Dutch became so enamored of them that they wrecked their economy.