P.S.

Come pick mulberries.

Mmmm. . .Mulberry Mayhem

The #1 reason why I love our house is the mulberry tree. It's a little ridiculous because we could live in any other house and just buy berries. But there's something cool about harvesting thousands of these delicious little things in our own backyard, for "free".

A lot of people ask me what mulberries look and taste like. They're very similar to blackberries. Except they grow on trees and you don't have to battle thorns.

We risk life and limb to find the yummiest black ones. I am not a fan of spiders and have had many run-ins with them. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for delicious cobblers, jam, and smoothies.

Things get a little bloody after a while.

This is Ryan's toothless mulberry-blood karate chop.

As you can see from her mouth, very few of the berries Macie picks make it into the bowl.

Rich and I have developed very different strategies. He's all about numbers. He moves fast, stays low and fills his bowl in minutes. However, I like a little challenge. And, it drives me bananas to see the perfect mulberry just out of reach. I climb to the tip top of the ladder, lean against the fence and teeter on the tops of the branches all for the sake of plucking those perfect specimens.

Driving Under the Influence of. . .

Last night I was driving home from Bunco at about 11:40ish. I was on an expressway, in the left lane. There was only one car, but pretty far behind me. Suddenly, I saw a sign for the freeway and it occurred to me that I could hop on and perhaps get home a little faster. I signaled, changed 4 lanes at once (I know, my bad, but seriously the road was pretty dang empty, though obviously not empty enough) and headed for the freeway on-ramp. I thought the first on-ramp headed northbound so I was about to get on it but at the last second realized I was wrong. So, I got out of that lane and waited for the sign that said northbound. As I was just barely turning to get onto the freeway, flashing lights appeared in my rear view mirror. Dangit. But I figured I'd just explain that I hadn't driven in this area in a long time and was going home a new way and was a little confused about which lane to get in. So, the cop gets out and I grab my purse to have my ID handy. I roll down my window and say "Hi" and he says "Hi". And THEN he says, "How much marijuana have you been smoking tonight?" I was a little bit shocked. Wouldn't THAT have been a novel Bunco appetizer!? People would REALLY think Bunco was sinful:) I said, "Marijuana? No marijuana." And he was like, "Really? Because when you rolled down your window I smelled a huge whiff of weed." Did he realize who he just pulled over? Seriously, I once called my OB in a panic to be sure that the herbs in the Ricola cough drops I just took wouldn't damage my unborn baby. Now, I'm sure it's not polite or smart to laugh in a cop's face so I bit my tongue hard. But, he was relentless and proceeded to shine a light in my eyes to see if I was on something. He asked, "Do you have any marijuana in your car?" and shined the flashlight around the inside of my car. I said "nope." He checked my ID and rebuked me for changing 4 lanes all at once and for driving "erratically" but said he'd give me a break and not cite me. And he finally gave up and said, "Well, maybe the smell was a skunk in the bush or something." Uh. Yeah. Right.