Ugly Juice::: Juice Spends Several Blissful Days With the Fam

Last night I returned from a relaxing and life-giving trip to visit my family, filled with fun and serendipity. The highlights:

Harboring and transporting a fugitive.
Babysitting The Adorable Niece (Exhibit A) and my cousin's 2-month-old babe, Lucy.
Seeing my lovely family.
Reading lots.
Receiving spontaneous invite to spend night at Mike's cabin on Lake Belle Taine, 45 minutes north of Perham. Traveling to cabin to find Mike & Summ in scene of perfect idyll: drinking beers, reading books, lounging in whirlpool, piddling around the yard. Kayaking. Falling asleep at end of dock during thunderstorm. (Exhibit B)
Convincing Mike & Summ to come to Perham with me next day. (Exhibit C)
Getting facials at spa with Summ and Kate.
Attending Kate's surprise party on Saturday. (Exhibits D1 and D2)
Drinking way too much all day and night Saturday. (Exhibit E)
Meeting Sarah's boyfriend Dan, who was visiting from Arizona, and interrogating him thoroughly. (Exhibit F)
Karaoke! (Exhibit G)
(Possibly too earnestly) (Exhibit H)
Inventing a story that Summ is an Innuit and taking every opportunity to inform the people of Perham about the plight of the Innuit and the Upper Yukon Territory, which is what, we don't know. Karaoke proved an especially rich opportunity for our little Eskimo to give a shout out. (Exhibit I)
Sleepover at my parents' house w/Mikey and Summ.

Returning to Minneapolis, I have fallen back into a lazy routine of spending entire days doing pretty much nothing. I go for a walk. I run an errand or two. I sit on the patio and read. Every hour or two, I conduct a reconnaissance of the yard to inspect the condition of my plants and observe the activity in my new compost bin (which I am obsessed with, OMG. Forgive me, I am not going to be able to prevent myself from making all future visitors look at the consistency of my compost).

I have become addicted to working in my yard, which is and always has been a mess, completely overgrown and absolutely unmanageble, filled with wacky stuff from the previous owner--petrified wood, broken concrete, inexplicably prolific unidentifiable plant (weed) species. I am a pathetic gardener, which is probably why it's so fun. I am moving stuff around every day but am too lazy to weed or really do anything to control the chaos. Instead, the chaos of greenage makes me want to grow more. When my in-laws came to visit for my graduation, they brought tons of perrenials from their yard and spent an afternoon helping me plop them in the ground, which was so awesome. My dream of filling the entire yard with perrenials is now much closer to fruition. If I continue splitting, I think I'll be in good shape in about three years. My dad dug up some lilac seedlings for me yesterday and sent them home with me with instructions to "water like hell." Hopefully that is all it takes, I worry that my yard is too shady to support them. Anyway, this is probably boring. That is all for now.

Exhibit A: The Adorable One.

Exhibit B: Gimlets approximately three times the recommended dose.

Exhibit C: Summ and Mikey on the first leg of the Tour of Perham Drinking Establishments.

Exhibit D1: A few members of my lovely family celebrating Kate's 30th birthday.

Exhibit D2: My sister Mary may or may not have defaced this property.

Exhibit E: "Quarters"