Sumi, I loved Pink Carnation, more than I expected to. I take it the second book is fabulous as well? Wonder if my library has a copy?

I love that there's a Trader Joe's about a mile away, and when I feel ambitious enough I can bike to it. I even bought a basket for my bike so that I don't have to bring it all home in a backpack. Sadly, I am a lazy whore and the hill to get there is more daunting than I care to endeavor most of the time.

Does anyone know if it's rumored to be a bad tick year? I've already found more crawling on me this year than I did at all last year.

d, a person on the NAFEX (North American Fruit Explorers) list who lives in Maine says he's NEVER had to worry about ticks before but has already gotten 4 or 5 of the damned things while out in his orchard.

Thessaly

How much do I love this name? It's almost as good as Theodosia.

beth, that's really cool that you guys are hosting house concerts. When this place finally gets in shape, I'm hoping to host concerts as well. As well as host jams.

Yeah, d - a quick and enjoyable read.

NEVER had to worry about ticks before but has already gotten 4 or 5 of the damned things while out in his orchard.

Crap.

d, the email is too fresh to be archived on the web yet so here's the text.

I thought after our open winter (albeit warm) that there would be less ticks (and hopefully curculio). But here in Saint Albans, I am seeing something I have never seen in 30 years alive. I had never and I mean NEVER seen a tick of any sort on myself or any other person until last fall (in this area). I thought it was a freak occurence and that the other person got it from somewhere farther south they had been earlier in the day. But 2 weeks ago, after pruning all day, I had 2 large ticks on my collarbone. And then today, after doing some pruning again, I had another large bugger.

I highly recommend a book called 'Healing Lyme' by Stephen Buhner. Amazing up to date research about tick behavior, lyme transmission and effective/ineffective diagnosis and treatment. Here's some tidbits: Most lyme is passed to humans from

unseen and unfelt nymphs, not the actual adult "lyme" tick. Also, Lyme disease is transmissable through breastmilk, sex, mosquitos, and very possibly saliva. This book will shock you into reality if you are not there already with ticks. This is going to make exploring fruit in abandoned orchards and seedling trees a whole new adventure. Before I only risked a puckered tongue, now, if I don't tick-check and wear the right clothing (and those are no sure things), I'll be suffering something worse than cotton-mouth.

If you didn't have an excuse to strip naked as soon as you walked in the door to home, you do now.

hey, and sj- sounds like the move is going well.

Eek, must to get vet appointment made. Thanks for the reminders.

Thanks, Spidra. I was trying to google tick epidemic, and the only thing I could really find is that the south seems to be suffering from a regular bird tick epidemic occurring about every 3 years.

vw, when I was at prom Sat. night, there was pea sized hail, but my car was under a...thingie. Ceiling thingie.

My friends were at a party a little further south (Midtown) and they had no hail, just rain, and I was only downtown. Weird.

So, that mumps otbreak that is going around the Midwest? Hit my school. We have one student diagnosed, and one teacher with symptoms. LOVELY. I had vaccainations as a kid, but have never had it. They advised us to go get bloodwork, but if I have it, I have it. No treatment -- just treatment of symtoms. And I think that even if I got a vaccine booster today, it take a couple of weeks to process through my system. I only have 4 more weeks of school, so anything I do is basically only to make my psyche feel better, right? If I got it, I got it, and if I'm gonna get it, I'm gonna get it, right?

Anyone? Bueller?