I’m having a gathering at our house tomorrow. Food, croquet, horseshoes, fire, chicken petting, the works. Starts when people get there in the afternoon and lasts until people leave. If you’re in the area, stop by.

I was at par going into the sixteenth hole, but then the course got tricky and I finished with a +5. I love a good game of miniature golf.

Last night I had the joy of being told “We’ve seen your work, and really liked it, and would like to pay you a healthy sum of money to work with us.” So in October I’ll be directing William Inge’s Bus Stop in a near-by town. They’re not paying me enough to buy the farm, but it’s a mighty good start.

Maybe the government will help me buy the farm.

My hat, it has three corners. Three corners has my hat. And if it had not three corners, it would not be my hat. When I was but small, Iliked that little ditty. I like hats, but I’ve never had a three-cornered one. My hat collection is currently very small, and it doesn’t include any balloon hats, which is a pity, really.

Who knew the The World Adult Kickball Association had player trading cards? Who knew there was a World Adult Kickball Association? Thanks, RandomWalks

Before dinner last night I harvested a bumper crop of Boletus appendiculatus the recent rains had coaxed out of our yard. These are close relatives of the Italian porcini mushroom, and are considered among the most tasty of wild mushrooms. I saw plenty of them last year, but didn’t eat. I’ve read up on them all year long, though, and have put them at the top of the “to hunt for” list. I deep fried them in a small pan of melted butter until they were about half as big as they started and put them atop a pasta with tomato-alfredo sauce. Mmmm-mmmm-good! (Before collecting these or any other mushrooms yourself, know what you’re doing. The visual differences between gastronomical heaven and hell are often sleight.)

It was nice to see the girl from that record store in town get national recognition.

Q. What song does Eric have in his head? A. The Chicken Dance.

It has rained every day for the last two weeks. It’s been very welcome, of course, as our water table is woefully under where we should be. I looked at the Weather Channel’s outlook for the region, and saw that they’ve just given up trying to predict it. Every day for the next two weeks lists “Scattered Thunderstorms”. I used to think the weather channel was pretty neat. Then I realized that their predictive abilities fall to nearly zero when looking further out than, say, half an hour. Generally, they’re pretty good at stating the current conditions, though even that’s been spotty lately.