Well, I just received word from my friend Lynn that Monday is B-Day (Butcher Day) for the 2 steers her family has raised.  Why, you ask, would I care?  Because Doug and I have decided to purchase 1/4 of one of those fine beasts and stock our freezer with local, grass-fed beef from a happy, unmedicated cow.  So one Monday the steers have an appointment with the Butcher, and then about 2 weeks later the meat will be cut and wrapped.  We have been invited to come and watch the cut-and-wrap process, and while no doubt it would make a fascinating field trip, I hesitate to do it because I just don't know how the girls would respond.  The fact that we're going to make them dine on meat from an animal with whom they were on a first-name basis could be dicey all by itself.  On the other hand, maybe they'd find it really interesting.  Perhaps I'll have to put it to a vote.  In the meantime I'll be surfing Recipezaar and daydreaming about summer BBQs...

Speaking of summer, the weather here has been nuts.  A couple of weeks ago we were getting sunburned along the Parade route, then last weekend we had a light snow.  My poor kiddos never know what to wear - every morning they ask me "Is it going to be cold today, or hot?"  It's been cold most of this week but today the sun is beginning to shine again, so hopefully we will have a nice (ie - in the 70s) weekend.  I think it's going to be a couple of weeks before I can even think about planting my tomatoes.  In the meantime my lettuce is growing quite nicely, and just when I had given up hope on my snow peas, a couple of green shoots have come poking through the soil.  So I'm hoping we'll have some fresh veggies this summer to enjoy with our beef.