Okay, the new hair was awesome enough, but this colorful, asymmetrical thing takes it to a whole new level. Mouse just hearts her style so completely...nobody has ever worn earrings that excellent while standing behind the presidential seal.

Mouse loves balconies. Mouse, in fact, loves a broad interpretation of balconies and has counted several windowsills as such over the years. Any time she can, she will sit and stare off the balcony and watch the people. On the beach vacation with Mouse's mom, the best part was all the completely un-self-conscious people, many many many of whom (regardless of age, tan, size, language) seemed to be very deeply in love. They walked around in pairs,* mooning at each other. Mouse looked off the balcony and took these photos because they made her feel hopeful:


Happy weekend, hopeful lovey mice.

*Like penguins.

Painted bowl, from South Africa. Mouse likes the designs.

Okay, look here, procrastination. I didn't want to have to get out the big guns, but it has been days of bumbling about and Mouse can no longer blame it on re-entry from the beach vacation. Remember on The West Wing* when everything sucks? And President Martin Sheen is about to be subpoenaed for massive electoral fraud? And the subpoenas are going to be handed down the day he announces his reelection? And his advisers want him to postpone? He says:

"Screw it! It's game time! Let's go!"

Huzzah.

*Aside from having seen all of the episodes of The West Wing seventeen or eighteen times already, Mouse is watching them again because Boyfriend had never seen them until this year. How is that possible? The man is baffling.

Hey, nice mice, remember these shoes, which reminded me of Kennedys and summertime? Well, this time, Mouse actually had this thing called follow-through*, and bought the delicious summery orange shoes. And looooooves them. Don't they look nice, on that balcony at our beach vacation? Hooray, orange shoes!

P.S. Mouse has to go to Martha's Vineyard for a wedding and is TOTALLY rocking these shoes there. Maybe Mouse will become a very wealthy summering wasp, as if by magic.

*Mouse has heard about follow-through but has rarely seen it in person.

Did you see these carved wood bottle openers? SQUEEEEE! This bull could be friends with that cow Mouse has a crush on.

(From here via Cup of Jo.)

Mouse once heard a great interview with Dolly Parton. "Know why my feet are so small?" she asked. "Cause things don't grow big in the shade!"

Ha ha ha. But seriously, folks, Mouse needs some plants that love shade but grow really tall. She walked around and around at the garden place this morning. Ferns? Goatsbeard? Giant hostas? If only somebody could invent shade-loving peonies...

Mouse is an orderly person and finds herself reading signs a lot. And gets tickled.
"Do not bend over near the seals and sea lions."
"Do not grope the penguins when they are balancing on tiny surfboards."
"Do not poke the turtles with your gun-like hands."
"Do not let nene get in pecking distance of your hands. Picnic here. BUT LOOK UP AND CHECK THAT ONE ABOUT THE NENE."
"Whales go up and down. Sometimes."

(Signs, respectively, from Oregon Coast, South Africa, and the last three from Maui.)

Mouse brought these back from South Africa for Tiny Nephew and Tiny Niece respectively. Tiny Nephew wanted to go to sleep with the truck, which was handmade in the townships out of old cans. Tiny Niece named her Zulu doll "Virtue," an unusual word choice for a five-year-old, no?

"I do doodle! You do doodle too," as they say.* Have you seen the children's doodles over at the Google home page? They're for causes, and some of them are particularly rockin. All of them are a little bit rockin. Mouse likes this one best. Go look!

*On Buffy.

Hurray! Mouse's landlady has finally caved, after much cautious nagging, to let us plant an outdoor garden this year. Mouse is so excited that she was up late last night, laying in bed and plotting about her garden plot. So far she has been over to Plant Native, where you can attempt to create a self-maintaining garden of plants that are sustainable to the place where you live. Unfortunately, the site notes, all bets are off if you live in a city, where the pavement-reflected heat alone effs up the plants that are supposed to like it here. 

So far, our candidates: tall native grasses, hostas, impatiens, day lilies, Japanese iris*, maybe a row of marigolds or dahlias? Who knows about tall plants that like shade? Anybody know about gardens in Chicago?

P.S.--Did you see the vintage silverware garden markers over at Design Sponge? Whee!

* Day lilies and iris will come from Mouse's mom's garden, which actually does look a bit like the photo.

(Pictured: What Mouse's Garden Could Never Look Like, taken in Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, South Africa)

For Mouse's mom, from South Africa. It's made out of bone and has this delicate, lace-like carving on the pendant that's hard to capture in a photo. Mouse had never seen anything like this necklace before.

One of the amazing things about Mouse's mom (and believe me, there are many) is her ability to squeeze insane amounts of joy out of life's small things. Here is a photo of my favorite lunch from our beach vacation: bologna-tomato-mayonnaise sandwich, chips, Corona. It was partly improved by the water in the background (imagine the sound of crashing waves), and by being really hungry. But it was mostly her enthusiasm that made it so delicious. A little vacation parable.

Love you, Mom, happy mother's day again.

Paper mache bowl, made out of recycled sardine labels. The proceeds go to benefit people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa. By Wola Nani.

The random number generator picked eleven, which happens to be Mouse's lucky number, as well as today's date. Congratulations to Please Sir, who wins a custom Paperwink stamp. Hooray!

By the way, Please Sir is an excellent and lovely blog. Go see!