Don't you just love phlox? I'm definitely going to have to get a few more of these - I'm thinking they'd make a nice border to the brick walk leading up to the house.


Today's first order of business is the warm weather foods ideas - great ideas, people, but we need recipes! I've had several e-mails with some truly yummy sounding things on the order of salads, soups, grilled items, but no recipes. I'm still willing to compile a little booklet so I'll give it a few more days to see what happens.


Second, I bought some strawberries yesterday. I'm determined to get this jam thing right - last year's was pretty loose and so I tend to use it warm as a sauce. Homemade jam made without commercial pectin tends to be much softer than the commercial variety, but I'm looking for a bit more firmness this year so I might cheat just a bit and add some of Pomona's Universal Pectin, which is much milder than the more mass market brands but still gives you that slightly pulled together texture that you really want in a jam. Hopefully the jam thing will happen tomorrow - it's not supposed to be too hot, so it should be a good day for canning.


This morning after soccer we headed to the Downtown Mall, which isn't a mall at all but rather a pedestrian shopping/leisure/lifestyle area, to pick up my Father's Day present to my dad. We're giving him John Grisham's latest, signed by the author himself. Apparently, Mr. Grisham has a relationship with this local independent place and is rewarded with huge posters of his grinning mug in the store's windows. Strange, but nice - especially when someone you love enjoys his books. As long as Grisham remains as prolific as he's been lately, I'll never run out of gift ideas for dad.


As it turns out, today was the Dogwood Parade and the parade route skirted the edges of the Mall. The Boy Wonder was thrilled to see bagpipes for the first time, old fashioned fire trucks and horse-drawn carriages. As we left he said, "Mommy, I don't think I like parades. But I like this one. It's the bestest. Can we see it again?" Next year, kiddo.


I've got some beautiful tuna steaks for dinner tonight. I'm going to get the grill doing for the fish and make a sauce-y thing out of roasted tomatoes, balsalmic vinegar and olives, with the whole mess served over Moroccan couscous. I have a clear idea of the taste I'm heading for - rich, somewhat salty, sharp and sunny - and will let you know how it turns out. I'll need some bread and a nice crisp, light white wine and dinner will be complete (with homemade lemonade for the Boy Wonder - so I can fool myself into thinking he's getting vitamin C and that it's "healthy").