when you least expect it: you had better expect it. there is *never* anything decent in my email. usually, it's just confirmations for online billing withdrawals for the car, the insurance, the lights and the phone. i've pretty much de-spammed my email, so there is rarely any junk. i've had some "rejection" emails on some submitted stuff, occasional emails from family, and an online fax announcement now and then. i've alienated all of my friends and so i don't hear from many of them. this morning, however, i had an "acceptance" of my work when i was least thinking about same. i have forgotten all the places i've been sending my work lately, even though i started a card file of what was sent out, what came back in, what was accepted, what should go out again, who said no to the initial batch but wanted to see more, etc. etc. then i started fishing and got lazy. so this morning's email was a nice surprise among the bill confirmations. a real good email day and a kick in the butt to clean up the writing aspect of my desk.

frosting on the cake: it had already been a delightful number of days in a row as we manage to burn the candle at both ends, working & not working (translation: FISHING!), planning & scheming, and long-awaiting the arrival home of the "little girl," my 10-year-old who left here in the middle of june with the likelihood that she was due for a growth spurt ... you can just sort of tell when they are going to shoot up ... but when she stepped out of the car yesterday, brown and leggy and beautiful, p. said, "we are only swimming when it's dark out, and she has to wear a t-shirt, and you have to home school this one." (they are out swimming just now at the lake in broad dayling, both without t-shirts, and i took her this morning to see the list posted at school for her teacher's name, so there goes that plan!) in any event, she grew longer than i initially expected and i'm buying her all baggy clothes for the school year!

something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue: something old- our bones but not our souls.

something new- p. said it was time for a "real" pole since i've been catching "real" big fish, so i now have a brand spankin' new rod & reel.

something borrowed- life, i suppose, since you are supposed to experience it and give back ...

and something blue: the sky of late, the water ... top to bottom excellence.

till death do they part: went to a very, very, very lutheran wedding on saturday ... where they couldn't even play the wedding march, and the bride and groom were not allowed to kiss in church. god and jesus were fully present. we saw a car driving into the church lot right before the wedding with personalized plates reading "rtrd rev" and so we thought "retarded reverend!" what a wedding this will be. but, what a cute and young and happy couple ... then onto the very lutheran reception and dinner where jesus and god kept popping up all over the place, but the bride and groom could kiss when the wine glasses were tinkled ... but we skipped the wedding dance, like all good pagans, and went night swimming instead, dropping our wedding duds at the shoreline and swimming where we'd usually be fishing!! until death do us part.

letting go: i pulled *the* most beautifully prehistoric fish from the lake a few nights back, a gar, over 2 feet in length, loooooooooooooong and amazingly lean, an amazing shade of green speckled with black, a lovely and loooooooooooooooooooooong nose, and eyes shining in the moonlight. i ultimately threw him back because we were not sure if they were a table fish and therefore did not want to gut and make waste of him. later, upon doing some internet reading, we found out there are two long strips of white meat that are edible along the gar's backbone, but the most horrific thing we read on many websites is that a bulky population of fishermen and women think the gar is a "garbage fish. there are many "hints" on how you are supposed to snap off their lovely noses and throw them suffering back into the water, washing your hands of the whole mess ... except, they are not a mess. they are surreal to behold. keep that in mind, if ever you catch one. they are not garbage but prehistorically gifted with a history longer than your arm and further back than anyone you know can remember. absolutely a stunning fish, so if you are not going to gut it wisely and humanly and bring it to your table, experience the joy of releasing one back into the lake to go on for another million years. ... getting off my gar soap box now.