Our tulips are old, Banjo Man told me.  This might be the last one unless we get ambitious and plant new bulbs next fall.  Is that when you plant tulip bulbs?  In the fall?

I have no idea.  I don’t think I will be ambitious.  Dirt does not excite me.

But this tulip was a welcome sight this morning.  It has been a busy week.  Taxes.  Car buying (we picked up the new old Toyota Highlander in the Big City Wednesday afternoon). Work (Banjo Man) and errands (me) and cleaning the basement and closets (me) and a cracked molar to be dealt with (also me).  And a phone call from Sarge saying he has a girlfriend and can he bring her to meet us next month?

Of course, I answered.

She has never had lobster, Sarge said.  Can we have lobster?

Of course.  Lobster is now on the menu.  That’s easy enough.

This is serious, Mom, Sarge informed me.

Yes.  I get that.

This is not my first time around the “meeting a girlfriend” block.  There have been highs and lows.  Mostly highs.

It’s always an adventure.  I will have to clean.  A lot.  The cooking part will be fun, as will the touristy stuff and a possible picnic on the beach.  Maybe Banjo Man will clean out his water fountain, plug in the pump and wow us all.

Maybe I’ll recite some poetry, after the lobster and the waterfall and the wine…

“In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove; In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”

Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall (1835, published 1842).

(I’ll keep you posted.)