Good Friday of the Memorial Day weekend, everyone. Since most of my gardens have been planted I will spend some time getting things cleaned up. With everything I was planting or transplanting over the last week I forgot one important item--catnip. I have some small pots that will do well for that. Otherwise it is just tending and waiting for everything to fruit. Tending will be a bit more work this year--all of the wind borne seeds have found the beds. I will also have to watch for those nasty little butterflies whose caterpillars love my broccoli.

I got into this story on HuffingtonPost this morning because of the headline on the alert screen--What We Value: Wars get funded but unemployed workers don't. Unfortunately I have seen too much of how our government funding so seldom reflects what we SAY we value. The University of Illinois is jacking up the tuition rates because the State has failed to pay about a quarter of a billion in promised funding. There is a bill in congress which is supposed to extend financial help for education to the states and save something like 100k teaching jobs but it is unlikely to pass because of the budget 'hawks' who insist on austerity except for their damned wars. To continue on this line, read Robert Reich's blog. We say we want a robust economy but do nothing to help consumers who account for 70% of economic activity. Of course, that assumes that we SHOULD have a consumer driven economy.

Then I found this item on the Kansas City Star site. It gets pretty pathetic when someone has to steal plants others have paid for and nurtured. The brazenness of some of the thefts boggles my mind.