Quick update

Yikes! It's already June and I'm about to leap into the fray. I finally got my calendar up on priscillahowe.com, so check it out if you're wondering where I'll be this summer.

Here are a few things that have been going on in my life lately:

Tonight I made the dog puppet for "The Dog Prince," the puppet show I'm doing in July for the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. As I may have mentioned before, I don't often do puppet shows with a stage, but TSCPL asks me every year and every year I say yes. I'm still working on the story line of this skewed version of "The Frog Prince." It's quite a relief to have all the main characters made. I also don't often sew, except for truly bizarre-looking puppets.

The DVD and CD projects are coming along. The DVD started as a demo only, but I've decided to make it into a commercial piece as well. It's now 36 minutes long, but on Monday I'll do a bonus track of The ghost with the one black eye. The CD will be longer, but will have the same stories as on the DVD (except The ghost).

I had a great time with houseguests last week from Vermont and Washington DC. We were quite busy: went on a drive through the Flint Hills, visited the Baker Wetlands, went to Kansas City and ate barbecue at Arthur Bryant's (read Calvin Trillin on this KC institution). We wandered around downtown Lawrence and walked around in the country. We played games (Ruckus, dice, Scrabble) and Helen made a gooseberry-strawberry-apple pie. She also did a lot of gardening for me! I still have lots of weeds to contend with in the back garden. Both Kristen and Helen gave the cat a huge amount of attention, which he loved.

I've begun swimming again. I'm going to try hard to keep it up all summer. I have lots of work again, though not as crazily wild as last year. I'll do a better job if I'm exercising regularly.

Next week I have my first library gig of the year, at the Overbrook Public Library. I was just there in March and had a grand time. Then on Thursday I head out to the Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, KS. I love this festival! I haven't performed there for a few years, though I've been in the Salina schools, so kids will recognize me. The weather forecast for next week is for HOT, HOT, HOT. We'll see.