Wow!

Two comments already, and from people who really want to win. To blueheart, yes, I will ship to Australia, should you win. It will cost nearly as much as the book cost, but hey – it's a giveaway, right? I expected it to cost me something.

I asked Kitten With a Whiplash to share pictures when he finished a project from the book he won, and I'll say the same to whoever wins Marathoning for Mortals. I hope you'll post a link to your finish-line photo.

It sounds counterintuitive to ask you to spread the word about these giveaways. You probably want fewer entries, not more, so you'll have a better chance of winning. I understand that. But I want more readers. Readers help bloggers in so many ways. It's great to have feedback and accountability and responsibility, and blogging to a void doesn't do that quite as well as blogging to real live people.

I'm glad this giveaway is bringing folks out of the woodwork. Don't be shy! Speak up! Tell your friends!

I can't figure out a decent segue to another topic, so I'm just moving on now. Heh.

Gardeners spend a lot of time watching, checking, planning around and praying about the weather. I'm no different; I check the weather several times a day (sooooo easy to do with computers and BlackBerries and The Weather Channel, oh my). Southern West Virginia – and much of the United States – is gripped by a heat wave right now. It's already 77 degrees at 7 a.m., and the humidity is 85 percent. Making it feel like … crap. Too hot to pull weeds, too hot to plant anything, too hot to stick my nose outside for any reason whatsoever, unless it's to get into my air-conditioned car.

We've had some rain along with the heat, thank goodness, but I'm going to have to water all that creeping sedum this morning, and if the hose is out I might as well drag it down to the vegetables and give them a drink, as well.

And then I'll take a shower.

And then it'll probably rain. Heh.