Farmer in the Dell

Is there anything more quintessentially all-American than a pretty little girl on a tractor? Blonde pigtails and freckles and overalls and a ratty straw hat, maybe, but I assure you that when I was in that kind of getup I was never this cute. Clichéed as all hell, yes, but never this cute.

Oh, and this? This right here is why I hesitate to get rid of that ridiculous and stupid Japanese red maple in my own backyard: someday, maybe, if the conditions are just right and I have been drinking enough, someday I might find that tree pretty enough to take a picture like this. In the meantime, my grandparents' tree will have to do.

And this picture is just here because it's cute. Shae loves this cat, and the day we went to Ikea to get furniture for her bedroom, she demanded we buy it for her.

Hard to argue with that kind of convincing logic, right?