Tonight, I am exhaustedly mustering up as much energy as possible to shout “Hooray for a weekend without the kids!”

I know, that sounds sortof… un-parently.  Of course, I know first hand that most parents would actually allow this phrase to leave their lips every now and again.  We had at least one kid for three weeks straight.  It was brutal, and totally fun all at once.  First, we had both kids.  Then, we had just Tyler, followed with a week of just Kora.  Tyler read his first book aloud to me, which was something I was very proud of.  Hopefully he’s been practicing on that stuff, though, because reading is something that requires a LOT of practice to begin with.  It was good to have one on one time with both of them.  They’re a trip.  It’s amazing how much of a girl Kora is, and conversely, how much of a boy Tyler is.  Kora gets all emotional easily.  Tyler likes to break shit.  *chuckle*  It’s fun, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Still, phew!  We got through the last three weeks.

Suddenly, I wake up and realize it’s Fall.  And this weekend is very cold.  In fact, it’s supposed to snow tomorrow… though, because we live in Colorado (or is this the case everywhere?), it’s always hit or miss for the forecasters.  Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don’t.  All I know is that I had to shut my windows, pull out the A/C coolers, and wear a sweater.  Over my fuzzy hoodie.  Over a long sleeved shirt.  I’m a wuss, okay?  I hate being cold, and many a person has compared me with a lizard.  Yes, I’m cold-blooded.  My normal temperature is 96.8.  It is what it is, but it fits right in nicely next to my low blood pressure, low heart rate, and my lack of emotional outburst when confronted with stress.  I’m just low-everything, and easy.

Today was absolutely bittersweet for me.  Today was harvest day.  Today was the day where Landon and I went and plucked everything that we could, and covered up all the rest.  We have some amazingly awesome heavy duty tarps, and we elected to cover the tomatoes up instead of pulling the plants out of the ground.  Colorado’s funny– it’ll snow this weekend, and Monday will be seventy degrees.  Hopefully the rest of the garden isn’t a total loss… I mean, we DID get about ten cucumbers, a whole several months worth of lettuce, a bunch of chard (which I highly recommend, it’s far better than other lettuce greens), at least twenty-something tomatoes (maybe more), garlic chives, raspberries, green beans, twenty jalepenos, a whole helluva lot of tomatillos, sugar snap peas, a few radishes (they flowered too early, probably because they got too cold at the beginning of the season), etc. etc. etc.   Some things that didn’t work out too well:  Broccoli– unfortunately, the blooms were both very small and covered with some sort of silver bug eggs (I don’t know, maybe gnats?), and the cauliflower is looking totally tiny.  The squash isn’t ripe yet– and most of it is still in the looking like a hairy slug stage… the strawberries didn’t flower, and the watermelons were WAY too small to eat… think the size of a large jawbreaker.  So, all in all it was a good year for the garden.  I think I started it too late, but next year is another year.  Next year, I’m going to actually do the whole hot pepper as bug spray spray to combat the bugs.   We’ll see.

So I loooooved the harvest time.  It was cold and drizzly and Landon and I do a great job of working together to make it right, which was the case for today, as usual.  But, but, but…  I went through my closet while hanging up laundry and pouted a little while I folded up t-shirts that I likely won’t wear until late spring.

In other good news, my car is fixed.  Hooray!  We have the all-time best mechanic in town– I’d refer you to him in a heart beat.  He not only charged me less per hour in labor than he usually does, and he also fixed several things that weren’t on the list of “broken ball joint.”  I was absolutely THRILLED to drive my newly-working car home.

Also, I’ve been playing the piano in the last few weeks.  That’s always nice considering I’ve been playing it on and off for the last twenty years!  Tonight we printed off Pachelbel’s Canon in D (Christmas Canon) and I’m looking forward to spending some time getting to know that piece and seeing if by Christmas I can at least play a few chords.  *wink*

I better end this blog now.  I’m tired.  And my back is sore from sitting like a slouch at the piano bench.  Asta la min-yawn-ah!

So, check it out!!!

This is from August 8th, and the next one is from today, August 15th.

Some things you may notice:  The squash in the lower right hand corner has attacked the raspberries.  I’ll show you an up close picture of how this alien plant attaches itself, using tentacles.

So, here’s a neat little trick!

First they’re green, then they’re red!!!

*Doing a little dance!!*

*yawn*

I’m exhausted! Yay for that!

Yesterday, Torch sold us her bike. Today, we went for a long ride around the neighborhood. We discovered the park across Kipling from us– whizzing along several windy paths. It was a really nice park, with several baseball fields, a football/soccer field, a playground, a lake, and five million geese (and tons of geese shit!). Cool to have found a new adventure, amazing that I’ve lived here five years and yet had never been over there. I love my new adventures!

Work has been extremely busy and stressful– in a good way. I love my job! I’m making a name for myself and networking well. Yesterday, I presented at a meeting of the Physician Satisfaction team– chaired by my manager’s director and the Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Half way through my presentation, I was thanking goddess I had done four years of theatre in high school, done well in public speaking in college, and have had many supervisory/training roles in my past careers.  Hooray for that!

Our garden is growing well– I think almost all of the tomato plants have little maters, and we have two tomato plants that I didn’t plant that popped up.  Huh.  Also, there are five tomatillo plants that I didn’t plant, one of which is flowering.  Yay for more veggies than I planned!  The blackberries are finally producing fruit, and the golden raspberries are ripening by the hundreds.  We’ve got a mini-sized eggplant already– with more than five other blooms that look like they’re going to produce. And our compost pile FINALLY seems to have the right balance between food scraps and grass clippings.  I’m thinking now is when it’ll really get to decomposing.

We’re focusing on more healthful behaviors… less smoking, more movement.  Less “junk” food and more veggies– not that we ate “junk” food really before, but now we’re eating less of the stuff that’s not as healthy.  I think we’ll be riding our bikes a lot for the rest of the summer and fall.  We had a good time– except since I haven’t ridden in a while, now my crotch is a little sore.  Gotta break that muther in! *wink*

This weekend we’re going camping with our buddies across the street.  I’m pretty stoked!! Yay for new friends who enjoy doing the same things that we do!

Hmmm.  What else?  I’m loving my iPod… I now have ALL kinds of music I love.  I can easily go all day without skipping a song.  That’s pretty rad.  I love having music like that at my fingertips… definitely getting my money’s worth, thanks AmberLotus!!

That’s really about it.  Things are good, very good.  I’m teetering back and forth between clarity and fogginess in my head– but I’ll write a post about that later.  Overall, the mood is pleased!

 

 

 

 

Before planting. Weeds grew abundantly.

 

Day one!  Just planted the tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, strawberries and a TON of seeds!

Celebrity Tomato 05.31.08

Eggplants and peppers 05.31.08

06.07.08

06.10.08

06.13.08

06.15.08

06.15.08

06.17.08

06.17.08

06.21.08

06.28.08 “Take a picture of me modeling the beans!”

06.28.08

06.28.08 Modeling the lettuce, kohlrabi, radishes, and more!

06.28.08 Sugar snaps and green beans!

 

Celebrity Tomato almost a month later!

I know, you say that about me ALL the time.

So, I told you about my ground cover (Erodium cicutarium aka Common Stork’s Bill aka Redstem filaree) on my front lawn, right?  I posted pictures of it on Myspace, and my mom immediately told me I needed to get rid of it.

But why?!  Oh, why, mom?! I think it’s SO pretty!

Well, I can now tell you why.  It’s pretty aggressive, and it doesn’t live long.  It blooms, spreads, and then dies.

Then I get a big brown spot in my lawn.  And no grass.  Only dead Redstem Stork’s Bill.

*sad*

I ended up pulling them all up from my lawn last night.  Here’s what they look like out of my lawn.

Erodium cicutarium or Common Stork’s Bill or Redstem filaree:

Yay, I’m so excited I can hardly stand it.

My unidentifiable plant, well it’s houndstongue!

Here are pictures:

The good news is that I’ve identified my beautiful plant.

The bad news is that I found it on the Boulder County noxious weeds website.

Houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale) Houndstongue has reddish-purple flowers and spreads readily by means of burrs which attach to clothing or animal fur. It is toxic, particularly to horses and cattle, preventing liver cells from reproducing. This biennial is controllable by handpulling. Large infestations may need to be controlled with an herbicide.

Well.  Better not let the horses eat it.  Nor let the dogs.  They’re sort of horses, too.

Spring 2008

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