Happy Thanksgiving!

My mom has arrived! We're having loads of fun already. I am *very* Thankful for that  :D

And just because - the BEST Thanksgiving episode of any show EVER:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/322#i0,p6,d0

Have a great one, Everyone!

:)

More Doin's On the Ole Homestead

Wow - Thanksgiving is almost here! And so is my mom  :D  She will be here on the very day, and I'm excited for her to see my garden. 

Here's some new stuff from it!

First up - Lettuce

Yes, again, lettuce. See all the pretty flowers on one of the lettuce plants? (It's almost as tall as I am if I stand next to its tub.) Should I cut these off? The other lettuce isn't growing nearly as big, but it grows. Until I cut it, but now it doesn't seem to be growing back. Clearly, I haven't got the hang of lettuce...

And second - Yellow Pepper!

Look at that!

Yes indeed, that's a pepper turning yellow! None of them have turned colors yet, since they usually don't grow big enough. This one isn't huge (though bigger than the average ones I get), but it sure enough is turning yellow. Awesome!

All for now - I've got some embroidery projects in the works that will be up once I finish them though.

:)

Never Hurts To Ask - Two Life Lessons

That has long been a motto of mine, and it should be one of yours, too. Read on!

So - True Story (And Life Lesson #1)

Thor came out a week or two ago, and of course I wanted to see it. Today was the day! It was awesome (and well, who can ever get tired of looking at Chris Hemsworth. *swoon* But I digress, hehe). But when it was over, it was so good (or fun, might be a better word) that I wanted to see it again. Like - right then.

On the way out, I asked the ticket taker if it was okay to watch it again. He was so awesome, he gave not just the theater number, but the time the next one started! Seriously! No paying for a second ticket, nothing! I was very excited, and guess what - totally enjoyed the movie the second time!

The moral of this story? It never hurts to ask!

So - Another True Story (And Life Lesson #2)

If you don't know, pretty much all the Marvel movies have scenes during and/or after the credits. And they are pretty good ones. All the Pirates of the Caribbean movies have them, too, as do some of the Harry Potter movies, and so on. 

How do I know this? Because always at movies, I have stayed to the end of the credits. Always. How else did my friends and I figure out there would be another Aliens movie? 

This sort of thing didn't used to happen as much as it does now. It was just a private little joke amongst us dorks that stayed to the end. Sometimes you got the little nuggets that others didn't realize were there.

(Read on... Click "Read more")

Another Busy One

Anyone who knows me knows that I hate shopping. I hate it, with a severe passion. I detest and loathe it. That's why I generally make one trip to Costco and Walmart a month and no more. So for all of those who already know of this hatred of shopping, please take a seat - I won't be responsible if you knock your noggin.

I went shoe shopping today.

Yes, it was amongst the usual Costco/Walmart run, but it happened. And that's not the most amazing part! Or parts... First off - nearly everything I put my feet into *fit*! Yes sirree Bob, they did! That never, ever, ever happens to me. EVER! So that's probably one of the contributors to the second thing (really - sit down!).

I enjoyed it. 

Or for sure, it's nothing I want to repeat anytime soon. I've hated shopping so badly this is the first time in six years (pretty sure) that I've done any real shoe shopping at all. I have shoes I've been wearing that are this close to having holes in the bottom. So it was time. Add to that the successful shopping trip this past weekend with my cousin and her cousin, and well... there you have it. I don't think the Earth has stopped spinning on its axis or anything, but it's still pretty amazing here in my world, lol. 

All of that is a very long explanation (or just call it what it is - an excuse, hehe) for why I don't have a "real" post today. Though I should soon-ish, at least, if not actually tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm gonna keep plugging along and hope you do the same!

:)

Playing Catch Up

Whoa! What. A. Weekend.

But it was a good one!


My cousin came to visit Friday - hurray! It was awesome, of course. She spent the night and then Saturday, she and one of her other cousins "made" me shop. Yep - and the weirdest part? I liked it! I got a ton of stuff for not much money, which makes it even better 'cause I don't have much money, ha ha!

Anyway - I'm still playing catch up. The cukes and carrots are getting bigger, the squash plants aren't doing any better (though I'm going to try more fertilizer), and there is one huge pepper growing, along with a bunch of medium sized ones. 

Now that that's marginally caught up, I will actually have a "real" post, even some pics of something, tomorrow.

:)

*Heavy Sigh*

So on the good side - my team won Trivia tonight! Yay us! And yay this girl who answered about a third of the questions *along with* the bonus songs! Yay me!

Also - here's a picture of another of my kitties. Her name is Meg Katherine. She's beautiful and awful sweet when she isn't out for blood and attacking the kitten. *sigh*

So - True Story

Today, two of my students told me that I had a big butt. They were being complimentary, even asking me to share it with them because they thought theirs were too small. No lie. *heavy sigh*

There are two things I'm taking away from this.

One - that my students obviously need more lessons in American Culture. And two - I most likely need to go on a diet. Yeah, if anything deserves a heavy sigh, that is it. (I suppose I should make the obligatory reference to "Baby Got Back", but I'm not going to ;-)  )

Oh - and it's chilly here! What the heck?! This is freakin' South Florida!

Off to go snuggle under the covers with Meg Kitty, one of the best heat sources in the world. Or at least this house :D

:)

More Growing Stuff!

So a couple of things today...

First off, here are the cucumber sprouts. There are no carrot sprouts that I can see yet, and how that one lone cuke got over on the other side, I dunno. (Probably I clumsily dropped a seed, ha!)

And second - finally (thanks to my sister!) figured out how to get a "Home" link up so that it shows when people go through posts (assuming they read more than one then click off, lol). I knew it had to be something even I could do, and turns out - it was!

Still super excited about Friday! 

Still working my way through the Little House books (long-ish story best saved for another time, lol)

So that's really all I've got tonight. It's something, right?

:)

Love a Day Off

Today being Veteran's Day here in the US, I would like to say a Thank You to all who have served. That's a huge job and I'm grateful for all who have done and still do so.

I also had the day off today, and it was a good, but only semi-productive day, lol. 

This is how it started:

Yep, a frambled egg and cheese sandwich and cup of hot tea - Yum!  (No, I did not misspell "frambled". It's my own term for eggs that I just break into the pan and don't scramble ahead of time, just mix 'em up as they cook). 

I did have pictures of the carrots and cucumber seeds coming up already, but the sprouts are so much bigger today, I'll take more pictures of them tomorrow, when they are even bigger. 

Got some stuff done around the house, stuff done on the computer, laundry (most of it). So - a good day. And back to it tomorrow. Good thing I actually like my job  :D

Oh - and best of all! One of my favorite relatives of all time is coming to visit on Friday. So Happy Hour this week will be even more awesome, hehe.

:)

Squash Crisis

Remember how exciting it all was when so many squash seeds came up? On this very blog there were pictures of two tubs full of thriving, blossom-laden squash plants.

Then... some of them started looking not so good. That prompted me to "thin" them. I pulled some out of each tub and put them in another. But - most of them still aren't doing very well and I just don't know why! The leaves are withering like they aren't getting enough water, but the dirt is always damp and they get plenty, believe me. I thought maybe it was too wet, but same thing - every time I check, the earth is a good level of damp to dry-ish.

Here are some pictures:

These are the transplanted ones. I didn't really expect them to do all that well, but it never hurts to try, right?

These are the two original tubs. The plants in the purple tub are having issues. The ones in the orange tub are "okay", but their stems/leaves are starting to do that withering thing some, too. 

So - ideas? Too wet? Not wet enough? I have more seeds. If they all die I suppose I can try again. It's good dirt - the kind for growing vegetables. Nothing appears to be eating the leaves. 

Guess all I can do is keep an eye on them unless someone has a brilliant thing to try!

:)

Garden Expansion

As promised!

The no dig, low-work garden has been expanded!

Got some more tubs and dirt and planted stuff! I even managed to get the drill working right so I didn't have to try to carve more holes into the bottoms of these tubs with a knife. That worked okay on the thinner plastic of the original tubs, but these are much thicker. They were the same price, and deeper and bigger, so how could I resist? 

Here - the squash needed to be thinned, so I took some of the smaller, worse off plants and put them in one of the new tubs. Cross your fingers that they make it. I know stuff is supposed to be thinned, but I think we've all already discussed how I hate throwing out live plants. So - their own tub. 

And this is the beans and their new trellis! They seem happy.








As for the "expansion": this new tub is full of cuke (cucumber!) and carrot seeds. This is pretty much the last of the variety I'm going to work on this growing season. I have enough stuff that if things don't come up or thrive, there are other seeds to take their places. 

Read on for a Crop Update!

The Lettuce Tree

I was unaware that lettuce plants turned into trees:

Yes, I've picked some and made salad from it. There are actually three types of lettuce, this tall one that I'm calling the "sapling", a purple version of it (to the left in this next picture, if you look closely), and a much shorter, leafier green type. You can't see that one in the picture.

All of them are great! But... can I just chop the top off this sucker? It's big and tall and well... I want it to keep giving me lettuce. I also don't want it to turn into a beanstalk all on its own... The other two types of lettuce are growing well, but are not approaching tree proportions.

Lettuce growers - let me hear from you!

So - true story.

I went to Lowe's the other day to get more dirt, and some more cinder blocks for the garden foundation (the wood was starting to bow. You can probably see one of the new blocks in the lettuce pictures). 

The first place I went was to the far end of the store to get the blocks and one of the trucks they keep there just for people like me. Though apparently not "exactly* for people like me. I had just lifted my first block/brick, when one of the Lowe's guys rounded the corner and looked at me. Then, I kid you not...

He fussed at me. 

Yep, he sure did. He fussed at me for getting my own blocks, being all offended that I would dare to put four cinder blocks on my own truck thing. He came up, asked how many I needed, and then *informed* me that *next* time, I was to summon one of them for help. Oh yeah, he did. I told him that you know, I was the one who was going to be lugging them at home. And he said, no joke, "That's at home. Here - you call one of us." And then proceeded to put three more blocks on my truck. Chivalry is not dead, it seems. 

To head off trouble, when I checked out in the garden center, I didn't say a word when the cashier told me to pull my car up while she called for someone to load the stuff into it. 

Yep, I sure enough hauled it all myself when I got home. But apparently I am not allowed to do that at Lowe's.  ;-)

Tomorrow - Garden Expansion!

:)

Something Different, Take 2

Quilts Again!

This time from one of my cousins! He was kind enough to get pictures to me, and now I get to share them! Only three more quilts to go, then there will be pictures of all five of these. (No, they aren't the only quilts my grandmother made, but you can see the theme here, lol). 

Clearly, the theme color for his quilt is brown, as mine was blue. 

And again, every stitch done by hand. You can see some of the details of her handiwork here.

To finish - her signature, of course, and the year he graduated (yeah,, we're all old, lol).

I don't guess I can really say these are the tip of the iceberg, but the sheer volume of embroidery, knitting, sewing, and crochet that my grandmother did put out is kind of staggering when I think about it. But then, I also never remember her hands not doing something. They were never still. Even if it wasn't embroidery or knitting, she was doing crosswords, crochet, any number of other things. 

The lesson to take away from this, I think, is that - for all we say we don't have time... How much of it do we spend staring at the TV? And not just staring, but doing nothing else at the same time? How many hours are we on the computer doing nothing really productive? How many books do we read now, as opposed to earlier in our lives? I know for me that answer is far fewer than I'd have guessed.

So there's time to do this stuff if we want to. I won't say my time is idle, because I get a lot done that doesn't "show" in some regards. But I also know I could work more of this awesome stuff into my own life. Hence the pseudo gardening, resuming my own turn at the needle (sometimes, lol), and even this blog. Getting stuff out there that's for me - but also to share. 

Hope you enjoyed the pics! And hopefully, more will be coming from my sister and other cousins on this side of the family. For me personally, it would just be cool to see them all.

:)

Halloween Might Be Over...

But there is still scariness abounding! I present to you 

FRANKENBASIL!!

No kidding, this stuff is... sad. But it just won't stop growing. Not that I want to kill live plants, but I sure as heck am not babying this stuff like a lot of people have and do. I water it from time to time. And apparently I'm not the only one - I hear tales from others about how basil just keeps growing. 

I should cut off all the usable stuff, and empty the pots. I just can't seem to bring myself to do it though. Of course, it's not like I'm adding dirt or anything to them either, and they both need that.

And look - isn't that little bitty one cute, growing in between the house and the patio tile there?

So add basil to my list of "crops" I guess. It does taste good, and just walking by it and brushing the plant smells awesome! That's worth it right there!

Short one tonight - tomorrow is the Tournament of Champions for my Trivia team - wish us luck!

:)

Bumper Crop!

The peppers are coming!

There are a ton of them, and they are just coming off the plants as soon as I touch them. At least they are making up in volume for what they lack in size. Take a look:

I know I have tried to explain to people that these peppers are tiny. I put a quarter in these pictures as a size reference so you can see just what I mean. I read that bell peppers don't grow as big here as they are in the store, but I'm getting so many of them, It's like getting two or three "regular" sized ones! Here's another look:

Now, these peppers are supposed to be red and orange (or maybe red and yellow, I can't remember, lol). They aren't managing to stay on the plant long enough to turn colors. I'm okay with that, because the trade off seems to be that that rot problem seems to be going away, too. 

The plants are full of more that are not quite ready. These are just two plants in two pots that are on the patio. I keep going back and forth about planting them in their own tub in the "garden", but they are doing so well as it is, I hate to mess with a good thing.

So what to do with all the bounty? Well, I chop them up and freeze them, of course! Then when I want them, I take them out and put them in spaghetti sauce, on pizza (frozen or homemade, they are great!), in meatloaf, with chicken... just anything really. They are really good. And as silly as it sounds, I can tell the difference in flavor.

Or maybe it's just more concentrated because they are so small, ha ha. Regardless, this growing stuff is cool! Still determined to do it without any real work though  ;-)

So there you go. Tomorrow (or later today maybe) - the Frankenbasil! Eeeeek!

Ha ha! Happy Friday everyone!

:)