Greg Pollard n' stuff

Greg Pollard, I am sorry that I let the air out of your brand new bike's tires when we were in elementary school. I can't even remember why I did it, but for some unknown reason I remembered doing it while I was blow-drying my hair this morning.

Wow, I bet I wasn't obvious in broad daylight in the middle of your front yard, hunched over your new bike like that.

Anthony Bourdain's New Orleans rerun made me cry.

I told Dennis that if I didn't have connections here,(meaning Chris is entrenched in the St. Charles school district and there would be custody issues), I'd love to move down there right now. Dennis said he would too. Whoa. I'd never considered that angle before. I've always figured we were retiring to rural Missouri. This is cool new information!

It looks like Soldier Field 9/12/09 is going to be the closest U2 stop this time around.

The dog is from Remulak

Scarlett found her stitches last night. Now she's a conehead.



She's supposed to get her stitches out on Thursday.

Highway Patrolman

I bought myself something last month.



It's a Smith & Wesson Model 28-2 Highway Patrolman built in 1978.

I never wanted a handgun of my own because between Dad and Dennis I had access to more than I ever wanted to shoot. Dennis saw a very nice Smith & Wesson Model 15 that he picked up for me a few years ago. Then I saw this for sale on the internet and had to have it. I'm really pleased with it!

First outdoor seeds are planted

I soaked the snow peas (Melting Sugar) for about five hours while we were at YHEC.



Since there is nothing else in the bed and I am thinking about possible loss due poor germination and cold weather, I planned 16 plants per this "approximately square foot shaped" planting area.



Then covered it with this handy bird cage to keep the grackles out of my pea seedlings.



I only got 50% germination on the snapdragons (First Ladies mixed colors). So I tried moving seedlings to get one per cell in the tray.



I also started nine Swiss Chard (Neon Lights mix) and nine lettuce (Salad Bowl) seeds today.

Productivity

I am so much more productive when I take a day off. I'm staying home today under the auspices of taking care of Scarlett. She was very mopey and moany yesterday, but she seems pretty normal today. I am worried about her overdoing it, so I have to keep telling her to calm down. Just like normal.

I bought a frame for this "Old Tyme Foto" of my sister and I. It's been sitting in a paper bag since the Illinois State Fair. Last August.



I bought a bag of prepared compost for the garden, because I am afraid I just don't have enough to top off the beds. The corn bed lost a lot of soil when I pulled the old stalk stumps out. (The squirrels shredded them down to stumps, hence no corn harvest at all. Grr.) I want to put tomatoes there this year, so I really want the full 6" of dirt.

I also filled the hole in the front yard. Again. The last attempt didn't seem to do much, as the whole thing is still sinking in from whatever sewer work was done before we bought the house.



I put in some paver base to give it some weight and try to block some erosion.


Followed by three bags of "top soil".


We don't have a tamper, so I did the next best thing and tamped it in with a sledgehammer. Yep, I worked up a sweat before 10:00 AM!


Saving the best for last, now I am going to work on our 2008 Federal Income Tax Return. Yeeah baby!

Scarlett's sex change

Our stray beagle mix Scarlett is getting spayed today. Here's what she has to say about the whole situation:



Chris has been calling it "Scarlett's sex change operation". I don't even know where to start with correcting that one.

Seedling update

Not thrilled w/ 50% germination rate of snapdragons. I think the poor results outside last year may have been due to this seed or variety instead of my lack of skill.



Why did the broccoli get so leggy? It was planted on the same day and treated exactly the same as the perfectly normal looking cauliflower next to it. It looks like I might wind up with three cauliflower plants and maybe one broccoli. Or I could buy broccoli plants from the garden center. They should be setting them out soon.