Monday, April 10, 2006

Off again to Louisiana tomorrow...blog support goes to...you know the drill. Consider open thread.


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Em just got home Friday from his trip to Memphis (actually Mississippi 20 miles south of Memphis), but he wants to go to Louisiana again tomorrow, so we'll go; not like there's all kinds of stuff keepin' us from goin' there. Also gonna hit Las Vegas at the end of April which reminds me to ask if anyone called Dana on her birthday. Might touch bases with both Dana and Davey; who knows? Looks like #2 can come a bit earlier than Em had thought, so we'll be gearin' up for that...if we're ever home between now and then. LOL. 'sup witch'all?

29 comments:

Oldnovice said...

Mike's decided to grow a beard or something, so I'm not gonna post any more pictures of him or him with #1 until he's beyond the "skid-row bum" look. Em'll just have to fill the gap.

Oldnovice said...

Looking at flights to LV just now, I can't imagine us wanting to pay something like that. Looks to me as though IF we go, we're gonna drive. Never know what Em has up his sleeve, but if ITA Software AND Mobissimo Travel give numbers that make MY skin crawl, I'll bet those numbers made his skin crawl too.

No. 2 said...

When was Dana's birthday? I totally missed it!!!!

No. 2 said...

And not much new with me. I did wash my car today. Was pretty proud of that one. :)

Oldnovice said...

We're back; stayed an extra day, though. Had a GREAT room at a casino/hotel for not much more than the cheap motel we normally do. They had a promotion going on and Em saw the sign.

Ate at a place on Red River Plaza; they served cajun food. It was quite good. I'm trying to break Em of his A --> B habit in favor of a more "stop and smell the roses inbetween" habit.

IF we go to LV to meet up with Em's son, we'll drive; flights are just too expensive at the time. First thing next week, I'm gonna call a hostel on Freemont. If they have openings, I'll make reservations and hope we get a discount on our Hostel International membership. It's in a crappy area of the old downtown, but we at least know we can take the bus for $1.00 to meet up with the folks staying on the newer strip.

Since then...been out in the yard today. Finished labeling, weeding, and watering EVERYTHING I'd planted. There's been no rain here at all and there ain't gonna BE no rain here at all, it seems. Whole garden looked like something the cat dragged in until I watered both yesterday and today after I labeled and weeded. [I am SO tired...SORE...we have great music playing so I could dance my kinks away, but I look forward to a not-so warm shower to wash off the wild animal smell accompanied by a nap.] I thought about stopping midway through when the heat of the day came, but I pushed myself instead to finish and do something else tomorrow. Feels good to have that done.

Dana's birthday was maybe a week before #1's. I sent an Email AND mentioned it here. Can't imagine how you missed all the ticklers I provided, No. 2.

I don't even want to THINK about washing my car (and it shows). Someday (when I have a lot of money), I'm gonna get the leak fixed, the headliner repaired, detailing, the windows fixed, blah...blah.. It's not bad on gas, so it's the car Em normally uses. It's an embarrassment that gets used daily. :-)

How is it that you don't know what day is your final exam, No. 2? 'splain that one to me, please.

No. 2 said...

I know when my classes are supposed to end as I originally explained to Em, but then found out that my Tues/Thurs. exam will be on that Tues instead of the final Thurs. That bumped me up atleast one day. My Mon/Wed classes are the ones I'm not sure about. I would assume they would be on that Wed, but since my other class was a day earlier, I thought I might have a chance at those being that Monday instead of Wed. Most likely not, but was worth looking into. My teachers haven't said anything yet, but it might also determine on whether we're ahead of schedule or not.

Oldnovice said...

Please ask your profs this week to be sure, Bugs. I'm worried that we won't be able to get the great rate on airfare for you if we wait any longer. In addition, we're off to LV a week from this Tuesday and need to know when to arrive home to pick y'all up from the airport.

#3: You comin'?

Diane: We're thinking of giving YOU a holler either on our way to LV or on the way back. We haven't worked out our path details yet; Em didn't want to think about the next vacation until we'd gotten home from the last one safely and now he's got good rate info on the Stratosphere, so I guess that means he's thinkin' about the next one.

SpeedKin said...

Welcome back!

Did I already say that? I don't know... Too tired to scroll and see. I've been here, tried to type something a couple of times, but life always stopped me in the middle of it.

Cool on the possible visit. If ya make it, we'll take ya out for coffee/dinner/breakfast/ice crean/whatever if you're up for it. If you don't make it, I don't blame ya. That's a long time on the road. I'll email ya our phone number in a minute in case you make any last-minute decisions.

Oldnovice said...

I THINK we can do this LV thing, but it sure wasn't easy and we're gonna need to do a lot of BSing to qualify for what I've reserved.

Got us some beds in a mixed dorm in a hostel on Freemont Street for the four days. We kindof fail a few of their requirements for a bed, but I'm hoping that the smell of our money and our good looks...combined with our HI cards and out-dated passports will cinch the deal. If not, we just move on. It's not as though LV is our ONLY stop on this roadtrip. There must be a pretty damn good convention in town during the days we're thinking about (if room rates are indicators), so Davey might be too busy to see us. I emailed him and Dana to get updated phone numbers and addresses, though.

Diane: We don't have a cell-phone or a laptop, so we need to do the mapsco thing before we leave home. We could have done that today had I not spent the entire morning looking for cheap places to stay in LV. If they turn us down, I'm out $14.80 and we have no place to stay.

I'm thinking it would be better to touch bases with you on the way back, Diane. That'll be pretty close to May 9...the 8th or so, I think...depends on what Bugs says about when she's coming.

Oldnovice said...

Trip got cancelled today AFTER I spent half the day finding a decent place to stay near my brother. The LV place wanted us to confirm that we have X, Y or Z before they booked us. BSing wouldn't work. THEN, Em said, "May not have been able to see Paul anyway, since it was a business trip." D'OH! LOL. PFFT!!

I'm disappointed (and temporarily inconsolate.) I'll live, but I'd like to spend a day sulking first over all the time I've wasted looking into how we could swing this. Like everything else in life, I learned a few things...like how hotel.com gives quotes in British Pounds and where the pound sits currently compared to the dollar. Who knew? #*$&#^@!

SpeedKin said...

Better inconsolate than incontinent, I always say...

Besides, what fun is a town based on gambling, booze, and scantily-clothed women??

SpeedKin said...

Rain!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks like you guys got a little whammied down there. We just got some nice thunderstorms and good rains. And more coming!

Oldnovice said...

We got nice rain; anything else you've heard is about somewhere else. We MIGHT get some more, but MOST rains move away from us for some reason.

Since I couldn't garden today, I've been concentrating on travel plans for about 10 days after #1's graduation.

Looks like #2 and #3 have decided not to come down for #1's graduation ceremony, either. Disappointments abound!

We should prolly think about hitting your area earlier rather than later...'specially if we're makin' a special trip up there. The plant exchange is next weekend, right? If so, maybe we could drive up early next week.

Silly-O: Let's start using this thread instead of the other, okay? The other is so far down that most folks don't see it. Em knows what kind of science fantasy Mike likes, but I don't and Mike should be able to answer these queries himself. I don't know why he doesn't; he gets a copy of every post entered to the blog (as an administrator), so it's not like he can plead ignorance. Maybe I've been too nice to him. I can fix that.

SpeedKin said...

The plant exchange is next weekend, right?

Yep, the 29th in OKC. You interested in going? I'll send details if you are. You'd walk away with a buttload of various plants, both edible and ornamental, if you were so inclined. It's not so much a "swap" as a "take these extra plants off of my hands, please" type of thing. Not to mention a free lunch...

Oh, got the rhubarb thing--might as well gab about it here since I'm too lazy to go back over to email now that I have two hands again. I love rhubarb! Grab a stalk straight out of the garden and munch! My grandparents used to grow it in Illinois but I've never grown it myself. I'll put the word out for seeds and share if any find their way to me.

No. 2 said...

Wait. I didn't decide not to come. Em was supposed to be researching flights for me.

Oldnovice said...

Wait. I didn't decide not to come. Em was supposed to be researching flights for me.

which he did, and he asked and asked by Email what day and time and even left a voice mail for you asking which time on your cell phone; *I* heard him leave the message, as did #1. You didn't respond, so we figured you were blowing it off. If you want to come, Email him. He can't read your mind. I suppose it COULD be that #1 didn't actually get your voice mail before she handed him the phone to leave the message. If that's the case, Email him about the misunderstanding. The ball's in your park.

Diane: I dunno on the plant swap. The cheapskate part of me wants to go to get plants for free, but the lazy part of me is saying, "Your garden is getting too damn big as it is and you don't want to maintain much more than this." I have some plants in pots that I could trade back. I've been taking them out of the yard and planting them in makeshift pots. I sure never expected a 100% germination rate on everything except the eggplant...and :woot: I got a sprout from an eggplant cup today. Might just be that I have enough to nurture with what I have currently plus what I'll add in the next month or so. I dunno. Color me indecisive.

Oldnovice said...

Okay. PHEW, I'm tired right now and hot and sticky and stinky. How's that for a motherly image?

#2's all set to fly in on the 10th. Already, American no longer had the deals it had last week, but someone else offered the same price, so it worked out okay. Ya need to firm it up, #3...time's awastin'.

Diane: We're not driving up there, either to your place or the meet. Please release the eggplants, etc. bearing my name. It's 5 hours each way, meaning a whole lot of money spent on gas to get more plants when I can barely keep up with the ones I've got. Just makes no sense...more in a few on that decision.

#3: The rice is too big to fit through the little salt-shaker holes. :tup: on your project; sounds like both fun and a lot of work. Yeah...I get it on the step-people. It's just another "Who knew?" moment for me. Forgot what else you said and am too tired to scroll down to that old thread to see where we were. Did y'all miss the "consider open thread" on THIS one? Fresh thoughts to the top!! Which reminds me: We need to add a date to the information about who responded to what thread. Can you whip up something in Java to include the date as well as the time? I'm not really sure where Blogger keeps the date of each post. Date gets used on the first post of each thread and then the default is to time only regardless of date. Little something for you to research if you're sitting around wondering why you haven't been stressed for 15 minutes. I'd do it, but I don't have time.
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Has the laughter died down yet?

Back to Diane:
Here's where I'm at:
1. Egyptian Walking Onions are still looking good, getting ready to flower or something. They're at the end of the North East Garden, and they can walk left if they feel inclined to walk. If they walk right, I smack'em back. If they walk forward, they get mowed down.
2. There's now a Tiger-like tomato planted in the middle of the Spearmint square. I hope they get along, but it looks like they are.
3. Straightneck early yellow squash is flowering in the same square as catalogna. I cut some more catalogna today; I like it in salads.
4. Elephant garlic has its own square. I push it back when it tries to lean into mow-zone.
5. Once reserved for lemon balm (which is the only failure from plants you sent), this square has been given to a Yellow Perfection tomato and lettuce.
6. A Martian Giant tomato shares square 6 with peppermint.
7. A Doone Valley Lemon Thyme plant is waiting to share this square with whichever plant graduates from training school first. In training are:
Class 1: Tomatoes...
Jaune Flammee
Black Prince
Roma
Hawaiian Pineapple
Stupice
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Banana Legs
Peppers...
Cayenne
Gypsy Bell
Poblano
Jalapeno
Orange Bell
Red Bell
Yellow Bell
Long Green Hatch Chile
Eggplants...
Black Beauty
8. Martian Giant shares space with beans and cilantro. The plan is for the beans to be done soon and have the Giant shade the cilantro.
9. Chard is sharing with marigolds and a compact basil; they might get a new roommate, too.
10. Bouquet Dill shares with lettuces and radishes...new roomie possible soon.
11. Beans share with Rosemary and spinach. nrps
12. Yellow Perfection Tomato shares space with beets.
13. Carrots share space with marigolds and onions. nrps.
14. Cabbage shares with radishes.
15. Tiger-like tomato shares with Endive.
16. Collard shares with beans.
17-20 zucchini patch shared with basil and parsley which still hasn't sprouted.

The North West garden has even more possibilities for the trainees. 19 more squares are growing cauliflower, beans, onions, radishes, cucumbers, marigolds, broccoli, spinach, arugula, escarole, cantaloupe, lettuce, Blue Hubbard Squash, catalogna, beets, turnips, carrots, chard, and watermelon. These are what's currently growing/thriving there. Duplicates of species in training WERE planted, but they haven't yet attended the party.

Under construction is a NNW garden, a West Garden, and an East Garden. It might be that Butternut Squash will be the only NEW addition in these 3 much smaller gardens. They will handle graduating cadets and repeats of what's been grown or tried in the NE and NW gardens.

Quite enough, methinks. Thank you for all your help.

SpeedKin said...

Understandable, Anita. I figured you must have had another reason for a trek up this far to make it worth your while. If you were just driving up for us, well, we ain't worth it and neither are a couple of plants. ;-)

Wow, sounds like you've really jumped into this gardening insanity with both green thumbs! You wouldn't be one of those people that gets worked up about something, completely overdoes it, then gets burned out right away, would ya? Not that I know anything about that particular quality...

Took a gazillion pics today. Gonna go check on the kidlets and then get them posted.

Oh, you do know that the spearmint and peppermint will completely take over those squares you have them in, choking out the maters? (As well as the entire neighborhood...)

SpeedKin said...

Finally done with my blog so back to wind down reading yours more thoroughly. (Is it a bad thing that I spend more time at your blog than my own? I think I need a hobby. Or sleep. Sleep as a hobby. Hmm...)

Smack those Egyptians around as much as you want. They like it.

What's up with the training thing for the seedlings? How do they graduate? SAT? Mensa entrance exam? Sliding ya a $20 bill?

Let me know how the shaded cilantro thing works for ya. I might have to do that next year. I always get too excited in spring and forget to plant it in a cooler space. Color me stupid.

Parsley can be persnickety. Even if it's in a good mood, it can take a couple of months to germinate, maybe even more. That being said, it's always come up for me a bit quicker. I just toss it in something and ignore it for a while, other than tossing it an evil eye once in a while.

Again, wow. You're really going at this full blast.

SpeedKin said...

Oh, yeah. PICS! Gotta have some garden porn.

Oldnovice said...

You wouldn't be one of those people that gets worked up about something, completely overdoes it, then gets burned out right away, would ya?


What could possibly lead you to believe such a thing? Please tell me it wasn't a sign on my forehead!

Took a gazillion pics today. Gonna go check on the kidlets and then get them posted.
They're GREAT, too! After falling asleep on the couch last night, I awoke to Em watching a Harry Potter DVD and saw someone in the film turning his feet in
opposite directions like the picture you'd posted with Isaac doing the same. Did he get the idea from this film? I've been trying and trying, but I'm having about as much luck as I had bending a spoon.

Oh, you do know that the spearmint and peppermint will completely take over those squares you have them in, choking out the maters?

Only the tallest graduates were sent to live with the mints. I'm quite sure they'll give the mints a fight for their space in the sun. Of course I'm keeping a close eye on them to be sure that the mints aren't xenophobic.

(Is it a bad thing that I spend more time at your blog than my own?)

Your kids are young, and read your blog on occasion. My kids are old and don't expect ME to live up to expectations, let alone YOU. So, you can be yourself more here, methinks.

What's up with the training thing for the seedlings? How do they graduate? SAT? Mensa entrance exam? Sliding ya a $20 bill?

Evolution of the fittest, starting with whoever grows, moving on to whoever grows the strongest/tallest. Of course listening to my stories could help and any plant sliding me a $20 gets pushed to the head of the pack.

Oh, yeah. PICS! Gotta have some garden porn.

I agree, but I need to know how to make my pics smaller. So far, I take the picture, download it to photobucket, click on the "blog it" feature, and the photo takes up the whole damn screen. Teach me how to minimize and you'll have your pics.

Need to clean up now; It's Monday and time to go to a movie and the bank.

Oldnovice said...

Looks like most of this week's grocery/sundry purchases will be going to charity. That's a good thing, as it's about time for our monthly "offering". I love it when Fiesta offers their mac'n'cheese for .25/box.

One of my two zucchini plants fell over dead this morning. Since I'd seen a lot of ants in the yellow squash blooms, I decided to look and see if the ants could have been responsible. [I'd secretly like to blame fire ants for everything that's wrong with the world just to get back at them].

What did I find? (Welcome to Who Knew?):

"Somewhere along the way I read about a natural method to keep the dreaded squash vine borer from destroying my squash vines and crop. This method involved using fireants. Yep, I thought the same thing. However, as I'm much given to experimentation and hyperbole, I decided to give it a whirl this year to see what would happen.
I began my sophisticated experiment by breaking out the labratory gear (a lawn chair and a cooler of beer). I stared intently at the raised beds, deeply pondering how I'd get the ants to come where I wanted them. I went through several beakers of potion (Corona with lime) without the first clue, then realized I needed help.

Help, as I define it, is my neighbor Tony. Tony is an ant expert's ant expert. He's got a yard full that he regularly tends with a bottle of white powder specifically formulated to get ants to leave their existing home and build a new mound five to six feet from the current one. He's also a real pro at finding hidden colonies with both his lawnmower and his bare feet.

Anyway, Tony joined me in the planning lab and we set about working together on how to get the ants to colonize in the squash bed. About the time Tony and I had a nice stack of redneck bud vases ready, it hit me. The ground, that is, since I fell out my chair, but that got me thinking about sunflowers. There's always a trail of ants and a mound or two where sunflowers grow.

Now, why did falling out the chair get me to thinking about sunflowers? I dunno. Tony said something about epiphanys being funny that way. Now I knew Tony was real smart, but that he knew the latin name for sunflowers impressed me immensely.

Anyway, getting back on track, before I planted the squash in the 4x12 raised bed, I planted a single row of tall growing sunflowers down the middle of the bed. Epiphanous Gianticus Tony would no doubt say. Then I planted the seeds of both straight and crook neck down either side of the sunflowers.

That was back in late April, early May. I also have a control group in a bed all their own. They're a control group since they were leftover remnant seeds that I lacked the control to simply discard.

The control group has received the same TLC as the other bed, but the ants were drawn to those sunflowers like a cat to a can opener. Most of the control group plants are showing squash vine borer wear and tear, but the others are unphased. I notice the ants patrol the squash plants regularly, but don't seem to hurt them. I just need to be careful to wear gloves when I pick squash to avoid trouble from the ants.

Tony has had the same luck in keeping down the vine borers. His ants are prospering, too.

Anyone else ever notice that ants control/reduce the squash vine borer damage, or am I lawn chair dreaming?"

Can't blame the ants...must have just been a weak seed...or not enough sun because it's the only shaded corner...or somethin' else.
Anyway, I only had two zucchini plants, so I'm down to one in that corner and I'm thinking that I'll start a few more in a corner at the opposite end of the yard just in case there's something in the soil in that corner that doesn't want zucchini growing there [think alien creatures crawling up during the night to gnaw at zucchini roots...probably the same aliens who sucked up the parsley seeds before they sprouted].

Today's cool, as in a high of 70, so I'm gonna keep the cadets inside. It would be a good day to replenish more squares in the NNW garden, but that would make life too easy; we'll see. Gonna hit at least 3 stores after Em gets back from the club today...maybe 4 to get some flowers for the pots on the patio. We're gonna do a "Meet the Fockers" dunch, the day after #1 graduates, with grilled protein. Flowers on the patio would look nice for that and all the other days we grill.

Did I mention that we've rescheduled our trip to about a week after the graduation? I've booked LV, Reno, and San Francisco. Never heard from Dana or Davey, so didn't bother to mention plan changes. Might be meeting our dentist cousin who's engaged in our family emails. She'll be a skip and a jump from where we're staying, but her memory seems even worse than mine, so I'm not convinced she'll remember to meet us when we get there. :-) Might also be able to meet up with my younger brother if we can find a way to hit him on the front end on the way in to LV. Several possibilities, but no commitments.

How's life treatin' y'all?

SpeedKin said...

After falling asleep on the couch last night, I awoke to Em watching a Harry Potter DVD and saw someone in the film turning his feet in
opposite directions like the picture you'd posted with Isaac doing the same. Did he get the idea from this film?


I just asked him and he said Ripley's Believe It or Not. We're always trying weird things around here, the whole family. Did you know that I'm the queen of doing the Ghandi thing (cross-legged but with my feet on TOP of my legs) and then walking on my knees while in that position? Yeah, I knew you'd be impressed. Lots more where that came from, baby.

Teach me how to minimize and you'll have your pics.

Um, you realize you're talking to THE computer idiot, right? I just use PhotoShop and click on "image size", set it to 450 width, and ba-boom, it's good to go. Anything other than PhotoShop and I'm completely lost. I do know that there's free photo editing stuff out there somewhere.

Got the rest of my herbs planted out yesterday. Some in the ground, some in pots for taking in the house during the winter. Now I have to get the rest of the big garen ready and get the veggie plants in the ground. Soon.

So I put an ad in the local paper, saying "Free veggie plants" and not one single person called me. Not one. Put them on Freecycle, too. Got several emails about them, asking for directions. Not one person showed up. Not one. Several friends and neighbors claimed they wanted plants. Not one showed up. Not one. I contacted a few local organizations that could have used them, offering to donate them. Not one replied back to me. Not one. I'm giving it just one more week and then they're going into the compost pile. What is wrong with people that they don't want free stuff??

Oldnovice said...

Oldnovice said...
PSHAW! I can STILL do that!

Did you know that I'm the queen of doing the Ghandi thing (cross-legged but with my feet on TOP of my legs) and then walking on my knees while in that position?

I'm not quite as agile as I was when my brother spoke of my antics as "turning yourself inside-out", but I can still do the stuff of the long-legged...at least SOME of it. I haven't flipped my legs up over my head and then under my arms in a while, though. Heh. I don't think I can do that anymore.

#2's got the flexibility gene; she can still do back flips...maybe; can you, #2?

If I had to GUESS, I'd say that "FREE" hasn't meant "FREE" to so many for SO long that it doesn't even register anymore. As someone who daily signs up for free stuff online, I can tell ya that a lot of that stuff ISN'T free; have you heard the expression, "There's no FREE lunch."? Maybe that's what people are thinkin'. OR...maybe they're thinkin' that if they accept somethin' free from YOU, they need to give you something back in return and they don't know what you might want/need. I'm of that group; you've been more than generous to me, and I like to pay my debts promptly in full. I can't do that with you and that's a little bit frustrating for me.

SpeedKin said...

I can still do the legs behind my head thing but have never been able to then put them under my arms. In fact, I've never seen anyone do that. Trying to get a visual on this... Stupid people tricks, anyone?

Hey, I just realized you posted another at 11:23. I must have missed it while typing my 11:35. Or I'm just blind. Must read it to see what excitement I may have missed.

Good find on the ant thing! If I can manage to remember, I'll have to try that this year. We've not have much borer problems so far but, now that I've said that, we'll get whammied this year.

Speaking of ants... This weekend, I had Nellie out in a tank top a bit too long. She got sunburned. Not bad and I did slap some aloe vera on it right away but it was enough for the guilt to set in. Later that same day, I sat her down on the ground to play while I was doing something near by. Turns out I sat her smack dab in the middle of a pile of ants. Thanks to my incredible powers of mommy-freaking-out-super-speed, she only got 5 bites on one leg. That was guilt trip #2. A bit later on in the evening, I again sat her down in the yard, first checking for ants, and turned to do some weeding. A couple minutes later, I heard her growling, along with a "thud-thud" sounds. Turned around to see her trying to beat mosquitoes off of herself with a stick. She got maybe 1/2 dozen skeeter bites out of that one. That nicely rounded out the third-time's-the-charm guilt trip for me.

Yeah, the "no free lunch" thing crossed my mind as a possible reason. But we live in an area filled with those that live on handouts happily. I don't mean those who need a little help because they truly can't do it on their own. I mean the type that actually likes getting hand outs--you know the type. But then I thought, well, then they wouldn't want to put in the work to actually grow anything, would they? So they wouldn't call. Which brings back the rest of the folks who don't mind putting out a little sweat and they'd be the ones thinking along the "no free lunch" thing. Or maybe I just have cooties.

And you don't owe me anything. I'm an addict. It's what I do. If not for you, I would have been cramming seeds down the throat of some innocent passerby out for a country drive. So you helped save the world from some of my seed pimping. You sacrificed by throwing yourself on the Diane Grenade.

Oldnovice said...

Just as an experiment, Diane, (I don't know how much it costs to advertise the way you did before, so you may want to weigh your curiosity with your pocketbook):

Advertise RARE ORGANIC plants; charge something like $5.00/each.
I read somewhere that if YOU value what you're selling, people will be inclined to agree. If YOU see your wares as worthless (AKA free), others see it as worthless, as well. Heh. Put me down for 10% of your profits as Marketing Consultant, eh? LOL.

Just might work, though; some folks will drive MILES through pretty weird terrain just to get something they couldn't have gotten in the city. Maybe advertise in the city. [We could be ON to something here!!!!] Uh-huh!

All you'd have lost is whatever it cost you to advertise, AND...you won't feel guilty for "putting down" those "RARE ORGANICS".

LOL on the guilt-trips for your first girl. Look at it another way: You're "hardening her for life's realities." I know that was lame.

Also, #1 and I played around with the human body tricks yesterday and she can do the walkin' on the knees thing as well as a standing on the head thing without falling over sideways. [I never did like the sensation of standing on my head; I dunno why.] It worried me when she did this so close to Ekans' tank because I'd figured she could fall into the tank and leave me to separate HER scales from HIS. She said she never falls sideways...only forward/back.

She also told me about a time when I'd demonstrated my capabilities of feet behind head, got stuck there and neither she, #2 or #3 could get me unstuck. I don't remember anything like that, but she says it happened here in Texas. You remember anything about that, #2, #3? If so, fill me in. I slithered my foot behind my neck and she grew uncomfortable, so somethin' like this mighta happened, even if she exaggerated (like she's known to do) the results.

We got to talkin' about the "Meet the Fockers" dunch and she said stuff like, "Don't mention that our family is crazy." I said "I don't think I'll have to SAY anything; the evidence will be before them!!!" How do you HIDE insanity?

Cousin Karen wrote back, inviting us to spend a night at her place. I forwarded it to Em; he's in charge of before and after whatever I've booked and can make all decisions on those legs.

Oldnovice said...

It concerns me that you even KNOW this, #3.

You can hide insanity. Just stay quiet, act overly serious, and seem interested in anything that has to do with money (or sports if you are male)...

We had a little bit of a problem here today, as the electricity died at 2 minutes to 8pm. I was just rounding off some things online and looking forward to that "Criminal Intent(or something that sounds similar to that)" show on TV when it happened.

The mistake of the evening was when I lit the oil lamp I keep in the kitchen. I HATE that lamp, because every time I light it I need to put the mantle on INSIDE those little goofy things sticking up on the bottom. Geeze. If I had the coordination to get the mantle INSIDE those little goofy things sticking up on the bottom, I'd maybe be a rich woman, but.......I don't.

So, TONIGHT, I lit the lamp despite Em telling me that it wasn't late enough to light a lamp...guess he thought it might be a better idea to wait until there was no fuckin' daylight streamin' through the windows in which to light the lamp before HE would light the lamp... and I

never did get that mantle on the lamp before it flew over the counter onto the floor into a zillion pieces. Em then said, "THERE ya go!" #1 helped me sweep up the pieces by flashlight...the ones *I* bought that Em used to see wherever he went while #1 and I sat around here wishing we had some high-grade marijuana to smoke while waiting for the electricity to come back.

The electricity came back; I wasn't impressed with life more with electricity than I was without it...except that I can moan and groan here about the whole thing. I had a backup lantern that has a big sticker on it saying, "Kerosene ONLY!". Heh. Em said, "You can't use THIS!" I said, "because it's kerosene ONLY?...I THINK there might be some kerosene in the garage for this thing..." to which he replied, "I sure HOPE there isn't kerosene in the garage." I told him I figured the thing could run on the lamp oil, but I think he was thinking about something else when I said that.

Turns out that some fool ran into a transformer on 360; one of our neighbors drove up to get the scoop. I'm STILL mad at Em, and told him that I couldn't imagine any reason why he would say what he said except just to be mean to me. There's a LOT to be said for saying what we think WHEN (or as close to WHEN as we can do) we think it, IMO. This is from a woman who pretty much destroyed her marriage by staying silent when things bugged her.

Oldnovice said...

My anger dissipated (never could keep up a healthy angry moment), I moved on to separating the ornamentals purchased this week for the "Meet the Fockers" event. We have no confirmation that Mike has even suggested to his family that this event will take place here on May 13th around 4pm. Ask your grandmother to come, too, Mike.

Got some stuff from a neighbor to put in some emptied windowboxes...invasive stuff like what we once called "Moses in the Bulrush" and some other stuff that'll take over the whole neighborhood if it's not contained in a windowbox. Planted them after I split up and planted the purchased plants. Still have two pots to go; might check out Lawnmower Dave's stash. Need his help on sharpening my knives, anyway.

Looks like we'll be spending one night at the home of our dentist cousin on our road trip. I just hope she remembers. :-) Gonna miss my brother, I think; he'll be camping in the mountains during the week we might have been able to fit him in.

Need to start getting ideas on what #2 and #3 currently eat. If I remember correctly from LAST time, #3 doesn't eat tomato products and #2 doesn't eat onion, pepper, or garlic products. This means that our major food groups have been eliminated, of course. I'd like to nurture you, but I need to know your current mode of nurturing. Spill it!

Oldnovice said...

Sweet potatoes and asparagus it is, then!

I heard what you said, and I once hated those two foods, as well. Both are typically overcooked, or the veggies are from a can. Fresh young asparagus BAKED in a little butter with some chopped nuts or bread crumbs until the flavor gets pulled out but some crunch stays in is DELICIOUS, IMO. Same thing with sweet potatoes. Buy them FRESH, boil them until soft enough to slice without a machete', add a little butter, some nuts and brown sugar and bake for a while. Coconut is a big plus on sweet potatoes; #1 won't eat coconut, though, and I think she said Mike doesn't like it either. Em and I love it.

We don't eat much spaghetti in the summer, although I do use spaghetti sauces for other dishes. There'll be enough food on the table every meal for you to pick and choose, though, I think.