How does your garden grow--Part II

Hellllllooooooo out there!! Well, today is a sunny 90 degrees in the mystery city I live in, and though it is hot, it is not humid which makes all the difference in the world. Things have been very slow work wise this week . . I did finalize and submit my application today for the job at the local university I was contacted about. It is weird to do applications online . . .don't know if anyone else thinks that's just strange. Oh well.

I wanted to give a garden update, since there is SO much going on. We have a real garden, a real live garden. I can't wait until we actually produce something edible, but until then, let me show you inside.

This is the before shot of the garden . . .

This is where we are now--though from the opposite end. At the bottom of the photo you can see that we have two massive pumpkin plants growing-thanks to our woofy friend. The one has a branch--is that what they are called?-growing past the two rows of tomato cages. I don't want to cut it, but I don't know when it will stop growing. The other day it grew like 5 inches in a day! Soon it will be out to the road! So in front of the pumpkins we have tomatoes, then peppers, then beans, and you can see the peas growing around the perimeter of the fence. Oh, and guess what??We have cucumbers!! I had to replant them since by memorial day we hadn't seen anything happening, and this time I made two mounds with three seeds each and look what I saw the other day!!! How cool is that???

Not related to the garden, but we got a new back door and storm door yesterday as well. The old one had a frame that had been pieced together and just looked bad. The door and screen both had significant gaps in the bottom and we just needed a new one. Thanks to our economic stimulus checks, we were encouraged to buy a door and have the doorway fixed as well. Very cool!!

Until next time. I think my woofy friend has something to say . . .

Basement workspace

OK, so I have a project in mind. We have a basement-which I have tried to convince my DP is finshable, and she adamantly states that it is not. I get that it may not be finshable, but I feel that it is a good space none the less.

Let me rewind- I have always longed for a space of my own. I have referred to this space as a proverbial "beanie shack". Now if you knew my real name, this title would sound much more fun, but in the name of anonymity, we shall call it a beanie shack.

Ok, so said beanie shack would be a place where I would just be free to create, draw, paint, write, lounge whatever. I have envisioned this place to be small, cozy, must have a comfy bean bag or chair. I have, at times, envisioned it having wall to wall space that I could paint on, or write on when I felt inspired. Are you getting a picture? Any small space I see, I think, "oh, that would make a great beanie shack" DP thinks I am a nut job, and I am ok with this.

Back to the basement-so I have had this bright idea to make a corner of the basement into a quasi beanie shack. Mostly because I thought I would like to do more scrapbooking, and I don't have a place to do that here, but also because I think the basement is ok. I know the walls don't look great, and the ceiling is . . .well, the ceiling has lots and lots of bugs, but they can be sucked up. Overall, it is a dry space, and I am determined to make a corner of it a piece of my own.

I have decided that I will have a table in the one corner, and I will obtain a carpet remnant to put down. Then, thanks to a suggestion from my DP, I will use this purple sheet that I have to cover the walls-since the foundation is stone, you see the stone and the crumbly white stuff on the stone (how's that for technical terminology). We were out and about tonight and I bought a small Ott lamp. There is some light, and we just got glass block windows installed down there, but I thought having something brighter would be useful. Then I can put all of my scrapbooking stuff down there, and work on it when I want. I don't have to worry about cleaning it up all the time, and not having space. Perhaps someday I will even have a bean bag chair down there . . .specifically I would want a love sac . . .but that's for when I win the lottery, and/or we build a garage with a space above which will have a beanie space in it.

Maybe once I finish it I will post some pictures. I am very excited about this!!!

Good Day

We had a great Thanksgiving over here. The food all came out wonderfully, and the sweet potato goop was fantastic and I noticed most everyone going back for seconds. I was, of course, so stuffed, even though I tried to pace myself. It was good though. We had many laughs and good company. RHB's desserts were great!!

We put up the tree and got out all the decorations. Funny, every other year we have had to prioritize what decorations would get to come out and which ornaments would get to go on the tree sine we had a smaller place. We bought a bigger house and a bigger tree this year and everything looks great. I think if anything we could use a few more decorations here and there, but if we didn't have them it would be ok, too. The tree looks great!! We even have some presents under the tree as the in-laws already brought out their presents since we won't see them for Christmas.

Today we were work horses. We were at Home Depot really early this AM and bought new outside lights, things to puppy-proof the fence, a digital thermostat, a light timer, switch plates, reflectors, and a wreath holder.

The reflector is for me, and really for a very silly reason. I keep going by the house. I know I should know which one is mine by now, but I think in the dark it is really hard. So I bought reflectors for the telephone pole in front of our house and hopefully that will help. They are all still making fun of me, but I don't care and will get my needs met and it is ok-right?

Dad and DP were working on the fence, and I was trying to identify weeds/plants with mom to see what could be saved and what could be trashed. We pulled up a bunch of pavers in one area we would like to use as a garden next year. Then I started digging up some big rooty weeds, and then I could tell I was getting a bit obsessed. There was big chunks of concrete in the ground and I couldn't just leave them there. I had to get them all out and then chuck them all onto the side of shed up the hill. I know I am going to be sore later.

But, the lights are up, the water to the outside is turned off, the fence should keep fido-to-be in, and a few others odds and ends are done. Now we are heading to dinner. I will sleep well tonight.

Fuzzy Hearing

DP and I took a ride to the local Target tonight and as we were walking around she mentioned something to me about the display of "crock cheese" and how it was a sign of the holidays. Well, I turned my head and I said, quite loudly "CROTCH CHEESE? What is THAT?"

Needless to say we had quite the laugh about that one for the rest of the night.

We has a lovely evening. I had to see two clients this afternoon. One very interesting one. A single mom who has a boy who was diagnosed with PDD last year, and this year the school tested him again and he is not testing autistic-AT ALL. I have to say, when I saw him last week for the first time I did not think he was autistic-not even aspergers. I thought maybe MR, but I don't think that either. Mom was very upset by this and was going to fight for him to be put in an autistic support class. I tried my darnedest to explain that he would still get the services that were needed-in this case speech therapy and some special education support.

It was hard to sit with this mom and see her struggle. I gather that it is somewhat challenging to have a child who is behaviorally difficult, and NOT have something to blame it on. So if she can't say that the child is autistic and he he having a behavioral episode, the she just supposes folks see her as a bad mom, rather than a mom of a challenging child. She is holding onto the label for dear life-and I didn't' think anything I said today was of any help.

I saw a new family today. Clearly not one that met the low-income requirements-the spa on the back porch of their sprawling house gave them away. They were in need of the services none the less, so I worked with them and will probably meet with them one more time. They had a very cute little girl . . .nice family.

Then DP and I put the big storm windows on the windows that actually had them and stored away all the outdoor furniture. We then went to dinner at Five Guys famous Burgers and Fries
All I have to say is YUM, YUM, YUM. They only make burgers, fries, and hot dogs. I heard a nun at physical therapy once raving over this place, and we decided to try it tonight. We got there and they had peanuts on the table for you while you waited. Then we got the most delicious burgers and fries. It was really good and the place was hopping.

Then we were off to the Lowes to price digital thermometers and outdoor lights. DP's family will be coming on over Thanksgiving and we will have a list of things for dad to do while here-two of which are to install said thermometer and lights!! Also, more importantly is to puppy-proof the back yard!!

Then we went to Target for a humidifier to replace the penguin one we had that broke for no good reason. There we had the aforementioned hearing mishap. Then we went to this yummy place for ice cream and bought a cookies and cream caramel apple for tomorrow.

I am tired now. . . and just under the wire for this post today!!

Heat

We had our heater serviced today, and that means that we finally have heat!! I am so excited. I sat there shivering while waiting for the guy to come. I even contemplated dancing with Ellen while I waited just to generate some heat.

Now, mind you, we were electing to not use the heat until it was serviced since we recently bought the house, but it was getting chilly! The issue now is that you cannot accurately tell what temperature you are setting it on. When DP's dad comes, he will install an electric thermostat which should help.

I worked from home today. I decided I had to organize my many many resources. I bought a few new binders and went to work to categorize and see what I had. I made general piles and then broke them down further. Now everything is piled-though categorized!! I will work on getting them back into their little plastic sleeves this weekend and hopefully will be done with that for a bit.

I am going out tonight to a social work gathering. should be fun-except I am not very social at times. I think I am also getting to the pre-period time and I just want to curl up and sleep, or snuggle. Either one will do.

I've got to go get prettied up for tonight. See ya tomorrow!