Playing in the Dirt

Sunday afternoon, I got to do something that I haven't done nearly enough of lately. I played in my dirt. There was a time when my best friend and I (somehow, she's still best friends with me - even after we lived together for more than 6 years; some things, I just don't question.) spent part of almost every day with our plants. One of the first things we did after moving into our first home - a trailer that should have been junked about 6 months before we moved out - was plant a garden. We potted plants for inside. We put up a table along the side of the trailer to be our "work area". Part of the "deck" (about 4 square feet of space) was our sick ward, where any plants that were looking ‘iffy’ went, so that they were guaranteed to get attention any time we went in and out of the house. We had tons of fun in that garden, and spent lots of time being silly in it, talking to the plants and trying to make our squash grow (it never really did). Of course, all this talking to plants - mixed together with two black cats and the fact that we were always up late into the night thanks to college and working in restaurants - convinced the neighborhood kids that we were witches. I heard them call us that one day when I went out to walk the dog, right before they ran shrieking down the street away from me. I am not making this up. They never came to our house on Halloween. And is it bad that we kinda enjoyed the reputation? When we left the trailer and moved into the apartment, we had to leave behind the outdoor garden. We were now on the second floor - but we had a HUGE balcony. So we simply put everything in pots. We had pots lining almost every surface. The balcony was wood, so of course when we potted and watered, dirt and water fell down on the people underneath of us. In our Twenty-something self-absorption, we didn't really dwell on that fact until our neighbors to the south put up a sheet of aluminum on the top of their patio, nailed to our balcony, to shield them from the random mud storms that could drip down on them without warning. Luckily, we got along really well with them - they even gave us furniture when we moved out. And when we moved out, we took over 30 pots of herbs, flowers and other plants off the balcony alone, not to mention the recycling bin that we were growing tomatoes in. Then there were the other 15 or so plants inside – including the African Violets that we finally learned how to keep alive.... The townhouse was a work in progress for the two years I lived there, and that's still going on today. By the time I moved in with Hubby a few months before we got married I had already started working on my new yard. The first thing I did was plant my rose bush, and the pansies and impatiens were quick to follow. But then, I started slacking off. Every few months ok, twice a year or so I do some kind of major replanting, but I don't take the time to do all the maintenance work that I used to love so much, and I never thought about it til yesterday. I figured I had just gotten lazy in my old age. But Saturday I called Best Friend and asked her to come over and play in the dirt with me ("Gardening" is way too formal a word for what we do). I needed to clean up the mess that had once been a flower garden, and I really needed to prune the rose bush. So we bought flowers and dug and cleaned and planted and arranged. And played in the dirt, and got filthy listening to Billy Joel. And loved every minute of it. And then we went weed hunting, which has to be seen to be believed because yes, weeds are actually dug up and taken home to be lovingly cared for in her back yard. Some of her favorite plants were found in fields that should have been mowed down. And nothing can compare to the excitement of finding Black-Eyed Susans growing wild right behind your back fence. And after BF left and I was clean and enjoying a 'fortified' cup of coffee, I realized what’s been missing in my yard for the past couple of years: My best friend. Playing in the dirt is way more fun when there's two.

Almost November

I'm insane. That's the only reasonable explanation I can think of. I signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) again. I had so much fun last year - even if I ended up chunking half of what I wrote, and then never did anything with what was left. But I got more accomplished in that one month than I thought I could. And I'm the kind of person that needs pressure to really finish a project. Otherwise, I have absolutely no discipline. This year, I'm going to be a little more organized about the whole thing. I've done a little outlining, some character sketches.  We'll see if it makes a difference.

Is it wrong...

...that this (warning: if you don't like flash sites, don't click that link) turns me on, just a little bit? I mean....this is one of the sexiest collections I've ever seen.

Do I really need to pay back those student loans? Won't the government understand that I'm a tiny bit of a geek at heart, and that I need something from this collection?

Warning: that link above takes you to a flash site, so if you're not a fan of flash (hiya, sis), then just click here to go to the list of items up for auction (it loads very slowly, though). I re-sorted it so that the most expensive stuff came up first. And you know what's estimated to go for the most money? A replica of the Enterprise-D. For $25,000-35,0000. That's 25-35 months of student loans.

It's still damn good looking, though.

Why, Dear God, Why?

Why would you let someone befoul the coffee pot this way? I know you saw her heading towards the coffeepot. I'm sure you knew her intentions. I mean, if I had seen her with a green canister of coffee in her hand, I would have known. And I would have stopped her. But there was no one there to see, no one there to say "Wait! Please don't torture us all this way!" No one there to save my sanity.

So now, instead of sitting at my computer while enjoying that first cup of coffee and reading the days headlines, I'm sitting at the computer watching the clock move closer to 8 o'clock - the magical time when the shop down the hall with overpriced coffee opens its doors for business - and praying that I can last just Two. More. Minutes.

I mean, really. Decaf? In a library? I think someone let the devil loose in the library last night.

I'm feeling safer every minute:


1.) Man Questioned and Misses Flight for Speaking Tamil :

A 32-year-old man speaking Tamil and some English about a sporting rivalry was questioned at Sea-Tac Airport and missed his flight Saturday because at least one person thought he was suspicious....An off-duty airline employee heard the conversation and informed the flight crew.
...
Parker said the man was cooperative and boarded a later flight to Texas. He told officials that he would not speak in a foreign language on his cell phone at an airport in the future.

2.) Humiliation at 30,000 Feet:
Seth Stein is an architect who flies - apparently internationally - quite a lot.

In Mr Stein's case, he was pounced on as the crew and other travellers looked on. The drama unfolded less than an hour into the flight. As he settled down with a book and a ginger ale, the father-of-three was grabbed from behind and held in a head-lock.

"This guy just told me his name was Michael Wilk, that he was with the New York Police Department, that I'd been acting suspiciously and should stay calm. I could barely find my voice and couldn't believe it was happening," said Mr Stein.

"He went into my pocket and took out my passport and my iPod. All the other passengers were looking concerned." Eventually, cabin crew explained that the captain had run a security check on Mr Stein after being alerted by the policeman and that this had cleared him. The passenger had been asked to go back to his seat before he had restrained Mr Stein. When the plane arrived in New York, Mr Stein was met by apologetic police officers who offered to fast-track him out of the airport.

3.) Last March, I went to Paris via The Netherlands. My married name is not in the front of my passport, I have friends that don't think that I actually used my own picture, and to top it all off the passport is about to fall apart after an unfortunate washing incident. International reaction to my passport?
a.) The Dutch Customs official told me if I were Dutch, my passport would be confiscated on the spot.
b.) The French Customs officials all noticed the name discrepancy (my married name is listed on the last page, under alterations or something like that).
c.) The US Customs officials noticed nothing. And they also didn't catch the nail clippers or tool-for-all-seasons pocket knife that were in my purse when I got on the plane in Atlanta. When I got on the return flight in Paris, though...well, I'm now minus a set of nail clippers and one tool-for-all-seasons pocket knife.

My lucky month...

I won another sweepstakes! Not a very big one at all this time, but I'm still happy. I got a $1 coupon for any Silk Soymilk product from the "Cows for Silk Sweepstakes". Since Hubby goes through a couple of containers of Silk a week, this has already been used. Even better - I used it on a double coupon day ($1 was the limit for the coupons). So I have one more thing to add to my list of wins for the year. Now, if only I could get first place in one of these travel sweepstakes I enter all the time... Update: The link to the sweepstakes rules is now defaulting back to the main page, which has no information on the sweeptstakes. Everything I can find lists the grand prize as a trip to a spa (there were four of those) and then 1000 people got coupons for a half gallon of silk. So I'm not sure how I got a $1 coupon...but hey, I'll take it!

Food for Thought

This morning as I sipped my 2nd 3^rd 4^th cup of coffee, I realized I needed to come up with something witty for my loyal readers. Problem is, the library hasn’t been funny lately (our students are – gasp! – only coming in to study), I haven’t seen my step-son in a couple of weeks (he’s always good for something sweet, yet humorous) and in the interest of my blood pressure, I’ve been trying to cut back on the political rants. So I was in a bit of a quandary. Until I found this:

How to poach Salmon in the Dishwasher

How in the world could I pass this up? The author promises that once you’re sure you’ve got the packets done correctly, you can even wash dishes while you cook!

I think I see salmon on our menu very shortly. I’ll have to change the sauce, a bit – we like sweet a little more than spicy. And I’ll have to come up with some way to get Hubby out of the house while I’m cooking. He will not be as excited about this recipe as I am. But he loves Salmon, and I think I feel a craving coming on…

I won!

A couple of days ago I won a $15 Starbucks Gift Card from the The Coinstar® Skip Our Fee Instant Win Game & Sweepstakes. Don’t ask me how this could be an instant win, when I got the GC 2 months after the sweepstakes ended, because I’m not asking any such foolish questions. I’m taking the card and buying some coffee. Well, the next time I’m near a Starbucks anyway. Even more exciting: This is a sweepstakes that I won all on my own. I think everything I’ve won before (the TV, the $100 to Winn Dixie, the movie) all came for entries that my mom sent in with my name on them. Now, I am NOT complaining! (Mom, don’t stop sending my name in!). But there is a little extra added thrill from knowing that I did this all by myself. I may start singing the “I’m a big kid now” song any second.

Wedding Pictures

Getting Ready for a Family Photo Opp
Originally uploaded by lildebbie_77.

Well, I've finally gotten my lazy butt moving. 21 months later, I'm finally getting my pictures digitized. The pics were taken with 35 mm film, so I'm having the negatives put on CDs. Since it costs 75 cents per picture, I'm only doing a few at a time. I'll put them in this album as I get them done, and hopefully one day in the near future I'll have them all done.

It's been a while

What I’ve been up to:

¨ A whole lotta nothin’. Really. I’ve been working hard at doing nothing. If you don’t believe me, just look at the archives for the past couple of weeks. Know what you’ll find? Nothin’

So, here are some random thoughts from around my world.

Remember the job that I was waiting to hear about? Well, it didn’t work out. I’m still in the same position I’ve been in for the past year. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I love my job. But I was really looking forward to the flex-time. La Directora told me that we could revisit the decision in December. So there’s still a chance.

I bought my plane tickets to London! I also bought some for my hubby and StepSon. I’m just nice like that. We’re going the third week in March.

Is it the third week of March yet?

Speaking of StepSon, he is now a Sophomore in high school. I went and found his pics from the homecoming dance last year…and I swear, he’s an entirely different person. He’s grown about a half a foot, for one thing. And for another, his vocabulary has expanded. He now has a word other than *grunt* and “NO!” Just last Sunday, he said “food.”

Actually, he was quite talkative this past weekend. And when I hugged him…get ready….he patted me on the arm! I think I blacked out from the shock for a moment.

My parents’ 40^th wedding anniversary is coming up. North Carolina had better take a deep breath and hold on tight, cause all my brothers and sisters will be there, with a few spouses, a few kids and the random aunt, uncle and cousin thrown in for seasoning. In the meantime, I’ve decided something:

As people get older, they should be forced to give away things they vitally need so that their children have some clue as to what to get them for important events. Seriously. This would be so much easier if they needed a set of dishes or something.

{me calling sis} “Hey sis, mom and dad gave all their wine glasses to charity! I know exactly what they want for their Christmas present this year!”

Yes, I did just equate wine glasses with vital necessities.

Back to StepSon: he’s decided he wants to play Lacrosse. Please don’t ask me why, since, to my knowledge, the most athletic thing he’s done outside of PE in the past three years was achieve astonishing speeds at changing channels when he gets control of the remote. I’ve never seen channels be examined and discarded so quickly. But that’s not really the type of activity that gives you good experience at throwing balls around with butterfly nets. His first game is this weekend, and because I’m working Sunday I’m going to miss his very first match. I’m going to have to make him Chicken Parmesan next weekend to make up for it.

The husband hasn’t done anything exceedingly noteworthy. He’s as wonderful as always, but he’s behaved himself recently.

So what’s up with you?