Apropos of Nothing v.9

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I'm speechless.

This message was edited Feb 22, 2010 9:26 PM

This message was edited Feb 23, 2010 9:09 AM

Yeah, whatever, Judi. You leave me that way sometimes yourself.

Hmmm.

Um. Seems to me that with Pixy & Summer having reconciled their differences that their issue is now closed to discussion by anyone else, so let's move on.

Summer, sorry about your Cleo cat.
Pix, give us an update in a few weeks about how your Cleo is doing? :)

Apropos to nothing, v9. My cat Roscoe has just discovered that seed packets on tables are the best toy ever. He's not supposed to be on the table as it is, but he liked the seed packets enough he got back on the table three times in a row, instantly, after I yelled at him. And that was only a few packs of seeds. I hate to think what it would've been like if I'd been sorting all of them.... I think it may be time to resurrect the spray bottle for a little while.

And second, where have the missing socks been and how do they suddenly reappear??? I have a little stack of odd socks that I keep just out of hope that somehow the mates will turn up, and all of a sudden today three mates turned up all at once. They weren't in the usual dirty laundry basket, they've all been gone for at least a month, so where were they? The washer is the normal culprit with socks, but that's a one-way trip. Do I have a new sock-FINDING gnome? IF so, how do I keep him/her happy?

Susy that's funny about your cat - I left a packet of castor plant seeds with some other items in a bag by the front door and one of my cats tipped the bag over and got the packet and batted it around for about 20 minutes. I wonder if the seeds have a scent the cats like?

I used to have missing socks all the time, but now that my kids are grown and I only do my own laundry, there are no missing socks!

After days of sunshine, today is feeling very gloomy. The rain is back!

Here the wind is blowing something fierce and it's VERY ugly out.. I even heard the "S" word. A winter weather advisory is in effect until 7am tomorrow.

Humph.

Moving on ...

Look, it's raining.

(No controversial judgments about the weather or Mother Nature herself, just an observation.)

I just hate the whole missing sock thing. After a few years of letting the missing socks pile up in a special place, sorting them and trying to find matches on a regular basis somehow thinking I was doing something worthwhile (yeah, I know, I get delusional at times) I finally threw them all out. I did a little pixy dance at that point. Then I went out and bought new socks. Whew! I should have done it years ago.

The only good thing about the rain today is that I have to work anyway. I just came home to find my cell phone, which I forgot to bring to work. A bit of a Freudian slip, probably. On the other hand, here is a photo of my sweet little new seed bed, which is probably liking a little sprinkling of rain. No 'S word' in the forecast here, thank goodness.

Jack did something really great the first Christmas we were together. One of my gifts was 20 pairs of white Thorlo socks & 20 pairs of black.

All other socks went in the trash.

I eventually added white anklets to the bunch for wearing with sneakers in the summer, but I haven't had to match socks in 6 years. There's just a sock drawer, from which I grab 2 socks. And the Thorlos are still going strong.

The only time I'm missing a sox is when DH throws ONE away and doesn't tell me about it. Why would I want to know he threw away a sox?

Are the different colors in your seedbed significant?

SK, I went out this morning to get your alliums packed up and Dean and Ruth had dumped them all in their trailer to take to the dump. I'm so sorry. You can throw those red pointed drapes at me if you are so inclined. But you must do it from Oregon.

Oh, I'm not wasting one of those drapes on YOU, Willow. Lots better targets out there.

Check out the view from my front door this afternoon. Gosh, I love this place.

oooh, Judi-good thing your kitty didn't get into the castor beans, but it is funny he chased them. I think everything about that plant is seriously toxic.

My sock issue probably has more to do with DH being a little more cavalier about things like socks when he does the laundry. Most of mine are the goofy patterned ones, left over from casual Fridays and life as a corporate drone. At least my socks amused me (and I could look down and see them, unlike, say, delectable underthings).... I find it's very easy to pair them up if they're all different, and easy to tell when certain ones start to wear out.

Pix, using chicken grit for sharp drainage in the seed bed, or is it to keep down gnats? How has it been working for germination?

Oh, and I agree about the drapes! Much too serious a weapon, needs to be saved for serious injuries or attacks. I've got this image of Summer holding one of them like a frisbee and hurling it like a dagger at the person breaking into her house or torturing puppies...

Maybe theywould work as kites.

Too dangerous.

SK, you are invited to the party if you can make it. April 10th.

Thank you, I will be there! I'll bring a greenshed-warming gift. Looks as if the place could use some window treatments. What goes good with green? Red?

Don't even think about it! You have to keep the drapes with that baseball bat by the door.
Sue, the grit is for drainage. I have white and pink, and I try to keep them in patches to kind of sort of keep the seeds separated, but I don't really care that much. I just love it that what germinates in the bed can stay in the bed until I need to put it in the actual garden. No pricking out and potting up for those varieties.

SK, I went the 'black' sock route for my son years ago, but my dh did not do the same for himself, and I have a lot of different kinds of socks because I wear them to work all the time and I get bored easily. Still, the idea of simply opening the drawer and pulling out two socks, knowing they will be the same, has a great deal of merit. I will have to reconsider that since there are may things in this world I am interested in, and socks are the least of them.

Exactly, Pix! We can use the mental energy saved during dressing & laundry to express ourselves in more substantive ways.

I'm watching Florida & Tennesse, which reminds me of another Jack-sock story: He played professional basketball abroad & has some really great tales of his adventures, particularly of playing for the national Thai team in China. His pro "salary" wasn't much, it was just a sideline for him -- he says he usually spent it on socks for the whole team, which became kind of a tradition. Everybody loves socks!

I like red.

then you shall have it, Willow!

another...

pretty soon...

one more.
I can hardly wait.

Ooooooh what a gorgeous tulip!! And what is the flower in the second picture?

My crocuses are up, but that is about it right now. They bloom, then get pounded by the rain, and every year I think I should issue tiny umbrellas for all of them so they won't get so bedraggled.

Wow! Gorgeous, and intense! Loving it! Is that a scabiosa in the second shot?

Pix, being able to leave the seedlings in one place, ah, how nice that would be!

OK, I have an Olympics-related question for y'all:

Would you be Bode Miller, Nicole Bobek & the kid who left in disgrace after being photographed with his medal around his waist & a young woman licking it?

Or would you be Bruce Jansen, Kristi Yamaguchi & Lindsay Vonn?

It was below freezing here last night but nothing in the garden looks too bad. When I took Koka for a walk today I saw things blooming all over - and shrubs leafing out. It's raining now and supposed to continue for a few more days, but we have had some nice sun!

Oh for heaven's sake, Pix, you WOULD pick up on the baseball bat.

MHF, I am totally with you on those tiny umbrellas. Why do I bother to plant early spring bulbs like crocus? And I know this is not the $ wasters thread, but about every other year I see tulip leaves coming up somewhere in the garden and wonder 'what the heck are those?' only to realize that , yet again, I planted hybrid tulips that were glorious last year, and will never look good again. Last year I had these lovely red and white tulips (which would have been nice with red socks). This year I have boring leaves and need to go jerk them out of the ground. And I had been so pleased that they didn't get spoiled by the rain last year!

Okay, so SK, I have to admit that I barely remember Christi Yamaguchi (figure skating?), Bruce Jensen (I thought it was Jenner?), and have no idea who Linsay Vonn is without doing 'the google'. And now I also hate to admit this and will probably incur multiple levels of wrath, but I have absolutely no idea who Nicole Bobek, Bode Miller, or the disgraced, unsportsmanlike character would be. This is the only woe I have regarding the lack of TV coverage of the olympics. We did, however, watch the America's Cup. At least my DH did. And we still cannot figure out how they got 33 knots speed out of only 8 knots of wind. Must be magic. If I had TV, I would have watched Hockey. I do still remember when we beat the Russians in Olympic hockey. That was legendary and I lived in New Jersey at the time. That was also legendary.
But I probably would not want to be any of these people because they must have had to eat, breathe and sleep whatever sport they have competed in and just the thought of that makes me want to shorten my life considerably.

These large swings in day/night temp make me very nervous. This is how plants die. Bad weather.. Bad! Please make a decision about whether it's going to be cold or warm! My mexican orange wants to know!

Well? Is there some reason why I shouldn't? I thought the drapes and the bat.....

Oh, I'm the same way with tulips. I've started ripping them up when they show up, think I've finally gotten them all, but I always miss a few and end up with these random spindly leafy things. Using bulb baskets for those and buying them annually like Dallas arboretum is beginning to seem like the way to go.

I wish I could ski half as well as either Bode or Lindsay, what beautiful skiers. It's amazing to me how Bode manages to look relaxed going 80mph compared to the tension the other skiers sort of radiate. Lindsay's run where she won the gold was very elegant.

And here was me thinking no one was adding to apprapos anymore. sheesh - will have to come back to this later.

Just got to Koka being attacked - Portland, how frightening - makes the search for boxer shorts seem inconsequential!

I shouldn't have had a mouthful of coffee when I read your last line Laurie. What a mess I made.

I noticed the bat, too, but figured it was just front door security.

I would want to have been Dorothy Hamill.

Bode Miller - he's having the time of his life at the right time in his life. Skipping Nicole and the jacka** companions. However, I'd really rather be a member of the woman's Hockey Team (USA).

Lindsay looks great and I'm very happy for her, and I'm really glad Bode decided to clean up his act and knuckle down to what he does best (always pulling for the 'bad boys' having raised two of them). I'm a skiier, so pay more attention to that sport than most of the others.

Holly - Sue nailed it: Scabiosa 'Ace of Spades'.
Why do my tulips return? I do absolutely nothing for/to/with them.
My lilies disappeared again this year. Voles, most likely an Olympic event of their own...

Those reds are really great.

I wouldn't care to be an olympian contender. I remember Sonja Heini. She was cute.

Sometimes my computer will quit watching threads all on its own.

Now see, kayte, sometimes tulips do return! This is what I've always heard, but the question is when do they do so? Of course, I know about the 'species' tulips, which the voles must have found to be particularly tasty because they are no more. (Sorry to hear of the lilies, Katye. must buy more...)

Oh, skiers! No wonder I do not know who these people are. I was severely traumatized by the one time I tried to ski as an adult. My sister took me up to Crystal Mountain telling me 'it's easy'! You'll love it! I'll teach you! What a big fat liar she is. There is no such thing as a 'bunny' slope - no bunnies in sight, only a bunch of ankle biters zipping around on skies threatening my life and the bottom of the hill (read: MOUNTAIN) way too far down for my taste. I thought I was going to die right then and there. Not fun. NOT fun at all as far as I'm concerned. I was cold, terrified, abandoned at the top of the mountain, had already twisted my right knee, and was sure that I would not live to see my children grow up. I probably avoid watching such things. These people have death wishes. I, on the other hand, propagate plants at sea level. So there, Mr. Bode whatever your name is fancypants skier man with your medals hanging so low!

Willow, excellent apropos of nothing.

I have a beautiful tall pink tulip that has returned better every year for over 7 years. It was in the bed I took out for the greenshed so I had to move it. Hope it will be okay. It has grown taller since I re-planted it. I also have some short little yellow and white ones that have been in for over ten years.

I use to ski at Hyak in the '60's. My H was on the Ski Patrol. I learned almost by myself and taught my daughter by putting her between my knees and taking her downhill. Sometimes it was very scary. Been to Stevens, Snoqualmie, Ski Acres( skied over there one day from Hyak) and White Pass.

Pix, oh, no, Crystal is NOT the place to take a beginner, shame on your sister!!! It's a great place to take your skiing to the next level if you like challenges and lots of terrain, but lousy for a beginner. The serious skiers take their kids there to learn, so even the kids are little demons. I skied there a lot when DH was on the ski patrol, but I haven't skied in years now, and I wouldn't want to start again there. (Watching the Olympic skiers makes me want to ski again!)