Apropos of Nothing v.9

Patricia, that's a funny coincidence. DH's father was on the patrol at Ski Acres in the '60's-that's where he learned to ski, starting when he was 2 or 3. Wonder if any of you ever crossed paths, back in the day. I didn't start skiing until I was about 14, but it is how I met DH, on a ski trip to Mt Bachelor.

Pix, dry summers makes tulips happy. I really skimped on the watering in a certain bed in '08, and in '09 I saw tulips bloom I didn't even think were still there.

Oh Pix that makes me so mad! People who take new skiers to unsuitable places ruin their experience and put them off the sport forever. If you would ever want to try again, I will teach you (cert instructor here) and it will be fun and non-threatening. It really is so enjoyable to feel your skis glide and turn and feel everything in sync. I am meeting kids and grandkids in Park City in March and am looking forward to skiing with grandchildren.

Yes Laurie, boxers are just boxers, but Koka is my best friend. By the way, she is fine now and enjoying playing with other dogs at the dog park. But when we pass another dog on our walks she is a little tentative and careful. She has bounced back very quickly!

lily investment 2010: $$$$$

I find that if you pick your tulips carefully, you get the ones that return. We have had excellent luck with th Impression series. Hopefully the tulip source will give you good info on return probabilites. I can't remember right off the top of my head which kind are better and am not by my catalogs today.

Pix, I had a similar experience with my introduction to skiing. Add that the "bunny hill" had a rope tow and I had basically no instruction. After a few tries I immediately became a "chalet-er" and found my solace in hot buttered rums.

I've been thinking lately about one guy whom I expected to spend my life with, back in my Roaring Twenties. We went to Europe once, and he dragged my jetlagged butt through 4 countries in 3 weeks, one of them twice (that being compounded by it being England, where his manic-depressive mother lived). But in retrospect, I paid him back in spades on the Switzerland leg of the trip by taking him to an alpine resort for what might have been his first ski jaunt, I don't remember exactly. I'm sure he must have skiied before, else why would I think this was a good idea?

I absolutely loved it there in Zermatt. What a magical little town. I'd say the skiing in the Rockies is better, but still, it was thrilling to take THREE gondola cars to the top and THEN more ski lifts. Except that Jeff started out by falling off the T bar. Not a good sign. Then we get to the VERY top and it's a lot of VERY steep skiing followed by poling across a meadow followed by more very steep skiing. I'm absolutely fearless on the slopes but certainly took my share of tumbles.

By the end of the day, the ski patrol had to come escort Jeff down the final slope because it had gotten so icy & he would ski-turn-fall, ski-turn-fall. It was brutal.

I was joking with Jack about this the other day when we were talking about the Olympics & our own trip to Whistler a few years ago, and he snorted something like, "His first ski weekend & you took him to THE ALPS? Where, exactly?"

Um, well, Zermatt is at the foot of the Matterhorn, to be exact.

We didn't break up for a couple of years but I'll bet that was the beginning of the end.

Jan, I thought about throwing Dorothy Hamill into that mix but figured I'd be dating myself! Then Willow comes up with Sonja Heinie, bless her.

Pix, if you don't KNOW who any of those people were, then you are automatically in Group Two, no shame in that.

I wouldn't even make Group One -- I'd be Nicole Bobek's skankier roommate whose best finish was 29th at Nationals but who tagged along to party at the Olympics & managed to get my picture took while licking some cute boy's gold medal.

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


LOL... she is not alone...I was thinking..nice birdbath...nice tile...NICE BAT!

Ginger

It was there for protection but I had totally forgotten about it. I first scoured the photo for a living, breathing bat!

But now you guys have reminded of the one time I truly was startled here in this house. It was last December, and I was still trying to avoid that screwball Tara, so the front door was closed & I was a tad jumpy. It was just after dark & I was making a salad in the kitchen, which is completely open to the living room, porch, library & back door. I was half listening to a basketball game on the TV & lost in thought, when suddenly someone was speaking to me.

I screamed & switched immediately into fight-or-flight mode, ready to hurl my butcher knife at the first thing that moved. Luckily for Sydney, my neighbor 2 doors down, I instinctively looked toward the front door first so had an extra second to start registering things in real time, because she had sneaked through the garden & around to the deck without the dog hearing her, and then popped through the back door, 7 feet away from me!!!

She thought it was funny & said she could never resist scaring people. This time, though, she almost ended up wearing a brand-new Wusthof.

She could never resist 'scaring' people? What kind of a wierdo is she? She must have some kind of a mean streak to think that is funny. She is lucky she is still alive, or at least unscarred.
Hey, I know who Dorothy Hamill is! I still remember her hair!
Thanks for the offer, Portland, but no thanks. I will stick to sailing. I can get my thrills that way and not feel as though I'm going to pee my pants, even though lots of other people would not feel the same way. Interestingly, I did ski when I was a kid in Germany. I spent a week at 'ski school' with a bunch of other 6th graders. We skied and had a great time. I wasn't so hot at it then, either, but at least I wasn't terrified.
PNWmg, I will have to look for the 'impression' series tulips. I know lots of hybrid tulips don't return each year. I was sort of hoping these would.
Sue, these pretty much are planted right under that big doug fir behind my kitchen door. They don't get water during the summer, since I don't water that garden in the summer except the new plants up front. That rosemary has been there for ages.

Kayte, :( poor lilies. I feel your pain. Darn voles. I hate those things.

You all can send me the voles. I kinda like the tunnels & hills all over the place. Like a secret society keeping me company. Plus I figure they must serve some crucial function in the biosphere.

crucial function in the biosphere=cat food

absolutely.

Yeah, Sydney says her cats get 6 a day sometimes. Unless I have no idea what they look like, my cats only get shrews & deer mice.

They look like, well, like....mice....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vole

Oh, so cute! No, none of those have graced my hardwood floors lately.

They're only adorable until you, for instance, find your prized, imported Canadian lilies half eaten and dragged sideways deep into tunnels...

Hmmmmm. So, if I plant what *I* want to plant, and they do what they do, who is going to win, all things being equal?

Could I eradicate them from my gardens if I chose to try?

OK, this is why our economy is in a tailspin. I'm working on a quilt & watching HGTV, where a couple is looking for their first home. They have been approved for a loan of $260k.

And BETWEEN THEM they have $13,000 to put down.

My first house, I had to come up with $17,000 and that was for a townhouse that cost a whopping $170k.

And that was more than 20 years ago.

Holy cow.

First home = 260,000$. That's just incredible. And sad. So sad that someone has to spend that much for a first home.

So, voles don't make hills. those are moles. I like moles. They are cool, and they are good for the soil, etc. They eat grubs, worms, etc. They do not eat my plants. Voles eat roots and new bark. I'm sure they are part of someone's ecosystem, but my garden isn't really an ecosystem, unfortunately. If it were, the weeds would be taking over and I'd have nothing there except possibly the invasives that are encroaching from all sides. Oh. and Douglass Fir trees. I would have more of those. I don't really begrudge them co-existing with me, but I do begrudge them my lilies and expensive plants. When I pull on the top of a plant that has been in the ground several years, I do not expect it to pop out of the ground and have no roots on it. Anyway, their tunnels are very extensive. I posted once that I ran a hose down a tunnel and turned it on full force. It ran for almost an hour and I never saw the water come to the surface. That's a LOT of tunnels that go somewhere. Probably to China.

Just checking in before bed. I've been doing miles of hemline.

Ah - field mice. I've been thinking these voles were some creature that only lives down south... We do have them up here, but they mostly stay in the fields. Cats and dogs catch them on a regular basis.

Actually Pix, I think all those tunnels were put there by Homeland Security, and you have washed away all their little periscope cameras with your hose, so now you are probably on the watch list.

I know this is dating me, but my first home was $13K with minimal down payment (early 70s, during one of the many Boeing busts). I still have a hard time paying more for a car than my first house...

What gets me is that my house payment is less than most people's car payment....

(I don't have a car payment)

My biggest expense is......................hay. (and flowers when the season is on...my DH is not on here so he cannot read this :)


We get older and wiser.

Ginger

We had just built a home in South Seattle in 1968-69. Moved from $75 a month for the old house up to $184 for the new one. Then the Boeing bust happened and we didn't get a raise for awhile. That was a struggling time. We borrowed 26,000 to build it and after her dad died my daughter sold it for 300,000. Good increase in home values.

Yes, I remember when my house payment jumped from $114 per month to $134 because of some escrow snafu -- that extra $20 was a huge increase at the time.

Ah, I have moles & not voles. That explains why I have healthy beds of many of the plants that you all are complaining disappear.

Oh, this is fantastic, I'm so happy to have the Internet back. Was anyone else down all day? This afternoon, the recording said possibly for 48 hours. They lie so that we feel all that much better when SPROING all is well.

Maybe it was just CenturyLink?

Ah, moles. Better knock on wood, SK, because voles follow moles. Opportunistic little devils, using the mole's tunnels. I too, welcomed the lovely, soft little mole.... until I knew.

Apropos of nothing, if you, too, have the idea that you need to go out into the garden at night on a slug hunt, be aware that this is the time of year when night crawlers, um, 'reproduce'. Above ground. In front of everyone. They have no shame. They are very large. You have been warned.

No, I'm not going to fight the slugs. I'm a lazy gardener & find a way to work with whatever was here first.

Plus, slugs really are easy to keep at bay if you know how. Unless you are trying to ban them from a 2-acre property, I suppose.

Key phrase there: Keep at bay. I didn't kill any. They were all over the place in Illinois. But not in my vegetable beds. Or hosta beds.

Oh, dear, downhill skiing. This is one of those sports that is trotted out just to make others feel inadequate. Poohbah. Pix, rest assured that it is not a necessary experience - I have never understood why people would spend hours in a queque to go up the mountain in a windy open chilled chair, rush down it as fast as they can, and then queque again. Silly, I say.

I will admit to being rather fond of Langlauf - cross country skiing to you across the pond. Now that is a beautiful sport which requires strapping planks to the bottom of your feet, and then you just shush your way through snow that is just inaccessible to those of the downhill breed. Lovely lovely way to spend the day, and no crowds. Goodness what a wonderful sweat you can build up! Perfect. We highjacked half the group one trip to France, the group leader was less than admiring of us for that (we felt as if we had played truant from school)!! - but a great day was had. But he was a boring boring guide.

Good koka, best to be cautious before you decide to make friends.

It is so wet, unremittingly wet, here. Just impossible - we are trying to lay paving around the greenhouse extension and yesterday we were literally sinking in mud if we stood still. We got duckboards out to have some stability while taking laser readings, and they sank. There is no traction for the wheelbarrow, and no way to dig off the top soil (top mudpie). I rarely get down about weather - I just shift projects, but I have to say I am feeling less than enthusiastic about getting out there today. We were so muddy by the end of the day that I had to be hosed down! Hoses do not have warm water! I would prefer to do downhill skiing rather than be hosed down again. Not reccommended.

By the way, where is Sofer? And Tills?

Ah, Laurie, I could sink my teeth into cross country skiing, if it did not involve being cold. Maybe it's just the my body temperature is completely out of whack of late - break a sweat sitting still, then I'm chilled and need a sweater. Hormones. Bah, humbug. We will let the others break their necks sliding down mountains. We will drink hot mulled cider together. With rum.

The wet sounds horrible. You have our usual weather, I'm afraid. We did not send it, but it came to you nonetheless. It sounds to me like putting off this project will be the better part of good judgement at this point, as your soil is surely suffering from all of that mucking about in it. And the hosing down sounds awful! Simply awful, and cold! Hot tea is called for.

Pix & Laurie, how about snowshoeing? The contraptions on your feet are wider and more stable than cross country skis, the scenery is amazing, and you can bring your dog! And you don't need a trail. And you can carry hot toddies in your pack and just stop anywhere to have a sip. Koka loves when we go snowshoeing!

This message was edited Feb 26, 2010 9:20 AM

I have been in wild AK.
First depoprovera for cats is like humans using consuling, or other methods for resolving conflict and cats and people have completly different responses to drugs.
Two I would be all Olympiads with gold for two days. What a thrill to have become your goal and be the best in the world. Then I would not want the notariety of the world.
Lastly Pix what channel is Amer Cup? I love watching that!

Wow, Sofer, you must have had some reading to catch up on. I forgot all about the cats on birth control thing. My sister just off-loaded one of her 4 cats on me (with permission). She is planning to move to an apartment and will only be able to bring one with her. I agreed to take on her worse cat, with the understanding he would never set foot in my house. So far, 3 days into it, I haven't seen more than his tail flitting around a corner of the barn. I assume he's found the chow wagon (I feed the cats in the barn and have set out an extra dish), or if not there are lots of field mice out there. I have two female cats (one my own, the other a walk-on from several years ago) so he will likely establish himself as king of the barn once he gets settled in.

I agree with the cat and deporpovera thing, Sofer. And if I lived in a place with more land and a barn my cats would probably be outdoor animals.

Bonehead it sounds like that cat has landed in cat paradise! King of the barn with a few females to boss around!

Apropos of Nothing...I am forcing tulips in my living room. I learned a lot this year from last. If you want to do this do not use bulbs from the fridge. They take too long and are spindly. Buy some bags in the fall and store in a darkish place. (For me was under a bunch of stuff in my car....because I forgot them)

They grow like wildfire...at least 1/2" a day. Once they bloom they are toast.
Our uncle lives with us and he is termianlly ill so in this off/on weathter he does not get out much. He loves to watch the tulips come up almost right before his eyes so I kind of fill the house with them. I think you can also do daffys, paperwhites and the like.

Bulbs ($?....)
Jars $4 Walmart
Rocks $1 (x2) at Dollar tree or $1.99 at Tuesday Morning
Dollar Tree also has some tall jars that will hold apprx 3 bulbs.

beadmom, that's great. I have done exactly that set up with paperwhites, if only to keep them from flopping over.

Here's a bad pic from back then. I used mainly buttons in the bottom.

Okay..I gotta get me some paperwhites!

Ginger

Sorting through pix to add to the container thread, I came across this one from my second-to-last winter in Illinois. It's my art studio, obviously, but ... WHERE'S WALDO?

(Hint: Same Waldo as before.)