OK Here goes! I'm far from the best chatter in the land :-) but I'll give it a try. Hmmmmmm...........probably our day is a good way to start one of these off, huh? Everyone tell us about your day and we'll go from there (everywhere from there LOL) I hope this takes off, it'll be a fun way for everyone to keep in touch day to day and not just for those very special moments.
Well, I thought it was way too darn cold today! Most of you know I pretty much work outside all day (or at least part of the day :-) redoing our yards and this weather is really cramping my style! I'm not getting much done at the moment, but I'm trying. Today I was prying out the spacers and drainage pieces in our cooldeck , and this is fun, too if anyone's bored and need something to do.....I've got lots more to go LOL Anyways, we're gonna refinish it to match the faux rock in the rest of the yard, what a chore. I try to think about the end product, it gets hard sometimes.
I pulled a baby passiflora mexicana from my little one, too. I got that down in Tucson recently and the stem broke off at the dirt :-( but I repotted it and moved the roots around.....what do you know, the roots are sprouting! How cool is that!
I just got back in from covering all my plants, that was fun. And like last time, it's getting windy and now I'll be going back out to check and make sure nothing has blown off. This time I have a new remote temp sensor so I can keep an eye on my most valuable plant out there...and technically this is DH's plant, a 7' var. scheff arboricola- I promised I won't lose it so I gotta keep an eye on that puppy. It's continued to put out new growth even after the last freeze, new growth didn't even get burnt, so I'm good so far!
Hmmmmm........what else is going on, I think that's about it. I hope I gave this a good start, now someone else tell us what's going on with you.
Lynn
Coffee and Chat
HMMMMM? I went to work and came home....poor little me :(
What Fish said.
I stopped by Lowe's at 59th Ave and Northern today. All Christmas plants are 50% off. Includes Poinsettias, Norfolk Pines, Rosemary trees, and Cactus. And they had a great selection. Bet by Thursday or Friday, they will be discounted more.
I went to Baker's with Rodica. Need I say more :o)
Hhhmmmm....let's see, I did more Christmas shopping, even though I'm waaaayyyy over budget for this. Then my DD called and needs to borrow some $$$ until Jan. 8th when the house she's buying closes, (not good timing)! However because she is my DD and it 'tis the season, I will of course help out :)
I keep thinking I'm putting a dent in the "to-do" list, but it keeps growing somehow...is this happening to anyone else? I mean it's growing better than anything else in the garden!
On the brighter side, I am almost done with the shopping, and after Thursday the plan is to hole up in the house until Christmas is over! DD will be here from Florida, but I will be sadly missing DS who is in Iraq this year....
OK, I feel very mundane right now, so I'm stopping while I'm ahead, LOL!
Stayed home, received my order of Omaha Steaks, did some online banking (racking up expenditures for business to deduct this year), returned soem phone calls and 2 addendums for work, had onion soup for lunch, took a nap, wrapped a few gifts, watered my beds, opened a beer (wish there was a way to drink hot beer), gonna cover the plants now, make chicken w/mushroom soup and noodles for dinner, put a log on and do some channel flipping tonight.
Nice pic CissyC
Hrumff - I'm still at work.
What a cute kitty pic!
That is a nice pic! My kitty likes to smell flowers, anybody else' cats like to smell flowers or is mine just a sissy?
LOL about the to do lists getting bigger Trudi, mine, too! I don't know what I'm doing wrong :-(
Speaking of norfolk island pines.......anybody growing this in the ground? I have friends who bought a house last year and it has one in the ground, it's east facing and looks great. I've been thinking about putting one somewhere, I guess now would be the time to buy one, huh?
We have a new TV, we got it last week. It had something about the screen so we went back to Ultimate Electronics to ask about it. They guy we talked to said it must be a defect, he had never seen it and we should bring it in. I had spent about 2 days previously figuring out how to hook everything up, all of which had to be unplugged. Also the installer of our high definition service had come today and he changed some stuff. Anyway, it all got unplugged and then we two old f*rts got it into the car. The TV is 52". Another trip up to Desert Ridge where they looked at it and we told them our story. Turns out that virtually ALL those with that kind of screen have the same effect but they swapped us for a new one anyway, which then had to come home, be muscled out of the car and into the house and re-plugged into all the components. On egress from Desert Ridge, I decided to try a new route. I have a tip for anyone interested. Do NOT take the south road that comes in off Tatum as an exit. Go ahead and wind around the area until you come to the exit road that has a traffic light, because 3:30 PM trying to get on Tatum north of 101 is a very long wait without a light.
Ultimate Electronics people are very nice and helpful. They guy's mistake about our screen was simply because he had never paid attention to what we were asking about. Turns out that a bunch of the people there hadn't, either. Apparently they have better things to do than sit around looking at a blank TV screen. ;-)
Aw, Judy, that stinks that you 2 had muscle that big ole thing in and out of the car all those times. How's the picture?
OK I'm home from work. Nice to hear about everyone else's day. This is fun, Lynn!
I got up in the dark and put on some water for oatmeal and Eye Of The Tiger Black Tea. (Chocolate Flav). I heard the Cardinal in the front yard and squinted out the window to vaguely see it on the Organ Pipe. Cut up an orange from my tree and ate it; they are huge. Oatmeal finished so added 1/2 apple, some turmeric and cinnamon and 1/2 banana. Sun began to appear and that Woodpecker was hugging the Organ Pipe with its back to the rising Sun, I assume looking for heat. Heard about the climbers and felt somewhat consoled that that one fellow passed over in a place he loved. Looked in the backyard at my hummer feeders, busy. ... and the seed bell, busy. Check the areas I planted the daffs, no growth yet. BTW Bert is still snoozing. Like FK, I sniffed and got ready for work. Great day digging for clues, love my job. Home for a long walk with Bert. Oh, and a glass or two of Vino and homemade Minnestrone.
Hope everyone survives this cold tonight.... I'm sick of this Miss Universe sham. What a -- shall we say, JOKE!
Thanks for the sympathy , Lynn. ;-) The picture is great. The HD channels are whiz-bang and the standard ones are pretty good, too.
Thanks for all the compliments on my kitty pic. That is my favorite picture of my Lucky who has since crossed over the rainbow bridge. She was my little garden helper and she loved to smell all the flowers, so no Lynn, your kitty isn't just a sissy, Lol!
The pic here is of CB taken today, she joined us last year after we lost Lucky....
Love my silly kitties!
Ah! What a wonderful kitty face!
Buzzy says "hubba hubba"
My day consisted of staggering around on crutches trying to at least clean up the kitchen a bit...rest of the house is a total wreck...Lou is in worse pain than I am, so he can't do much, but he did get to the grocery store.
I DID manage to get out this eve and cover up most of the plants...that's a good thing.
I also did a lot of reading and tea drinking with purring cat on lap...and had a nice nap with two 'undercover kitties' keeping me company. Things could be a lot worse!
=0)
Sharon, feeling better every day.
Glad to hear you are feeling better, Sharon! My day (I'm happily exhausted...) included the following: finished Christmas Cards, baked Christmas cookies and made fudge with Tony's daughter, picked up my son and his sweetheart at the airport... and I am just relaxing now. I'm so happy to have my son, Phillip home for Christmas! He's 25 now and lives in Oregon, hasn't been here since spring. My Love Tony made it possible to bring my baby home for the holidays! Here's a photo of Phill and Mindy...
Susie reminded me about my freesias I planted 2 weeks ago, I checked and they're coming up! Some are the new colossal yellows I won in the OG raffle...I'm very excited to see how big they get.
Whew! Peso ain't a sissy, what a relief, thanks Trudi. I was pretty sure he was, what with being terrified of birds and all, but I feel better now LOL Like Trudi says....love my silly kitty! I'm with Buzzy, what a beautiful kitty.......CB, not Buzzy ;o
Nice to hear from you Sharon! Glad you're feeling better, sorry the house is a mess :(, but at least you've got kitties to help keep you warm, love kitties.
Brenda, what a nice looking kid! I'm glad he's here for the holidays with you and Tony.
LOL MP, I'm pretty sure he doesn't smell butts (that doesn't mean his doesn't get smelled, he gets a good going over from the dog every time he comes inside) but he does like to smell just about everything else. You're not even allowed to touch him until your hand has passed the "test". I love cats!
So I got up this morning and my temp sensor says the scheff is 33 degrees! I went out and lit tiny portable heaters, but I think they are almost out of gas so then I lit some brickettes in cans, got the temp up to 36, but it's already back down to 34 again :( The coldest hour of the day isn't even upon us yet, I think I should've started my efforts a bit later and they would've been more effective. I need that little attachment that lets you fill the tiny propane cans with your larger one...anyone know if Harbor Freight carries that in the stores? I know they have it in the catalogue, but they don't always carry everything in the stores. That'll keeo my little heaters going...tomorrow.
Brenda - what a handsome and sweet looking young man you have there! I'm so happy that you have him home for the holidays!
Lynn,
The Sportsman's Warehouse at Greenfield and Hwy 60 (south of the freeway and west of Greenfield) may have that attachment in their camping section.
Thermometer on the patio reads 38 degrees this morning. Because it's 6 am we may get lucky and it it won't get much colder. This might be the day I give up the shorts in favor of warmer jeans.
Today we'll complete our last order for the year and it will be the last day of work until after Christmas! Then I'll spend a week or so getting the end of the year paperwork in order, doing inventory and that sort of stuff. I just changed the host for my website and somehow that's turned into a real mess so I'll have to get that straightened out real soon too.
I'm really looking forward to the next few days...I've started another raised garden bed. This one will be 5'x20' and, at the moment, it is meant to be for vegetables.
Time for one more cup of coffee and then I have to get out of here! Hope everyone has a great day!
Dan
WOW......... All I did was walk out in the nursery.. look at all the work I have to get done,, then I sat down and cried.. after that I had to go paint another house so I can pay the bills in the nursery.. then I got home and added a water heater to the shop, then looked outside and thought "I still really do need a slave"
Thanks Dann, I'll check them out- they're really close to me, HF is, too, so hopefully one of them will have it.
Turtle, that nursery has to be fun, fun enough that we don't feel sorry for you not having a slave :-) no pity here lol
Temp on Scheff got back down to 33.6 so I went back out and turned the heaters back on for just a bit, it's back up to 34.3 and the sun is coming up now, so I'm set for the day woo hoo!
It was cold but too dark at my place to see what the damage was when I left. My teenager was kind enough to try and cover stuff for me last night.
A little tired today. Stayed out way late with clients last night. Lynn my dad mentioned there is some kind of heater type contraption that they use in florida in the citrus field to raise temps. Guess what will be on my list for next year. He said it can raise the temps as much as 15 degrees.
Need to finish Christmas shopping tomorrow. I am promising myself to be done by Thanksgiving next year. I do not know why I waited so long.
Trudi that is a great picture.
Brenda what a handsome son. I am glad he will be with you for Christmas.
Thanks for the sympathy guys.
House doesn't matter...it'll still be there when I'm able to do something about it...and I am not the world's best housekeeper anyway...lick and promise type, I are.
I seem to spend my time with dogs, cats, the tortoises (who like to go outside,, bask, eat, then need a soak and be brought back inside when it gets too cool) and of course PLANTS....and books, naturally.
I was afraid I would lose a bunch of the plants, cuz I couldn't gettem watered, but so far most are still living.
I am wondering about one of my plumies tho....missed covering it last night, but it's back under a pine tree, so hopefully it will be okay. Haven't been out to check yet, knee is a little stiff this morn and I am procrastinating.
Last time we had a freeze warning the plumies went in the garage, but that was B.K. (before knee). Hope it's not my Aztec Gold, if it doesn't make it....
I AM getting my houseplants watered, one at a time...at least the hoyas can wait awhile.
My grandson will be coming to stay for a few months right after Christmas...boy will he be a big help!
Dogs will get walked again...and he can do things like replacing ceiling lightbulbs and furnace filters.
Things you just take for granted till you get injured.
I guess this is kind of a rehearsal for old age...lol...
Well, time to get more coffee...and here comes Miss Delilah (feline person) wanting more lap time...what a lover she is.........
Bye for now!
S.
Edited to say Cissycat's Lucky looks just like my Delilah...who is getting very old and crochety and I am loving very hard while she is still with me, 'cuz I know it won't be for too much longer....
=0(
This message was edited Dec 20, 2006 9:40 AM
Thanks to all for the nice wishes about my son. Last week I had the inspired (but late) idea of making him a scrapbook of his life to date. So, I had to go through all the old photos in boxes, put them in the best I can remember sequencial order, scan them, then cut and scrapbook them. I finished it today (not as "embellished" as I would like)... but he's gonna love it! I always give myself too much to do at the holidays, but I love Christmas and enjoy all the special traditions. I'm not getting much work done this week, though. I still have some shopping to do, and all the wrapping, and the cutout cookies to make...
But for now, I'm taking a break. I made the holiday cider recipe I posted in the other thread today... if you make it, don't bother with baking the apples (not necessary) and there is a misprint in the recipe, the "4 medium apples" should be "4 medium oranges". I'm adding some dark rum to mine. MMMMMMMM!
He's a cutie, Bren. Looks just like you! Oh, and I have to find that cider recipe again! Yum.
Merry, Merry!
Great idea Brenda - my Mom did that for me 20 years ago and I have treasured this scrapbook, would you believe that she wrote down everything I did/ate/etc. for the first 12 months of my life????? I was blown away - still am!
That is very cool, I wish I had something like that. You take as many rum, uh, I mean cider, breaks as you need! :-)
Lynn.....off to look at that recipe, too!
So I'm out there prying out more spacers and I realize no one has volunteered to help.....whas up wid dat?
OK, now I've had it...I have been up since 2:30 - wide awake - this is the 4th day in a row I've done this.....I forced myself to lay in bed for half an hour but couldn't take it any longer....I am ready to make my 2nd cup of coffee and it isn't even 3:30! My little brain just won't quit - I am trying to solve all the world's problems in the middle of the night for goodness sake! I wouldn't mind this if I didn't have to go to work....and napping at my desk is not an option!
I guess I could go add things to my list for Santa (Larry going Christmas shopping again today) if I use the same pen he might not realize the list has gotten longer...... I would ice my Christmas cookies, but don't want to wake him or our dog, both of them get a bit cranky if they don't get their 8 hours.....maybe I should go wrap presents....nope, too much noise with all that tissue paper...... lots of half-completed tasks around here, even the tree is only half-decorated.....I'm starting to think I like the minimal look!
Well, I'm off to see what new fun things Carl has added to his OT post......
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Late night/early morning when 'the dragon' is still sleeping is when I like to watch japanese or other films on TV. Subtitles are silent!
In the past, when I developed poor sleep patterns, I was able to 'reset' it by staying awake an entire 24 hours + and then going to bed at my prefered time. I dunno, might work for you.
Carl
Mornin' Carl - I just might try that, I could finish up everything in the next 24 hrs. and be so ready for Christmas Eve!!!!
Haha!
WEll, I dunno if this is the best time to try it!
No cheating with a catnap!
good luck
Carl
You're right...wouldn't want to fall face-first into my mashed pototoes!!!!
Uh - make certain someone has a camera ready if that's a possibility!
off to work now - short day at work, oldest daughter's family SHOULD be coming in from Co Spgs (if they dug out of the snow) then, probably brief/intermittent computer use for a few days.
I love this time year, know why? Christmas is almost OVER! (bah humbug)
lol!
be safe
Carl
Have a great weekend Carl! I'm done at noon for 4 days myself! Merry Christmas!
audrey
for those who find they are up all night with a little rattling anxiety ... try Yogi Calming Tea with Kava Kava. Amazing and legal. Whole Foods has it.