Hurry Friday!

I'm already anxious for it to be next Friday.  It's only Sunday!  That means I have 5 days (including today) until Bill can actually do something.  Well, he is doing something:  micro-managing me!  He's driving me crazy.  Today's example - I had some iris bulbs to transplant.  Apparently, I don't know how to correctly operate a shovel.  Or put on a hat.  Or how to plant bulbs (nevermind the fact that I've done it many times already).  OR (and this is the one that really ticked me off) how to drink water and where to put my cup!  He actually went to the shady spot I had my water sitting in, brought it out to where I was working and told me I had it in the wrong spot!  His suggestion was to place it in the sunniest, hottest spot in the yard - on top of a fence post.  At that point, I asked him (nicely) to tell Otter to get me some water from the rain barrel so I could water the bulbs when I got them planted.  She got me the water, then was more than willing to go put my drinking water back in the shady spot where I had it originally.  At that point, I decided I was through with yard chores for the day.  Or at least until after next Friday!

 

Yesterday, he attempted to tell me how to crochet.  You probably already know how that one turned out.  Not the way Billyboy expected, either!

 

On to other things now.

 

I posted this on the craft blog, but read this article from the Tulsa World newspaper.  When I posted it, there were no objectionable comments but it's a public site and I'm not responsible if there is anything ugly left.  But read it anyway:

 

Purple Caps to Protect Babies

 

I started mine yesterday, which was actually when Bill decided that he needed to tell me how to crochet.  I found a pattern that I liked and it was easy, but I frogged it out and re-did it.  Then frogged that out as well.  The pattern worked well and I made it to the size it was supposed to be, but the pattern stated it was for a 9 month old baby but it was way too small.  I found another pattern and thought about making it, but when I read the instructions I realized that the finished size would be even smaller and the 2nd pattern said it was for an older baby!  So, I had Otter run me up to Wallyworld this morning when she was returning a movie we rented, and I measured baby hats.  The first pattern is close, it was a little bit too small for an actual newborn cap but I know how to enlarge that type of pattern (No, Bill.  You don't have to help me.  I really do know how.  Yes, I do know what all those abbreviations and strange-to-you words mean) and I think that's what I'll do.  I'm using some very soft yarn that is lavender, it just has to be in the purple family.  I might get some "actual" purple yarn as well, but I'm not sure if I will or not.  I'm trying hard to de-stash and I have made some progress in that direction.

 

Otter got her schedule yesterday.  She is off today, the manager kept the agreement she made with Otter.  The manager also told her that she can use them as a reference any time she needs to, I think she meant as a personal reference, and that she'd get a good one.  Otter is already using them on her resume as job reference, but I think the manager meant using her specifically as a personal reference.  Otter only has one night shift this week and it's tomorrow, she will get off at 9:30.  Then she's off Tuesday and Friday.  She hasn't heard back from the manager at the new store yet.  She doesn't really expect to until tomorrow.  She'll see if her wants her to come in either or both of those days.  She is scheduled to work next Saturday, which will be her last day at the party store.  I went in there yesterday when I picked her up (I volunteered to take her to work and pick her up yesterday, Bill thinks I just didn't want her to deal with the traffic but we all know I really just wanted to get out of the house and not be micro-managed for a little while!) and stocked up on birthday cards and misc. stuff, while Otter still gets her 30% discount.  She wanted to get a few things as well, mostly costume-related stuff to use in cosplay.  I'm just glad that she managed to get out of there before October, which was her goal.

 

Gotta got start another load of laundry now!  Then I think I'll catch up on my ironing.  Or maybe I'll just make Bill do it! 

Sunday Squirrels

We went to a local park this afternoon.  It has creeks, trees, birds, frogs and azaleas.  And a boatload of squirrels!  We sometimes take peanuts and feed them.  They are not tame, but they are very used to people and we can feed them from our hands.  Feed one or two, and you'll suddenly be surrounded by billions of little bushy tails!  We didn't feed them today, but they still follow people around if they think that there is the slightest chance of food.

We took Otter there to take pictures.  We decided to take her senior pictures ourselves, we weren't impressed with any of the packages we saw offered at any of the millions of photographers in the area.  The park is a local landmark and there are always lots of people.  In the spring, most of them are taking pictures.  Today was no exception.  Lots of little kiddos being herded (and chased down) by parents with cameras in hand.

My allergies didn't particularly like today's outing, but I enjoyed it otherwise.  So did Otter.  But we'll take peanuts next time.  Not that I expect the squirrels to starve, by any stretch of the imagination!

Movie Review:  Tangled.  It was pretty good, better than I expected.  It was funny.  I probably would not have been happy at theater prices, but we enjoyed it.  Especially the horse!

We have been watching, and there are almost no morning glories coming up.  We've always had a whole lot, but not anymore.  I'm thinking that the seeds we got last year must have been infected with something which is what we thought then, because very few came up from the seeds last year and even less of the already established ones.  This year, there are none at all in any of the areas I planted the seeds.  Including Otter's trellis.  There are a couple of vines that have come up at the end of the trellis, but they are the ones that were already established.  We bought several packages of seeds at the hardware store and I'll get them planted probably tomorrow.  Then we'll cross our fingers and hope.  (I'd plant them today, but my skin would probably run away if I spent that much time outside;  allergy overdrive!)

Several iris plants have blooms.  Several more have buds.  There are now two different shades of purple, and the yellowish ones have spread out.  Just no morning glories!

Otter has a movie review:  Insidious.  (I think that's the name).  She said it was good and that it was very scary.  She and BF saw it yesterday.  They also went to dinner.  They called it their Anti-Prom date.  The prom was last night, but neither of them wanted to go.  They wanted to do something that they would both enjoy, and the Prom was not it.  So they decided on dinner and a movie instead.  They actually went to the next small town over and had a Mexican dinner.  Otter said that she really is glad she got the shoes she did last weekend when we went shopping, but that she's now got blisters from them.  But they look good, and since she's her mother's daughter when it comes to cute shoes...

I did (finally) find time to crochet this week.  Yesterday.  I put 2 or 3 rows on the afghan and really enjoyed it.  I am going to work on it and a couple of other projects I've had planned for a while, then I'm going to get back to de-stashing.

Today is Palm Sunday.  We went to the early church service, which is what we usually do.  There normally aren't a lot of people, we are hoping that will change.  Because I don't see Pastor Dave keeping the early service much longer if he's only got 6 people in the audience!  Pastor Dave was complaining about how windy it has been lately.  He said that the wind was the reason he left West Texas.  He didn't pick a very good place, if he wanted to avoid wind!  Although we usually do get it earlier in the year.  But at least the area behind our house has grass now, it was scraped down to dirt when the building started back there and it was horribly dusty when the wind blew.

Like it always does here!

Gutters

(No, not mind in the gutter kind of gutters!)  Bill cleaned the rain gutters out this afternoon.  They were pretty full, lots of helicopter maple seeds, dirt, leaves and just general gunk.  They are nice & clean now.  If we ever get any rain again, they might actually do their job!  It might rain Thursday or thereabouts.  Hope so, we need it.

After he cleaned the gutters, Bill replaced the filter in the drain pipe to the rain barrel.  It's basically a pantyhose leg, periodically it needs to be replaced.  It works wonderfully, actually.  It's a creative way to recycle torn hose.

I did some yard work this afternoon.  I planted two Asian lily plants in the whiskey barrel.  One has red blooms, although they are called purple, and the other one has light pink.  They are supposed to be perennial and full sun.  We'll see!  I pulled a few weeds around my hosta plants and cleaned out leaves, etc. from the same area.  The hostas have come back well this year, they are starting to spread and self-propogate and look very good.  My skin has been on high alert ever since, I'm heading for the shower very soon in hopes that the itching will go away.  I scrubbed my arms up as far as my elbows after I came inside and it did help.  But I still got itchies!  Also, my sinuses are not happy with me.  They weren't happy before I played in the dirt, and they are really angry with me know.  But at least I got to spend some time outside.  That's always a good thing.

While we were outside, I noticed that quite a few of the iris plants in the back yard have buds.  They should be blooming very soon.

No shuttles for Tulsa.  I'm surprised and at the same time, I'm not surprised.  There were 20 other cities attempting to get one, there were only 4 available.  The surprise comes in from the fact that NASA had rules for this, and the majority of the cities that will receive one did not meet the qualifications.  Sounds like some politics involved!  Well, it's not the first time and won't be the last.  But it would have been really neat to have one here.  Even if it wasn't the Enterprise.

I think I'm going to head to the kitchen now, and mix up some hummingbird food.  I have been meaning to for a few days but keep forgetting.  They'll be here soon and will be hungry.  I don't want to disappoint the little needle beaks!  They have been known to dive bomb us before, being redheads were are already targets for them.  I don't want to give them any more reason to attempt to stab us!

Spring Surprises!

No, not the weather kind.

The floral kind.

There are now three different kinds of irises.  The purple ones, which are the original ones and are lovely, were the first.  Then the white one showed up last year - and is now spreading so there are a few this year.  And now, there is another one!  It's more creamy yellow on top than white, the picture makes it look white but it's a yellow color with a beautiful lavender bottom half.  This picture actually shows all three - there is a purple one towards the back that was just opening up and two of the white ones are visible in the front.

And it's fixing to have company!  There are several other iris buds that match the new bloom's colors.  We were hoping that this was one of the ones that would come up this year, there were a couple that we transplanted in hopes that this is what they were.  They will spread, along with the white ones, and we'll have quite a multi-colored iris bed next year.

Some Spring Stuff

I'm happy, I got to get outside and play!

I planted morning glory seeds along the back fence, I had 8 or 10 packages of seeds in various colors and now they are all out there under the dirt. Hopefully, they will come up soon. We have blue ones there already which are georgeous, but I wanted some other colors mixed in. I had a few seeds left, so I planted those under Otter's trellis at the side of the deck and maybe there will be some color variety there as well. Playing in the dirt is always fun! Right, Froggy?

The latest addition to the rock garden. I bought this many months ago and tried a couple of different colors on it, but never could get it to look right. I wanted it to look aged, I fiinally just hit it with a coat of Kilz and called it good. I'd love a real one, but so would the dogs. So, concrete it is! Otter's 3 piece alligator is in front of it, it's just there to see how it looks. Because it's small, the dogs keep relocating it so it probably will get moved soon.

The rock garden from a slightly different angle, and the 3 banana trees are planted at the end of Otter's trellis. Also visible are some of the irises which are exploding right now.

This is the back of the house, that's our bedroom window visible and if you look closely at the side of the house - there's also a beagle. The irises are just starting to bloom, they have plenty of blossoms but they also still have billions of buds. There are two white iris plants out there, there will be more because they spread like wildfire. Which is what we want them to do, by the way. There was one white one last year, now there are two and they are not really close to each other so I'm not sure if last year's has multiplied or if maybe there was one that was dormant last year and didn't bloom.

A close up of an iris.

This looks like one stalk, but it's actually two - one stalk has two white blooms and the purple is on another stalk that was leaning on the white ones. Guess it was jealous and wanted to be in the picture, too.

I had some inside chores to do, but they got put off. If I don't get my outside time, I get cranky. Just ask Bill! I also pulled a few weeds that were along the edge of the rock garden and had to come in and wash my hands two or three times - allergies!

I let the dogs out while I was out in the back yard. They were crazed before we went out, they were very excited because they could see the across the street neighbor's lawn mower. They are so strange at times. Ok, they are always strange but today they were moreso! Anyway, they ran around for a while in the back yard and then found assorted spots to water and/or sniff. When I came in, they were ready to come in as well.

Now, they are probably having a nap. Sounds good to me!

What A Ham!

Two of them, in fact. Otter finally spent her birthday money!

This is Nadine. It's a Stephen King reference, anyone who has read his tremendous book The Stand will get it. (Otter was thinking Raven for the name, the bad guy's alternate form is a raven. His girlfriend's name is Nadine and since the hamsters are females...).

This is Helena. I'm not sure why, but Otter will enlighten me I'm sure!

Nana, they are not mice! But they will be moved out of Otter's room when you visit so you won't have to worry about them.

Otter has been wanting hamsters for a long time, she nearly got them instead of parakeets a few years ago. In hindsight, she probably should have gotten hamsters. She finally decided to see if she could talk her father into letting her get them, and he agreed. She did the research she knew he would ask for, that was last week's activity. Then she called Petsmart and got prices, and also we checked on how they get along since she wanted two of them. We made a trip Friday after work to look at cages. Then she got all of her information together and talked to Bill. And we went to Petsmart today to get them. So far, no interest in them by either dog. Frasier very rarely goes into Otter's room anyway. The girls will not be taken out of the cage if the dogs are in the house, Otter's door will probably be shut even then but the girls won't be taken out a lot. Who am I kidding, Otter will play with them as much as she can! They are pretty well socialized and seem to like people already. They have a life span of about 1 1/2 to 2 years, but Otter's pocket pets generally live a longer life than usual. At least, the mice did. Mice usually live 1 to 1 1/2 years, only one of hers died under two years. One of them lived over 3 years, which is extremely rare.

They are Russian Dwarf hamsters and are about as big as they will get. They might get just a little bigger. They are pretty hand-tame and since they have been raised together, they should get along. Hamsters don't always like other hamsters, unless they have been raised together. It's nearly impossible to introduce another hamster into an existing cage.

I'm sure we know who this clown is! The white part on the side that looks like a circle cut out of the picture is actually the part of the rain barrel that was between me and Frasier. No Maggie picture today, the camera battery died just as I was attempting to take a picture of her. She was nose to the ground in search of a mole. Frasier was probably checking to see if we'd finished mowing the yard.

They're blooming! This is against the back of the house.

Wider shot of the back of the house.

A close-up. They are just starting to bloom and they are going to be absolutely georgeous this year. Quite a few of the ones I transplanted last year are blooming, it can take them a couple of years to bloom after being moved but mine have always bloomed the first year after transplantation. That might be because they are well-established bulbs in the first place and not new bulbs. I know, rhizomes not bulbs! But bulbs is easier.

It's a Little Windy! & a Tulip Update

Tulips from the side. Lots of weeds in the bed, I start pulling weeds out and keep it pretty well free for a while. Then it gets to a point where the weeds simply explode and I just leave them. It's at that point.

There's an Otter in the tulips!

This is a Queen of Night tulip. They are actually a deep purple, but they are very pretty.


Extreme close-up!

I don't remember the name, but this one always reminds me of peppermint ice cream.


Since the tulip bed is Otter's project, we ALWAYS have to have purple tulips. The iris plants are about to start blooming and they are loaded with buds, so there will be even more purple pictures on here soon. And one of the iris that I transplanted last year is white! It's already bloomed, I found it this afternoon but I haven't been out in the back yard in a few days so I don't have a picture of it. But I think it has another bud or two on the stalk.

Maggie was very concerned that we were outside the gate but she wasn't! She stared at us the entire time, but we are pretty much immune to sad puppy eyes at this point.

My one and only bluebonnet. It's small but it is doing very well.

Otter is pointing at the proof that it's doing well: it's budding!

My older boss (a Texan) said that his son's housing development has some very interesting plants growing - naturalized bluebonnets! The son (my younger boss) just doesn't quite understand why some people get so excited about them. Non-Texans just don't get it, but bluebonnets are very important to us.

It's very windy today. It was cool this morning with a slight sprinkle. Then the sun came out late this afternoon. That's actually not a good thing. When it's cool and then gets warm late in Tornado Alley, Bad Things have been known to happen. We have a T-Watch until 9:00 tonight, we could get some stormy weather later but the bad stuff (if any) is forecast west and northwest of us. However, the forecasters are not always bright so we always keep one eye on the sky this time of year.

Frasier says that it's not fair for Maggie to get her picture on here and not him, but every time I tried to get his picture he was off somewhere else. At the moment, he's snoozing in the floor by my chair. I have to keep looking at him to be sure he's breathing, he's so deeply asleep. My big, lazy baby! Wait, he just stretched! I guess he's still alive. :)