101 in 1001 - Third Time's the Charm?

Start date: 12-21-2010
End Date: 9-17-2013

Self Improvement:
001. Complete Living in Season’s New Year’s Dreams course (Blogfodder)
002. Complete Living in Season’s seasonal workbooks (Blogfodder)
003. Lose another 25/50 pounds
004. Work out on WiiFit at least 3x a week for 2 months/for 6 months/for 1 year.
005.Take dance lessons with my husband
006. Keep my home ‘drop in’ ready for 3 months/6 months/1 year
007. Have laser eye surgery done
008. Pay off CapOne card
009. Pay off Citi card
010. Enjoy 10 Manicures/Pedicures (0/10)
011. Enjoy 3 professional massages. (0/3)
012. Complete Year and a Day in Magick book (Blogfodder)
013. Decide if I want to do a teaching program and get my license, or continue with Masters and teach college.
014. Finish teaching program/take Praxis ii/get license OR complete masters program of choice
015. Keep a Daily Happiness Journal and use it at least 3x a week (Blogfodder)
016. Donate 100k grains of rice on FreeRice.com

Food and Drink:
017. Cook at least five recipes from each cook book I currently own, & blog about them

(Caveat: just the ones currently in the house. Most of them are packed up.)

018. Take a cooking class
019. Learn how to make 10 different cocktails
020. Make cookie boxes for family/friend gifts for 2011/2012
021. Create a personal cookbook/recipe file of my favorites (Blogfodder)

Creative:
022. Complete a jigsaw puzzle with my husband
023. Participate fully in the 52 in 52 knitting challenge (Blogfodder)
024. Participate fully in the Year of Stash Socks challenge (Blogfodder)
025. Take a quilting class
026. Go on the Believe in Yourself retreat
027. Complete a Journal Journey (Blogfodder)
028. Put together a wedding/Our Life scrapbook
029. Create a photo wall in my office with framed pictures of friends and family
030. Finish the afghan kit I have in the stash (Blogfodder)
031. Finish the beaded bag kit I have in stash (Blogfodder)
032. Finish the beaded scarf kit I have in stash (Blogfodder)

Photography:
033. Take a photograph to represent each month (0/33) (Blogfodder)
034. Upload photos to BlipFoto at least 3x/week for 1 month/6 months/1 year
035. Complete Project 365 (0/365)
036. Submit a photo to a photography competition (Blogfodder)
037. Take part in the 4am project
038. Take ten pictures of things that make me happy (0/10) (Blogfodder)
039. Take ten pictures of things that make me sad (0/10) (Blogfodder)
040. Make a coffee table book out of our travel photography
041. Photograph a landscape from the same location, capturing all four seasons (Blogfodder)
042. Participate in at least one 26 Things list (Blogfodder)

Reading/Writing:
043. Leave 12 notes in 12 different books for strangers to find (Blogfodder)
044. Answer the “50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind”
045. Read 10 novels off the Modern Library’s Top 100 list (Blogfodder)
046. Read 10 novels off the 1001 Books You Must Read before You Die list (Blogfodder)
047. Blog about each of my 101 things as they are completed
048. Send two postcards a month through PostCrossing
049. Participate in and finish NaBloPoMo
050. Read 1 book every month and blog about it
051. Write 1 poem every week for 6 months/1 year/18 months/2 years
052. Reach 500 blog posts in my personal journal/photo journal/knitting journal
053. Submit my writing to a publication every 3 months
054. Read the books I own but have never finished

Movies/TV/Music:
055. See 10 movies on the AFI Top 100 list (Blogfodder)
056. See 25 movies on the IMDB top 250 list (Blogfodder)
057. Compile a playlist of my 100 favorite songs 
058. Compile a list of my 100 favorite movies 

Places to Visit/Things to See:
059. Travel somewhere by train 
060. Take a cruise longer than 3 days 
061. Watch the sun rise and set in the same day.

Things to Buy:
062. A traditional Anniversary gift for my husband on our 10th, 11th and 12th Anniversaries
063. An iPad

Other:
064. Drink beer (wine, mixed drink) at noon on Tuesday in a bar that faces a giant car wash
065. Leave 20 Operation Beautiful notes somewhere (Blogfodder)
066. Repaint our kitchen cabinets white
067. Repaint our bedroom
068. Paint bathrooms
069. Encourage someone to write their own 101 in 1001 list
070. Have my wedding rings resized
071. Frame and hang our diplomas when we get them in January/February
072. Decrease my stash by 1 tote/2 totes/3 totes
073. Have my holiday gift list finished by September 1st 2011/2012/2013
074. Have all purchasable gifts wrapped by December 1st 2011/2012
075. Frame the print we bought in Asheville last year, and my poster, and hang them somewhere
076. Clean out my closet every six months and donate old clothing to Goodwill/Tender Mercy

Resolutions

Well, a lot of mine work into my 101 in 1001 list, but I can post a few that I’d like to do -this- year and not by August 2013.

1. Continue losing weight and exercising
• I started this weight-loss journey at about 220lbs. At last check on WiiFit I was 194, which is up about 15 pounds from my lowest point. I've been off the wagon for almost 3 months, so it's time to get back on. I'd like to see 150lbs by the end of the year.
2. Get the kitchen cabinets repainted
• Hubby and I have been slowly trying to make the house more 'us'. We did a lot of improvements over the last year, repainting and stuff, and there's more to get done, but repainting the cabinets we know we can do without much fuss. 
3. Knit and Spin from stash (as much as possible)
• I have a sizeable (at least 7 large totes chock-full!) yarn stash and I want to use it up, because it's all yarn I love. My spinning stash is notably smaller, but it's still loved, and I want to use it too.
4. Get a handle on christmas gifts early
• Part of this is going to be knitting/crocheting/sewing quick-and-easy gifts throughout the year. Also, making a 'What I'm Giving' list early .. like, by springtime .. will help.
5. Continue decluttering the house
• We've done good at this too, but there's still work to do. We're slight packrats .. not on the same level as hoarders, but we still have too much stuff. Starting with clearing out more clothes, and going through the back attic, I want to donate/trash a few bags of stuff by Spring.
6. Date night with hubby at least twice a month
• We don't do enough together, and when we have gotten out here in the last little bit, it's been amazing fun. I'd like to take dance lessons when we can afford it, but until then, dinner out, or a movie, or -something- fun and just us twice a month will be good.
7. Find a job to help pay down debt
• I've been trying to find something, but the job market is, as it is almost everywhere, pretty awful. Sending out applications every day, and if I get no bites signing on with a staffing agency will get me to this goal much faster.
8. Find a graduate program and get accepted
• This is assuming I still want to teach college. That is the current thought, but I'm still deciding if I might not want to teach younger students. Either way, I need to get into the appropriate program, whether it be graduate school or a teacher education program, or at least get moving on getting into it.
9. Participate fully in 52 in 52 - 2011
•  52 projects completed in 52 weeks. Shouldn't be difficult, right? Except with my attention span, projects tend to languish. I have a Wrapigan sitting in a back that refuses to be finished, and a knitted owl toy that is only half done. I am going to try to use this challenge as a way to get some simple gifts made though.
10. Participate fully in Year of Stash Socks 2011 
• I have less hope for this, but I'm going to try at the very least. I have a lot of sock yarn, and love wearing hand-knitted socks. They're warm and toasty. So we'll see!
11. Write more often (poetry/short stories/essays/anything)
• I love writing. Creative writing. I haven't been able to do much at all lately, and I miss it. I've subscribed to several prompt blogs and such, so we'll see if I can do this a little more regularly this year.

Survived

Well, on Wednesday, our AC went out. It didn't go out until the evening, but by 7pm it was 78-degrees downstairs.. add ten degrees for the temp upstairs with no AC working.  By 7:30pm it was 81-degrees downstairs. We couldn't sleep in that, so we packed a few things and spent the night at Jason's mother's house. Thank the gods that she lives close by, we'd probably have had to stay in a hotel otherwise.

The following morning I came back to the house to check it .. still not working. So I filed a request for service with American Home Shield and proceeded to do some last-minute cleaning up. It didn't need much really, luckily - thanks to the RTH group on Ravelry, I'm inspired to keep my home neat enough for visitors all the time - but I had to vacuum downstairs, and put a few things away, and wanted to close blinds and curtains to try to keep most of the heat out. At 9am it was already 85-degrees downstairs; again, add ten degrees for upstairs, at least.  The man called, said he'd be here between 2 and 5pm and I went back to MILs house to spend the day there. I did some homework, I knitted a lot, and I waited.

Three-o-clock came and went. Four-o-clock. I went over to the house around 4:30pm to make sure I had a checkbook, but it was too hot to stay. Closer to 88 downstairs. Probably a hundred upstairs. Five-o-clock came and went, and no phone call, nothing. I finally called the main number around 5:45 to get an update. Then again around 6:15 when I still hadn't been called. The owner called me about 5 minutes later, then 5 minutes or so after that to let me know the man was in my driveway. He could have called, I'm thinking, to let me know he was on his way, but I'm being Southern, and holding my tongue.

Jason was closer even than I was, so he went to the house, waited while the guy replaced a capacitor that was apparently the culprit, and packed more clothes for himself for today. It wouldn't cool off in time for us to sleep there sadly, so we had to spend another night not in our own bed.  Isis had to spend another night not in her home, using not her own litterbox, but she survived it, bless her little heart.

Thankfully, it only cost us $60 .. well, plus the $500 for the AHS contract for the year. But that covers everything in the house through this summer and most of next. And by then, hopefully, we'll be in a better financial position. For one thing, I -should- have a job by then.

Changes

I woke this morning to find my darling husband reading in bed beside me. It was cute. He decided that today was the day we would get the bedroom furniture moved around. So he got up and showered, and we both had breakfast, then went back up to move everything around. I the process we got rid of a bunch of stuff .. several bags of trash and a couple of bags of clothes and stuffed animals I don't need to cling to.

So now the chest of drawers is against the back wall of the closet, the bed is against the opposite wall, and my dresser is against the wall by the closet. In addition, I fixed the ceiling fan. Plus hopefully the rods for the curtains momma gave us will be able to stay up soon, once the goop stuff dries. If not, well, I dunno, but we'll find some way of getting them to stay.

Two Weeks

It has now been twoo weeks since Brandon and I started visiting the gym. Two weeks, and already I can tell a difference. Especially in my energy level. Not just while we're exercising, but all day, really. It feels good, in fact. And while at the very beginning it seemed like even walking 40 minutes was going to be difficult, today I did 40 minutes on the elliptical. With only about a minute rest. And I kept my heartrate where it needed to be. Go me!

This weekend I think is going to be another working around the house weekend. jason wants to do some furniture moving upstairs, which I'm perfectly okay with. We're trying to get a little more room in the room, so moving one the chest of drawers into the closet seems the best option. We'll see, anyway.

*flop*

I'm so tired. We spent today .. what of it wasn't spent with Jason's family .. moving furniture. I no longer have the huge dresser in my office either. Now it's much more of an office .. bookshelves and such.

I still have a lot of work on the room though. And now Jason wants to move the bedroom furniture .. and Brandon's room. whee!

Happy Solstice!

I think, once my darling husband gets home, I'm going to ask him to help me move the bookshelf upstanrs down to my room, and move the dreser that's in my office upstairs. Then we'll have more room for little incidental stuff like towels and stuff that really need a home up in the bedroom since we don't have a single freaking linen closet - note to self, next house must have linen closets - and I will have more room for things like books and yarn and won't have them in piles on the floor anymore. Sounds good, doesn't it?

It's also a nice way to get my altar changed for the season, since I still have winter's altar set up from two winters ago. And perhaps making it easier to change my altar .. which is only devotional anyway and not a real working altar .. might encourage me to actually do so, and thus encourage me to actually perform said devotions. And stuff.

My legs are still botheirng me at night. but at this point I'm unsure how much of it is RLS and how much of it is my poor legs saying 'oh my god will you -please- give us a day off to rest!'. I did find that rubbing muscle rub on them helped. I was at least able to go back to sleep. Which in this house is a very good thing. An overtired Tania is a grouchy, hard to live with, Tania

Speaking of clearing spaces

My project for today is going to be clearing out the dresser that's in my office. I'd like to get that done, because then we can move it upstairs - very carefully cos the bitch is heavy - and take the bookcase that's up there now and more -it- down to the office. I think That's a better plan, since this is no longer used as a guest room. I'll have my new desk sometime in mid-July I'm guessing. They're made overseas, so I have to wait for it to arrive and stuff. and while I can't wait to get it finally, I'm kinda glad that I can have the time to clear out more stuff and decide what needs to be kept and what doesn't.

Clearing spaces also fits for my life in another way. I have started going to the gym. I got myself a membership to Planet Fitness, and we - Brandon and I - have gone every day this week. And I -do not- want to go today, but I'm going anyway. Even if I only walk for half an hour, that's better than nothing. And the nothing exercise I'd been getting is doing me no favors. I've actually been really proud of myself. Monday was our first day, and I walked about 45 minutes, for a distance of about 1.25 miles. Tuesday I walked about the same time, but a distance of about 1.75 miles. Yesterday I walked 30 minutes for a distance of 1 mile, but then did 10 minutes and about .5 miles on the elliptical machine. Which let me tell you was awful. I still ache a bit from it. but I can tell the difference in the muscles I used, and I know that I really need to use that particular machine more, once I work up to being able to.

We've decided that we're going to keep going -every- weekday, though we are taking weekends off. i think that's probably healthy. I know it certainly is for me, and Brandon can definitely use the exercise. I'm proud of him. he's really making an effort not to be lazy.

I actually wrote this post 4 hours ago. The internet died then. So I went to the gym. And came back. And it was -still- not working. So we ate lunch - we got Penn Station again. Really yummy! - and I called Comporium. And got someone really un-helpful. But he decided there might be a problem and sent someone out. Of course .. about 5 minutes before the guy showed up, it started working.

But!

The guy wanted to come check things out anyway. And I let him against my annoyed judgement, and I'm glad I did. Turns out, there's a signal issue. And he went outside and fiddled with some things, found some 'loose fittings' and stuff, and came back and said it really helped my signal strength. It's still not perfect, so he said to watch it, and let them know if it happened again. Which is why I'm documenting this now.

Success!

Ceiling Fans Purchased: 2
Injuries: 1, so far. (Hurt my thumb on a search for the screw driver.)
Circuit Breakers Tripped: 1, but it got tripped three times.
Ceiling Fans Installed: 2
Missing Charm Bracelets Found: 1

So, we finally ... after piecing together one complete ceiling fan from the parts of two boxes and bringing the rest back to get a repacement ... have ceiling fans installed in my office and in the guest room. Once we got the one in my office done .. which went pretty easily really .. we went to dinner with his folks, then came back to put the other one up. and that went fine, once we rigged a washer because the screw head was too small, and tripped the breaker three times. And the washer search turned out to be a good thing, because I found the charm bracelet I've been missing since we went to NYC. In 2006. It's been missing a year and a half. I was -convinced- I'd left it somewhere. But it appeared in a cigar box that's been sitting on my desk forever.

So, today was, all in all, a success. Tomorrow I hope to get the curtain rods upstairs put up, and the curtains hung. Once that's done, I think all will be well. In about a month I should get my new desk. They're going to come and put it together and everything which is a wonderful thing for me ... so long as I'm not working when they try to come by. We all know how my luck is with that sort of thing.

And now, I think it's time to get some sleep. Somehow I ended up with extra hours tomorrow, for some project I barely understand, but I guess I'll figure it out. Not like the store doesn't always help me, anyway. But I don't wanna be there all day.

Ceiling Fans Purchased: 2
Injuries: 1, so far. (Hurt my thumb on a search for the screw driver.)
Ceiling Fans Installed: 0

Today was Worldwide Knit In Public day, and I did celebrate, in my way. I knitted in public when we went to IHOP this afternoon. We had too many things going on for me to go to the event in Charlotte, sadly.

We had to go to the furniture store Jason's mom works at and order the new desk I'm getting for my room, and then after IHOP we went to Home Depot and picked out two ceiling fans, one for my office and one for the guest bedroom brandon claims as his room. Jason said that his dad insists that we can repair the ceiling fan upstairs pretty easily, so we're not going to replace it. Yet.

We also got a nice set of grilling tools, since we do an awful lot of grilling now, and living in the south as we do, that grill can get an awful lot of use. And we decided on the patio set we'd really like. Of course, it's $900 and teak. But I called my mom, and instead of getting a Wii (sad!) she's gonna send us a check to put towards our patio set. So that's really nice. And it accomplishes what she wants, which is to get us something we really want that we wouldn't buy for ourselves.

Hooray!

Self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins, the founder of a religious sect in Abilene, Texas had said that on June 12, 2008 a nuclear war will begin. So .. yeah. He'd said it a couple of times, only to be ... believe it or not .. proven wrong. So .. June 12th has come and gone. And since I'm still here, and I assume you're still here, I can only assume that nuclear war did not indeed break out. So. Happily, we get to celebrate Jason's birthday!

That's right, today, Friday the Thirteenth, is my honey's birthday. And while sadly we did not get our advance copies of the new fantasy novel by Larissa Niec for his birthday, he did get some lovely little things .. and so did I! The little darling sent me some lovely little earrings. Jason and she are determined to turn me into a real girl, I swear it. I've gotten more jewelry in the last two years than I got in the previous twenty.

I'm supposed to be talking about home this month, for NaBloPoMo, and I've been a little slack. But I've actually been kinda busy with stuff I've been doing around the house. Not only did we get the big clunky desk finally out of my room, which made my room seem twice as big as it did before, I've gotten sheers on all the windows downstairs -including- my office, finally, and thile they're a little short, they do the job they're meant to do. We also cleared out a ton of crap out of the house, and just today I got rid of a bunch of boxes and trash and stuff from the whole 'new computer' process. Tomorrow, probably, we're going to put up the curtain rods in our bedroom so we can -finally- have curtains, and possibly even get some new ceiling fans. That is apparently going to be our birthday gifts from Jason's parents.

My mom and dad are giving us a Wii and probably a Wii Fit and stuff for Graduations and my birthday, and Jason's going to get, I think, a nice laptop bag since he's getting a laptop for himself. And I have a little pile of little somethings on his chair for him, waiting for him to come home. I don't know what we're going to do to celebrate other than that, though. We rarely really celebrate birthdays around here. I mean, we do, but we've reached an age where birthdays aren't really 'special' anymore. We'll see what he feels like. he's been working hard at the gym almost every day, so it's hard to do stuff after work, even though he does get our at 5:30 instead of 8-9pm.

Waiting

I am sitting here, -waiting- .. patiently anxiously for DHL to return with my laptop. Apparently they attempted delivery at freaking 9:30 this morning. I wasn't even out of bed .. because honestly, I wasn't expecting delivery until tomorrow. So I contacted them, and they are having the driver re-deliver this afternoon. I was told I should have my pretty Blossom laptop in my eager little hands by 5PM. It's 1:30PM now. So. I have 3.5 hours to wait. Patiently. Anxiously.

In other news, my gardens are looking beautiful. And if I do say so myself, I have discovered a bit of a green thumb. The only plant I'm worried about is the hibiscus. The leaves are yellowing and dropping off, and the blooms aren't fully opening. Jason suspects it's getting too much water, so I've been trying to water that part of the garden only every two days and seeing if that helps.

Side note: Every time I try to remember that plant name, I have to remember hydrangea and hyacinth before I get the right name. Both of those I also have in my gardens. What's with the h's?

We did a huge house clean yesterday. We got rid of my old desk, and brought in a small drafting table for me to use in the meantime until the one I picked out can be ordered and delievered from Jason's mom's work. It's -so- nice. We got rid of a truck full of junk, and another truck full of stuff we're going to attempt to sell at a yard sale. I can actually use my closet! We also moved the furniture in the living room. Again. I'm proud of us. We got a lot done yesterday.

I still have a lot to get done today though. And I'm anxious, because I don't want to leave, and have the DHL guy just leave the package here. A package on my doorstep, or even my back patio, that says Dell all over it is just asking to be stolen. So I'm hoping he gets here soon, because I need to go shopping, and take Jason's car to the dealership for an oil change, and I have a conference call at 3:30, and have to get to the bank hopefully before they close. And the dealershiop closes at 6. As soon as DHL gets here I'm gonna go out, even though it kills me to not be able to play with my pretty new laptop. But since James has to go with him mom to rescue his uncle from an abusive wife who thinks it's okay to beat him up because he can't work after having surgery, I won't have a lot to do tonight.

Huge Flowerbed Photo Shoot

These pictures were taken without the UV filter on my camera, because I dropped the thing a couple days ago, and managed to get the lens cap wedged into the filter. I've since gotten them apart again, but I was eager to get my pictures taken before the light went away.

This is the front corner bed. This has the most plants in it right now, but only because all the hyacinths are long gone, and the stuff in the other bed hasn't spread out yet, like it eventually will. I have several volunteered pansies that just came up on their own this spring, which I'm not at all complaining about, plus the two huge mums on the side of the brick post, and the clematis .. part of which is dying out for some reason and I've yet to really get in there to find out why. Oh, and irises, and somewhere back tehre are a few remaining gladiolis, but they're not blooming yet. I didn't bother taking pictures of them because they're not as interesting right now.

My hanging pot with pretty purple petunias in it. Eventually, these will just drape over the edge, and be a wash of color until the summer heat kills them .. but I'm going to try to put that off as long as possible, because aren't they just gorgeous!? I love the dark purple throats contrasted with the paler outsides.

More petunias .. I just got two plants of these Lemon Zest petunias, because they will spread everywhere if I let them. I really love this sunny yellow, and for some reason was on a huge yellow and purple kick this season.

One of my 4 Gerbera daisy plants, this one has spiky flowers, not the usual smooth ones. I had forgotten what color it was, because it had all but died when I had to wait so long to get the plants in the ground. Jason's momma convinced me I should try planting them anyway, and this little bugger's healthy as can be!

This is Blue False Indigo. I have a picture of what it -will- look like in a little while, because I found the same plant at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. This was blooming when I got it, but like the others that had to wait, it got a bit shocked. It's coming back nicely though.

I have the hardest time remembering what this is, for some reason. Probably because I have had hyacinths for two years, and have a hydrangea in the back. But it's a hibiscus. And I'm hoping it's going to do better. It still has a lot of buds on it, and I'm trying to keep it, but I'm afraid the poor thing is struggling. It's got beautiful yellow blooms though .. I told you, yellow and purple kick.

What's left of the plants from my Aerogarden I put in this little planter I've had forever .. but I'm unsure how they're handling the transition from water only to actual dirt. If they don't live, that's fine. but I figured I'd try to keep them if I could. If they don't make it I might get a couple plants from the garden center to replace them in this planter, because I really like it.

This is another plant I saw at Daniel Stowe. This one's called an iceflower, and it gets all drapey and mound-y. I figured it'd probably do alright planted in the small iron cauldron I have .. so that's where we put it. So far so good. We'll see how it does as it gets bigger.

I have a couple impatiens plants in the front of the corner garden, a bright white that's oh so pretty with the purple and yellow everywhere else. Their leaves browned a little .. I think I watered them with sun on them once, but they're still doing fine. I like them better than vinca, which is why they got planted this year.

My little garden gnome sits between a pretty purple Angelina (I think that's what it's called) and some other daisies I had in the original batch of plants. I have a white Angelina too, in the front bed. This one's much smaller, but seems to like where it's living. And of course, it has the gnome to keep it company.

This is the daisy on the other side of the gnome. It's flowering again, so I think I managed to rescue this one. I have another in a smallish planter that I don't think is doing as well and may need to be replanted. You can also see the cauldron beyond the daisy, in which the iceflower is living.

These pictures are of what I've heard called moss rose and portulaca. I love this plant, and I'm really hoping these little guys grow up. I got plants that seemed to have multiple colors of blooms, rathing than sticking with just one color. I have more of these in pots in the other bed, too.

Two different colors of cock's comb live in this planter which Jason bought for me a couple years ago which I usually can't find anything to put in, along with the other daisy like the one that sits near my gnome. The daisy isn't doing as well as I'd like, but I haven't given up hope.

The front garden doesn't look as impressive right now, but I'm hoping it'll improve as everything gets bigger. The bushes .. which look a little sad and scraggly I know, were about twice the size they are now. We gave them a severe haircut because they were over the bottoms of our windows, and just way bigger than I liked. Of course .. just today the lansdscaping crew is going around doing everyone else's bushes. But since I have the flowers planted, I'm glad we did ours already. They might trample my beauties!

I love verbena. I would have liked some other colors, but when we got this at Lowes, this was the only color they had. It fits with my purple and yellow theme though, and with three plants of it, it's going to be a lovely addition.

I got this little thing simply because of how utterly adorable it was. Jason called it a balloon flower, and it's the most precious thing I've seen. I had to have one. And since it likes full sun, I figured why not. And .. why yes. It -is- purple!

One of the few things that isn't purple, white or yellow in the garden, but I just loved the look of these. I forget what they are, but they look a little like petunias, only smaller. They do have yellow throats though .. so does that count for my theme?

A larger version of the purple Angelina in the corner garden, this one's white, and about three times the size of the purple. I just love the dainty-looking flowers though .. and they're a lot less dainty than they look! Watering this beauty doesn't knock the blooms off like it does off my poor hibiscus.

My two pots of portulaca/moss rose. These are looking stronger than the ones planted directly in the corner bed, but that coupld just be because the mulch covered some of those. I love the pink and brown pots though. I set them on some bricks to keep them from sitting -in- the mulch, and the bricks give me a place to step to reach the water spigot. Bonus!

One of my other Gerbera daisies. I have a total of 4, but only two are blooming right now. This one has the normal type of flower .. and look. It's white! I have another like this in the corner bed that isn't blooming again yet, and another in this bed that's a vibrant fuschia. Hopefully that one will start blooming again soon. It took the longest to recover from the near-death of having to wait to be planted.

Two years ago, I planted calla lillies. Actually, I planted a bunch of lilies, but only the callas ever came up. Last year though, nary a bloom. And I was just praying I would get a bloom this year.

Look! What's that! IS that a bloom? Why .. yes! Yes, it is. I looked out my window just yesterday and realized that what I thought was a leaf had some red on it. Red? Huh. So I wandered outside to take a look, and discovered .. that's not a leaf...

.. it's a bloom! I didn't even remember what color my callas were, and it appears they are a summery, almost tropical sort of yellow/orange with a lovely red edge. Hooray!

Last, but certainly not least is my wind-chimes and birdfeeder. This birdfeeder is a replacement for an el-cheapo plastic one that I broke trying to clean it out. The feeder doesn't like the seed blend I have, though, so I have to kinda futz with it. I might get some thistle or something a little smaller for the top part - it's a double feeder! - and just keep an eye on the bottom. I tell you one thing, the birda are definitely happier with this one than the old one.

So, that's my flowerbeds.

I also have an amazingly beautiful hydrangea in the back 'yard' .. and I say yard lightly because it's barely 8'x12' .. and a ton of day lilies that spread over to my garden from my neighbor's, which I don't mind at all.

The flowers start off beautifully pale cream, and slowly as they mature become a lovely blue. I love this thing. Last year it didn't do well at all. We had that hard freeze that killed it back something awful. But this year we're doing beautiful, and I couldn't be happlier. I'm gonna cut some of the blooms to take inside I think.

There's the lilies. They aren't all putting up flowers yet, though a few are. Ashley's are already starting to bloom. I might dig them up to separate some next year, and I may plant them on the other side of my privacy fence .. maybe. I dunno.

My HOA can Bite Me!

The 'president' of my HOA just rang my doorbell ... to inform me that any 'modifications' I make to the exterior of my home ... including landscaping ... 'do not belong to you'. WTF? This aged bitch who sounds like she's had a pack-a-day habit for 50-years wants to come 'inform' me that I can't landscape my fucking yard? She can take my stones and shove them up her ass. Better yet. I think I'll help her.

Nosy busybodies need to avoid my doorstep. Because I'm more likely to get in a fistfight than discuss something. I have to get 'approval' to plant a fucking flower? I have to 'take a picture' and submit my work for some dumbass bitch and her cronies to 'approve' something I put my sweat into? Yeah. Fuck you, bitch.

This has completely ruined what was otherwise a lovely day. We went to a farmer's market in the next town, visited with one of the ladies we met in the Rock Hill Knitaholics group Wednesday, had a wonderful little lunch, and I -was- excited about putting in some new plants. Not anymore. Fucking bitch had to come over and ruin my day. Now I'm all pissed off. And have no way to vent it.

A/V Annoyances

So. Sauron lived in our old DVD player. Whenever we attempted to watch a dvd, it would skip, stutter, stop until the movie was nigh unwatchable. My darling husband in a fit of I-don't-know-what brought hom 5 new releases he wanted to watch this weekend. I love him. I do. But good gods, he doesn't realize it takes him 5 hours to watch 1 movie.

After making a concerted effort to watch Beowulf while Sauron refused to let us enjoy it, I made the command decision that we would buy a new dvd player. He got home .. we attempted to show him just -one- part of Beowulf and even that wouldn't cooperate, so he decided we would hie ourselves off to Best Buy and purchase a new DVD player.

$800 later, we returned with a new home theater system in the back seat of our covertible. This is how my husband shops, you see. I did my wifely duty of making certain we could afford it, but he makes about four-times my salary, so who am I to say 'No, we can't buy that' if it's what he wants? We hooked up only the dvd player - a Phillips dealio that was working lastnight fine when we hooked it up by itself. Cool beans, working fine, yay us.

So today, we decided to hook the audio stuff up. Surround speakers, powered sub-woofer, the works. After finding the wire strippers... which I had to hunt through the whole house to find that for some unknown reason they were in the bathroom dresser, I managed to cut and strip all the speaker wire .. having to do one twice because we didn't cut it quite long enough. But now we can't get the dvd player's sound to work. And so somehow, in the process of turning the damned thing around for the eightieth time, I managed to knock a speaker and an oil-scent-thing my stupid sister-in-law gave us for christmas. So the house now smells pine-fresh, and -not- in a good way. It's also manage to ruin the paint on the wall. Whee.

I'm having such a wonderful day.