Jose Cuervo

What's a girl to do?

I am minding my own business, mowing the lawn and edging the front beds, when my neighbor Julie shows up with Jose Cuervo and marguarita mix. We got the blender a whirling, and now I am sitting here unable to knit. I'm a good friend..... Yes???

some knitting finally...

finally finished these socks while traveling to Arkansas and sitting in classes during the conference.

Making some good progress on the Central Park Hoodie. I don't plan on making the hood part, as I'm just not a hood kind of gal. My daughter makes a great model doesn't she? I'm using Vermont Rambouille that I learned about from Norma. (my first link! I did it!) It is wonderfully soft and beautiful yarn. I hate scratchy wool.

I'm saving eggs and cucumbers as Norma and I plan to meet up in Burlington next week when I drop my daughter off at college. I feel like I will be meeting a celebrity! What can I say, I lead a sheltered life.

What a fabulous day! The first time I have been in my pool all summer for a bit of floating. I hit the garden first thing this am before it got too hot, and picked and picked and picked. I have been gone to R-Kansas for a few days, so the cucumbers and beans were waiting for me. I picked 20 cukes, and a bucket of beans. Luckily, my neighbors enjoyed the harvest as much as I did. For dinner tonight, we had green beans, potatoes grilled with green pepper and garlic and of course cucumbers. ALL from my garden. I love that! I then hit the woods and picked 8 cups of blackberries and made a marvelous blackberry cobbler for dessert. Hot from the oven with vanilla ice cream. Yummy.

My SIL is in port for a few days, and is able to call my daughter and talk to her. She misses him terribly, and is always happy to be able to be in contact with him. Our men in the military sacrifice so much. Being on a submarine is tough. No phone calls, mail etc. Anthony is such a great guy!

R-Kansas

Well, here I am in R-Kansas. I have to say this is not my favorite place that I have ever visited. There is NOTHING to do here and I mean nothing. Some of the girls went to Wal-Mart yesterday. Wal-Mart!!

Susan and I have been having a ball practicing our southern accents. She is hysterically funny and was the hit at dinner tonight. Dinner was at The Whole Hog, which has won several awards for their BBQ. I have to say it was pretty good, although the choice for wine, Ernest Gallo in small individual bottles was not impressive. And I am not a wine snob, but come on.

The hotel has a free shuttle to the convention center, unfortunately, it is never available and you can't reserve it.

I did see 2 old friends from San Diego that I haven't seen since 1988. My first boss in LTC. That was fun.

I attended 2 good classes and 2 bad ones, so I got to finish a pair of socks that I had been working on for a few months. Luckily, I brought some more sock yarn so will start another pair tonight to work on if I get another dud tomorrow.

All in all, I can't recommend Arkansas for a travel destination. Not at all.

Hell seems to be the common theme.....

The neighbor from hell.....

is making me very angry!! The house across the street has had 4 families in the last 8 years we have lived here and this family is by far the worst. We have a 2 acre lot, which in the summer is very private and can't be seen from the road when all the trees leaf out. You've all seen the pictures of my great dogs. Seems the neighbor from hell doesn't share my fondness for the dogs. About 2 weeks ago, I received a letter from the Animal Control Officer stating my dogs were roaming the neighborhood at will, causing property damage and routinely pursuing pedestrians. I was shocked!! I was worried. What had my dogs done to my neighbors that I did not know about. What had they damaged? Put a call into my friendly ACO, who stated that she had a complaint that my dogs were chasing a neighbor who jogs. Not true, I explained to her as I know all my neighbors, and no one jogs. We live on a private road. Was the complaint from someone coming up our road who doesn't live here? Nope! It was from the neighbor from hell, who said his daughter is not comfortable with the dogs when she jogs. (she is obesely over weight and hasn't jogged a day in her life!) What had they destroyed, I asked? They urinated on flowers. Hmmmmm. I was a bit perturbed that they hadn't given us a call to discuss that they had concerns. Certainly, I want to be a responsible pet owner, and would do anything to prevent my dogs from bothering someone.

Enter my darling husband, who decided to approach neighbor from hell, in his direct and untactful way. He picks a saturday, when neighbor from hell's son has his devil band over practicing their devil music in the driveway. (not something you want to listen to on a Saturday, or any day for that matter).

DH says to NFH, "if you have a problem with my dogs, I wish you would just give us a call instead of calling the ACO, after all that's the neighborly way to handle it." NFH responds, "I didn't call anyone and we're not neighbors". Oh, this is going well. DH says, I talked to the ACO and she said you called. oops, busted!! DH asks if son can tune down the band, NFH responds, NO. NFH responds his son will play his drums anytime he wants. GREAT.

Today, I get a call from ACO that they have had another complaint on Monday morning at 7:30 am that my dog was standing in NFH's driveway at 7 am. He wasn't barking, biting, chasing anyone, peeing, crapping or digging. He was standing! Next time the NFH calls with a complaint, I get a ticket and a fine. Funny, but my dog was inside with me as I was getting ready for work and don't leave till 7:30 myself.

What recourse do I have for someone filing false complaints? I wonder if this is retaliation? I seem to recall my daughter and NFH's son going on a class trip to Washington DC. Seems NFH's son was goofing around in the subway station and blocked my daughter from getting on the train. She is 16, standing in the subway alone, with all her classmates and chaperones on the train and she is stranded, calling me at work crying, because she doesn't know what to do. I never complained, or said a word about this to NFH. The chaperones complained to the school and NFH's son was suspended from school for 2 days upon his return from Washington. What do you think?

Guess it's time for an invisible dog fence.......

sweater hell

I am in sweater hell!! I had been knitting socks like a crazy woman, and have more than I can wear or give away, so I thought I would try a sweater. I used to knit sweaters in college but usually did the sweaters on round needles, so no seaming.

sooooo.....

My vintage cardigan is giving me fits. I had finished all the pieces, and tried to do the neckline, but kept getting these crazy bunches in the front. I tried 3 times to make them go away, no luck. so I ripped, and I ripped. picked up the stitches again and tried one more time. It looked like the flash dance sweatshirt. NO good. So I ripped again. This time I went half way down the front, and will try and reknit the front pieces and back again. If it doesn't work this time, it's totally being ripped out turning into a pullover. The yarn was expensive, and will not be wasted.

Sweater #2 is a raglan sweater made out of cotton yarn. My sister had made this great looking sweater and my daughter loved it. She said she would make it for my daughter if I bought the yarn ($100 later) and if I seamed it when it was done. So this afternoon, I spent the entire afternoon and evening sewing the GD thing together, only to find out it is way to big for my daughter, and even too big for me.

SOB, I think I'll stick to socks.

veggies or flowers?

The dirty hands of a gardener, but the sweet, delicious results of the dirty hands!

The question now is:  flowers or veggies?  I have more flowers but after reading Norma's blog, I am seriously wanting to increase my veggie beds.

The raspberry's are coming on strong right now, and the black caps will be ripe any day.  My beets are looking good, but I don't know how big to let them get before I pick them.  I can see the tops and they look to be about 2 inches across.  Big enough, or wait??

Lillies are blooming.

The window box behind the garage.

And look at this Canna Tropicanna!  Isn't she a beauty??

Julie's Birthday

My friend Julie had a birthday and wanted a tattoo.  Somehow, I got talked into taking the day off and going to the tattoo parlor with her to get one too.  We had an appointment at 1, and took my 2 daughters with us.  I was SCARED!!  At first it was just us waiting, as there was another guy finishing up.  Then a young man came in wanting his eyebrow pierced.  Then another young lady came in wanting her belly button pierced.  Then another scary looking woman came in wanting her tongue pierced AGAIN, because she had swallowed the piercing when eating spaghetti.  She had some pretty nasty looking tattoo's and I was worried she had gotten then at this shop.  We were looking at books of pictures of tattoo's and they did not look very feminine or like ANYTHING I would want.  I'm starting to feel like I might vomit.  Then a young man comes in wanting his nipples pierced.  My friend Julie, says to the gal working behind the counter, I want all these people to go first and get out of here before I get my tattoo. That was a great idea, because those folks were making me very nervous.  Finally, It was her turn.  And this is the tattoo she got on her foot.  It hurt like crazy.

Now it's my turn, and here is my lady bug tattoo.  It hurt like CRAZY!!  Luckily, it only took 5 minutes.
Tattoo's, I have learned, are quite controversial.  My mother was not pleased.  I'm 47 years old!! It doesn't show!!  It's not a skull and crossbones, or a devil, or a naked women masturbating (they had those in the books).  I like my lady bug.  I was out weeding today, and one landed on my arm.  See...... they like me.

new car trouble

Came home from work today.  Drove in the driveway.  Thought to myself, hmmm, that's a strange place to park the car.  DH's car was backed into the huge gully by the driveway.  We've never parked there before and it looked very unlikely that it was a planned event.  When I got into the house and asked DH why he had parked the car in the gully, he looked surprised.  Seems he forgot to use the parking brake or leave the car in gear and it rolled about 1oo feet backwards and to the left, past the other POS car of my daughters and then into the gully.  Our neighbor had to come over with his truck to pull the car out.  It's not looking good.  The back tire is behind the wheel well and the car can't be driven. The car was stopped by a huge tree stump.   Good thing it wasn't me or my daughters that forgot that brake!!  Thank god for Geico.  They will cover the damages, tow the car, and arranged for a rental car, all with one phone call.  Let's hope they stay friendly!!  Needless to say, bad moods seem to have taken over tonight.  Doesn't trouble come in 3's????  Yikes!

I'm also having trouble with the collar on my cardigan. (maybe that's the 3??) There is one spot that is bunching.  I think it's to long so I may have to rip a few rows off that one piece.  See, I HATE sewing sweaters together.  Isn't there someone out there that likes to do that???  I'll pay......

I have to go to the town office tomorrow to license the dogs.  One of my neighbors called animal control as my dog urinated on their flowers.  They claim the dogs chase their daughter when she jogs (trust me she has never jogged a day in her life, and I have never seem them chase anyone). I am so pissed that they couldn't just call me or come over to tell me there is a problem.  My pet peeve.  If you have an issue with someone, just tell them.  I haven't complained once when their son practices his GD drums every single night from 6 to 8 when I get home from work and would like to enjoy my gardens that I work so hard on.  I can hear them inside my house with all the windows shut.  Guess I'll be calling them next time the drums start up.

Lets hope tomorrow is better.

Car trouble

whew. Finally made it home from a surprising whirlwind of a business trip.  I went to NH on Monday after GETTING MY BRACES OFF, for a meeting that afternoon and another one on Tuesday.  My car has been running hard, nothing terribly noticeable, but a bit louder than normal, and something is just not right.  I decided to stop at a dealership on my way home Tuesday, as I had a 3  hour drive, it was raining, and there are some areas where there is no place to stop for miles if you break down.  The dealership was kind enough to take a look and then turned mean, when they came to tell me all the repairs I need on a 2 year old car.  Of course, nothing is covered under warantee, and according to the folks I needed about $1800 in repairs.  Some could wait, but others needed to be done before I could safely drive it home.

Luckily, I have a friend Ann, in Manchester, who I called and she came to get me at the dealership and let me crash at her house.  She also patiently waited for about 4 hours while I bought a new car.  Yup, that's right, I don't do car repairs well.  I put 100 miles per day on a car, so I need a car that can handle high miles.  Fords do not work, and I will never buy a Ford again.  This was my 4th Ford, and I have had trouble with every one, once they hit 70,000 miles.  I won't go into the story of the other Ford we have, that would take 10 pages, but suffice to say, I HATE Fords now.

Back to my friend Ann.  I knew her when I lived in NH when my girls were very young.  I've probably known her for 18 years. Her daughter was my first babysitter. We worked together for 4, and then I moved to VT.  Life gets busy, and we don't see each other very often, but she's the kind of friend that you can call when you are stranded and she will come, no questions asked.  We had a great dinner, a few cosmo's and wine, and didn't get to her house till 10pm.  Thanks Annie!!  You are a true friend.

So I got a very sexy, black Honda CRV.  He is very handsome, and I have named him Black Jack, or Jackie for short.  He had 4 miles on him.  He should be able to handle all the miles I drive.  Lots of nice compartments for all my gadgets.  Hopefully tomorrow I can take a picture of how handsome he is.

My chompers

My GVC is done, well, except for the part I HATE. The sewing part.  I wish there was a place you could take your pieces and some nice person would sew up the seams for you.  (hint, hint.  Anyone out there???)  I'll try to get it done this weekend.

Here's DD #2.  Isn't she cute as a button?  (borrowing my jewelry again, I see!)

My chompers!!  No braces!!  Feels like I have huge false teeth in my mouth.  I thought it would feel like my teeth were smaller without all that metal, but man, they feel huge.  I wish you could have seen the before pictures.  You wouldn't believe the change.

TGIF

TGIF, stressful week at work, but I am remaining focused on Monday.  I get my braces off at 10:30!  I CAN NOT wait.  Over 2 years of picking food out of my teeth, shredded gums and mouth and achy teeth.

I visited my new nephew, Chase Morton, today.  How cute!  It still reminds me, every time I see a new baby, that birth is a miracle.  Those little fingers and toes.  So perfect.  My daughter was holding him, and it is only a matter of time before I am a grandmother.  Yikes!  I didn't think I was old enough.

Mike is calling my name!!

My climbing roses are starting to bloom.  Won't they be fabulous???
Reg, my neighbor, is 40 today.  He hates it when I dress up his bear.  But there are times, when I just have to sneak over there and do something funny.  At least I think it's funny.  I have to go sit on my front porch so I can hear him howl when he gets home from work and sees Betty.  (or Bernard as he calls him/her)

Strawberry queen

Mmmmmm, what will these 2 ingredients make??

The strawberries are fresh from my garden, picked today.  This is the second large bowl I have picked.  I made the biscuits, just like my Mimi used to make.  She would be proud.  Just waiting for the DD to come home with the whip cream.

I love a good harvest.

Thanks to Norma!  I have been enjoying garlic scapes in roasted potatoes and green beans.  I am so happy to have learned what to do with them!!

13 days and counting....

At least I hope it's only 13 days. 

Today I got an email from my boss about a meeting in Massachusetts on June 22 at 11:00.  This means an overnight for me, as it is 3.5 hours away.  The problem being, that is the day, at 10:30 am that I am scheduled to get my braces off!!!  It's been 2..5 years of having achy teeth, food stuck in by teeth, not wanting to smile, a surgery to break and reset my jaw, 6 weeks of a liquid diet, 12 weeks of sleeping on my back etc, etc, etc.  There is NO way I am missing THAT appointment.

Hopefully, the smile will look fantastic, and I will let people take my picture.  

Hope she understands when I miss the meeting......  she's a good boss......... right?????????

What's in the garden today?

Honeysuckle
Wigeila (no idea how to spell that one!) and the crazy daisies
My old copper fire pit that I am turning into a succulent garden.
Columbine, just found this beauty yesterday.
The window boxes on by garden cottage.
The strawberries are starting to turn.  I put the netting over the beds today, to try and keep the birds away.  Let's hope it helps.

Garden update

My first year growing potatoes.  Don't they look fabulous?I spotted this today.  Starting to ripen!
Beets I planted from seed.  Also my first year growing beets.  Can't wait.  I have loved beets since I was a baby, at least that's what my grandmother always told me.
The Blanket flower is starting to bloom.  Hundreds more buds.
And the Globemaster Alliums that I just can't get enough of.
I do love my gardens.  Today I threw together another quiche with fresh eggs from the girls, spinach and chives from my garden and VT Cheddar cheese.  We have friends visiting from NH, Barb and Bob, so hopefully it tastes good.

Need to start knitting on the sleeves of my cardigan. That would mean getting off the computer and washing the dirt off my hands.  Hmmmm, what to do?

Moving day tomorrow

Still down in Ct, helping my Suzy pack up her apartment and move back home for a while.  I didn't think she had much stuff, but OMG was I wrong.  We painted the bedroom yesterday.  Took 3 coats of paint, and several hours, but if we didn't do it, she would have been charged $300, so I guess it was worth it.

Should be an interesting summer.  I had finally gotten used to the empty nest, and now both my little birdies have returned.  Most likely it will go by quickly.  So I plan to enjoy every minute of the craziness.

Can't wait to go home and see how my garden has been growing.  Should be an entire weekend of gardening and unpacking.  I still need to plant my window boxes.  I don't think I've ever been this late.

18 more days until my braces come off.  The countdown has begun!!!

Visiting Suzy

Here is my beautiful daughter Suzy and my son-in-law Anthony.  I'm in CT, helping Suzy pack up their first apartment, as she will move home while Anthony is gone.  I've got a few meetings in Mass Wednesday and Thursday so it worked out for me to come and help her.   My vintage cardigan is coming along.  I am starting the sleeves tonight at Suzy's.  The yarn, Frog Tree Merino,  is incredibly soft and a brilliant blue.  I added 2 inches to the length, so I hope I didn't screw up the numbers.  We'll see.
 Be safe Anthony!!!  We will all miss you.

Here are some of the girls.  Aren't they handsome?  They provide us with lots of fresh eggs every day.  My neighbor cares for them as the coop is in his back yard.  I love my girls!

interesting day

Question of the day?

If you are hosting a 50th birthday party for your husband, with your 8 year old son and family, should you take a muscle relaxer that a friend gives you after you have consumed a bottle of wine???  I love family gatherings!!!

more fav things

My garden cottage is such a great spot to relax. Made by my husband and neighbor for my birthday 2 years ago. It is finally weathering to a nice gray color. This weekend I will plant the window boxes. My favorite flowers happen to be whatever is blooming in my garden. This is the first year I have had alliums, and they are all blooming. I planted 25 last year. Fabulous!

I planted some tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers tonight. I hope to be able to plant all weekend and work in the garden. 3 days of rain is depressing, but happily I had to work those days, so I shall not complain.

Mother Nature is calling my name.
Tomorrow, chicken pictures for sure!

Some of my favorite things...

My very first entry into the blog world, and let's keep it positive (even though I had a shitty day at work!) So I took my camera outside to capture a few of my favorite things. Luckily, I have a lot of them, and hope to continue tomorrow with my chickens and other fav things. Plus, I get to practice adding photo's. Let's see if I can do it. Oops, they didn't go where I wanted them to.
My favorite hosta
first try at garlic
strawberry fields forever.....


Here are my 2 boys, Cosmo and Bo. Boy, can they demolish my house. They love to chew my shoes, and then get anything off the kitchen counter that they can find and eat it. Like a full pan of brownies, or that great rhubarb crisp recipe I found in Country Living magazine. I still love them.

Sure helps to think of the good things in your life, to help you forget about all the dumb people you run into every day!