sarea | Entries tagged with gardening

Current Mood: amused

I haven't ventured out to look at the garden in a couple of days due to the rainy weather, and yesterday when I visited again I was devastated to see that the zucchini -- which had sprouted beautifully and had been doing so well -- was wilted and pretty much gone. The stem looked like it'd been eaten away or rotted away or I don't even know what. The last time I saw it, it'd been fine, and you would think that if it was due to bugs they would have eaten it long before now. So I just don't know what happened. But it was like, one of the most promising things in the bed and now it's gone. Cry. I planted another seed, but who knows if that will really come to anything given that it's already JUNE. I have little baby strawberries as I've decided not to do what everyone recommends and am not cutting back the fruit/blossoms in this, the plants' first year. I'm just not hardcore enough. All I want to do is to be able to grow some stuff and see some results THIS season, not next year.

Tonight am going to a sports bar with J. I was totally perplexed when she called and asked if I wanted to see "the game" with her. "What game?" She seemed totally shocked that I didn't know. "Lakers/Celtics!!" I know I should be all about the Lakers, being from LA and all, but honestly don't give a hoot about any pro sports at all. Still, I love sports bars (though they're more fun when a collegiate game is on).

For ages I've been wanting to make coconut ice cream and mango sorbet and marble them together, as David Lebovitz does in The Perfect Scoop. I finally got around to making the bases last night, and let me tell you, you'd think that making 2 ice creams to go together would be twice the trouble of making 1 ice cream, but it's not. It's like 10x the trouble.

Thanks to Tippr I now have $25 worth of vouchers to What the Pho! for $10. I have to admit that I've always been curious about it.

According to UPS my Actifry is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I CAN'T WAIT. I don't know whether I will first make fries or this.

Caught up on Glee. :D ( 'Funk' spoilers. )

Current Mood: busy

This weekend I Gleeked out and rewatched the first 13 episodes, plus the newest 6 that I hadn't seen. It's like the best show ever. ( Spoilers. )

So I saw Robin Hood. I can't in good conscience recommend it. It was just too all over the place and nonsensical. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is still all the Robin Hood I need, though if I could I would totally switch the actors playing Robin and Marian. Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman made PoT great.

For K.'s birthday dinner D. made linguine with clams. It was so good and so easy I made it again, with a few tweaks. Posted about it on my food blog.

I'm halfway through Black Powder War and started Jinx by Meg Cabot. It's one of the 527901354102 books she's written in the last few years that I haven't yet read. She's too prolific; I can't keep up with her. She writes as many books as I read. It's kind of ridiculous.

The handyman came on Saturday and fixed the toilet and two tubs, installed a peep hole (though unfortunately he went a bit higher than we agreed and it's a bit too high for me), and sprinkled moss killer over the roof. He got everything done in under 2 hours. I'm pretty pleased. That was really a $45 well spent (plus $15 for materials) -- not only did I get all that stuff I've been wanting fixed, fixed, but now I know a decent go-to handyman!

It's gotten so cold here that it's almost like we've been in fall and now it's approaching winter. People on

gardening are showing pictures of their first tomato HARVESTS and here in the Pacific NW most people don't even have their tomato plants in the ground yet. It's pathetic.

Current Mood: bored

My co-worker's wife had their baby this morning. It was 9lbs, 15oz. As far as I know, not a C-section birth. I can't. even. imagine. :O

Went to the doc's this morning. They took some X-rays and she had me perform some simple strength tests... everything went normally except when she had me hold out my arms in front of me, thumbs pointed down, and pressed down on my arms. I was able to push back with my left and keep it up just fine, but my right arm couldn't do it. She says that she's going to start me on physical therapy, because that's usually the solution for most problems, and we'll see how it goes in the next 2-4 weeks. After that, depending on the tests the PT people do and what they can gauge is wrong with my arm, she may then want to do an MRI, etc. It's possible that I've torn one of the muscles in my rotator cuff (ironic since it's a common injury for athletes and I am like the opposite of an athlete); if that's true I think I even know exactly when I did it. Regardless, what a pain.

I've started reading the 3rd Temeraire book, Black Powder War. There's a dragon in it named Arkady; when I was at the doc's and making an appointment with PT, the girl making the appointment for me's nametag read: Arkady. What are the chances, with such an unusual name?? Synchronicity, so freakish. As for BPW... ( Spoilers. )

So did I mention that I've nearly killed all my seedlings? :/ They were growing SO well. And then I repotted them, kept them out in the sun too long over the weekend, and overwatered. Now they are yellowing and some leaves are curling and so frail they're practically transparent. Cry. I guess I wanted them to grow up too soon. I'm now coddling them again; they're back in the guestroom under the Grow light and no inclement weather. I think they'll survive, but they look so pathetic compared with how they looked before. :(

Current Mood: busy

UPS's delivery schedule annoys me. Yes, why don't you deliver during the hours when people are most likely to be at work? GREAT idea. It's not so bad when they can leave the package at the door (then the worry is just that someone's going to take the package before you get home), but when it requires an in-person signature, sheesh! There's so much delay as they try to deliver over and over, and then you end up having to drive out of your way to pick it up from their service center. That's what I had to do today to finally get that Nikon macro lens I bought. I could have had it DAYS ago!

Lunch with the DG girls yesterday was fun and fab as usual, even if poor

adelagia was slaving away at work and couldn't join us, and

lyndsiefenele forgot what day it was and woke up when we were all supposed to meet (but

slitherhither and I did walk around with her at the Ballard farmer's market and also to look for an ATM). Heehee. I was forced to order something new at Senor Moose because what I always get at dinner isn't on their lunch menu, and I really liked it! It was their carne asada sencillas, which came with seared steak, avocado, salsa, beans & cheese, and grilled bell pepper. I also tried

elle_blessing's cactus, which was actually pretty good! The texture was like grilled bell pepper, but more cactus-y in taste. :D

It was pretty warm the last couple of days, and I repotted a number of my seedlings that were getting rather large, as well as the potted basil. The basil, btw, looks absolutely fine now that they haven't been in that window. I KNEW it was sunburn. Anyway, I've been trying to harden off the seedlings, except the 10-day forecast says rain, rain, rain! Argh. So how can I harden them off in terms of heat, when there's no heat to be had? Sigh. I guess I'll just have to restart the process in June, when it will hopefully be drier and warmer. I also think I am going to try to make my own organic pesticides because something has been eating the basil plant that's outside in the bed, and I can see other insects around. Ew. BTW, I totally thought that outside basil plant was dead, but this weekend I noticed that it has new growth! So it's trying to survive! All the rain that's expected in the next 10 days may end up drowning it though. :/

I went to Flower World again this weekend to pick up some soil. I took many, many pictures of chickens. I will have to share them sometime.

I've started Kushiel's Dart. I'm finding it a bit difficult to get into because of the writing style. I need another fun, fast read like The Hunger Games or Mortal Instruments.

Current Mood: ready for the weekend

It turns out that this guy I've been working with for like 6 years is a hottie. I never knew this before because we'd never met. He lives in another state and every time he's ever come out for work I've always missed him. Yesterday we had a rare big group gathering and met him for the first time. I was like, uh wow, okay. He's married so at least I don't have to feel all regretful or anything. :D

For the first time since participating on

gardening, I haven't found responses to a post I made helpful. :/ It's about how I think I'm burning my basil seedlings. It may be that I'm just in denial, but I REALLY don't think the problem is bugs or diseases. I'm pretty sure that what's happening is that the windowpane is intensifying/concentrating the sunlight coming through, especially the sunlight in the afternoon. It hasn't been a problem before now because it's been so cloudy most of the time. I haven't seen evidence of bugs at all, and if there were bugs, they would probably be affecting ALL the basil in the pot, as well as all the other seedlings that I'm keeping in the room. Not only that, I used the same potting soil for everything, so if there were diseases in that soil, again wouldn't it affect ALL the seedlings? Or even if it were a basil-specific disease, it should also affect the basil I planted in the cells with the tomato, etc. seedlings. So, yeah. I'm just going to move the pot around the windowsill to see if I can stop whatever's happening, and if that doesn't work, I'll just put it under the Grow lamp. I'd really rather not, though, because it's getting crowded under there and the potted basil has been doing *much* better than the celled basil, which kind of proves that there's no substitution for real sunlight.

I watched the "Into the Wild" movie and didn't much like it. I didn't like the actors (except Kristen Stewart), and I didn't think the way it was directed really made the best use of the material. I know, I guess Sean Penn won all these awards for his work, but I'd bet that few of those people who lauded him ever read the book. It's not even that I wanted to have everything that was in the book, in the movie (like all those side stories). I just would have rather have seen more linear storytelling, really get to know Chris the way we do in the book, see the events that made him who he was, why he made the decisions he made, etc. I thought the Chris in the movie was even less sympathetic than he was in the book, there was no context for why he would have camped out at this random bus in the Alaska wild, we didn't truly understand why anyone would be so drawn to him (the few minutes each of these 'tramping' buddies got, was far too little) or that he had a strong relationship with any of those people, as it was clear in the book that he did. So, pretty disappointing adaptation, as far as I'm concerned. However, what's REALLY good about the movie is Eddie Vedder's music. *SO* good.

Current Mood: tired

I don't know if any of you guys use Tippr or how many cities they operate in, but a couple of months ago there was an offer for 1 hour of handyman services from a particular company for $45, which is half off, and if enough people purchased the voucher, they would up the value to $120. I was one of the people who purchased the voucher (and it did meet the requirement to increase the value), because I was having those problems with the birds in the attic at the time, and thought I might want to use them. Well, I ended up going with someone else instead (through a recommendation K. made), so I still have this voucher. A rep from the company contacted me recently, being like, "So... what do you want us to do?" I've now made up a list of stuff that could be done in my house, and it would be awesome if I could get it all done for that original $45. I'm wary though that I'll end up spending WAY more if it takes them a long time to get a couple of things done!

I finished Into the Wild. I'm still torn about how I feel about the guy and the events. I felt pretty critical of him at the beginning, but by the end, I don't know. Is it really such a terrible crime to be naive and idealistic? It's not really like he caused anyone's death but his own. He did put his parents through some anguish, but I don't think he should have changed who he was to please them, either.

I am starting the process of hardening off my seedlings. I think I'm just going to take it very slowly and do it over the course of 2-3 weeks. Hopefully by then spring will have set in for real. This weekend I need to get more potting soil, I think I am going to repot some of the seedlings as well as some rosemary I'm trying to grow from cuttings. Plus my big aloe plant seems to be having many little pups, so I'll need to get those into their own pots eventually as well.

Yesterday a giant steel pig -- Maximus/Minimus -- came to our work place. They were there as part of another group's event, but stuck around to do some extra business. So nice to have something *different* for lunch. I have to say, their BBQ pork sandwich with maximus sauce was very good, if on the small side.

Current Mood: sick

I don't feel good today. It kind of hit me all of a sudden, I feel kind of nauseated and slightly headachy and I just want to lie down. Unfortunately I rode the bus today so I don't have my car and can't lie down in the backseat, which sounds like HEAVEN right now.

I'm still kind of grumpy about the weather ... I had to turn on the heater in my room last night because my nose was getting uncomfortably cold. That's a good indicator of when the heater needs to come on. I brought in my seedlings from the other room so they could be in the warm room, too. They are doing REALLY well. Okay, they might be slower than those Florida kids, but they're beautiful. Some of them have multiple leaves and are growing tall and strong. The trouble is, they are mostly all tomato. I thought some of them were rosemary, but I was wrong. It's like 5 cauliflower, 2 basil, and then the rest are tomatoes, lol. That is WAY more than I can plant. K. says that her daughter's preschool is asking for tomato starter donations (they have a little garden that they tend with the kids), so I am going to donate some of my seedlings to them. I'm glad they'll be going to a good cause/home, but I'm still wibbling about which ones to give away. If only I knew which variety was which! Damn my lack of labeling! I don't want to accidentally give away all of one kind. Sigh.

I finished Throne of Jade. ( Spoilers. )

So Peter Jackson has optioned the rights to the books, eh? I think I read somewhere that he wanted to make it into a mini-series instead of a movie. Makes sense to me because I'm not sure there's actually enough *plot* in each book to make a good movie; it's more rich in detail and interpersonal/interdragon (?) relationship development, and the other stuff just sort of happens all at once.

Current Mood: ranty

I have somehow misplaced my checkbook. Ughhh. I hope it's just been lost in the shuffle of purse switching and not that I've actually lost it, because that would be a nightmare.

I made my Korean meal!! It was mostly a success. All about it on my food blog. :D

Based on a recommendation from

corianderstem, I'm going to be starting a new teen series soon: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. It sounds soooo good. I've always been into the whole post-apocalyptic thing. They were always my favorite kind of XF stories, when I was into that fandom. And it's probably why I love Ender's Game so much. As for finishing Breaking Dawn ... it'll happen ... one day.

I am getting really, really annoyed with the weather. I bought a little rosemary starter and a bigger marjoram plant at the farmer's market yesterday, planted them in the evening, and it freaking HAILED in my neck of the woods this morning. Not to mention it's been cold, cold, cold and super rainy. All the stuff in the raised beds look like they're freezing and/or drowning. Seriously, is spring EVER going to arrive in this godforsaken place???? Yes, I am totally losing it over the lack of warmth, which I do every year, but is even more pressing this year due to my enthusiasm over the garden -- a garden that has not grown one bit (in fact, it's gone backwards -- the basil starter I planted is pretty much dead), thanks to this horrible weather. I think I am going to start some indoor herb plants, because the ridiculous 9 months of cold we have around here just does not leave me with any confidence. In less ranty news, the marjoram smells sooooooooooo wonderful.

Current Mood: sleepy

Okay, 2 movies/books/TV shows are still unguessed from yesterday's meme. Maybe the clues aren't good enough, because they aren't super obscure titles or anything. So here are the original clues along with my own additions, hopefully this will help shed some light on them...

4) Two guys have to put up with a new co-worker who enjoys their job a little too much. Explosive levels of angst ensue. What's better than a tour of duty doing something so dangerous that your chance of survival is frequently counted down by a timer? Multiple tours of duty doing something so dangerous that your chance of survival is frequently counted down by a timer!

10) Laser tag is Serious Business, Real Time Strategy games even more so. Young boy plays video games to save a race and demolish another one.

Okay, they've both been guessed! Game over!

A few weekends ago, I bought strawberry starts at Flower World (who can resist strawberries?! No one) without really knowing anything about growing them. I finally did some reading up, and asking about it on the Gardening community, and it's so much easier AND more complicated than I thought. >< First, they're perennial. Second, they're hardy, so they'll survive Seattle winters easily. Third, they propagate like crazy. And fourth, you're supposed to pinch off the flowers the first year so that you'll have a better crop the following season (and none the first). Well, these are problems because I planted them in my raised bed of annual veggies, when really I should have created a separate little bed for them, so they could run wild there. They're going to take over the whole bed! Plus, I didn't want the work of treating them like perennials, giving up one season's crop for the next year, etc. I'm all about instant gratification! I just want to grow a bunch of strawberries, eat them, pull them up, and plant them again next year! Sigh.

Went to Dahlia Lounge with J. last night. I love that place. Photos of my meal here. Tonight is Union! On Saturday I am supposed to cook a full Korean meal for my family. I feel totally mentally unprepared, maybe because I've been eating out so much I don't feel this drive to make good food of my own. Plus I'm being kind of ambitious with what I've decided to make (more in quantity than anything, due to the banchan -- I'm considering cheating and just buying all the banchan at H-Mart rather than making it myself), and I still need to go to H-Mart to get all the ingredients I need. Eeep.

Went to bed really late last night. I think it was due more to reading fic than the fact that I had a double shot of espresso with dessert, which was an accident. I had ordered an Americano, but it was strangely strong and bitter when it came. It wasn't until I got the check and saw "double shot of espresso" that I realized our server had misheard me.

Current Mood: bored

I'm at work being really bored when all I want to do is geek out with Western Garden Book of Edibles, which arrived in the mail yesterday. I luurrrrves it. *pets book* It's got info on basically everything I'd probably get in my head to grow, and then some. Very good resource for a noob gardener like me, I can look something up and get a really quick overview of planting/watering/harvesting/etc.

A meme, stolen from

slitherhither! All have been guessed!

( Guess the movie/book/TV show (runs the gamut of being super easy to being kind of obscure): )

Current Mood: tired

Garden Stuff...

I had quite the adventure at Flower World on Saturday. I spent a ton of time roaming around, coveting all the pretty and unusual-looking flower transplants they had available, but not getting them because I don't actually have any interest at the moment in floral gardening (particularly annuals, which most of them were). I also had to resist getting a bunch of things I wanted but didn't really need THAT VERY DAY, because I had to cancel my Discover card and get a new one (long, lame story), and I want to hold off on spending money as much as I can until I get the new card. I spent a lot of time finding the stuff I did want right away -- herbs, another (bigger) aloe vera, pots, and fish emulsion -- only to realize after I stood in the long line to pay that I did not have my wallet.

( The adventure continues. )

In case you're interested, there are some recent photos of my seedlings on this thread. They're about a month old, and I saw someone else's month-old seedlings in Florida, and OMG at the difference! Theirs are like super mature plants, while mine still look like little babies, even if some of them are developing their pretty true leaves. I blame the cold start of spring we've had so far. :/ Mine are nowhere near ready to even try to harden for transplanting! Grr.

===

Food Stuff...

Had a lovely dinner with

corianderstem last night. We went to Seastar. ( The sordid details. )

Oh! I posted pics of my food from Crush to my food blog, here. I took my camera to Seastar, but accidentally had left my SD card at work. D'oh!!

===

Reading stuff...

- Throne of Jade (Temeraire Book 2): Totally into this! Laurence and Temeraire are as entertaining as always (OMG how funny was his delirious note at the beginning), and am very interested in all the China stuff. Very curious to see how this is all going to work out.

- Into the Wild (story of Chris McCandless): Very, very interesting, but it's giving me nightmares. Seriously, I read a chapter or two, and then I have these bad dreams about either what happened to McCandless or some other explorer that the author tells us about. I should stop reading it right before bed, but that's when I feel like picking it up!

- Breaking Dawn: I've read a little more. Yeah, my compromise of reading a chapter of this, then something else, etc., is no longer happening. I just don't have any real interest, because I always get so irritated when reading it. And who wants to feel that way?

- Goblet of Fire: I'm not reading this one, but am listening to the audio book while driving. Stephen Fry's version is 100x better than Jim Dale's.

I've also vaguely been wanting to reread Anne of Green Gables, one of the best books evar. Yesterday I found a copy of it at HPB that was printed in 1935 and bought it. I just love old books like that; I can't wait to read it. I know, I'm weird.

Current Mood: sad

I have received terrible news. Noah's Bagels is discontinuing their sun-dried tomato bagel.

We have this tradition in the office. Every Friday, we get a spread of Noah's bagels with various schmears. My absolute favorite one was the SDT bagel with SDT schmear. So good. Another coworker also loves the same combination -- we have bonded over this a number of times -- and we were both very put out when a few weeks ago, we stopped getting SDTBs. I thought maybe it was a temporary thing, but we have had no SDTBs for 3 weeks! I thought maybe our admin didn't realize that it was a beloved bagel, so today I sent her a fun little email requesting the return of the SDTBs. She was amused and called Noah's to put it back on our lineup... and that when they gave her the bad news. No more SDTBs. Ever.

WHY NOAH'S WHY?!?!

I've tried using their contact form to express my sadness, but it keeps erroring out. Obviously, they have been so inundated with SDT bagel lovers expressing their outrage that we've broken the system. There's even a Facebook group dedicated to petitioning Noah's for the return of the SDT bagel. If you also love the SDT bagel, join the group and/or write to Noah's!

===

I have this little garden bed right next to the garage that is growing nothing but weeds at the moment. I thought about planting tomatoes or blueberries or something there, but I've decided to make it a little perennial herb patch. Herbs are more low key than fruit, so I wouldn't have to worry that it might be too tempting for my neighbors to resist taking them, and it will be nice to have fresh herbs around all year. I've settled on rosemary, thyme, sage, and marjoram. I considered mint, but apparently it's really aggressive and as it's not something I use that often, I don't want to have to use a lot of effort to keep it under control. Maybe I will pot some. It's back to Flower World this weekend!

===

I live in an unincorporated area. I received a postcard saying that they are considering annexing our area to the City proper. Not sure how I feel about it.

Current Mood: Americano-ed

Pet peeve #42: When sick coworkers come in to the office. If you're sick, stay home. Don't martyr yourself and risk getting the rest of us sick. (Especially when we now have an open floor plan instead of individual offices like we used to!)

I've been having this really annoying condition that I finally set up an appointment to see my doctor about. ( Not really TMI, but I do go on. )

If you're on

gardening you may have already seen this, but Spring Hill Nursery has a coupon for $20 off, with no minimum purchase. You do have to pay for shipping still, so essentially you can get up to $20 worth of stuff for the price of shipping, which is $8. The coupon code is 414217. I am getting a dwarf Meyer lemon plant. :D I'm planning to grow it indoors, and hopefully it will one day yield some nice little lemons!

I forgot to mention that on Sunday I also planted a couple of bare root raspberry bushes. I don't know how long it will take them to actually turn into bushes (they are basically, like, one branch right now) and yield fruit, but hopefully I can be patient. Not that I have a choice, lol. Also, late last night I finally thinned my seedlings. It was so, so hard. If I ever do it again, I'm only planting one seed per pot. The chances of them not sprouting seem very small now that I've seen the results, and it will be so much easier than having to thin them later. Of course, since I didn't label anything I have no idea which plants are which -- especially the tomato varieties. I guess, if they ever get to the point of bearing fruit, I'll know then!

Last night S. and I went to Bai Tong, and I enjoyed myself a lot. It was great to catch up and reminisce with him, and I actually really liked my dish. The problem I have with Thai food is that I usually find it too sweet. I love curries, but not ones that taste like they should be dessert instead of my main course. We got the Meang-Kum to start, because it sounded interesting (and it was; very unique, we were both glad we tried it), I got the Crispy Trout Curry as my entree (made with panang curry, which is probably my favorite), and he got Kang Pa (an orange curry). Here's the menu. The funny thing is that the restaurant was right in the strip mall where the Southcenter HPB is, which I have been to a handful of times! If I'd known that's where the 'famed' Thai place was, I would have eaten there when I went to that HPB. Oh well.

Tonight is Canlis with K. I wonder if the portion sizes will be microscopic, considering how costly their normal menu is. Well, it hopefully can't be any smaller than what we had at Mistral Kitchen. MK was really good, but ridiculously tiny. What is even more ridiculous is that I was actually full afterward, in a good way, which just goes to show that I don't actually NEED more food than that; I just want it, lol.

Current Mood: chipper

I have found a new espresso drink to love: the Americano. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's basically the exact same thing as a latte, but made with water instead of milk (so if you're like me, you have to add your own cream and sugar separately). It's got a lovely, strong coffee flavor, and is harder to 'screw up' in case you're not sure of the barista. It also costs less than a latte, but not THAT much less considering there's no syrup and water is much cheaper than milk. Still, it tastes really, really good, especially with pastries.

K. and I went to Mistral Kitchen last night. It was the first night of Seattle's Restaurant Week. She and I are planning to take full advantage; we both have 4-5 restaurants that we're planning to go to. Tomorrow night we're going to Canlis, then on Thursday I'm going to Crush with my friend S., who's in town from Oregon. (I'm actually seeing him tonight, too -- we're going to Bai Tong, which I've heard from a number of sources is the only Thai restaurant in Seattle worth going to -- we shall see.) Then on Monday I am going to Seastar with

corianderstem, to Dahlia Lounge with J. on Wednesday, and finally to Union with my mom on Thursday, the last day of Restaurant Week. Whew!! I do so love eating out.

That's also a good segue way to the fact that my mom is visiting soon in order to help K. out with the kids while K.'s husband is out of town. It'll be really cool to see her, of course, but not THAT exciting since I JUST saw her recently. Plus it means there will be EVEN MORE eating (too much of a good thing in too short a time). She's already made me promise to take her to Senor Moose, and she'll be joining me and K. at Spring Hill for their special, by-reservation-only, fried chicken dinner. K. and I have been looking forward to that for AGES. Also I'm planning to cook at least two dinners while she's here -- a Korean-themed meal and an Indian-themed meal. Hope I can pull it off. What IS really cool is that she'll be here over Mother's Day, and while she's here K. can show her how to use her pressure cooker, which is identical to the one I just got her.

If you haven't already seen, a fabulous mystery artist drew this for me as part of the D/G Fic Exchange. Squee!

The newly repackaged (making a number of improvements, and adding one of the movies) Blu-Ray set of Battlestar Galactica is now available, and Amazon is selling it for $149.99 (retail price is $349.99). So... tempting...

I'm in the middle of 3 books at the moment. I've started Breaking Dawn, which is torturous so far. It's somehow even worse than the series has already been. I find myself wanting to throw it aside in disgust every other line. The worst part of the series is how much Bella HAS, that we are somehow supposed to feel sorry for her for having. Her life is SO DIFFICULT. Not. (To be fair, it is sort of like Mia whining about having to be a royal princess in The Princess Diaries, except Mia is likable. You know, to me.) The only way I am getting through it so far is by allowing myself to stop after every chapter, or every few pages because the chapters are so long (at least, it seems like it -- and ugh that the book is as thick as OotP), and reading something else. Which brings me to the other two books that I've started: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, a real-life story pieced together about this guy who abandons everything in his life, goes off into the wilderness of Alaska, and is found there 4 months later, dead; and Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, the second book in the Temeraire series. The latter two are so engrossing that I find myself really reluctant to put them down in order to go back to the dreck of Stephenie Meyer. BUT I promised

jade_okelani that I would finish the series, so I will, and plus once I'm done I can list all 4 books as a set on eBay.

Finally, a confession: I have cheated in my garden. I am a total garden cheater. I went to Flower World yesterday, and if you've never been, it's basically like a giant amusement park for gardeners. It is ginormous. There's a map, just like an amusement park, to help you get to different parts of the nursery because it's that big. There's even a part where you can kind of drive through to look at all the big potted trees for sale. Also, there are chickens. ( What I got... )

Current Mood: stressed

I don't want to jinx things by getting too specific, but I've made an offer on a house in my parents' neighborhood. I'd really like to get this settled if I can, because I don't want it hanging over my head anymore (essentially, it would be for my parents, primarily my mom -- long story -- to live in). It's a very cute place, it used to be a model home and has never been lived in, and my mom really likes it. We're in the process of endless-seeming counteroffers now, so I'm not sure if we'll ever come to a point where we see eye to eye, but fingers crossed.

Ugh, so one of my cousins is getting married in July and my aunt, his mother, wants me to go. I don't want to go. I'm not close to him, it's his second marriage, and I hate flying. ( Ranting. )

I've already gotten my mother her Mother's Day gift. I'm pretty happy with it this year. Usually I never know what to get her. Anyway while I was with her last week she was asking me about pressure cookers because she was looking into getting one, and I told her that if she wanted a really good one, she should get a Kuhn Rikon, which the NY Times called "the Mercedes Benz of pressure cookers" (K. has two). It costs like 5-6 times what an average pressure cooker costs. My favorite thing about it is that its pressure monitor is very easy and intuitive (specifically the Top Model line), which is not the case with most pressure cookers (especially the ones with the rattling tops). So yeah, I am getting her a KRTM, and she is thrilled. I've already ordered it even though Mother's Day is like a month away, so she should be getting it next week. I figure she can start to get use out of it right away!

Yesterday I went to Lowe's to rig together a low-cost lighting solution for my seedlings. They're growing very tall and spindly, and are all leaning in one direction, toward the window. Obviously they're not getting enough light, so I read up on it and this should fix it. I just bought one of those clampable lamps, along with a "grow" lightbulb, which is supposed to be better for seedlings. I've read that it doesn't really matter, plain fluorescent light would work, but with me at the helm I figure they need as much help as they can get. Hopefully it's not too late. I noticed that a couple of the cotyledon leaves are wilty now, maybe from shock? Or is it because I've removed the plastic covering so the greenhouse effect is gone?

Or is it just the natural process? I mean, it IS the natural process for cotyledons to eventually wither, but I'm not sure if this is happened very suddenly, after I put them under the light. I don't think they were that wilty before. Anyway, a few of the seedlngs are starting to show the beginnings of true leaves! Very exciting. Also, it's very cute, on the ends of a few of the cotyledons you can see the "shell" of the seed they sprouted from. Nature is so amazing. You can see there are a number of issues with my seedlings: 1) They're too long/spindly and leaning; 2) There are too many and I need to thin them (cry, it's SO HARD, it's like Sophie's Choice!); 3) There seem to be various shoots in the same pot; that's because I started over after my first failed attempt, but it looks like some of those first seeds are now actually sprouting; 4) I didn't label anything and so now I have no idea what is growing where... I do know the first 3 columns are tomatoes but not sure which varieties are where; 5) They're overwatered, which I did not realize until this morning when I was moving the trays around. And here I had been afraid they'd dry up too much while I was gone!

Also, happy birthday,

akscully!

Current Mood: full

Ugh, I am soooooooo tired. I hate getting up so early every day. It's not just because I have to, for work... it's also the damn birds. I cannot wait for tomorrow, when the handyman guy is supposed to come and block the ventilation holes. Of course, I'll only get to enjoy it for one morning, since the day after that, I'm flying to LA. Laundry: still not done. I'm working from home tomorrow, though, so hopefully I'll get all the crap I need to get done, done, and then I can stop worrying that I've forgotten something. Poor Talis has to go to the kennel tomorrow. He's going to be staying for such a long time. I hope he'll be okay. :-(

The one thing I've done is finish my exchange fic. It's even beta'ed and edited and everything. What a relief. Most of it was written over the course of one day (Saturday). It's kind of inspiring because now I know that I CAN do it. But also not, because I really didn't like all the stress and being chained to my computer. :P I'll show you what I got to fuel me through it: this and this. Thank you, Frost Doughnuts. I'm still going to turn it in tomorrow despite the new deadline, since I'll be traveling. Only thing that's missing now is the title. I had a really good working title, but I've decided I'm not happy with it. I don't know why titles are always so freakishly hard for me. I always obsess over them.

The weather here has been positively miserable, gray and rainy and gloomy. Yesterday it even HAILED a bit. I shouldn't have bothered with all the gardening stuff till I got back, sheesh. Still, I must've done something right -- my indoor seedlings are starting to come up!! Yay! One of the tomato breeds isn't cooperating yet, but at least a few of all the other ones I planted (the other two tomato breeds, rosemary, basil, and cauliflower) are sprouting. I hope they can last while I'm out next week. >

Current Mood: nervous

Well, my plan to finish my D/G Exchange fic this weekend didn't quite work out. It's still not finished. However, it's almost there, so at least I got quite a bit of it done. The panic has subsided somewhat, and if things stay quiet at work today, I may just finish it here this afternoon.

Now what I'm getting nervous about is my trip. I'm leaving on Friday. FRIDAY! How can that be?? I feel like there are a million things I've forgotten to do, but I think that's just a result of the fact that my trip this time is coming together quite differently from how my trips normally go (the airline I'm taking, what I'm doing with Talis, how I'm getting to the airport). I hope. I still need to do laundry so I have clothes to wear ... though of course, if everyone's going around naked at Esalen that may not be a huge priority. I'm sure Jade and Robbie would prefer that I have clothes on when I see them, though.

Of course right before I leave I've gotten on a book-buying kick, which means half of them are going to arrive during the time I'm gone. (That reminds me, I need to go to usps.com and have them hold my mail.) Many of them are cookbooks. ( If you're interested in the list. )

I'm also trying some new fantasy novels. Or at least, I plan to, once I have them in hand. This includes the Kushiel's Legacy series, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, the first Dragon Lance book, the Sword of Shadows series by J.V. Jones, and of course, the Temeraire series ... I've had the first four books forever now. Also, did you know Orson Scott Card wrote a direct sequel to Ender's Game (one of my favorite books ever), called Ender in Exile? Has anyone read it? What did you think? I haven't really been able to get into the other follow ups to the first book, so am not sure if it's something I really want to read or not.

As for the garden ... none of the seeds I've planted in the beds have sprouted, which is probably just as well given the worm thing and the fact that I am going to be away for 1+ weeks. I'll probably just try again once I get back, and maybe the weather will also be warmer. As for the indoor starters, the only ones that have sprouted are the cauliflower. I think it's the cauliflower; I didn't label them. However, I realized that the other seeds were probably planted too deep once I consulted the package directions again, and plus it hasn't been very sunny or warm the last week. So ... I started over with them, following the directions more carefully this time. I'll water them before I leave, and hope that they don't die from neglect before I get back.

I just have great timing, don't I?

Current Mood: tired

Bad news re: my garden. :/ I have worms! And not the good kind! ( The sad story. )

Yesterday my cousin B. arrived and we went to Paseo for lunch. For some reason, maybe because it was a weekday and it was gloomy, I didn't think it was going to be very busy. BOY WAS I WRONG. It was packed! Not as packed as I've seen it on the weekend, but throngs of people were there. I mean, yes, they have the best sandwiches in the world, but still. We didn't eat until 1pm (we lucked out and got a table -- there are like 5 tiny tables; it is the smallest place imaginable). Was worth it though; I asked B. how his sandwich was and he said one word: "Amazing." If you live in Seattle and have never had a sandwich from Paseo, you are missing out. The original location is in Fremont, but they recently opened one in Ballard that I've been meaning to try. I recommend the #2 roasted Cuban. So. good. They only take cash though, and go early because they sometimes run out of bread. Each sandwich runs about $7.50.

Since we ate a filling lunch so late we decided not to go to El Gaucho after all. The experience would just have been wasted on us. Instead, we went to the 35th Street Bistro as they're doing Dine Around Seattle. It was very good, but frankly not worth it for dinner. It wasn't actually much of a savings since they're not super pricey anyway.

After dinner we headed to Qwest Field (which, embarrassingly, I didn't even know that's where the Sounders played until Elle told me). ( The Sounders game. )

This weekend: I am not allowed to do anything but work on my D/G fic exchange story. Period!

Current Mood: okay

So, totally random thing. Thursday is the opening game of the Seattle Sounders (our pro soccer team), and I got an email today from our VP's admin saying that our group got 2 tickets to give away and they had done a drawing to pick a name for who would win the tickets and it was ... me. LOL. So random. The cool thing is that my cousin is arriving in town that day for his PhD program interviews and we were going to have dinner, so now we're going to have dinner and watch a soccer game. It will certainly round out his trip here! Plus, I love winning things. If only Mega Millions would cooperate.

Tonight K. and I are going to Olivar for dinner. It's another one of those upscale restaurants we've been wanting to try. I love food of all kinds, and I've found that hole in the walls can have BETTER food than places where you pay 10x as much (you just have to find the right hole in the wall), but she definitely prefers upscale food/experiences.

I'm impatient and keep checking the starter pots and garden beds, wondering why they haven't sprouted yet. I'm also fatalistic and am convinced that none of them are going to, ever.

Current Mood: calm

Okay, I've been a member of

doggie_pix for many months now, and there have been maybe 5 posts total. Suddenly today there are like, dozens! Post after post of doggie pics! I'm glad the community is more active, but does everyone have to post all at once? I'm going to have to stop watching it if this continues.

The pest control guy has come and gone. ( If you really want to know about my pest problems. )

Also, the fic-writing situation is becoming dire. I've made a deal with myself; for every sentence I write of this journal entry, I have to write a sentence of fic.

Had a very good weekend. First was Saturday, which I've already written about. Next was Sunday, with the D/G gals! Yay! What a lovely bunch of ladies:

adelagia,

elle_blessing,

lyndsiefenele, and

slitherhither. <3 Y'all are fab. I hope you know that. Can't wait to get together again.

I woke up early, so made my way to Kirkland with the intention of checking out some of the consignment shops there before lunch. ( Boring shopping talk. )

Then was lunch w/ the D/G gals, and we managed to make it through almost the entire meal without mentioning fandom, but then of course we HAD to go there. I mean, it's what we have in common! It's why we were meeting up in the first place! I'm sure it sounded like total gibberish to anyone who might have overheard us, and that's perfectly okay. There was a tense moment when Draco/Hermione was mentioned and I wondered if there was going to be bloodshed, but we managed to make it through with all limbs intact.

It was such a nice day that when I went home, I actually did some gardening. I know, I'm as shocked as you are. Earlier that morning (I told you I got up early) I'd gone to buy some seed packets and soil. (I really don't understand all the different varieties of soil there are, or how to use them properly, but I hope that dirt is basically dirt and if I use potting soil outdoors it won't totally ruin everything. I mean, nature has somehow managed to propagate itself all these many years without the help of mankind, so surely if I don't use fertilizer correctly it won't backfire on me too much?) I 'planted' some of the seeds (depending on what it said on the back of the seed packet), including: zucchini, carrots, beets, chives, Swiss chard, and watermelon -- just for fun! Then, again due to packet instructions, I started some little indoor ones, such as 3 kinds of tomatoes, basil, rosemary, and cauliflower. I really, really want the tomatoes to do well. That's the only plant I really care about. The other ones will be fun to see if they do well, but if they don't, I won't be too sad about it. But man, I really want dozens and dozens of tomatoes. Also it'd be great if one or two of the basil plants did well. But that's all I'm really hoping for. The watermelon, especially, is totally pie in the sky. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of that.

Profile

sarea

October 2020

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Stuff
I'm like Tinkerbell... I need applause to LIVE!
Remember last month when I paid back that loan? Well now I need YOU to do a favor for ME.
a bit of everything
yay for Fridays
tippr, giant steel pigs, and idealistic adventurers
Silly customer, you cannot hurt a Twinkie.
WHY is it hailing in MAY??
Oh, a *sarcasm* detector. Oh, that’s a *really* useful invention!
And that's how Sue sees it.
I didn’t think it was physically possible, but this both sucks *and* blows.
bogus bagel news
I’m normally not a praying man, but if you’re up there, please save me, Superman.
Well, that’s like comparing apples and some fruit nobody’s ever heard of.
You were clean fifteen minutes ago, now you're just on vacation.
If doughnuts are wrong, I don't want to be right.
My timing for everything sucks
worms, Sounders game, eating, and spoiled brats
Yay for randomly winning things!
I'm being bombarded by dogs.

Style Credit

Base style: Compartmentalize by timeasmymeasure
Theme: Something Teal by krja

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated May. 15th, 2025 11:28 am

It Started with a Journal

Going Up and Down the Steps of Adulthood

Entries tagged with gardening

Stuff

I'm like Tinkerbell... I need applause to LIVE!

Remember last month when I paid back that loan? Well now I need YOU to do a favor for ME.

a bit of everything

yay for Fridays

tippr, giant steel pigs, and idealistic adventurers

Silly customer, you cannot hurt a Twinkie.

WHY is it hailing in MAY??

Oh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that’s a really useful invention!

And that's how Sue sees it.

I didn’t think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows.

bogus bagel news

I’m normally not a praying man, but if you’re up there, please save me, Superman.

Well, that’s like comparing apples and some fruit nobody’s ever heard of.

You were clean fifteen minutes ago, now you're just on vacation.

If doughnuts are wrong, I don't want to be right.

My timing for everything sucks

worms, Sounders game, eating, and spoiled brats

Yay for randomly winning things!

I'm being bombarded by dogs.