Yay · Me!

We're back from Chicago. Hoshiadam's sister is now Doctor Jenna, yay. The trip was fun. We made it in a day both times, 12 hours with stops. On the way we were in a traffic jam for an hour... SAM did really well though. We only had to stop on the side of the road for an emergency potty break once.

I left a casserole in the oven all weekend. It is sad, I was looking forward to seeing if it was any good. But Wednesday night when I was cooking it was when the big storm came through, and the power loss turned off the timer, so I completely forgot about it. Luckily, the power loss also turned off the oven heat... otherwise we might not have had a house when we got back. :P I didn't even remember it until we reached Knoxville. It was stinky.

Now I have huge piles of junk to clean. I was supposed to get my oil changed, but can't find my car keys - of course, because I kept seeing them somewhere all evening and morning. Whenever that happens they're sure to have disappeared by the time I want them. :) Ugh. And I'm so horrifically tired...

Still holding steady on weight. Haven't broken the 22-pounds-lost mark yet.

Busy weekend. Visited, went to two plant sales, and went to the circus! At the plant sales I got two Christmas ferns to fill in some empty spots, an oak leaf hydrangea that's very pretty in its fall colors already, and a bunch of cool-weather vegetables. I'm going to put them in the empty spot between my two driveways, it's the most convenient sunny spot we have. There's kale, mustard, red-leaf lettuce, broccoli rabe, pak choi (like bok choy, I assume), kohlrabi, and beets. :)

The circus was lots of fun, as usual. The acts were all the same as far as I could remember, which was a little silly, but SAM really enjoyed it. He got his first elephant ride at intermission, then we took him and his tired daddy home. :) And I got cotton candy, but we avoided getting one of the cheap and hugely overpriced plastic toys they were selling everywhere. SAM didn't even cry for one.

Now we all have colds. :( SAM's made him wake up many times last night. Ugh.

Oh no, sliding back in! Aaaaaaaughh noooooooO!

(I am blaming the lingering cold for my huge tiredness, though the sniffles are all but gone and I have no other symptoms. Things were a bit better yesterday, but so far this morning I am feeling wiped out again. Even just sitting here typing is hard. *shrug* Still have to mow the lawn this afternoon.)

Hmm, looks like privet is an invasive pest species in TN... Guess I should pull it up, it's filling the yard, and it was really bothering hoshiadam's allergies. But I don't know if I can bring myself to cut down the big tree-sized one, even if it is evil.

Oof! Yesterday was weights day in my exercise regimen - weights, pushups (well, kind of), crunches, and stretching. I did a good thorough job and was pretty wiped out afterwards, feeling shaky. Then we went to Jumpity Jump (one of those inflatable play zones) with SAM and DAT! Pulling heavy toddlers through the obstacle course and helping them climb to the top of slides was pretty tiring! And then in the afternoon I decided I'd move the nandina bushes that were crowding a rose in front of the house. I was spoiled by the recently-planted rhododendrons that just popped right out - the nandina roots just kept going deeper and deeper, and they were really thick! It was a bit more than I bargained for, and in the end I had to call in reinforcements. We eventually got them out, though, leaving a lot of roots behind, which I'll have to watch to keep from sprouting new bushes right where I don't want them. By that time I was pretty well destroyed... I'm soo sore today! But I was good and did my bike riding. Only made 5.4 miles, though.

In other home news, the chickadees have apparently abandoned the birdhouse I put up. For several days they kept going in and out, cleaning out little bits of the inside of the gourd. But I guess they changed their minds, I haven't seen them in a few days. :( Maybe it was too close to the bird feeder and they didn't like all those birds being around.

The bird feeder is pretty cool, I see all kinds of birds there. But the squirrel has chewed out all the little eating holes so that the seeds pour out. Oh well.

I have a bunch of little onions planted in halved milk cartons on my kitchen windowsill, and lots of little green spears are coming up. It's very exciting! Some tulips bloomed by the daffodils out by the street, too. Two of the trees in the backyard are growing little helicopters, so they must be maples, and the dogwood is getting ready to bloom. The Bradford pears are snowing their stinky white petals all over the place, and little green spears are coming up in many places, it will be interesting to see what they are. :)

We may not have a whole lot of grass, but if famine strikes we'll have a lot of green food available! We have henbit, purple deadnettle, chickweed, and violets, all of which are edible, and those are just the ones I know about. Oh, wild strawberries too. :) And wild onions, of course. And we could tap the maple trees for sap... Plus daylilies can be eaten, and this snowball viburnum will make edible berries... Mmm, yard.

To all who paint their houses: Let me recommend zero-VOC paint. (VOC = Volatile Organic Compounds, nasty carcinogenic chemicals that seep into the air for years and stink horribly) Not only is it less toxic to you and the environment, but you can actually breathe in your house while painting. It's great, it hardly has a smell at all! And it was only $20 a gallon. I knew that was what I wanted (since they don't sell any of the brands of natural-ingredient paints anywhere in the state that I could find ), but I was afraid it would be hard to find. But no - they had some at Lowes, Olympic Premium was the brand. Huzzah! :)

I am liking the comics that people are posting lately. :) Not that I had a comic shortage, with my... let's see...14 comic sites I check daily, but every little extra bit of funny counts.

We really need to buy a lawnmower. We think we found a kind we want, now I need to call around and find a place that has it. 4-6 weeks shipping is too long, we'll be buried in grass by then.

ARG. Today hoshiadam checked the label on the paint cans. It isn't the color we ordered. No wonder it's darker than we expected. I don't know how we managed not to check that before painting to coats on the entire room. *facepalm*

Absolutely horrid night last night for SAM's sleeping. He has caught a cold from hoshiadam's parents. I'm so tired I can hardly move. *sigh* But no stopping until naptime, too much to do.