Delusions of... Everything

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Today's view of my window:

and through my window:

It's been a wet day, I'm glad to be getting away!

Sometimes Tuesdays Are Good Days

Today has been great!

When I got dressed the morning I put on a pair of pants I haven't worn for a while and I found two $5 bills in the pocket!

Dancing Daughter was ready to go on time this morning so I wasn't late for work.

At work I happily helped a new employee use Excel.  I love Excel.  Excel is my office boyfriend.  Anytime I can share the Excel love I'm happy.  Yes, I know I'm weird.

Jean Auel's latest book, The Land of Painted Caves, came out today. After work I went to my local, small, new and used bookstore where I pre-ordered the book a few weeks ago.  I haven't decided if I'm taking it on vacation.  It's pretty large!

On the way to the bookstore I noticed a wine store is going in near the Trader Joe's in my neighborhood.  It's not open yet and there is no sign other than "coming soon" in the window.  It's called Decanter Wines.  I can't wait to check it out when it opens!

In the depths of my closet live my summer clothes, mostly consisting of short sleeves and capri pants.  I dug them out and was happy to find that everything from last summer still fits!  Makes packing for San Diego that much easier.

By some manner of pure luck (and Star Wars Son's amazing computer skills) I was able to snag two tickets to Eddie Vedder's upcoming solo tour!  They went on pre-sale today through the fan club.  He will be promoting his new album called Ukulele Songs, that will be coming out soon with a live concert film called Water On The Road.  Just like it sounds it's a whole album of songs played on the Ukulele.  He will be ending the short one month tour in Seattle, at Benaroya Hall on July 15.  To say I'm excited would be an understatement!  Here is a mightly fine picture of Eddie with his Uke!

How was your Tuesday?!

For those that are interested here is a photo montage of Eddie while his new single Longing To Belong plays

 

 

 

The Planting Has Begun

 The weather, my health and my knee all cooperated enough to allow the first planting of my garden over the weekend.  The garden spot is close to the house, in full sun with the added benefit of the concrete parking area that radiates heat.  I"m hopeful that even if we have a mild summer, there will be enough warmth to allow growing, or I could just be a delusional naive optimistic gardener.

 I planted onion starts, garlic, asparagus and nasturtiums.  I don't plan to eat the nasturtiums even though I know they are edible.  I planted them in my vegetable garden because my grandpa always planted them in his garden.  In the back of my head I remember something about them keeping slugs away, or I could just be a delusional naive optimistic gardener.

Before planting I laid out a new soaker hose to replace the old one that somehow broke in half.  How does a hose that just sits there break in half?!

I have many more seeds to plant and 5 tomato plants that I'm keeping in the house until it really warms up, but at least I got started!

In the beginning there was lots-o-dirt.  Hopefully in the weeks to come I will share pictures of green sprouts and full grown plants that yield some harvest, or I could just be a delusional naive optimistic gardener.

Now I'm off to make lists, do laundry and start packing for our family Spring break trip to San Diego!  We are catching a plane on Friday after school and work.  I'm looking forward to a few warmer days than we've had in Seattle.

Sing-A-Long Saturday

I've spent the last hour watching Beatles videos on youtube.  I didn't want to stop, except I have to get dressed, eat some breakfast and run some errands.  

Here are the Beatles performing I've Got a Feeling from a rooftop, with some observations from passersby.

 

This is a different take on the same song.  This 1992 live cover was performed by Pearl Jam in Den Haag, Netherlands.  Eddie changes up the lyrics, which he's known for doing.  They add in some interesting song tags of their own (if you're a hard core fan you can hear some Dirty Frank) and he mentions missing Andy, a reference to the deceased Mother Love Bone singer.  He throws in lyrics from many different non Pearl Jam songs.  All in all it's quite a treasure for any Pearl Jam fan. I think John Lennon would have been proud!

 

 

 

Not So Wordless Wednesday

I want to thank everyone for their advice and words of encouragement about my veggie gardening post yesterday!  You all rock!

Today is the shared birthday of my grandpa and my brother, both deceased.  My grandpa would have been 102 and my brother 46.  My grandpa loved the spring.  He loved to garden and grew all kinds of veggies and flowers from seed.  His favorite flower was the Daffodil.  In honor of him and my brother I'm sharing some spring photos from my archives since my yard is only just starting to bud.

 

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Preparing the Garden

This year I've committed myself to grow some veggies.  Our yard has the perfect full sun location that we've never really done anything with, except grow Dahlias and weeds.

While I was away scrapbooking last weekend Handy Man turned all the soil and added some bags of chicken manure.  

Now it's up to me to rake it out and plant some seeds.

The plan is to plant spinach, radishes, beets, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins, green beans, garlic and onions amoung others.  Some I will start from seed straight in the ground and others I will purchase as starter plants.  I also plan to plant some raspberries in a different location. I'll keep you posted as the garden progresses.

If you garden what are your favorite things to grow?  What veggies have you had the most luck with?

 

Sing-A-Long Saturday

Have you seen Eat, Pray, Love?  If you have did you hear the song while the end credits were running?  It's Eddie Vedder singing Better Days, a song he wrote for the movie.

 

There is a wedding scene in the movie where they used a Pearl Jam song called Long Road.  It's a version that Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament did with Rahat Fahet Ali Kahn.  It's a short little snippet in the movie, the video version below is much longer, but definitely worth the time to listen.

 

Have a great Saturday.  I'm scrapbooking for the rest of the weekend!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Hopefully by the summer there will be a nice little water feature here with all kinds of interesting plants around it.  Maybe a fountain and river rock?  Maybe a little pond?  We have a lot of work ahead of us!

Being Sick

Here are some things I learned while being sick:

• Women of a certain age will leak when coughing and sneezing.
• Just when sleep is needed the most a coughing fit will materialize.
• Honey, lemon and hot water work just as well as cough medicine, if not better.
• There is nothing on TV during the day.
• A hot flash plus a fever is miserable.
• It's very hard to be at home in the middle of a weekday and not do chores.
• A sick body will make it very clear that it wants to lay down if chores are attempted.
• Did I mention leaking when coughing and sneezing?
• Missing 2.5 days of work makes for a pile of work to wade through upon return.

I'm happy to say that I am feeling much better today!

Wow

I bet your wondering where I've been the place couple weeks.  I already told you about my sprained knee, which is getting better, but on top of that I got sick and I'm not really sure how it happened.

During the last 4 years our family has gone through many changes... Buying a new house, moving, being broke, renting out a house we couldn't sell, being broke, remodelling the new house, being broke, being turned down for a refinance on the new house, losing my job, being even more broke, job searching for almost 5 months and being broke.  Through all of this stress Handy Man and I managed to stay fairly healthy.  Nothing more than sniffles and maybe some stomach issues, but generally we stayed healthy during a long stretch of heavy stress.

Now things are much better for us, if fact I would say we are very comfortable with where we are in our lives right now.  We are no longer stressed about mortgages, rentals, refinancing, etc.  We are planning a vacation in a couple weeks, we are in a great place.

So why then did Handy Man and I both end up getting the flu this year?  I haven't been this sick since I had the flu that turned into pneumonia when Dancing Daughter was 1, that was 15 years ago.  For a couple years after that I got both the flu and pneumonia shot, but haven't gotten either since.  I just don't get sick anymore.  I learned how to say no more often.  I learned to rest when I was tired.  I learned how to meditate and do things I love for enjoyment.

Not sure what happened this time.  All I can say is I find it amazing that we can go through 4 years of such heavy stress with no serious illness and during this time of prosperity we both get knocked on our asses.

Wow, just wow!

I'm going to work today, even though I want to rest some more.  I have no PTO time to spare, I was out 3 days last week and can't afford to miss more work.

It is really hard for me to listen to myself complain while the people in Japan are digging out from horrible devastation.  While concentrating on healing thoughts for myself, I'm sending out healing thoughts to the victims, families, rescue workers and leaders for a fast recovery.