Our Excellent Day

It's February, I don't expect much out of the weather in the Pacific NorthWET, but today was EXCELLENT !! BEYOND EXCELLENT !!! Especially for February 21st, it should be raining...it started slow, cold and frosty; I didn't get out of the house until 11ish. Went to Lowes, they don't have anything out yet except primroses and well everyone has them (at a better price) and I have enough :) Did a little grocery shopping and thought that I would hit the sale at JoAnn's for some fabric-- my local store didn't really have much so I started home and well, those of you that know me, know that my radio is usually tuned to sports talk radio and today is no different and thank goodness cuz Jr's home !! I sat in my car in the driveway for over 1/2 an hour (maybe longer) listening to the press conference. And while I am still skeptical, I am very excited for this baseball season; and while I realize that Jr is not the second coming (get it :) I loved what he had to say. I don't believe that Jr is the great communicator, but I think that he is an honest man and I believed what he said. As a fan, we don't need to know what goes on in the club house, what matters is what goes on on the field and if Jr can bring some excitement to the field, amen :) I have to say, I haven't been this excited for baseball in Seattle in long time... right now, I can't wait !!

Ok, so I finally got out of my car and headed into the yard, and I'm so glad I did !!

The day was amazing !! I had to start painting things ;) I paint a LOT of things, it started with rocks ... I started painting the cooler, and ran out of paint, I probably should have primed it first, but oh well. Next I started in on the plants, I trimmed back almost everything; I used the trimming's as a sort mulch on some of the bigger plants. I decided if they don't come back, well, they'll be replaced !!

But one of the best parts about being outside today was watching the babies, ok so they're not really babies, but dang, they are to me!! They have only been going out for the last couple of days and they really seem to be enjoying it !! In fact, they love it so much, they are sound asleep-- Meow Mix and Toby were with us too, but they just don't like having their pics taken :) Dang, it was a glorious day, I was outside until at least 5, maybe 6, maybe later, I LOVE being in the yard !!

the other thing I noticed is how bad I need a haircut !! And not just any haircut, but eeek what I have just doesn't fit me anymore--I feel a big change in the wind--


oh and just for the record, I have been TRYING to stretch and / or exercise 5 days a week -- I swear !! Wednesday and Thursday I walked from Main Street down to Emerald Downs and back; my pedometer needs to be recalibrated, but I think it's ~ 4.5 miles... I really get into it--swinging my water bottle and making up words to the songs on my shuffle :)
i love my yard !!!

Happy Valentine's Day <3

THANK YOU KELSON AND IZZY !!

Hockey Night

Tango likes hockey as much as I do...

Buffalo loses in a shoot-out Saturday night

You can watch the Sen's Mark Fisher's game winner up above --

Blackberry war

My yard backs up to I'm not sure what, I think it's a battle between the city and the county, there's my fence, 2 plus feet of blackberry bushes and another fence, I have mounds of mole holes and miles of blackberry bushes, allllll along my fence. I have a love hate relationship with these bushes. I love that they are an amazing privacy barrier between my yard and the river...I hate that they over take my fence and yard in what seems like a matter of days in the spring and summer, BUT I do love picking the over-ripe plump berries off of the vine and baking dump cake. So while they are a nuisance, if I cut them back in a timely manner, we can all live together harmoniously.

Today, I decided to try and cut some back... now I know, I should wear long pants, but I get so dang hot, all the time, so I wore shorts, a long sleeve shirt (and a short sleeve tee for part of the time) and of course, gloves, always leather gloves when we are approaching the blackberry bushes... I thought that I had a pair of shears with long blades, but for the life of me, I can't find them. So, I went to work with the little choppers and my hand clippers. I clipped, pulled, swore, chopped, and pulled some more. I'm only 3/4's of the way done... my legs are a mess (as I pretty much knew that they would be, my bad, I know--) My yard waste container is almost full to the rim--I had to rake the front lawn again--if the weather holds (snow ??) I'll cut some of the bigger vines up more and shove them in the container.

After I lost all patience with the blackberry wars and raked, I checked all of my containers... I have a lot of work to do. I can NOT wait for the final frost -- I have daylillies to split, bushes to move into containers, containers to empty into the yard, so much fun stuff !!

Just not that into it

I haven't been to the movies since I took Kylie to see Snow Day--I just don't go to the movies. This week though, some of the girls were going to see He's Just Not That into You. Having read bits and pieces of the book(s), I thought that it might be kind of cute, with quips and sort of quirky. Before the movie we all met up at Duke's Chowder House where we bumped sugars (heehee) with Raspberry Lemondrops. They were delish. We headed up over to the theatre, got right in, no waiting--for 2 hours that I'll never get back. I guess I just expected something funnier, more quirky -- that wasn't what I got. It had it's moments; the inserted comments from people who weren't part of the main cast, those were funny. But, since
everyone else I was with seemed to enjoy it, lol, it must just be me.

And besides, what last night was, was more than a movie. It was Girl's Night Out with amazing ladies who have been there for me when he just wasn't into me, and will always be there, whether he's into me or not... thank you ladies...

Bruuuuuce

This had to be one of the best SuperBowl halftime performances I've seen since the "wardrobe malfunction" (which you can watch on YouTube, so I won't post here...) Bruce and the E-Street band had as much energy as when I saw the Tunnel of Love tour at The Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA.

Wonderful !! Thanks.

Mole Hills

Grrrrr.... The moles are destroying my back yard and moving to my front yard...

A bunch of government entities decided to make a better space for the salmon, so they completely redirected the Green River behind my house. While this was going on, the moles, who I had managed to keep at bay after several years of diligence, got very pissed off at the all of the heavy equipment and returned, with a vengeance...Besides the fact that the dirt hills look terrible, they bring up a bunch of rock too, it makes it impossible to safely mow what little grass (mostly weeds) we have--the rocks come flying out of those mole hills and cause ugly damage.

I've tried the pinwheels, but there's just not enough wind right now to keep them moving...

or the moles are just being plain mean...

So, I was watching an episode of Gardening with Cisco that told of a safe way to help keep the varmints at bay (I can't find the episode on-line, but I love Cisco). The idea was to take a bunch of mint plants, cut them up, toss them in your blender and then cook them for a while. When they are done simmering, dump the mixture down the

holes. Well, that sounded interesting, but I don't have bunches of mint lying around and my kitchen just didn't seem big enough for that kind of production, so I improvised--I bought a bunch of spearmint hard star candies and melted them with boiling water. With a 5 gallon pail and baster, I flattened mole hills and delivered doses of spearminty water. There's some great dirt that I could use in those mole hills, but I just couldn't figure out where to put it, so I guess it will just have to go back into the yard...I'll spend some more time in the yard next week-end if the weather isn't too bad, flatten out some more hills-- lol mountains out of mole hills ...

We did however get great deal on some primroses...

I can't pass up a good deal on flowers-- it was nice to plant some early color -- Bring on springtime !!