greg3d

The week in review

The lab is coming together. We should be fully operational soon. I'm getting used to my cubicle and it's getting easier to concentrate. The Tuesday night meeting was back to normal after a week with no teens. Wednesday was just an evening at home if I remember corectly.

Thursday I made the trip up to Seattle for the Symphony. I also met my dear friend Rabih for dinner. Barry was also supposed to be there, but he was indisposed. We had a nice dinner and a had a chance to catch up with things. It's been several years since we've all been together and I've missed them. The concert was quite good. The concerto was the old warhorse Rachmaninoff Concerto #2. They did a bang up job of it. Just as well it was the symphony, because my left lens dropped out of my frame just as I was going into the theater. I was in the second tier and could not see a thing. Fortunately I had a repair kit in my bag so i was able to fix them during intermission. The last piece was by John Adams. Parts of it I liked very much, but parts of it were minimalist nonsense and were quite annoying. I have to say though, it was a very difficult piece, but the Seattle Symphony was up for it. They did an amazing job and I have never seen them work so hard.

Yesterday I puttered outside a bit. Got some Tagro and set up my raised bed for tomatos. In the afternoon, Scott and I drove up to Port Orchard and did a fairly easy cache. The unique thing about it was that it was just up the road from the Manchester Lab where I spent 16 years.

Today I finished the raised bed. I've been catching up with laundry and woeking on picking up the house. Scott is off doing program stuff so I have the house to myself. Housework and opera go well together.

ow

I hurt all over.

I finished digging up the sod in the front yard. That was yesterday. Today Arthur and i shoveled it into the truck and moved it to the alley, where I am working on another project, and shoveled it out again.

that was hella work.

We don't really have privacy on the deck from the alley. The fence is too low in the back. I hit on idea, but it's taken me a little while to work out how to do it. I'm going to plant bamboo.

Bamboo can take over if you're not careful. It's best to contain it if you don't have room, such as your own rain forest. My idea is to plant it in containers on the outside of the fence along the alley. We went to a feed store to look at horse troughs, but those were more expensive than i expected. I have a few big plastic garbage cans with holes in them that I was using to make compost. the problem there is securing them where the whole mess won't blow over the first big windstorm. This is where all the dirt from the front yard comes in. The bins are going against the fence, I need six of them, I think. Three more to acquire. Then I am going to weight them down with some concrete chunks my next door neighbor has piled along her side of the alley. Then i am going to shovel a big pile of dirt up against the bins to hold them in place. Trust me, I have enough dirt. Then I am going to palnt seeds on that pile so i have a nice colorful cascade of flowers brightening up the alley. Thats the theory. In reality I'll probably end up with a whole lot of bindweed, but at least I'll give it a shot.

We still need to level out the front yard. I'll bring in some Tagro, and spread seed. If all goes well, we won't be an embarrassment to the neighborhood anymore. A neighbor two doors down has been working on the same project. I saw her out there digging the dirt and sieving it and spreading in out into a perfect bed for the grass, Screw that. If I get it halfway even and the grass grows and it's green I'll be happy. I don't need a putting green.

summer summer summer summer!

I have been outdoors all day. Part of it painting rocks.

I got up early and since I knew Arthur wouldn't, I treated myself to Shakabrah. He doesn't like the place anyway. Since it was so nice out I walked the 12 blocks. Came back home and walked the other way to the drugstore to get a couple of prescriptions filled. When I was done with that, Arthur still wasn't up, so I settled out in the garden.

I have a glass globe in the garden that glows in the dark. I am quite fond of it and so I decided it needed some augmenting. I painted some small river rocks with glow in the dark acrylic paint which I will distribute about the flower beds. I have more paint, maybe I'll do more rocks.

I did a good bit of weeding and finished planting the last few acquisitions from my expedition with Dolores. I found a box of seeds at the drug store for $0.50 of flowers that attract hummingbirds and butterflies, so I scattered that around. it will hopefully make for a colorful late summer. Lots of things are gtting ready to bloom. It should be quite spectacular out there within a couple of weeks. I started a batch of Soil Soup to help things along.

I'm ready for more activities. I shall shower and then try to blast Arthur off the couch and out of the house.

long day

I'm brain dead, but I try to write a bit.

I went to the annual AOAC regional meeting today. I'll be there part of tomorrow too. It's a gathering of the state's analytical community and a chance to get together with some of my former co-workers. Peggy was there, and Roy and Karin; three people I was close to at Manchester. I brought Karin by the house to see the back yard and to try out my car, since she's in the market for a new one. Peggy will come by tomorrow. The workshops in the afternoon were interesting, and I picked up some useful bits of information concerning tests we are developing. Karin was the only one from the Ecology side of Manchester to be there, and there weren't many from EPA either. In fact attendance this year was pretty small. There will be a new chair next year and maybe that will help. I hope the focus will change some. The Microbiology section has dominated and Environmental work has really gone down. Listing to three talks on foodborne pathogens right before getting fed in a school cafeteria did not do much for my appetite.

The evening banquet was pleasant and a chance to catch up a bit with Peggy. She and I need to have a long talk tomorrow. She is another who helps me put things in perspective.

I'm pooped. Another long day tomorrow.

catching up, but missing one

DMontgo and I went to the garden show this morning.  Peggy was not able to come, so we didn't have our usual trio. We missed her. I'll see her in a couple of weeks at the AOAC Conference.

It was a gorgeous day for an outdoor garden show. Sunny and warm, but not overly hot. The show wasn't too big, we covered it twice in about three hours. Leonora was there with her husband and in-laws, and John, who designed my garden, was there representing his company. He designed one of the display gardens. He is certainly talented. He was happy to hear I'm pleased with the way his plans turned out. I invited him to come see it now that it's planted out.

I bought some lily bulbs on sale and one cimicifuga Brunette. Those plants were $30 for a 4 in pot when first introduced. I bought mine for $7.50 in a gallon size. It pays to wait.

I still have about 2 hours of daylight. Arthur had to work, so he's napping. I think I will go out and shoot a roll of film with the pinhole camera while I'm waiting for the him and the pizza dough to rise.

hummers!

The hummingbirds are back. I saw one just now in the garden going after the coral bells I planted specifically to attract them. I've planted quite a few things attractive to hummingbirds, so hopefully they will hang around all summer.

Arthur is back too. I've put some of his pictures up in the gallery.

too short a weekend

back to work tomorrow, unfortunately, but at least it's a short week.

I treated myself to breakfast again this morning. Alone this time since Mortimer had stayed the night elsewhere. He showed up around 11:30 and we pretty much spent the day together just hanging around the house. I did get out a bit for a nursery run. I found a couple of good sized tomato plants in varieties I liked and came home and put them in the upside down planter. We'll see how this works.

We spent a good part of the afternoon outside on the patio. We built a nice fire in the firepit. ZB dropped by and we sat peacefully chatting till Mortimer tossed some firecrackers into the fire and sent us diving for cover.

The rest of the evening was very pleasant. I settled down to work on my Safety stuff while Mortimer did some work on the computer. Quietly, no excitement or drama. It can happen. He told me today he's been accepted into a community college, which pleases me no end. He's going after a degree in business. Halleluja.

I missed Arthur's call today. He's out of cell range. He did leave a message that he's enjoying the hot springs. He was out in the buff with snow coming down around him. Wish I was there.

rested and mostly functional

I slept well and long enough last night.

Cell just rang. Mrtimer calling to say he is coming by to talk to me. This could be good or bad.

I'm sitting here in the front room with two sleepy bunnies. Siegfried is in meatloaf position, but Hermione is flat out sprawled on her side and ready to sleep. She is enjoying the peace and quiet.

Yesterday was the annual spring Master Gardener's plant sale. A number of local nurseries come together, with part of the proceeds benefitting the Master Gardener's foundation. I was there maybe an hour and a half, mostly visiting. My friend Keith was there with his son Michael, who I hadn't seen since he was about 6 months old. He's now almost four. I've seen Keith once or twice in that time, mostly we keep in touch by email. We had a good chat. I didn't buy too many plants, but I found some choice ones at very good prices. There were some unusual ones I had in my garden long ago before the great sewer disaster and had not been able to replace.

I picked up Panda and we set to work in my garden. I taught her what a weed was and let her go at it. She only took out half of one good plant, which is not bad. I've done worse. While she was weeding, I put in the plants I bought in the morning. Mortimer and ZB were there when we arrived, eating pizza on the patio, but they dissappeared before long to get some sleep. They had been at a nightclub all night.

When we were done, we rousted out ZB (Mortimer was not budging), and we headed off to Renton for the spaghetti feed. The person who was supposed to unlock the church for us didn't show up prompting some panic and frantic phone calls. We got in an hour later than we should have and I couldn't start cooking until it was time for the doors to open. Fortunately I had done some prep work before hand so I was able to get started quickly. Still, spaghetti sauce takes a while, so we had to rearrange the schedule. By the time we had one speaker and a couple of raffles, it was done and we could eat. It turned out pretty well, all things considered. Spaghetti sauce should cook all day, in my opinion, byt it was acceptable, and there wasn't much in the way of leftovers. The crowd was small but generous, and we took in $350. We got back to my house about 10PM dead on our feet. I stayed up a while to unwind, and finally got to bed about 12:30 and was out like a light.

I overlooked one shrub yesterday, so thats what I'm going to go out and do now. Some laundry and cleaning the pig cages should keep me occupied. I have some safety stuff backed up, maybe I'll tackle that later.

tired is not the word for it

I really want to blog about my day, but it's midnight and I am too tired to function. Briefly, I hit one of the big garden sales this morning, spent the afternoon putting in the plants I bought and teaching Panda how to weed, and spent the evening cooking spaghetti for a WAAC fundraiser.

I will go into details tomorrow. It was a fun but exhausting day.

an ordeal, but worth it

I bought this car today. It's a 2006 Civic Hybrid with just over 1200 miles on it. It was a demo and I got a great deal on it. Mortimer negotiated this for me and it's ending up with him getting a car also. The whole story is rather complicated and it involved him and me spending over four hours at the dealership while everything was worked out.

I absolutely love it. I've wanted a hybrid for some time. This has way more power than I expected. My last regular Civic was rather gutless, but this sure isn't. It's also roomier and more comfortable. It met with Arthur's approval after a pleasant evening excursion.

It rained like hell yesterday. I let Panda off the hook as far as weeding went. We had a Mortimer crisis yesterday, but that seems to be working out ok. He is going through quite a lot. Some of it is of his own making, but most of it is not. Kids from alcoholic homes frequently don't get to be kids. They become saddled with adult responsibilities at way too young an age.