Fruits of Our Labors

Because we planted fairly mature plants late in the season, we're already able to harvest some of the produce from them.  Our mint was doing so well that yesterday we took enough to make plenty of mojitos.  Both yesterday evening and this afternoon we sat on our mini-patio and enjoyed the warm weather and the cold alcohol!

Today, we picked a couple of hot peppers to use in a stir fry tomorrow, to which we'll add some of the cilantro that's overrunning its pot.  It's doing so well, in fact, that I'm glad it's one of our favorite cooking herbs.

Outside of culinary uses, I don't have any specific magickal plans for the herbs yet.  I'll probably use the mint for prosperity, travel, and/or happiness, the cilantro I'll most likely use for home protection.  I have no idea what my kitchen witch DH is planning for the stir-fry tomorrow.

TGIF!

IT'S FRIDAY!!!!!  Time for Friday Feast and unlimited time with my DH!  

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Milestones

Kai wore a collar for the first time in his very short life today--A tiny little black thing from Harley Davidson with "Bad to the Bone" written on it.  (And boy, is he living up to it!  But that's another story.)  Tomorrow he walks on leash for the very first time.  We decided he'd better get used to it before this weekend, when he takes his first major outing, as well as his first puppy class.  The outing, on Saturday, is to the grand opening of the new facility of the previously mentioned Dogs In The Park.  The class, "Early Puppyhood Education" by the same, is on Sunday.

Puppy class is so much fun, as much for the people as for the puppies.  It's more for socialization than any any actual learning, so you get to play with and pet lots and lots of puppies, as well as watching them interact with each other.

Can't wait!

A Good Storm

I had the tv on in the background, but wasn't paying attention to it or to anything going on outside when all of a sudden the satellite feed went bonkers.  I thought my tv had fizzled up and died, it was going in and out so erratically.  It was during one of the out phases that I realized I could hear wind and rain outside, and it wasn't my tv but the signal.  Of course, my first thought was "I really hope Kai doesn't wake up and need to go outside right now."  But my second thought was "A GREAT opportunity for today's photo!"

I didn't think I had time to find a plastic bag to put over the camera, so I ran to the front door.  I managed to get a few decent shots hanging out of it, including the one I chose as my photo for the 365 Project (see below).  Not to mention it was cool just enjoying the heavy rain up close.  Of course, I did enjoy it a lot closer when I had to take the puppies out shortly after that--it was the wettest my Gore-Tex had been since I left BC!

Day 13 -- Bejeweled

Sir Kai of Shadowgate

We got the new puppy this weekend!  His call name is Kai, and he's adjusting quite well to life here.  Lance is adjusting well, too (except that he won't let Kai play with any of his toys by himself, that is).  And DH and I are getting there--we'll be much better adjusted in a few days when Kai gets used to his crate and stops crying at two hour intervals through the night.  :)


We were so convinced we were going to get a girl that we had already bought all kinds of pink puppy items--leash, collar, brush, etc.  But when we met this little guy, we fell in love with him, and ended up taking all the pretty pink stuff back for more 'manly' items in black and brown.

Kai

Lance and Kai at Play

Kai being bad!

Happy Litha, Everyone!

Container Gardening Gone Mad

Okay, so we had one herb left after we finished potting them, and one pot that was WAY too big for it, or any of them, really.  No problem.  We'd drop by our favorite nursery, drop off the thin, plastic pots in which they sell plants (since the recycling guys won't take them), and grab another small pot for the feverfew.  Oh, and what about a tomato plant for that big pot?  Again, no problem.

EXCEPT, once we're there, we figure if we're going to get tomato plants, we should get at least a couple of plants.  And what about two varieties of them?  And what about a few pepper plants?  Oh, and look!  They have stevia!  (Only one plant, but they'll be getting more later this week.)  And so on. End result, we now have a small container vegetable garden as well as an herb garden. 

Or we will as soon as we get more pots for them.  :)

My HappyHappyJoyJoy Isn't Your HappyHappyJoyJoy

Did you ever see a movie at a different point in time than your best friend did, and you had totally opposite reactions to it, even though if you'd seen it together you would have agreed on it? 

I just unsubscribed from 1000 Awesome Things.  I originally signed up because the first couple of posts I saw were about issues/things I did consider awesome.  Since then, however, only about 1 in 5 have been about things that actually make me happy.  It's funny how we as human beings can share some feel-good items, and not others.  It's a good thing, because it makes us all individuals, but at the same time it's weird.  Why does one person like blueberries, and another prefers strawberries?  One like blue, another prefer yellow?

Huh.

Wetlands, Wine, and Wednesdays

Wednesdays are a weird but wonderful day for us.  Because of the cost of driving to work, my DH works from home most Wednesdays.  It doesn't seem like it would add up to much, but considering he has to take a long toll-road to work, it really does.  I don't care about the reason, though.  I just enjoy having him home an extra day a week, even if he is working.  :)

The not so wonderful part of Wednesdays is that DH also has TWO weekly evening teleconference calls, one at 8:30 and one at 9:30, lasting a woeful hour each.  This fact does have a whopping silver lining, however:  instead of getting off at 6:30 and getting home at 8:00 or later, he stops working about 5:30 and we have a few wonderful hours before he has to go "back to work."  It gives us a chance to do all kinds of wonderful things that we wouldn't otherwise get to do on weekdays, especially in the winter, when it's dark by the time he gets home the other four days of the week.

What kinds of wonderful things, you ask.  Well, this afternoon we took Lance to the dog park, after which we walked a couple of blocks to the small wetlands behind our house to take our 365 Project photos before coming home to have dinner with a glass of wine. 

Perfectly wonderful.

Light at the End

Too tired.

Sorry, everyone.  I'm way too exhausted tonight to write any kind of real post.  On the plus side, I think I've figured out why I've been so tired lately.  I'm going to the doctor later this week to confirm, but I'm relatively certain I have Lyme Disease, and that I have had it for the past three years.

Herbs, Herbs and More Herbs!

Finally got the herbs I'm planning to plant. Mostly basics, with a couple of more exotic varieties thrown in: chamomile, lavender, tarragon, cilantro (coriander), Vietnamese coriander, oregano, fever few, mint, lemon balm, thyme, and sage. I'm so excited! I'll be planting most of them in containers, so as to take them with us when we (hopefully) move, but I'll still consider it my little herb garden.

Amazing DogTrainers

I have to rave about the wonderful, incredible people we found who taught us how to train puppies. John and Sue Anderson run Dogs In the Park, a dog training facility in Guelph, Ontario. I've mentioned them in passing before, but this afternoon we were once again blown away by how effective their training methods are.

In the space of about an hour, we taught Lance how to behave around a working lawn mower. Up 'til now, we'd left him inside when we mowed the grass, but it made him (and us) unhappy, so we decided to try and teach him to stay away from it. At first we thought we'd teach him to be scared of it, but then we realized that might mean he'd bolt into the street if someone started a mower right next to him. He needed to respect it, not fear it.

We started out by "popcorning" treats until the noise didn't bother him. This didn't take long. Soon enough, he wanted to "play" with Daddy while Daddy mowed. We took care of this by commanding "Leave It", which Lance knows well, every time he got near it, and by feeding him treats when he moved away from it and when he payed no attention to it. Using this dual approach, by the end of the hour or so it took to do the lawn he was unconcernedly sitting about 30 feet away, content to watch the action.

Lance is pretty smart, but he's not that smart. If Don and I hadn't been taught how to teach puppies from a well-respected animal behaviorist (Sue Anderson), it would probably have taken either all summer or all manner of unpleasantness to accomplish this.

Thank you, Dogs in the Park!

365 Pictures

Apparently I just don't have enough stress in my life. :)

I joined the 365 Project today. The idea? To take (and upload) a picture a day for a whole year. A WHOLE YEAR! I think I'm crazy! I've never had that kind of discipline. Never. I'm always the one who quits because she gets bored, or tired, or finds something more interesting, or . . . you get the picture, pardon the pun. But now the whole world (or at least the portion of it who is also a part of the the 365 Project) will know if I slack off! Horrors! Time to reach deep down inside of myself for some reserve of self-control, I suppose.

Why did I do it? Other than insanity, that is? I guess I'm just starved to do something creative. Besides signing up for this today, in the past couple of weeks I've bought more art supplies, looked for a book on how to write poetry, starting drawing design plans for my herb garden, and signed up for an online creativity class. All while ignoring things I really should be doing.

The Goddess is obviously trying to tell me something. I had best listen.

(If you're on the 365 Project also, look for me as CousinLinda.)

iPhone 4

*&^%@#& Apple! Just when I thought I'd be able to stay with one phone long enough to finish my contract's required years, they come up with folders! FOLDERS! (So now maybe I can actually have all my 723 apps on the darn thing!)

Life Lists

I've always found the idea of a life list interesting, but I've always hated the terms "Bucket List" and "Things to Do Before I Die List". They both sound SO depressing. However, I have found a phrase that isn't negative. From Goddess Leonie I found "Things to Do This Life." It was such a wonderful, optimistic thought, it inspired me to start my own right away.

I've got 150+ items on it so far, ranging from the almost done #23 (Create a Vision Board), to the silly #07 (Have a bicycle with streamers on the handlebars), to the unlikely #129 (Canoe down the Amazon). A few of them I'll have done by the end of this year. A few, like #129, I'll only get to do if political climates change so that it's safe to do them. Most of them will take time and/or careful planning.

But it's the dreaming that's important--whether I actually accomplish everything on the list is irrelevant. After all, it's the journey that counts.

Ready for Summer

We moved our 'office' down to the basement yesterday, or at least enough of it to work for the next few months. It's SO much cooler down there, and we think it will save us tons of money on AC costs. We've meant to do it for the last couple of years, and not gotten around to it, but this weekend we decided to just do it. We moved the printer, the external hard drive, my laptop, and a few supplies. As soon as Don gets a docking station from his office for his work laptop, we'll be moving the monitors and keyboard down, too. Of course, for the last few days the weather's been too cool around here to worry about air conditioning. . . :)

Not that I would ever, EVER complain about cool weather, mind you! I spent this afternoon sitting outside reading, needing a jacket, but reluctant to go get one because I was enjoying being cold so much!

Life's Lessons

I was thinking today, "I HATE this house," as I've thought so many times since we weren't able to sell it and I started feeling trapped here. But this time was different. In the past month I've been reminded by two separate teachers, concerning two unrelated issues, that everything comes in its own time, and I really do believe that, even if I forget it occasionally.

So, instead, I started thinking of how much I've learned from this house.

1. I didn't think I needed light, since I like the dark so much, but this house is SO dark that all I want now is glass--casement windows and sash (?) windows and french doors and anything else, so long as it lights up the room naturally.

2. I didn't think I needed fresh air, since it seems I'm always inside with the heat or air conditioning on, but since most of the windows that this house does have don't open, I've found I really miss it, and on the next house I want to be able to open every window in the house up. More like a beach house, even if it is in the middle of Ontario.

3. I never thought I'd miss having a deck/porch/patio, but spending the last 5 years not really able to build one, as I've mentioned previously, I'm dying for one. I plan, on the next house, to spend as much time outdoors as I do indoors, no matter the weather.

4. I really don't like basement ceilings that are lower than the ceilings in the rest of the house.

5. I don't like dark-wood in kitchens as much as I thought I did when we put this one in, although it definitely beats the pink-and-green monstrosity that was here before.

6. Last, but not least, WE DON'T NEED THIS BIG A HOUSE!

All of these things, I would never have known if we hadn't lived here, and some of them I wouldn't have learned if we'd sold the house two years ago.