Still No Flowers

When Will My Agave Bloom?

Word of the Day

Toastate - To impatiently pop toast, or some other item, up and down in the toaster, thus increasing the likelihood of burning it.


After yoga this morning, since my on again, off again yoga partner for Wednesdays was off once again, I took six paintings over to Micheal's to have them framed. Three of the paintings were done by my Grandfather, T. Square's Dad, and two of the paintings were done by T. Square's Aunt. I think that makes her my Great-Aunt?... One of the paintings, isn't actually a painting at all. It's a black and white photograph that was taken in 1921 and colorized. I think that T-Square told me that the photographer is also one of my relatives....or was. The young man at the desk who was helping me was more than a little intrigued by this colorization process. I, in turn, was intrigued by Micheal's framing software that they use to show customers the end result before the result is actually produced. Wonderful! Micheal's was having an AWESOME sale on framing this week so I took advantage of said sale. Of course, even with the 50% off sale, I ended up spending a LOT of money. *sigh* Happy Birthday to Me! I'm bringing three of the framed artworks back to The Lake with me to hang there. The remaining pieces will find happy homes somewhere here. They'll have to let me know where they'll be most happy after I get them. Eventually, I know that DD Daughter, #1 Son, or Sarge will be happy to own artwork created by members of their own family, but...in the meantime, I plan to enjoy them myself.

After dickering at Micheal's, I went to Famous Footwear to buy myself an actual pair of jogging shoes. The shoes I've been wearing are OK, but they're actually light-weight hiking boots which are better than my MBTs but, yet, probably not the best on my feet for jogging. This new pair of jogging shoes is VERY light-weight. We'll have to see if it makes any difference with my jogging tomorrow morning.

I bumped into my neighbor who shared a landscaper (my recommendation) with me yesterday. She was NOT happy with how they did her yard. Plus, they charged her another $50 because they claimed she had so much yard waste. Since the landscaper that we hired was my pick, I was all apologies. I hate making recommendations for this very reason. She said that it wasn't my fault but still.... I actually wasn't all that happy with the end results of my landscape cleanup either this time. They topped one of my oleander trees. ACK!!!! I won't say anything to HTP but...I was SOOOO unhappy with them for doing this. Plus, we had a lot of winter freezer burn on all our plants and they couldn't remove all the dead leaves without killing the plants. *sigh* Although my yard looks lots better than it did, it still doesn't look up to par and my neighbor and I both ended up picking up yard debris that the landscapers should have seen and taken away. My neighbor is right, when you pay someone to do something you expect them to do what you pay them to do so you don't have to do that something yourself. *sigh* The winterkill wasn't their fault but they should have done a lot better with their clean up. Hopefully, my yard will look better after a nice summer growth period. Of course, I won't be here to witness that until next fall. In the meantime, my poor pygmy date palms are brown, my dwarf oleanders in the back are mainly brown, my red oleander tree was topped, ACK!, my natal plums have been cut down to the ground but will hopefully recover, same with my lantana and my hibiscus. And...I still think that one of the trees in my front yard is dead along with my rubber tree. *sigh*. Again, I'll have to wait to see if they will recover but I have doubts on those two trees. I also lost a lemon tree and a lime tree in my back yard. Oh well....I still have a grapefruit tree and a tangelo tree back there.

Random Quote of the Day

There is nothing like the razor sharp tongue of a good friend to cut through the lies we tell ourselves.

Laura Moncur, Merriton, 02-25-09