Friends July 9, 2009

Well today I spent an inordinate amount of time online looking up old friends on Facebook. It was fun and sad all at the same time. I found two profiles for old friends who I know have died in the last couple of years and seeing their faces hurt. I found friends who I have thought of often in the past ten years since I moved to Missouri. It was kind of strange puting the faces that I remember so well together with the people they have grown into. I can’t help but wonder if after all this time they even remember me but I guess…. theres nothing I can do if they don’t, right? That Kenney Chesney song “Who you’d be today” is playing and it kinda fits. I wonder who they are today- these people who I grew up with so many years ago.

In other random news Jarell and I were talking last night because I wanted to see about getting some sweet corn to plant. He asked me where people used to get seeds for corn before there stores. I explained that farmers would just save a few ears from the previous year’s crop and let them dry. He looked at me and said, “You mean every one of those kernels makes a whole stock of corn??” I laughed and said, “Yeah didn’t you know those were the seeds? Just like almonds and walnuts are seeds.” He then replies, “So you could grow an almond plant?” and then the conversation moved on to other garden dreams. I had to laugh because I now know my husband will probably never be a gardener. He cracks me up sometimes….

Busy! I’m so busy my head is spinnin like a whirlpool it never ends… July 8, 2009

Silly Melissa thats not how it goes! Oh alright maybe not but it fits. Okay so the business is self-imposed but thats alright. I have been working outside in the garden every day and it feels so nice to be keeping up with things. Sadly this means that my housework is suffering and that bothers my poor husband more than it does me. I actually had to make myself stay inside and do dishes today instead of going out to the garden to see a new baby zucchini growing on one of my plants. The conversation (out loud of course) went something like this. “Melissa that will still be there when you’re done with the dishes. Get in the kitchen now!” Why yes, I do talk  to myself. Is that a problem? Sadly I still don’t have any pictures from the garden to show you because my camera is still dead. So I won’t bore you with glowing descriptions of my babies. I will tell you that I have had fun chopping nasty squash bugs in half with my clippers today while I trimmed the leaves they had killed off my zucchini plants. I also got to see the end of my first okra blossom and noticed new bell peppers coming on. Now I need to figure out what I can plant in July that will be ready to harvest before our first frost and I think I might be able to swing some sweet corn. Which would be…. sweeeeet! *grins* I couldn’t resist that one. Alright I know enough about the garden already. Hope all is well everyone. Au revoir!

Things that are bad gardening form July 7, 2009

First let me say that I was a bad girl and didn’t post yesterday, but in my defense I spent the whole day trying to make my internet work because it was misbehaving. Today? works just fine of course. So it was probably a problem on T-Mobile’s end of things rather than mine.

So that said lets get down to business. Today I want to talk about things that are just plain bad form when it comes to gardening or rather bad form for me. *grins* Planting something and then promptly pulling it all out as a weed? bad form. Planting something and then forgetting that you did so that you’re very surprised when something starts growing where there “should” be only weeds and dirt? bad form. Planting something and forgetting what plant it is to the point where you have to go online to find pictures to clarify just exactly what it is? bad for. And finally for the grand prize winner of no brainer bonehead garden mistakes- taking a weedeater to your beautiful kiwi vine that was all but killed last summer but miraculously came back this year stronger than ever and chopping off the largest section of vine? Really bad form. So which ones did I do? All of the above obviously. The plants that got weeded were pepper plants in my first full size garden when I was in High School. The mystery plant that was growing where nothing should be is Miner’s lettuce and I’ve already missed out on it this year- I’ll have to wait till next year or grow some more here in a few more weeks for a fall harvest. The plant that is unknown is endive *phew!* The kiwi will survive, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I keep setting myself back on getting fruit from that plant. Fingers crossed for next year or the year after that.

Now just so you know I’m not the worst gardener in the world, I picked my first two zucchini today, have several baby tomatoes, a couple of baby bell peppers and some Lazarus trees to boot. Lazarus trees you say, What the heck is that? Well they are trees that were dead but now they’re alive again and going strong. Trees that came from J4’s back yard that went through our heat spell without water because I was at the family reunion. One of the three got dug up and replaced already which I’m now regretting because the other two are putting on leaves like crazy despite our warm temps here.

So I’m not a total failure and I have more wins than losses here in the Casa de Sisk. But if you’ve ever gardened then you know there are lots of ways to make a fool out of yourself without even half trying aren’t there? What are some of your gardening mishaps? (she says as if anyone is out there even listening

Michelin Man costume? July 5, 2009

This is my SIL in her Renaissance Festival costume. See Dana? Its like the Michelin Man’s arms. But she looks so pretty anyway- even way outside her comfort zone in all those bright colors. If anyone is in the Kansas City area you should definitely check out the KC Ren Fest starting Labor Day weekend. If you watch you can see my SIL’s and my youngest BIL dressed like this.

Don’t ask why he was strangling J12. J13 is the only twin participating in the ren fest but J12 helped out with the parade because they were short on gypsy boys.

Happy Independence Day July 4, 2009

I just wanted to drop by real fast to say Happy Independence Day.

The dress is almost done and I have proof July 3, 2009

So the pictures are crap because they were taken with my camera. You can’t really see color or texture correctly- sorry about that. But I can now prove that I’m working on this dress. Not sure I like the fabric because its too thin, but its a good run through till I can get some fabric I do like. This dress isn’t quite finished- if you look closely at the armholes you’ll see they kinda gape and are still rough but its mostly done. Done enough certainly for me to decide that I probably won’t wear it (sigh) but if I do finish it, it would be cute and comfy for summer wear. Just too see through till I can get it lined. So see I’m not crazy or a liar. I appologize for the poor quality of the pictures. Aack not to flattering either are they?!

Routine July 3, 2009

Well I was mistaken about the Nablopomo theme for this month. Last month was heroes but this month is routine. Which really works better for me anyway because the only thing I could think of when trying to right about heroes was that song by Enrique Iglesias and then I’d have “I can be your hero baby” running over and over in my head.

To start the month off right I’ll let you in on my routine.

Every morning except weekends I get up when my husband does. I wander into the bathroom to put in my contacts and then its off to the living room to do my workout. If I get it out of the way early I am more likely to do it. Wii Fit is my activity of choice as its a weigh-in and workout all in one altho sometimes I’m not too fond of the machine. When my workout is done I usually veg on the couch to check email and my favorite blogs. That done I shower, eat lunch, and then my routine is pretty uncertain till around 4 when I start to think about dinner. Pretty boring, huh?

I am a talented individual (or why I shouldn’t be allowed to us a weedeater) July 2, 2009

So today I was weedeating our front yard. Trying to do my part to maintain the house and specifically my garden which is a pain for my husband to mow around. I was doing great. And then I started working around the trellis that my brother and I built. All of a sudden my weedeater stopped short with a sickening jolt and as I looked down I saw that it had tried to tangle with the chicken wire and lost. (or is it won? It did get tangled after all) So I sheepishly called Jarell and said something along the lines of I got the weedeater stuck on the chicken wire. I have to give him credit- he didn’t laugh or get mad he just told me where to find some wire cutters if I needed them. I asked him if this had ever happened to him and he said it happened all the time. I felt better until he clarified that when it happened to him it was just tall weeds and never fencing. Oh well, thats life. It did give me something to talk about at least and as you can see I took advantage of my cell phone’s camera to bring you the picture.

I decided to sign up for Nablopomo and soon I’ll find a little linky widgety thing for my blog. I figure if I want readers I should at least have something for them to read, right? Right. So be prepared to have lots of ….. fascinating reading this month. The theme is heroes if I choose to follow it. Today my husband is my hero for saving me from the evil chicken wire. Wait a second, I did that all by myself! Well he’s still my hero anyway!

Ta for now folks!

Happy birthday July 1, 2009

So today is my baby brother’s 18th birthday. I remember the day my mom went to the doctor to take a pregnancy test. I remember even better the night when my little brother made his appearance. At home. An hour or so before the midwife arrived because my mom had had several false labors already and didn’t want her to have to make the long drive to our home for no reason. I remember my other brother wanting a lollipop while there was so much drama going on around him. Clifford has been surrounded by drama ever since.

As a birthday present I wanted to give him something that is a little bit from me and also a little bit from Kevin, my other brother (the middle child). Enter Kevin’s remarkable artistic talent. The picture below is his creation and a rather simple picture compared to some of his amazing work because I needed to be able to change it into a simplified line drawing so I could use it as an embroidery pattern. Slowly but surely I did just that.

Ever so carefully I painstakingly embroidered the frog and his shroom seat onto some plain white fabric to make a patch. The picture below is an in progress shot.

Finally I finished (actually it only took me two or three hours) I sewed it to a plain white t-shirt et voila.

The project was enough to inspire me to buy some more embroidery floss to replenish my dwindling supply. As you can see below I found a nice batch of color and I plan to do some more embroidery from other pictures that my brother has drawn. Who knows where I’ll go with it.

Oh and Clifford, if you’re reading this, you just spoiled  your birthday present surprise….. shame on you

I’m a bad person June 30, 2009

Am I the only person who is happy to see when I’m not the only one who has gained weight? Hehe let me start earlier in that thought. Facebook. You can see all your old friends (and enemies) from school without one on one confrontation. And if they have pictures you can feel a little bit better about yourself when you see you weren’t the only one who gained weight.

I didn’t go to my five year reunion this year and that was at least a quarter of my reason for not going. Oh well.

Thanks so much Dana for sharing your wonderful readers with me today. I read comments and followed all the ones home that I could. Heheh it was fun- kinda like being a stalker…. I mean….. ahem I think I left the oven on at home