Less Travel means I have a problem

I'm not traveling as much this year for work and it's been a very nice break. However, it has lead to two things happening (1) I see all kinds of things at my house that MUST be changed/fixed/updated/painted (2) My garden is becoming an obsession.


I know this doesn't sound like real problems, but it can be more expensive than traveling let me tell you. Buying paint, paint stripper, driving to El Segundo just to buy one particular plant - the Peony! Trust me it's adding up.



The benefits are blooming in the front yard this year. I have had time to do a full on Grub Worm War and so far I still have plants that are alive. Now if the grasshoppers will just stay away.


I, however, need a 12 step program from buying plants. I am just out of room now in the beds and keep eye balling the grass going "if I take it up 6 more inches out, I can get more flowers planted." This will not go over well with the hubs if I start ripping up the lawn.

Even the little side yard garden in the back is full of plants. I sacrifice the fennel in order to have a good spot for the peony I brought home. Here is the view now and the few bare spots are where I have seeds planted.






I'll end with my French Gray Shallots - I can't wait for them to finish up

Gorilla Gardening

The routine has become that the house cleaning is done on Saturdays and on Sunday's a I attend the holy house of dirt worms and the almighty flower. My husband allowed me to go to the local gigantic home improvement store alone and in his truck. A combination that should be avoided at all costs.

When I returned home, he looked in the bed of the truck and shook his head saying "you just had to go an over-do-it". I explained that he was at a fault for setting up the this paradigm that gave me the freedom to select large flats of annuals at one time.

The flower bed outside our bedroom door was a bit of "hodge-podge", so I decided to redo it in a style similar to the adjoining flower bed. A handful of Gerber daisy, some double inpatients and miniature cup flowers created this easy wild flower look that mimic the other bed.

Now the front of the house received two full flats of marigolds and flame flowers. My idea is to start to integrate the fall colors in so that come October all I'll need to do is drop in some gold and red mums where the current petunias are slowly fading out at to tie it all together. Throw some pumpkins on the steps and a wreath on the door and I'll be ready for those houndling trick or treaters.

I was excited to see lady bugs in the garden yesterday, this means I am attracting the right kind of bugs to the yard. The worms seem happy in their compost bin and they are enjoying the constant supply of fruit and vegetable scraps from the kitchen.

Parking Garge Angst

For the last year my parking place has a stalker. I am a bit of creature of habit and I do appreciate a car with out dings or scratches. I park in the lowest part of the parking garage and had for the longest time the same spot.

I did ate least until the Red Honda with Texas plates showed up. He would get here before me and take my spot. This irked me. Some days we would arrive at the same time and I would take the spot. This dance went on for months. Then the wacko kiddos as the online video company next door started skateboarding in the parking garage. I then moved my spot further out. End spot third row from the wall. Our dear property management went and re-striped my spot out from under me. Another sad day. So I moved to the far back wall where NO ONE EVER PARKED.

Then I moved further away and now I get here a little later than before and MR. Red Honda took that spot too. Flipped me out.

So today I went to lunch with a couple co-workers. One of who also is a "away from everyone" else parker and has seen this saga going on with me and Mr Red Honda. We walk to his car and I notice that Mr. Red Honda has gone to lunch. I instantly moved my car into his spot.

If that Aholeyol keys my car, we are going to throw down.

I did nothing to him, other than want to park far away from him AND EVERYONE else. I did not single him out as he did my friggin parking spot.

Loco Moco Choca Laca

I am finally downloading the pictures from all my trips this year. My poor camera had 200+ photos on the disk. It's taken forever to get everything in the same place after moving.

It seems strange to see the pictures and think this was just from this year, and only so far this year. There are still a few more trips to do. We are planning two vacations between now and the end of year - one to Yellowstone and one to Vancouver. Both will be full of fun and finally some relaxation.

Tonight at dinner we talked about how people do not travel. That some guys that work with my husband have never left the area and they are in their 20 and 30s. To me this is just weird. How can you live in one place all your life and never want to see the rest of the world. There is so much to see, smell, taste and experience. This just boggles my mind that they have no desire for anything different.

For me the world has so much I haven't seen yet that if I am home too long I get out of sorts.

If I can figure out how to post the pictures here on the blog I will - Puerto Rico, Brazil, Seattle, Oregon, and of course the new house.

Worms Scraps Food and the mighty dollar

I am a bit of wanna be gardener. I mean, I spend time playing in the dirt trying to make things grow. Flowers are my preference, but I enjoy consumption item too. Our new house has allowed me to expand from being a "container" gardener to a more of "landscape" gardener. The catalogs of all the odd and unusual plants; will in fact, be my down fall.

I spent 20 minutes this morning watering before I left for work - that was only for what is around the patio. The upkeep will be time consuming. But the payoff of seeing things bloom is priceless.

With all that I want to become in regards to my Armadillo tendencies of burrowing into the zone of dirt and potting soil, I was researching where in our area that we can drop off old paint and found out that our city subsidizes a program to residents to buy compost bins at a very nice discount. I went with the deluxe model. It will arrive in the next two weeks. I hate to pay for compost when I know we throw away the ideal mix of odds and ends that could be decomposed down into some sort of glorious soil elixir.

I strive for glorious blooms at every niche and cranny.

I wait in anticipation for the yellow lilac tree to arrive from the mail order catalog.

A Stanley Thermos full of hot new england dinner

My life is taking all these twists and turns lately. From happily exploring the world through glasses fogged by jet lag in business class business trips to birthing a new house for us to live in.

The craziness continues as I read through other blogs - blogs with a certain culinary flair and wonder if I can tap into my inner betty crocker to to add in my own flair of recipe undertaking.

My lunch today was prepared by my husband. He made New England boiled dinner last night. To me it is kielbasa soup. To him it is comfort. A throw back from being at home. It was combined with corn bread sticks - back in the the little corn molds even. It has fresh corn stripped from a cob left over and new potatos. It's hearty and fills the soul with far off winter feelings and chills.

Pre-Fourth Office Dog

So we got over the whole home buyers remorse - took a knock down drag out but we cleared the air. Today was a new day so to speak. A truce was set to have us both were our "be nice to" hats. I think perhaps we have burned ourselves out on the new home owner ship thing and begun to take out our frustrations on each other. Several people have advised that this is normal. However, my husband is OCD and and I mean every capital letter of that. Our pantry has all the can goods alphabetized and labels forward. It is a bit like sleeping with the enemy but he has good points too - like bringing me coffee in bed every morning.

Today was Dott the four legged wonders first day to work with me since we moved to the new house. She enjoys all the attention she gets from the guys. The world was right for her = the ball was thrown constantly.

Our fourth of July will hopefully be relaxing and finding some sunshine and finish putting the bulbs in the ground.

While the idea of blogging for me is not new, it is hard to see how best to make it a readable space.

I will get wittier I'm sure. Perhaps I will do some flash backs to the past while removing the names of the parties involved. It could become an erotic mess of submissive panderings from a middle aged sex addict but then again it could only be more dog stories...

Home Ownership

After spending 5 years living a cramped apartment we finally bought a house. Yes, in this crazy southern California market, we bought a house. It's a buyers market for sure. He picked this house, I was ok with it. I'm happy with it but I did like one or two of the others we looked at much better. They required less work and had a look and location I liked. He however, liked the one we ended up buying. That is until today. He works hard and long hours. But for the last two days he's been home - alone. I received a text message from him saying "i'm very depressed and unhappy right now" . This cause great concern for me. This is not something I get from him unless I"ve done something wrong. So I call him and he says he's just depressed and sad about the house. That it's not perfect and that he can't turn the TV on and every where he looks he sees things that need to be fixed or changed or something. I can only say that I"m sorry I don't make it better for him only worse. I had hoped with the house that he would be happy or at lease happier with me. But it seems it is not better but worse. I am not equipped to for this. I do not understand this. The house is nice, it's clean and good shape, in a nice neighborhood. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT.