Signs of Spring

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Anyone can spy a danged robin. Like that’s hard. They’ve been bob, bob, bobbing around since Groundhog Day. But there are some real signs of spring:

I mowed the grass for the first time this season. (Boo! But it started on the second try, so there was that.)

The Little Woman mucked about in her garden.

I put the screen back in the screen door rather than the glass.

The “Spring” house flag is on proud display.

My man-gams were on proud display what with me wearing my short-legged trousers.

There was the ceremonial Changing of the Wardrobe for both boys and the Wife. (The summer clothes are out and the old winter clothes are either put away or on their way to Goodwill. All my clothes stay put all year long.)

The last clock was finally found and sprung ahead. (There’s always one, isn’t there?)

I got a good start on my farmer tan.

So spring is here now, people. I think I should grill something.

Hey! And speaking of the garden, someone is trying to renege on the Deal. You don’t do this. The Deal is the Deal and you can’t go back and change the Deal once it’s been dealt. Now can you? Of course not! But someone said if I carved a planting bed out of the front lawn (not the whole thing, but it’s pretty big) I could put a Garden Gnome out. Right in the front yard. With marigolds. In the planting bed I rototilled up.

Now someone’s trying to say the Garden Gnome and marigolds have to stay in the back yard.

Is that fair at all? No, I didn’t think so either.
In other news: If you’re going to have a Kite Festival, you really don’t want to have it on the weekend with no wind. I mean there were professional kite fliers (there are too such a thing) from Chicago (the one in Illinois) and they could hardly get 'em up. (The kites, ya big pervos.)
-Rue.

2

We don’t have spring down here. It’s just dry season or wet season. Alternatively, spring is when we trade in a plague of snowbirds for the usual plagues of cuban tree frogs, mosquitos, prickly heat, and multiple hurricanes.

Actually, there is a time of year that roughly corresponds to spring in SW FLA. We call it brush fire season.

For many folks down here, Spring is only noticed retro-actively. One day in March, everyone says, “Man, it’s hot out there!” and we suddenly realize that spring came and went while we were working.

3

Spring is certainly here in the Pollen Capital of the South! All the cars are covered with yellowy-green dust and the sneezing is pretty loud. Our pollen count on Thursday was almost 5000 so we figure it’s officially here - SPRING! Ah…ah…ahhhhh…Ahhh-CHOOOOO!

I feel better…

4

One of my favourite signs of spring is that the bare twigs on the silver birch trees turn from dull brown to purple - coming alive with the rising sap.

That or the queen wasps coming out of hibernation and flying beligerently into my bathroom while I’m lying in the tub.

5

Mowing…mmm, yes, did that this weekend, too. Had to buy a new mower to do it though, dangit. The old mower just wouldn’t cut it (heh) anymore, even with $40 in repair parts. So, we went to the Blue Oversized Retail Group (BORG - Lowe’s) and picked up a new mower. It’s really spiffy - it’s still a walk-behind, but it self-propels, which is nice, since we moved to Kansas City and our split-level home is settled up on top of a slope and all. Speaking of which, we have a groundhog and moles (the animal kind, not the skin blemish), which we didn’t have in Texas. That darned mole has been plowing tunnels all over the yard. Twenty years ago, I knew what to do about it - a spring-loaded mole trap and snap it’s all over. Can’t do that anymore, but now I don’t know what to do about it. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to learn something else new about living here.

And hey, Rue - that gnome thing, you’re definitely in the right on that deal. As long as your gnome doesn’t decide to run off and drive English tour buses or plug American appliances into European outlets…

6

Road Closed signs
Lot and lots of orange cones

These are the signs of Spring in Upstate NY.

7

Spring is here! It was an unbelievably gorgeous weekend, which I celebrated by eating ungodly amounts of double chocolate ice cream (followed by a long walk to balance things out).

I’m getting a good start on the farmer’s tan, too.

The garden gnome thing sounds like a rip-off. Garden gnomes should go in the front yard, along with your pink flamingoes and concrete deer.

I rent, so I don’t have to mow. :slight_smile:

8

Ah, yes, spring was officially declared this weekend at the Anachi Ranchero. Firstes, Mr. Anachi switched out the pansies in the bed around Baby Oak Tree and replaced them with Marigolds (no gnome). Secundus, The Princess[sup]TM[/sup] and I went to the beach yestidy. I got to wear one of my new bathing costumes and initiated what I hope will be some very fetching bosom tan lines. :smiley: Thirdem, a lucious London Broil was grilled without the necessity of the back porch light. YAY!!

Speakin’ of the beach. We usually head for the National Seashore over near KSC. It was the first time since the “canes” that I’d been over and, WOW, there’s not nearly as much beach as there used to be! It’s amazing what those storms did. There was even some driftwood that apparently used to be somebody’s beach stairs near where we set up. When the tide went out, what used to be a very gradual descent is now nearly a drop-off. This keeps up, me and Mr. Anachi will have beachfront property in the future.

That’s all I got for now.

Tupug

9

We don’t have spring either. We have mud season.

10

This bears repeating. Or pointing out, or something. Anyway, what Booker said.

I haven’t had to mow the lawn yet, and Angel Pants claims she’s going to restock her closets (yes, I meant the plural: I get one, she gets the rest) later this week, and the garden gnome her sister gave her mysteriously disappeared.

I’m ahead of Rue in one respect, though. I started a farmer’s sunburn yesterday.

11

Spring is sprang here, too!

It was eighty-freekin-seven degrees for a short while yestiddy. I liked that, bein’ a summery gal. We celebrated by moving every stick of furniture we own into the basement and garage, so’s we can get that new hardwood floor installed next week. It’s echo-y in here now. Moving the sofas downstairs was fun (mainly because I was supervisin’, not doing any actual moving.) Two of the WryGuy’s buddies came by to help and one was momentarily wedged between the sofa and the stairs like Winnie-The-Pooh.

After I got done laughing, and the guys got done moving stuff, I sent 'em out to the driveway with beer and cigars, adn I came back in to paint and paint and paint and paint. Which I am just taking a short break from right now and will go back to doing after this cigarette.

12

Happy Monday, y’all.

We rent also, and live on the 2nd floor, but we have a lawn. Of sorts. It’s a planter box running the length of the balcony. My girlfriend (who would prefer to be known now as Litha Rose instead of The Factorix) planted a bunch of winter rye in it at the end of last summer. The stuff is starting to die off now, after reaching a length of about 8 inches per blade. The neighbors gotta be looking over at it saying, “Now why the heck did they plant grass in a long flower box?” because I’ve been saying the same thing all winter. It did look nice, though, and it gave the squirrels a nice soft place to play while they were waiting to raid the bird feeder.

But we’re making the balcony hummingbird friendly. I put out a hummingbird feeder (did you know you’re not supposed to use red food coloring in the nectar now? I guess the hummingbirds got a class-action suit going or something to stop it.), and the GF is going to be pulling up all the grass this week and planting stuff that hummingbirds like. I have no idea what that would be, but I’m adamant about this point.

I never considered a gnome to be out there also, but I might push for that now. It just can’t look worse than grass in a flower box all winter.

13

Forget about gardens, birds, weather and the like.

The first true sign of spring is the garage sales sprouting!

14

Yay! Garage sales! That’ll be mostly in May, up here in the Great White North. It was 17C yesterday, which is no-coat weather, and it was very sunny. Sunny again today but a little cooler.

AND THE TTC ISN’T STRIKING! So the buses and subways are running today. I am happy.

As soon as it gets warm, we have construction and RAOD CLOSED signs everywhere. That, plus the dratted Canada geese moving back downtown from the parks where they hang out in the winter. Migrate? Oh, no, not when they can convince stupid tourists to feed them.

15

We moved the wood pile again. I swear we have piled wood on nearly every side of the house now. We just get tired of where it is, and then we move it. There were tons of millipedes and grubs under the wood. So we have to treat for grubs again sigh. The wood is now resting on a couple of landscaping timbers, and looks very nice next to the meter.

I also planted some colorful poppies, and put a little greenhouse full of broccoli seed under my window. We are going to plant corn and sugar snap peas too.

But the real celebration of spring was our wonderful smoker! We cooked three racks of ribs, a chicken, and a brisket. My husband also smoked his homemade barbeque sauce. I wish you guys could taste that sauce, it is soooooo good. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

I put about a pound and a half of brisket, with beans and sauces, in the crock pot and cooked it all night last night. This morning the house was full of sweet bean spicyness smells, and my husband took some to work today. We are going to can what we can’t eat right now, and will have baked beans with ribs for the rest of the week!

I also started a new hobby, which I may write another thread on. Stay tuned!

16

Good Morning All! I’m back! Ok, I was “back” as in back home around 6 PM yesterday but, I’m “back” to the MMP as of right now. I’m also tired. Nothing would do but for me to clean up old puter and then set up new puter last night. I finally got everything done around 11 PM then had to take my tired and still a little bit hungover self to bed.

LifeOnWry is just a big (well, actually she’s kinda smallish) ol’ sweetie pie! It was a lovely evening of pie, beer and a personally guided tour of the greater Shaumburg/Palentine/and maybe a couple other places. It was fun cause while we were driving around we listened to some great music and talked and talked and talked. I did indeed hug the stuffin’ outta her as well as smooched. FCM are you sure I didn’t do a smoochie? I always do smoochies. Well, not to the guys (unless they want me to). But I do always hug, so guys, you will be hugged. I’m a hugger. Huggin’ is good. Anyways, we did find this great bar/restaurant place that had purty people in it. LOW and me just made it that much purtier when we showed up. And she’s right, it’s the eye brow raising thing that makes THE LOOK be THE LOOK. We laughed, we talked, talked and talked. She did have pie with a shovel. It was goooood pie too! At a place that specialized in pie. They also have other stuff, but pie is the biggie. And coffee. We had good pie and coffee. Then I had some Killian’s Red. YUM! After she got me back to my hotel and after more huggin’ and the smooch, I went right up to bed. I was a tired bear but a happy bear. Oh, and guys, LOW is real purty and cute. Y’all woulda been soooooo jealous!

The wedding was fan-tab-u-lous! My niece was so beautiful in her wedding gown being escorted down the aisle by her father and step-father. I thought that was cool that the parents and the step-parents were all included. I got all teary eyed seeing her, even though I had seen her in her wedding dress earlier when they were doing a bunch of picture taking. So, we got em all married up.

After the wedding, there was a cocktail hour or so while the rest of the picture takin’ stuff got done. It was open bar and munchies! Therefore, ol’ swampy proceeded to get a little loaded. Then, there was the eternal receiving line. Ok, it didn’t last for all eternity cause that’d mean I was still there, but still, it went on for about an hour and a half. There was a metric ton of folks there! So, I’m sticking close by my mom, cause I had mom duty. Since she is one of the grandmothers of the bride (she has the requisite two of em), she was in the receiving line. Actually mom and the other grandmother were seated in chairs. I’m sticking beside her to make sure she’s ok and stuff and people start thinking that I was part of the receiving line. That was strange. So, I told mom I was going to wander off a little way away cause that was just too weird.

Then we got to go into the big party. It was dinner, dancing and an open bar. I escort mom in as a part of the doings. The whole entire wedding party got announced. Then the best man (new nephew’s brother) gave an excellent toast. The wedding cake got cut by the bride and groom and the festivities commenced. I was at one of the aunts/uncles/cousins tables. We were a well-mannered yet slightly rowdy bunch, so we were a good mix. Dinner was good. Prime rib. YUM! There were these two DJs who were a hoot! The dancin’ stuff got underway. I cha chaed, line danced, chicken danced, conga danced, slow danced and, did I mention the open bar? At one point in time we did this kinda line dance to “YMCA” which was fun and a little more than a bit strange. Also, we were “square dancing” at some point. Did I mention there was an open bar? Picture taking got done during all this time too. I had pictures made with the lovely bride and groom and myself, my mom, brother and me, mom and me, my niece and me and for some strange reason, one of me being kissed (mauled we called it) by the bridesmaids. Did I mention the open bar? This went on til about one AM. Then I somehow figured out how to get to my room and went to sleep. Yesterday, I had to be on the plane at noon. I managed to get downstairs and checked out and have breakfast with the family. We had our own little private area to eat breakfast together. Then I said my goodbyes and drove to the airport (actually the car rental return place), got checked in and got home. In pain. Lots of pain. Did I mention they had an open bar? A good time was had by all. A large price was paid yesterday and perhaps a bit still this morning. The happy couple is, as we speak, on a plane headed to Hawaii for ten days.
-swampbear (In case I didn’t mention it already, there was an open bar)

17

Alternately, you need really big fans. Really, really, really big fans.

18

I didn’t post in last week’s MMP. I didn’t have anything to say but I got stuff to say about Spring. Every year about this time I decide to try and grow stuff. “Try” being the operative word.

I bought a few new bags of seeds and then also tried some of my old ancient seeds. The only things that sprouted were the corn, cantalope and chamomile (only the “c” plants) which were the new seeds, except for the cantalope seeds which I did not purchase in the form of seeds but in the form of a cantalope. The corn sprouted in about two days time and is already too big for the little greenhouse tray thingy. I wanted to weed a spot in my garden for them yesterday but the boyfriend decided we should see a movie with his mom so that took up most of the day. So I still need to find a place for my little sprouts.

I planted a lot of dill seeds, which were the only other ones I bought new and so far there’s only about 4 sprouts which only just appeared. I love dill but it hates me, it hates me so much it dies rather than give me the satisfaction of seeing it grow. If I buy an already grown plant it takes one look and me and dies a few days later. I only want to love it and cut bits off it to put on my fish and potatoes! sniff So I wouldn’t put any money on those little dill sprouts making it very long.

But corn! My future is in corn! That stuff just has a will to live. Well, probably until I replant it, then it will give up and go the way of the dill. Still, it’s pretty cool to help things grow. Maybe with any luck at all I will be feasting on corn and cantalope a few months from now.

The silly thing about all this corn enthusiasm is I’m really not all that fond of corn on the cob, it gets stuck in my teeth.

19

So, Swampy… did they have an open bar at the reception?

I’m sorry you’re in pain…mebbee a Bloody Mary would help.

It sounds like you had a lot of fun. We went out to dinner on Saturday night w/some friends then came back to our place. We chatted and watched a movie after that. Well, they watched the movie. Apparently, I was a wee bit tired and dropped off to sleep and was SNORING! :eek: :o My friend kept nudging me and telling me I was sleeping and snoring, but I don’t remember that at all. I must have been REALLY, REALLY, REALLY tired to do that.

We started painting the kitchen yesterday, but only got one wall done because the hubby invited people over for dinner. This meant I had to rush to clean up, head to the store for fixin’s, try and straighten the house a wee bit, and cook.
My mother came over to check out the paint job. She doesn’t like it; that much. Her words were, and I quote, “It’s different”. She likes very light colors. I haven’t snapped pictures to get the MPP approval 'cause it ain’t done. We should have the kitchen done by the end of the week, then I’ll purtify everything, take some pics, and find someplace to post them so y’all can see.

It’s spring here too. We’ve already mowed the lawn twice. It needs it again, but we didn’t have time this weekend, what with all the painting and stuff.

20

Painting tomorrow. I’m sure y’all didn’t go help Taters because you were saving up energy to help me. Right?

I’m very excited because I think Bumba’s box of cookies and stuff should arrive this week. Maybe by painting time! Attacks husband is not allowed to hoover up all the gingersnaps the way he did last time. Quasi-Daughter and I will drown him in paint.

I’m trying to figure out what cd burning software we have. Mr. Lissar says we can copy cds, but I don’t know what programs we’ve got to do it with. We have this huge music collection, but all in mp3s. I want to be able to listen to it on the way to work, dammit!