Signs of Spring

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Rue, sounds like you’re getting an unfair deal with the gnome thing. I’d insist on the gnome, and also perhaps an attractive fireplug. No, don’t thank me, thank my neighbors up the street.

Signs of spring here: itchy eyes, itchy throat, occasional sneezing. So I’ve loaded up on antihistamines and: weeded the garden at church, weeded my own garden, planted some sweet allyssum (one of the first smells of spring in my garden) and little violas in front of the house, cleaned up in the backyard.

Also, yesterday, I watched the hostas grow. OK, I didn’t stare them down whole time, but when I started working they were barely peeking out of the dirt and when I finished you could see them quite clearly. They grew about an inch in the 3 or 4 hours I spent out there. Also, the buds on my crabapples went from green to pink.

Long day at work…rest of the week is NOT promising.

So swampy, did you mean to say that you enjoyed the open bar? Because you didn’t make that very clear.

GT

62

scout1222, when come back bring 99 cent shrimp cocktail!

63

I’ve got a gazillion hostas coming up - I think that was the only thing the previous owner liked to propagate. But she only had 2 varieties. I also have a huge bed of iris - waaaaaaaay the heck out in the back end of the yard, barely visible from the house. I have no idea why they planted way out there. After I see what colors I have, I’ll move them to where I can enjoy them. Plus my mom wants some.

I planted sunflowers and coneflowers today. The sunflowers were seedlings. The coneflowers were seeds. We’ll see how it goes.

64

Oooh, shiny! You can never have too many anvils!

65

I know it’s spring in Orygun ‘cause my blue jay is back. Every year he and his girlfriend take up residence in our neighborhood. I know it’s him ‘cause he is seemingly fascinated with me and my lawn mower. Whenever I get it out he comes over and perches as close as he dares, usually about 6 feet away, and watches intently as I check the oil and gas. Then, when I start it up, he flies up into a nearby tree and talks to me the whole time I mow the front yard. I think it has something to do with his little birdie stomach. (Doesn’t everything?) He isn’t so much interested in the back yard, though.

Let me tell you a couple of things I did this weekend so you can maybe understand what my life is really like. Last night I decided to go to the store and get a Sunday paper and some low-carb ice cream. So I put on my pants and toodle over to the store, and they’re out of newspapers. O-kay. So I get the ice cream and head back towards home, in the pouring rain, I might add, and I see that the paper box on the street has papers in it. So I quickly pull over in front of the shop and run in and get some quarters. Then I take my life in my hands and scoot across the road (hwy 99) to the paper box, in the rain. Did I mention that it was raining? I put my quarters in and pull the handle. Nothing! The box won’t open, and it won’t give me back my 6 quarters either. So I got soaking wet, and spent $1.50, and didn’t get a paper. But we had ice cream, so there was that. Anyway, that’s the way my life is, nothing can ever be easy.

The other thing I want to tell you is about my front door on the house. Our house is ~110 years old. They aren’t real sure ‘cause the records are iffy. It was built in 1895 or 1897, take yer pick. Anyway, the front door to our house is the original door, with the original mortise lock. Last week the door bolt thingie stopped springing out and the door wouldn’t stay shut unless we locked it. So yesterday I finally had some time and I took the mortise lock out of the door, and sure enough it had a broken spring. But of course it wasn’t a regular old springy spring sorta spring, it was a piece of spring steel about 2 inches long that looked kinda like a flat swizzle stick. So I got out my big ol’ jar of springs. (of course I have a big ol’ jar of springs, doesn’t everybody?) and looked in there. No luck. I had dozens of springs, but not one that would fit, and not one that I could make work in some other way either. So I started looking through all my miscellaneous junk in the garage for a piece of spring steel, or something, that would fit. Finally I found some old jig saw blades and a little light went off in my head. No, I didn’t have a stroke, I had an idea. So I ground a jig saw blade down to the right size and levered it into the lock in the right place and stuck it all back together and it’s working, for now. nothing can ever be easy.

Oh, and I discovered my new router is burned out. :rolleyes:

I wish Murphy would go live with somebody else for a while.

It also occured to me yesterday that ever since I had dinner with earthpuppy she has disappeared.
:eek:

I hope Swampy and the Seattleites won’t come to any harm after I meet up with them next month.

Oh, and hi to all the newbies who posted this week.

66

Wow. It’s been busy here today.
Quasi-Daughter is discussing moving furniture and we’re getting ready to paint.

67

I have a question for alla you spring-y garden-type peoples: what do I plant in a virgin yard that the deer won’t eat? Right now we’ve got a lovely swath of sand – it came with the new house and we didn’t even have to pay extra for it! – but we’re thinking that maybe a bit of color, and an herb or two, and maybe some lawn stuff might be a good idea.

So folks say “no hosta, that’s a buffet dinner for deer” – but what choices are left?

68

Daffodils, but you don’t plant them until fall. Don’t plant tulips, though. The deer think they are salad bar.

69

I don’t know nothin’ 'bout no deer, dear. Sorry.

Man, am I ever tired. I went out to see my niece’s dance recital tonight and then got dragged out by my Mom for dinner (I had breakfast.) This was after painting all day and futzing around with this neat-o cool window treatment thing for (I kid you not) three hours. It’s four giant window clings, really, but it looks like gorgeous etched glass. First I couldn’t get them even, then I couldn’t get them straight, then I sort of peeled off some of the fresh paint that I would have sworn was dry, but wasn’t, then I had to get the paint off the window clingies things and try again. I FINALLY got them on right, trimmed the excess film and touched up the paint. Then the dancing thing, although at least I got to sit down for that.

Tomorrow, I take FIL to the doctor then hopefully come back and do more painting. Wheeeee.

70

Hi ems! You posted that one time to say you don’t post to the MMP, and now you actually posted something posty. One more time and we own your soul! Bwa! Hahahahaha!.. I mean, you’ll officially be a Cool Kid™ and we’ll expect you to post every week.

Deer won’t eat marigolds quilter. Or is that rabbits? That’s right! Deer don’t eat rabbits. You should plant rabbits in your yard. I’m sure that would be pretty.

71

You only say that because you’ve never seen Wayne Newton put on a show.

When you’re eighty years old and he’s headlining the Galileo Hilton on one of the moons of Saturn, you’re gonna kick yerself for not seeing him when you could.

72

I forgot to tell y’all that LifeOnWry now knows ACBG’s for real name. Envy her! I know I’ve told y’all that he’s kind of a Luddite when it comes to puters. He thinks the idea of meeting folks you’ve been carryin’ on with on a message board face to face is weird and possibly unsafe. I explained to him that meeting Dopers, especially MMPers is completely different and perfectly normal. His response was, “If you’re doing it it can’t be normal.” The man knows me too well, I tell ya! Anyways, he’s been reading some of the stuff we carry on about and crackin’ up over it, so we might just convert him yet.

Oh, and I prouldy carry the banner of “Cheap Date.” It’s such an honor!

I need to clear up one thing, especially since gardentraveler seems a bit confused over it. There was an open bar at my niece’s wedding. I had fifteen one dollar bills in my pants pocket at the start of the evening. Every time I got a beer I gave the bar tender a dollar tip (He liked me!). When I got to my hotel room later on, I had one dollar left. I think I really enjoyed the open bar. Oh, and my niece’s evil cousin on her mother’s side drug me into the hotel bar a few times and was buying shots of Jagermeister (or however it’s spelled). I mean, since she so generously bought em, I just had to drink 'em right? It would have been so rude not to, right? I think I’m finally over it all this morning.

Oh yeah, one other thing. Words of wisdom. Apparently it is not a good idea to call one’s significant other at 1:30 AM while completely plastered, even if it’s just to say “I love you and goodnignt.” Further it is an even worse idea when it happens to be 2:30 AM where the significant other is. I gotta be really, really good for a long, long, long, long, long time now. But it was worth it. :smiley:

73

Another sign of spring: my order for my graduation announcements came yesterday. They were delivered with misprinted address labels (partly my fault because the order was submitted with the error, but then the CS rep refused to fix it when I saw what I did), and the announcements were for a completely different person.

I intend to extract a pound of ass from somebody today.

I shoulda printed them myself.

74

I am terrified, yet strangely turned on, by this statement. Go get 'em VunderBob!

75

What happened to the real MMP? Rue talked about Spring, and here, two pages in, people are still talking about Spring!

Must be, 'cause it’s Spring.

76

fcm, do they have chiggers up your way? That’s what it sounds like but I sure hope not. Nasty little buggers!

ems, what part of Wyo are you at? I lived briefly in Jackson. But I knew it really wasn’t for me when the Klingon and I arrived in town during a snow storm…IN FREAKIN’ MAY!!! It’s beautiful. The people are the best. But give me sea-level Flawduh…bugs and all.

So, swampster, you’re admitting you’re *in luuuurrrvvvee * now? Awwwwwwwwwwww!!! :slight_smile:

77

I snorted coffee when I read this, and was coughing so hard my cube neighbor came over to make sure I was all right. (I know, I know; I should know better than try to drink anything and read the MMP.)

Planting rabbits. XD

Are you certain you want to mention this? I mean, maybe we hadn’t noticed or at least hadn’t made that connection, and here you are pointing it out. If it were me, I’d keep my mouth shut, but it’s too late now. You may want to think about taking the fifth, or calling a lawyer or something at this point. :wink:
And Swampy, I know you’re a big boy and can handle your liquor, but you might want to stay away from that Jagermeister. That’s nasty stuff. I once saw a big man go from sober to slurring-his-words, unsteady-on-his-feet drunk on three shots of that stuff.

78

Bwahahahahaha! I’m just glad I had not taken a sip of my scalding hot coffee when I read this because that would have hurt coming out of my nose.
By the way, if it’s sand you can plant a Zen garden and no need to worry about deer eating anything in it.

79

AHA! Found what I was trying to think of! quilter: go here. This is a list of deer resistant plants sold by Spring Hill Nurseries.

They do mail order, and I have had wonderful experiences with the company - most of their plants arrive nicely packed in pots, all green and happy and ready to plop into the ground (although some of the plants they sell do come as root bits) and I’ve had nothing but success with them. In fact, I somehow managed to kill a couple achillea and I called them and they replaced them free! If you dont’ want to buy from them, at least you’ll have an idea of what to look for to fend off the deer.

80

Aaahhh, now I feel better. I came in early and was reading the MPP and thought to myself, “You need some GO juice now”, so I hied myself down to the coffee stand and got a quad shot americano, no room. Now, I can fully wake up; at least for a couple of hours.

I don’t know anything about deer resistant plants, so can’t help anybody there.

We didn’t paint last night. I think we were both too tired from working all day. We had leftover sgetti and meatballs for din-din last night. I think we’ll manage to squeeze one more night out of the sgetti, then we’ll have to eat something else.

We plan on painting tonight, we’ll see how much we actually get done.

Well, I need to check my work e-mail and be all productive and stuff now…