That was a great OP. MahnaMahna you’re handling that a lot better than I would. My partner did that accidentally once and I had to spend an hour sifting through dirt to find the small ones.
This has been such a warm winter that spring has already gotten here. The acacias and redbuds are flowering, bulbs are pushing up everywhere, vinca is starting to bloom and buds are swelling on all of my fruit trees. With any luck I’ll have at least 200 bulbs this year. My garden is spread out over about an acre and it’s a lot of work but it’s my favorite thing to do. Now if the bees would just show up before the fruit trees fully bloom we’ll have bushels full of fruit.
Morning. Good weekend here. We got up into the mid-40s (F… looks like that’s 4 degrees C) on Saturday, which was the first time above freezing in 34 days. It felt really nice, but the downside is if we’d stayed below freezing on Saturday it would have set a record as the only January where we never made it above freezing. Oh well. I don’t think a shot at a record outweighed the enjoyment of a nice, sunny, comparatively warm day.
We went snowshoeing in the morning before it got really warm. (Snowshoeing is best done when it’s ~20. Above that it actually gets too warm for physical exertion in the snow!) Then I went to the blood center and donated. And got my gallon pin! Woo! Now I’m caught up to KT too. Then I went and got a mani/pedi to celebrate. Of course, it’s already coming off my fingernails, but my toenails look great.
Sunday we needed to pick up spices at Penzey’s, and there’s one near-ish to the zoo so we decided to make a day of it and went to the zoo. It was a decent day to be outside, and the animals were pretty active which is fun to see. The brown/grizzly bears were in their den but partially awake and nuzzling each other and licking each other’s noses. Very cute for such big non-cute animals.
There’s also a new knitting store right near Penzey’s so we had to stop in. And even though I don’t need yarn at all, I walked out with two skeins of a gorgeous deep lavender chunky alpaca. I’m gonna make myself an alpaca scarf. I did finish the Noro striped scarf for myself over the weekend and am wearing it today. It’s really too bright and colorful for me though. I’m thinking I may give it away but I’m not sure who I’d give it to. Oh well. It is beautiful; I’m just not a bright and stripe-y sort of person.
Oh yeah there was a topic in the OP that I probably should comment on, huh? I like winter so February’s ok with me. I hope we get more snow. The warm weather’s taking away some of the snow we’ve got and making the rest wet and yucky. We need new snow for snowshoeing! When it does get nicer, I have a bunch of bulbs planted in the big raised beds that KT made last fall. They should be really pretty.
I’d probably have done that except a) they were running a new gas line, so the holes were several feet deep, b) there was no telling when and where the bastards would decide to dig the next hole (including on top of an old one) and c) I was way more worried about the shrubs they dug up and left sitting above-ground overnight in sub-zero temperatures.
There are no words for how pissed off I was. Photos have been taken and are archived for future claims against the contractor, in the event that my shrubs don’t wake up this spring.
Evening all. Nice OP Smartie - spring is kind of here for us. We had a sudden upward temperature shift from Friday to Saturday so the electric radiators have been packed away for another year, although the long-sleeved shirts still come in handy of an evening!
Nothing else to report, except an explanation from hubby as to why MIL is such a clueless mother-of-five. Apparently she had very little to do with raising any of her kids - that was all handled by her mother and the housemaid. To be perfectly frank, I wouldn’t be surprised if the lazy beeyotch had used a wetnurse!
Thanks guys! I didn’t include my biggest peeve about February because it’s personal–my sister and I were born on Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays, respectively. Therefore, when we were growing up we always had the day off and it was the coolest thing ever. Then fucking NIXON came along and elided our two special days into one stupid “President’s Day” and switched it to be always on Monday–for that alone may he burn another ten thousand years in hell…
Clear and cold and frosty this morning–hovering right around 29F at the moment. I really need to get out today, gas up the truck, pick up some library holds and get some gooshy fud for the cats–they’ve been looking speculatively at us and I fear they’re beginning to understand we’re made of meat. :eek:
All you guys who live where it’s warm in February can lick my Balzac, BTW! I’m freezing my ass off here… I must admit, though, that it’s nice to live in a climate which experiences all four seasons. When I lived in Cali we had cold fog followed by hot and dry. That ain’t no way to live!
I’m SO looking forward to spring, and all this weird clear weather is making it worse. It’s barely rained at all in the past couple weeks, just freaky!
Time to go feed the goggies before THEY start eyeballling my rump roast!
On Saturday, the last of the W2s, 1099-INTs, 1098s and even a tattered 1099-G wandered in, so I was able to do the taxes.
TurboTax needs to update itself a bit - it’s unable to comprehend two real individual Federal returns, a pro-forma joint Federal return and a real joint California return. They offered to sell me actual software or to set up a new joint ID online. As if taxes aren’t confusing enough!
I did some poking around, and found that we don’t need the dummy Fed return if we file joint with the state, don’t need software, and if we used “Cal File” didn’t even need to pay for filing the state return. All I had to do was add up a couple lines from our respective Fed Schedule As and before I knew it, I was done.
If you use TurboTax, watch out for a near-scam - they charge an extra $30 for the privilege of being able to pay the $30 filing charge out of your refund. I almost clicked GO but stopped when I saw that I was about to approve $60. Back up a few screens to the page to pay be credit card, and then it drops back to $30.
After being out of work so long last year, DH’s bracket was so low that it was useless to allot any of the mortgage interest or property taxes to his return. On my side, I’d adjusted paycheck witholdings to take less out each check, so overall the good news was that we didn’t owe anything. The bad news is that we’re not getting much back, but in reality, it is supposed to be a zero-sum game where you get to keep your money throughout the year, rather than getting a big payout of the zero-percent interest loan you gave the government.
ETA: “Feed the goggies?” I’ve been seeing “goggies” as an apparent synonym for “dogs” - where did this come from? At first I was mis-reading as “goggles” and thinking that it makes no sense to feed protective eyewear.
Hey everybody. Yeah, I’m still around, I just haven’t had anything to say. =^.^=
I’m managing at college. I need to stop procrastinating so much, but I’m getting everything done in time so I guess it’s all right. My room no longer looks like a disaster area. Now it just looks messy. That’s an improvement, right?
I’m having food problems. Eating’s just such a pain in the ass. Honestly the cafeteria kinda sucks and since there’s four people with their own food, our fridge is just a giant pile of STUFF and I can’t find anything. I need to go get groceries because I’m almost out of some of my essentials (cheese, Ovaltine).
I think I’m getting sick and I don’t want to go to to the clinic to get antibiotics. I’m hoping I can treat it myself, but if it gets worse I guess I’ll have to miss work or school and hang out there for an hour or so. (The clinic is great - relatively very fast, nice, and cheap, but I don’t want to go… /whine)
I’m hoping I did alright on my photography homework. It’s supposed to be landscapes, but I’m not much for scenery - I tend to notice the small details instead. I think I’ve got enough things that can pass as.
I need to finish organizing my computer so I can find the files I want. And for font purposes. It looks like I’m going to be getting my webcomic started again for reals.
Well, it’s Monday, it’s February, and I’ve had a stiff neck all day. Yep, that fits.
I’ve got 2 bags of bulbs that I never got around to planting. They’ve been out in the frozenness. I guess I’ve got $30 worth of garbage. Oh well, maybe next year I’ll be able to get some yard work done.
Sorry - nothing more exciting to share. Just livin’ for Firday…
Why oh why does my boss wait until 4:30pm to hand me some urgent work? Aaaaaargh.
However, it’s all done now and I’m going home to take care of a very grumpy Boy, who ended up staying home today with a bad case of the flu. I’m sure he’s feeling a little better after spending the better part of the day snuggled up in a blanket playing XBox, but I still feel guilty for not being home on time to coddle him.
Fingers crossed on the job situation, mousie. Hope they call for an interview real soon.
I can’t wait until it gets warmer, so I can plant flowers ar work. They all think I’m nuts, but I love it. Gardening is one of the few times I don’t mind getting dirty.
Howdy Y’all! Two down and three to go. It’s all gloomy and ick outside. Been drizzly and dreary most of the day. I haven’t found out yet but Ima guess General Beauregard Lee the groundhog at Stone Mountain did not see his shadow. Like I said in the feud. It’s all hogwash, tripe and fiddlefaddle anyways. Groundhogs ain’t meteorologists.
I mow and I manage to keep the shrubbery mostly cut back and lookin’ decent. That’s gardenin’ to me. Ok, I will edge and weedwhack too.
I’m offering the opportunity for you to help in my garden, too, Mudshark. I love playing in the garden, but always have more to do than I can actually get to. I’m happy my niece and nephew are getting big enough that they could possibly help out some.
Fingers crossed on the job opportunity, mousie.
I’ve stabbed at ice on the walk and cleared about 2/3 of it. Not sure if I can do more tonight; my elbows didn’t really care for this exercise. I suspect I’ll be spreading more ice melt in the morning and hoping that it thins out the ice enough for me to get rid of it tomorrow night.
I’ve had tonight’s exciting dinner, part 1: crackers with cheddar-horseradish spread. Yum. Need fruit or veg to go on the side. Maybe an orange?
Off to figure out what else I’m doing this evening. Maybe more paperwork clean-up and filing. Exciting, what?
It was warm outside, but chilly inside work today. I think I’m gonna start referring to my store as “Ice Station Zebra”. Hockey is late tonight, I think I’ll Hulu for bit.
Neat OP, Smarite. I was born in February, and I like cold weather.
All I get to do is the flowers at work, When I lived at home, my father was against anything that wasn’t a lilac or rhododendron. Not that there is anythig wrong with them, I love them both, he just didn’t like “flowers” very much. Now that I’m in an apartment I pretty much have to stick with houseplants. I’ve been thinking of growing some red peppers in a pot near the back of the apartment. The landlord doesn’t care, as long as no one complains.
Hey! Wanna see where I used to live?? We lived in that house from 1990-97, and sold it for $125K. We did the kitchen remodel, but instead of the fruit wallpaper, we had a really cool abstract with bits of black and red.
It’s a really neat property on a spring-fed man-made lake, but the smallest bedroom was only something like 7X9. It was originally built as a vacation home. We were the third owners. Along with the 2 car attached garage, it has a separate single car garage in the front yard.
It was a lot of work to care for that property, but I really miss it. Except that it’s in Florida… I don’t miss Florida.
And I just finished making some sea sponges and a small anemone. Tomorrow, I’ll attach all the pieces to the larger base sculpture.
Woo hoo! We just had some BBQ pork, from a “boston butt” for dinner. I cooked it in the crock pot yesterday, my daughter pulled it apart today and we finished it up with a commercial bbq sauce in the oven this afternoon. Oh boy, was it good! And fortunately there are plenty of leftovers, yay!
Good luck on the job, Mousie; fingers crossed and sending good thoughts your way!
Hmm. Nat might be getting over being sick (we’ll find out if he doesn’t, for instance, puke everywhere tonight), but we’ve gone back to frantic 45-minute screaming fits at bedtime.
Sigh.
Tell me again about how I’ll have to drag him out of bed when he’s a teenager?
