Something weird is happening

…so I am participating in my company’s weight-loss program, and while I’ve lost a bit of poundage — not nearly enough, though — I am becoming more aware of what I am eating and the calorie counts of each item.

Even with cutting out all junk food, I am surprised at how quickly the healthy food calories add up. There is no room for the junk — it’s no wonder I ended up where I am, what with all the stuff I was eating before.

I miss my crispy cheese snacks…

But I have kept away from the box of chocolates sitting in the cube across for me. Not that I didn’t look…but for once, I didn’t mindlessly pop a chocolate truffle or two in my mouth — no, not at the same time!

To get to the weird part — I am eating celery again. And, well, liking it.

I hated celery.

I don’t know what it is about it now… was it because a bunch was going for 79 cents at the store? Am I getting tired of carrots? Is there a rift in the space-time continuum?

Did I just want something crunchy and less calorie-filled?

Something is going on here.

I loves me some asparagus

What is this? The third year since planting Jersey asparagus crowns? I think so.

This is the third mess I cut this season and we are in asparagus heaven!

We have been zapping it in the microwave with a bit of real butter and well, like I said — heaven!

DH would like asparagus soup — so I am off to find a recipe…

A perfect day…

…was happening outside while I was at work.

The vending machine lady told us so.

“Come on, ladies! We are going outside today — it’s beau-ti-ful!”

I wish.

But instead, I did my duty and sat in front of a computer all day, first recounting all the excitement at our house the past few days and then settling down to catch up on a day and a half of work.

…but in the background, there were some wheels whirring in my head, devoted solely to gardening. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone.

So over the noon hour I went home and took a walkabout the yard, making note of a dandelion I missed digging out over the weekend and moaning at how all the violets are taking over the southwest corner — right where the groundcover sedums had thinned out.

Ugh!

I somehow made it through the afternoon back in front of the computer — still not quite caught up — but when 4:30 PM rolled around, I was out the door, in the car, Annie Lennox on summer-time loud, lowered the windows and gracefully hit the open road home.

It makes me sigh how perfect it was to be out decimating those wandering violets.

Poor things. Last year they went way too aggressive in their self-sowing and really exceeded their boundaries.

Two bucketsful later I went on to the next thing on my list: transplant some of the Becky daisy.

I love that Becky daisy. It is the prettiest thing when in full bloom, usually around Father’s Day. The earwigs love her too, so this season I need to read up on some sort of earwig deterrent.

I hadn’t divided the daisy since it was planted five years ago and now it is just growing in a ring around a bare center. It will hide that space once it is fully up — I hope — a daisy comb-over…

I was surprised at how willing it was to give up some of the edges. Being a bit hesitant to overdo it, I only moved a few cuttings to the front yard.

Then finally I dug out some of the grass that sprouted on the wrong side of the edging.

Not knowing when DH would be home, I decided I’d better go in and start the chicken and noodles. He is on a soft diet for three weeks, but he should be able to manage some noodles. I had cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot for Sunday dinner — it came out so tender.

Wish I had homemade noodles — but I can’t make them worth a lick. DH has the knack for that. Hope he doesn’t mind the no-yolks.

The earth quaked…

…so I shuffled some perennials around in the garden: the huskers red penstemon, solidaster Lemore and dragonfly columbine.

All that newly-loosed earth, you know — made the transplanting go easier…

NO NOT REALLY! In fact I wasn’t sure if the columbine wanted to be moved, so stubborn it was to come out of the ground.

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,,,so how’s about that earthquake?

It woke me up somewhat — first I thought it was DH tapping the headboard — after all he’d been though the previous day it’s a wonder he didn’t have some unconscious twitching going on — but no, it wasn’t that.

Then I went down the rest on the possibility list, and thought it was some sort of rain/wind/road noise event — but it was more rhythmic than that — and then I went back to sleep. Whatever it was, I was too tired to investigate further. Wasn’t until later I found out it was an earthquake.

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More on DH’s accident adventure:

He called me while another fellow was driving him to the ER at S_____ — said something like “I’ve been injured, but I’ll live” — and wouldn’t elaborate, so I headed to R-town, imagining just about everything.

<rant mode on>And don’t you know there is always ALWAYS someone else on the road to R-town — the two-laner-with-no-opportunities-to-pass-them — who is just meandering his way through the countryside, not a care in the world. Oh– and he doesn’t have cruise control, so no steady speed limit is being used…45mph…55mph…no wait, 51mph…ARGH!<rant mode off>

Once I got there, there DH sat, first seat in the ER waiting room — blood all over himself and holding gauze against his cheek. I asked him where he was in line and he said they took him back but had to return him to the waiting room because of a gunshot wound being brought in…

Seemed weird to me because the only commotion I was hearing wasn’t coming from the examination rooms around the corner — it was in the waiting room.

<rant #2 on>Why is there always some woman with a loud foul mouth disturbing the rest of the poor people who just want to see a doctor?! She had started out at the receptionist’s desk being unreasonable and difficult and mouthy then made her way to the other end of the room. Security talked to her several times — I would have had her thrown out.<rant #2 off>

We waited and waited. Everyone on our end of the room appeared to be “normal” whereas DH looked awful. I went up to the receptionist and politely asked how much longer, where are we in line…and she just stared at me like I was speaking Croatian or something.

I repeated myself, adding that my DH was looking really bad and was not the best thing for everyone to see in the waiting room — I was thinking with all that blood, for sure there would be a fainter walk in, see that, and hit the deck…

Still nothing. I think the loud-mouthed lady had traumatized her previously or something…

Finally a tech came over and told me someone was in front of him, that he’d be next — if nothing changed.

So we waited some more. A perfect stranger came up and wondered what was going on with DH, why wasn’t he being tended to, why is he sitting there in that condition…a mind-reader I guess!

I told her we were second in line and there didn’t seem to be much to do about it. She waddled over to the receptionist and then back to her seat on the opposite side of the waiting room — and do you know, within ten minutes they brought out a wheelchair and took DH back “to clean him up a bit!”

I’d like to have a pound or two of whatever that angel lady had…!

Anyway — can’t complain about the treatment he received after that. The fellow who worked on him was a physician’s assistant and did a pretty good Hawkeye Pierce impression.

So while it seemed like forever, we were in and out in four hours or so.

DH has an antibiotic to take and is getting along on Tylenol and Tylenol PM. He’s pretty swollen and has a slight abrasion on his cheekbone. He gets his outside stitches removed Tuesday.

And the dentist said although his gums are cut, his teeth seem to be okay. He has a follow up appointment in three weeks.

So I am not sure how this Sunday will go — I may have to “do something different” if DH isn’t up to it all.

An afternoon in the emergency room…

…and eleven stitches (four outside; seven inside his mouth) later, DH has taken his Tylenol with sleep aid and is in bed.

Can’t go into details, but it was an accident. Thank God he is still alive. Tomorrow he sees our dentist to see if any teeth repair needs to be done.

Hoo-boy…another shape of yellow moment.

What I did after work today

The weather was great today: sunny, but not too hot; windy, but not terribly so…perfect to go for a walk.

But I didn’t.

Whirring around in my head all afternoon was how to get rid of the star of bethlehem. Not THE star of Bethlehem, mind you, but this.

And if you read all about this little darling, you’d have some idea why I am frantic to eradicate it from the premises. What the article doesn’t tell you is how difficult it is to dig up those bulbs…

So instead of that walk, I put on the full armor of gardening, which included various gardening weapons…um, tools…plus ball cap and gloves.

Where to begin? Maybe where it all started: by the hollyhocks. I found a clump of the offending weed and started digging around it with a shovel. I went down ten inches or so, carefully flipped over the earth…

No bulbs! Just the grassy leaf parts came up. For crying out loud! How deep do I have to dig?

What the article also didn’t tell you was that if you don’t get every last loving bit of that bulb, it comes back all the more vigorously…

Okay, so I didn’t do so well around the hollyhock bed. Let’s try along the driveway.

That went quite a bit better. Yes, I had to get in around and through the sedum, but seems the bulbs were not down as deep. Worked on that for a while, then decided to see how many excess violets were coming up — might as well thin them out.

So to the front of the house I go…and there is a clump of that star of bethlehem! Just one clump, but it was in the front! If that gets into the yard…I’ll cry. I surely will.

I went at it with my dandelion getter-outter and got it, bulbs and all. Whew!

An hour and a half later I had a bucket of violets and star of bethlehem, and felt somewhat accomplished. Still not done though — that’s the way the garden shovel…shovels.

Wish I could give the old heave ho to…

…the brick steps that lead to our front porch:

In this picture from last summer they don’t look too bad…but the freeze/thaw, rain/snow winter we had has really done a number on the bricks.

The only thing missing from a present-day picture — besides all the pretty flowers — is the yellow caution tape that should be going across the front!

The center section has heaved terribly and the mortar has drifted though to form a pile in front of the first steps, which are falling out. The far rail has come apart and is “leaning towards Fisher” as Dad would say.

There is no doubt that the bricks will have to go — and unless I dream up something else, I want concrete steps instead. But what I’d like in addition to that is a porch clear across the front — no wider than what we have now, but one that would go from one end to the other, with steps out by the driveway…and if DH gets his druthers, he would put a door where the front sunroom window is — see?– way to the left.

A compromise would be a porch just halfway across to the driveway — not too sure what that would look like.

I don’t know why I do this to myself. The steps need to be done — but the family room has to come before the porch idea ever goes anywhere.

So while I was mulling this over, I took a turn around the house and saw where I have a wild pansy blooming! Also to my great surprise — my peony is just barely making an appearance!

That’s my farmer boy

Last year we were just embarking on an extended journey through DH’s shoulder/knee surgery and resulting physical therapy.

So for all the growing season I was in charge of the vegetable garden: asparagus, zucchini, tomatoes & rhubarb. I did all the weeding and transplanting in the flower beds. And I push mowed nearly every week. Come fall I didn’t have it in me to do all the clean off — so I didn’t do a lot.

Saturday was the day for me to finally have at it, rake and all — but instead I went to R-town and furniture shopped with H — who now has a decent bed set and a steal of a cricket chair.

When I came home in the afternoon I didn’t really have it in me to have at it, rake and all, any more.

Pulling into the garage, there sat DH — still in his work clothes (he worked Saturday morning) — right outside the door.

Schwetin’ big time.

He had done ALL the raking, several bags full — leaving me to cut down the remains of the goldenrod “Fireworks” and the prairie grass clumps today and spread the Preen around.

What a guy! Thanks, hon!!!

Flowers waking up so far: lamium, hollyhocks, coral bells, ground cover sedums, autumn joy and fire sedums, Walker’s Low nepeta — and that dratted star of bethlehem! Anyone out there with tips on eradicating that dreadful menace? It is doing its best to take over…gah!!!

I can’t help myself half the time…

One day this week I was very much in a hurry to get dressed, out the door and jet into work.

I picked up a pair of brown leather shoes — and was immediately dismayed at their condition. They were my favorite slip-ons — and it looked like something dented the toe of the right one and wore the finish clean off.

I put them on and sighed.

Golly — look at that toe! What am I going to do about that?

I came home in the evening, changed shoes, warmed up my Sansa mp3 player and went for a walk — got through nearly all of Annie Lennoxes’ Diva. Now that was one walk for sure!

Getting ready for bed I looked again at my sad brown shoes…and completely was aghast!

WAIT A MINUTE! Weren’t these the shoes I retired to strictly garden work last summer!?!

Yes.

And I WORE THEM TO WORK???!!!!

Yes…wait a minute…

You changed to your black flats, remember? You noticed with great sentimentality that they had Trixie’s puppy teeth marks on the heel…good-grief-that-makes-them-HOW OLD?!

I really needs me some new shoes…and better lighting in the bedroom.