Computer woes

I have some truly awesome images to share with you of our garden in full bloom, or actually, more like full produce. But we are having technical difficulties with our computer(s). Multiple computers are now not working. We currently have two towers, a monitor, and a keyboard/mouse on our kitchen table trying to get the computer(s) to hook up to the internet. We'll get it resolved. Or we'll go all "Office Space" on our computer(s). Please, please tell me that someone knows what I'm talking about, where they take out the copier into a field and destroy it. We're not quite that frustrated with our computer(s) but it's close sometimes.

Anyhow, since I can't post any pictures, let's paint some pictures with words.

Green leaves growing,
Tomatoes reddening,
Potatoes completely overtaken by pumpkins
Beets just "beet"iful!


I know, I'm a poet, what can I say?
I'm Poet-Laureate of northwestern Illinois! (No, not really)

Ok, what's your favorite Olympic sport?
Mer: Swimming, gymnastics
Matt: Gymnastics, some track and field
Kitties: Greco-Roman wrestling, tumbling (they practice all the time!!!!)

Still more snow

12 inches and counting. It's 2 p.m. here and the snow is going to stop soon.

I hope.

Matt came home for lunch and got stuck in our driveway. Our neighbor and I had to push him out. It's still snowing and blowing. I have never seen so much snow falling all at once. Maybe over a couple of snowfalls but never this much at once.

It's amazing!!!!!!!!

Ode to the Giants and Jane Austen

Or, How two TVs saved the Lee's marriage

Oh for a Sunday night
to relax and prepare for the week
Superbowl between two
and Masterpiece Theater with Jane
Which shall we watch?
I say Superbowl, you say Jane Austen
Which to be????
You stay here, I'll go up there
And watch my Jane Austen in peace
While listening to you and your father cheer
As the Giants beat the Pats
And Jane flirts with men
Hmmm, wonder if Tom Brady ever read any Austen???

As you can tell, we had a slight problem in our house last night. Matt wanted to watch the game and I wanted to watch the next installment of Masterpiece Theater. They're showing all of their Jane Austen works: next week, Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth. Yay!
Anyhow, we worked it out and inbetween witty barbs in sitting rooms holding cups of tea, I heard "Go, go, go! Yes!!!!" and thought that the Giants must be doing something right!!!

In response to Boy's (my brother, just in case you were curious) question regarding gardening, I try to share some tips:

~Plant only what grows in your zone. If you're not certain of your zone, look at a seed catalog. Here we are zone 4/5 depending on the catalog and where the line is drawn.
~I love heirloom plants, particularly tomatoes, but our growing season is about 2-3 weeks shorter than central Indiana and unfortunately, that is just enough that the tomatoes don't have enough time to fully ripen. Pay attention to your first and last frost. I know that they can be at odd times when you live in the Midwest but they still dictate your growing season
~Compost, compost, compost. Mother Nature gave us all the things we need to grown plants and veggies. Stay away from chemicals if possible. Granted, there are times that you need them, but for the most part, you don't. Find out what your plants like and use it. My tomatoes love my coffee grounds and egg shells. And since I drink coffee every day and use eggs probably at least once a week, we have them on hand. AND they don't smell like other compost. They both just dry out. Crumble them up and mix them into your soil during planting. If you start to see spots on the bottoms of your tomatoes (blossom end rot) add more eggs. Your tomatoes need more calcium.

Any other thoughts on gardening??


Well, now, I'm ready for spring. Which is good since it's going to rain/snow here all day today and tomorrow.......

Pictures, part 2

So I'm still learning about blogging and am trying to figure out how to post multiple pictures with captions.

Front porch. It's a finished room but we close it off in the winter because there's no heating vents in there and it gets pretty chilly. But soon, we'll have it open again....

Kitties. I promise they're not evil, possessed kitties even though they kinda look like it here... And you wouldn' t know it from this picture, but that cat tunnel is highly contested property!

It is so hard being a house cat...

Gus stayed like this for about an hour. Yeah, he's not a normal cat.

Mac pretending to be a jungle cat. Of course, I don't think jungle plants are in pots that Matt waters nightly. I tried to get him to keep his eyes open, but drat cat, he wouldn't cooperate.

I will have more pictures once we get more rooms finished!!

All in favor that breakfast is good, say Aye!

AYE!!

The motion passes in favor of breakfast. Thank you for discussing the benefits and glories of breakfast foods. I especially enjoyed Dad's response listing the logical benefits of breakfast in order. I would also agree that waffles do have the greatest syrup to surface area ratio and you can put peanut butter on them. I just can't bring myself to put peanut butter on pancakes yet. And I stress "yet."

Ok, I'll change the topic.

I made curtains for our kitchen last night. Nothing special, just white panels, but as I was hanging them up, Matt remarked that the house was losing it's man-ish feel and was taking on a more girly feeling. I thought, "Well, yeah. That's the point." He was upset (not really) that I wanted to take down the vinyl blinds in the kitchen. Our house was a rental prior to us and I think that the tenant must have had stock in some sort of vinyl blind company because they are everywhere!!!! And I hate vinyl blinds. They feel cold to me, have no color, and are just ugly. Sorry if someone reading this likes them. Matt tried to argue the practical benefits of them but I wasn't listening. We compromised: I hung up the curtains I made and we left the blinds pulled up to the top until tonight when I'll take them down to hang the valance.

Today I was all excited because I'm wearing new dress pants to work. I was in dire need of dress clothes and I finally bought some this weekend. Anyhow, as I was driving to work, I tried to take a sip of my coffee from my travel mug when lo and behold, the top fell off. I ended up dumping about half of my cup onto my new pants, which are khaki. Drat. (Actually, I said more but this blog is PG-13 for Mom, so we'll keep it at "Drat") Well, I got to work and now I'm blotting them clean. But my theory is that since the spill is in my lap area, if I just keep moving, no one will notice. They might think that I just have ants in my pants, rather than coffee on my pants. We'll see how it turns out but all I can say is: Thank goodness for Spray n Wash!

Already failed

So it's the 10th day of the new year and I have already failed at one of my New Year's Resolutions. I haven't posted more or kept in better contact with people. Shame, shame, I know my name (most of the time). But I guess it's never too late to try to redeem myself.

I'm excited about tonight because tonight is the first night this week that I'll be able to go home directly after work! Yay! No night meetings tonight! And to make it even better, this weekend both Matt and I have Saturday off so I'm making breakfast. Probably some sort of egg/bread concoction, meat, and syrup. I am a firm believer that the only true purpose for the pancake/waffle/french toast is to be a vehicle for the syrup. Translated: I like syrup.

Here's some food for thought (yes, pun intended): Matt says that Hoosiers have an unnatural love of breakfast and the foods associated therefore with. Now, granted, he likes breakfast too but he says Hoosiers just seem to enjoy it during more times of the day than people from other states. So my Hoosier friends and non-Hoosier "fereigners," what to do you think? Do we Hoosiers have some abnormal love of breakfast? Are scrambled eggs perfectly fine at all times of the day? Is it ever too late in the afternoon for waffles? If someone says "steak," do you immediately think "and eggs?"
In the immortal words of Mike Meyers: Discuss amongst yourselves.

P.S. My most excellent Garner siblings (sorry, I'm still flashing back from the 80s) bought Matt and I a new digital camera for Christmas. Now we can post pictures and let you see the Casa de Lee and all the inhabitants. (Hint: I'm the only female in all the pictures, sadly outnumbered by a husband and two "special" cats.) And when I post them, I'll tell the sad story of the Italian Job: wherein a tall man lost his little digital camera in Rome, possibly to pickpockets. Really, that was pretty much the story missing a few more details and now with less cursing!