Jeez Louise

- “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White Ts, from the album Every Second Counts, on Hollywood Records.

So this morning, I woke up bright and early (well, for me, bright and early is 8 am - it’s Sunday! C’mon!). We don’t own any type of tiller, and we don’t know anyone who does, so I was out there turning earth over with my shovel. Luckily my garden isn’t that big - probably about 9 feet by 4 feet- because by the end of all the bending and lifting my back was saying “hey you - enough of that!”.

Next Rob and I went to the garden centre and got some compost, a rake, and a hose to replace the hose that got run over by the lawnmower last year. We had a little adventure then - the starter on our car needs replacing, and of course, I tried to start the car and it just. wouldn’t. I freaked out. We waited awhile, and it started. Let’s all pray that it holds out another few weeks until we can get it fixed.

I also took a few photos of things that have started blooming around the yard - my tulips have been up for weeks, but just this morning started to show any colour. Some are still closed, but some are finally open just the tiniest bit.

My rosebush and hydrangea bushes are starting to grow little leaves.

I planted these pansies last year - they’re supposed to be annuals, and only grow for one year, but for some reason, they’re back this year. It’s fine by me! You can see all the leaves that got caught in that flowerbed over the Fall/Winter. I have a feeling that’s why the pansies came back… they were covered over by all the leaves and everything and it kept them warm, under the unreasonable amounts of snow we had this winter.

Last year, I planted some peony roots - and absolutely nothing happened. The people at the garden centre said that they’d grow within weeks, and they didn’t, so I just assumed they weren’t gonna come up. Today I was clearing out the bed where they’d been planted when I saw this:

… and so I transplanted them into planters in the front yard. Hopefully they’ll survive; if not I had already thought they were dead so it’s no big loss (although I love peonies! So I will be sad if these don’t survive - don’t believe my tough-gal exterior).

I emptied the bed where the peonies were (where for the past couple of years I’ve just been throwing wildflower seeds and not giving any thought to it) and planted three kinds of sunflowers there. If they all grow, it’s going to be a glorious little corner.

Then it was time to tackle the vegetable garden. Once all the compost was in and mixed with the soil, I put in the 3 types of tomato plants, jalapeno pepper plants, and banana pepper plants that I bought on a whim yesterday ($1 for 4 plants). I have no idea if the peppers will grow in our climate, but I just love trying. Then I planted the vegetables. This year I decided no beans/peas because the past three years, what I planted didn’t really produce anything. So we’ve got beets, turnips, pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, and radishes. I have carrot seeds, but 1) ran out of room and 2) we still have some of the carrots from last year so no worries.

All in all, it was a very tiring, but satisfying day. When I was all finished the gardening, Rob fired up the barbecue for our first of the year (chicken and hot dogs… we’re so gourmet!). Our little stone patio could really use some work (what I wouldn’t give for some gorgeous teak patio furniture instead of the plastic and metal stuff we have now) but I have a feeling our back yard is going to be a place I’m going to really enjoy this summer.

I’m in no way a professional gardener - I do my best, see what happens, hope things grow. Usually they do. Sometimes they don’t. I just love being there, planting, watching. I think it’s a relaxation thing. My grandfather, the coal miner, took great solace in his vegetable garden and in his rosebushes. My father is a gardener, too - gorgeous flowers surround my parents’ home. Maybe it’s hereditary, who knows. I just know that being able to coax some little things into life, and to feed my husband and I on the products of my garden, is immensely satisfying.

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He’s all “I’m 75 years old and I can still get me some hawt wimmins!”

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Rob and I were sort of daydreaming about winning the lotto today - which doesn’t make much sense, seeing as we very rarely if ever buy a ticket. If we were super super rich, though, we’d buy Tasmania and use it for him to store his comics and such. Somehow he ended up googling monetary terms and then we started talking about how they kind of sounded dirty.
Yes, we’re mature.
But seriously, set your mind to “naughty” mode and just think of these (and if you need a bit of help, you can say ‘in your pants’ at the end ):
investor relations (RELATIONS IN YOUR PANTS!), inflation, (INFLATION IN YOUR PANTS!) tender (in your pants!), interest (in… yeah you get the idea).

Yeah it’s probably good that we’re not rich. We’d get servants and force them to change their names to Dick Buttkiss or something.

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The photographer was an amazing woman. Crazy funny, and super talented. I was totally at ease although I walked in there a complete bundle of nerves.

Outfit note: Jeans and black v-neck longsleeved tshirt. Wedding and engagement rings. Moonstone ring. Silver chain, chalcedony pendant. She said it was all great. Hopefully she wasn’t just blowing smoke although from what I saw (I just peeked at one or two of the shots on her camera), it was okay. She’ll send me the proofs sometime this week, and the book people will choose which they like best.

Since I was already in Charlottetown, I made my way to the garden store where I was almost pureed by some fast-driving fool’s Chevy grille. Seriously. She stopped three inches from my ass as I was in the crosswalk. Dude. Anyway I got some more seeds for my garden, and a few plants. Anyone interested? I’m in a listy mood today so the seeds:
Three varieties of sunflower (these are going in the corner triangle garden where I usually just throw wildflower seeds)
pumpkin
radishes
carrots
beets
turnips
cucumber
zucchini
The plants:
jalapeno
2 kinds of tomato
uhmm… something else that I don’t remember what it is because they’re out in the yard right now and it’s raining and I don’t wanna go out.

So tomorrow, all things being equal, I am going to drag Rob to buy some compost and then get started. Yes even if it’s raining. I’m one tough mofo.

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Tomorrow morning is my photoshoot. I don’t like having my photo taken. I have issues with the way that I look. I accepted to do this mainly to raise awareness for my autoimmune condition - but at the same time, sort of to “push” myself into just being brave and getting my photo taken and it will be beyond my control, I won’t be able to delete the photo the second I see it.

Anyway I am trying to figure out what to wear. A friend (who I think isn’t quite sure of what an actual photoshoot entails - not that I do, either, really) was telling me to bring as many outfits as I could fit into my car, fancy makeup, jewelry (she actually thought I should bring the Akoya pearls my parents gave me for my Confirmation), &cetera. I have decided that I’m going to wear jeans and a shirt. I have makeup (I actually went out and bought makeup yesterday) - foundation and eyeliner. I’ll be wearing my wedding ring… that’s it for jewelry.
Here’s hoping that I’ll manage to take a couple of pics that don’t break the camera lens.

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- You know the show Big Brother? The US one? I have watched basically every season of it to some extent (seasons 3 through 6 I pretty much just watched the last few episodes) and, well, those people are boring. My favourite season? Big Brother 8 (beer pong and all) although I wasn’t happy with the winners. Least favourite? I’m not sure, lots of them were pretty mediocre. I guess it’s because they choose people who are aspiring (or former) models/actors/singers etc. etc. and it’s like… these are not “real” people. This is a two-month audition.

- If you are someone who doesn’t have eyebrows for whatever reason. And please, listen to me, I have been there and I know. Please, please for the love of God don’t draw them in with a Sharpie.

And please… eyebrows just don’t look right if they’re one solid line:

I know that it’s hard. I know that losing your eyebrows can be traumatic, in more ways than one. I’ve been there. In fact at the moment I’m missing like, half of my right eyebrow. It sucks. But if you want to draw them on, just… do it right. Or don’t draw them on. Or get them tattooed by someone reputable. They can make them look real and natural:

- How come when I stay home from work, I can never just take it easy and relax - instead I sit around worrying about what’s going on back at work. I need to calm the heckers down.

- Cuteness: My nephew was watching Scooby Doo. He insisted on watching it, even though his mom was like “That is going to scare you”. Because every other time he’s attempted watching it, he’s gotten scared. Well, this time, he was about halfway through (farther than he’d ever gotten before) when he came to me and said “Tante! Scooby Doo is so scared of the Grampires!”
Hee hee hee, he called them grampires!

Okay that’s about all I’ve been thinking of. Well I ‘ve been thinking about other things but I will stop boring you now.

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I saw my brother earlier today when I went out to check the mail (I decided against the viewing of the View or of what DJ correctly identified as Rachael Ray’s show). He was only starting work at 3 pm, and before that, his wife had asked him to go through their sons’ baby clothes and get rid of whatever didn’t fit them anymore. He showed me what was in his car - six garbage bags full of clothes and stuffed animals that he was taking to the Diabetes Association drop-off (they’ll go on sale at Value Village and the Diabetes Association, along with others, profits from that… good deal I think).

Seriously! I don’t think I own six garbage bags worth of clothes and I’m 31… these guys are 2 and 4! Then again - I’m (hopefully) not growing anymore. I don’t get fifteen outfits for each birthday and Christmas and Easter. Still though. I think I would look sweet in an outfit like this one:

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Jeez Louise

Times Square can’t shine as bright as you

And this bird you cannot change

inch by inch, row by row…

The Redheaded Stranger

Michael C. Hunt

Well, that’s over.

Nervous

Things I’ve been thinking about…

v. sweet outfit.

jiggedy jig