Feel Like Complaining

First of all I must say that I really don't like sports and out of all of them I like football the least. I think it stems from growing up and on any given Sunday, all that was on was football. We weren't allowed to change the channel, even if Dad had fallen asleep. He could hear the click of the manually operated TV and made us change it back. Plus, with only three channels to choose from, football was on every one. Sunday's were the longest days in the world, especially when weather was bad and you were trapped inside with second hand smoke and football. I longed for school. But I was looking for something that we could all do together as a family. I had checked into the Star Wars show coming to town but I'm not a Star Wars fan either, so we passed on that. "What does she like?" I can hear you ask ing . Football it was then, because my husband likes it but has never seen an Arena Football game. I went online to get tickets and should have bought them the...

Ha! I bet you think I'm going to write something witty about a pasta dinner gone wrong or something like that. But no, today you will get a treat and learn from my gardening wisdom. I have so little of it, that when I do know something I guess you better listen. Have you ever wanted to have a little extra garden space but didn't feel like digging out the sod, weeding, or preparing the ground with tilling? I learned this little technique and it takes a little more pre-planning but is definitely worth it. Simply, lasagna gardening is when you put layer upon layer of materials on an area that you want to turn into a garden space for either vegetables or plants. First thing you want to do is define the area by laying down a rope or hose. We chose this area between two other beds for a couple of reasons. There is a Russian Sage bush on the right which is so big in the summer that it leans over in the space anyway. Then it gets loaded with bees that you can't walk through. ...

Mount St Helens sits in Washington state, only 96 miles south of Seattle. It's an active volcano and it proved itself 30 years ago today when it let loose on the Pacific Northwest at 8:32 in the morning. It's been deemed the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. The elevation of the summit was decreased by some 1700 feet. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed. Ash flew up 12 miles and headed toward Central Washington; and we were right in its path. The air was white and gritty and it got dark as night. I was 20 or 21 and worked nights at a fast food joint. As usual I slept in late. When I got up it was dark. I really don't remember how I heard the news but I still went to work that afternoon. We just couldn't keep up with cleaning the ash off of the counters and tables so we had to close. We weren't supposed to drive be...

My daughter has a friend who I call Movie Star. This girl is in drama at school and other outside theater groups. Her family is from California so the name is fitting. Her parents are professional photographers and they go to every production she is in to document her life. She is the total opposite of my daughter. But they are friends so that's cool with me. She is actually a very nice girl as is all of my daughter's friends. She has chosen her friends well. One day after school Movie Star wanted my daughter and another girl to come to her house for awhile. Her mother picked them up from school and took them all home. When it was time to pick my daughter up I got directions to her house. I was only partially familiar with the area and of course got lost. Once you turn off from the main road and head up the hill, the houses get fancier by the block. I'm talking California fancy. As I got lost I was seeing more fancy houses by the minute. "Who lives like this?" I...

I've been making so many glass totems of all shapes and sizes and sticking them all over my yard. The other day I was looking at a Peony and noticed that parts of it were all brown and shriveled. We had transplanted it from another area because it was not doing very well. So I figured it was just a crappy plant and was going to show my husband how bad it looked. I walked out the back door and could smell wood burning and figured our neighbor was trying to use up the last of their firewood. As I got closer to the plant to show hubby, I saw smoke coming from a piece of driftwood nearby. My husband loves to stick driftwood all over our garden and the sun was coming through a piece of glass and burning the wood. You can see stripes of burn marks as it's been doing it for awhile I guess. Enlarge to see better. So the poor Peony is just getting fried daily and not so crappy after all. Now I have to rethink this stuff I call art or I might end up burning the house down. I'll b...

One of my Facebook friends is a woman from Italy. It took me a long time to accept her request, thinking it would be hard to communicate. But I did and it was, although I used Bing Translator to send and receive emails from her. She has the same last name (married) and her daughter has the exact same name as mine so I assume that's how she found me, just doing some searching for someone with our same last name. She was curious about my husbands family and so we sent a lot of emails back and forth. The online translator is not perfect but you can get the gist of what someone is trying to tell you. The last email I got from her was an invitation to travel to Italy to spend some time with her family. This is how it was translated to me: Sorry if I got to hear but I was busy with my little one just 10 months. I wanted to ask you and your family from our if you like when you come and see us here in Italy and even if your husband relatives are not told my husband pretending to be so ...

I'm sure this won't be the last glass totem I will make but it will be the last one I bore ya'll with. This is the tallest so far, 39 inches. It looked a lot bigger in the house and then when I put it out, it looked quite dinky next to the house. I love the glass balls on the top. They were already glued together and I thought they would look great as a topper, and especially against blue. The all blue vase will eventually fade because it's just painted blue and not real blue glass; that's one thing you have to be aware of when working with colors. The base is a large plate and it's partially buried with rocks on top. We are expecting a wind storm today; 40 sustained with gusts of 60. I better not see it rolling down the street!