My garden

My carrots

Tomatoes

I'm not sure what this is just quite yet...

And my Raspberry bush - there are 3 of them so I hope they all make it and bear fruit!

flowers

Blogger is possessed - it's not posting my pictures of my flowers so here is my fifth attempt.

My flowers

I am obsessed with all my flowers - they're really the only photos I post on Facebook. Since I am so proud of my Orchids and other flowers I am going to share them here too.
The Irises are from my mom - I think they are from the Virginia house and I'm so happy that they're blooming and healthy. I just took the pictures of them so they're covered in rain drops. I think they all look so pretty.

What the What??!!

WEBSTER, Mass. – Officials have agreed to correct spelling errors in road signs pointing to a central Massachusetts lake with a 45-letter name. Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Webster has one of the world's longest place names. It's been spelled many different ways over the years. Some locals have given up and simply call it Lake Webster.
But after researching historical spelling combinations, the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester said local Chamber of Commerce officials agreed that some signs were wrong. There was an "o" at letter 20 where a "u" should have been, and an "h" at letter 38 where an "n" should go.
There are many stories and legends about the origin of the Indian name. One popular myth — later debunked — holds that the name translates roughly to 'You fish on your side, I fish on my side, and nobody fish in the middle.'

The Garden

So I haven't seen any sprouts in the garden just quite yet but I have started "planting" my compost. In case you're just not that into green compost is all that good stuff from your kitchen trash that you ususally put through the disposal back into the earth - such as cucumber ends, salad pieces, shrimp tails (I might be the only one that composts those), egg shells - basically anything that you don't think needs to end up in a landfill.
But I did take some pictures of the little sprouts in other places and will post those soon.
More to come!

Best license plate ever

First night of the Catch!

And I am hooked anew! The first episode wasn't as action-packed as I had hoped but it was still full of drama - thanks captain Keith who started thinking he had cancer, then had something on the underside of his boat cutting his crab pot strings, so he dons a diving suit and goes under his boat to investigate to only promptly hit his head so hard it made him bleed. This was all from one captain, my personal Drama Queen of the Wizard.
The Time Bandit, which we decided tonight to name our little John Boat had a great beginning of their season from the first couple of crab pots which were filled with almost 100 Alaskan King Crab keepers.
The bad news of the season so far is that Captain Phil of the Cornelia Marie hasn't fully recovered from his blood clot and he was told to not go fishing this season so he left his 2nd Mate in charge, Manny who wasn't very prepared for being captain.
The only boat on the show we didn't see much of was Captain Sig and the Northwestern. We did see them perform their yearly ritual of biting the head of a Herring Fish - ewwwwww
The captain pulled the short straw and was stuck biting the fish head off. Good luck, guys.

One of my favorite things

A few weeks ago we registered for wedding gifts at Williams-Sonoma and while we were there we had to shop. If you haven't been in this glorious cooking store from heaven you are really missing out. I just told my dad about this store this past weekend citing the fact that they cook the food they sell with the cookware they are also selling. This I think - is a great selling point for my father.
But I digress...I bought the most wonderful countertop spray Sweet Orange but it doesn't smell like oranges to me. Maybe since it's colored green it throws my nose off on purpose? My brain might be sending a stronger signal but I really can't pinpoint the exact scent of this spray but I highly recommend it. I first fell in love with Crate & Barre's Pear Basil counter spray but they discontinued it and instead kept some mango-scented spray instead, boo.
Definitely some parts of planning our wedding have been more fun than others and registering at Williams-Sonoma was one that took the cake. Mmmmmm....cake.

Deadliest Catch

Starting tonight Deadliest Catch on Discovery!!

Jason and I got really into this show 2 seasons ago and were eagerly anticipating the arrival of the new season and tonight our wish comes true!

The only bad news is it's on at the same time as American Idol and 90210 and we tape both of them. Anyone with a DVR knows you can only have 2 shows going at 1 time. You can tape 2 but have to watch 1 or none, or tape 1 and watch the other. All this damn technology and I can only tape 1 show at a time basically while watching TV??

But I have opted to watch 90210 on my laptop while I workout at home so I guess it's not that bad. And you better believe we'll be watching the Catch live instead of Idol, that show has so many damn commercials it's not real.

So more to come about the season of the Manliest Men on TV who catch the Tastiest of Tasty Foods-King Crabs!!!

The boats on Season 5 are:
Our favorite - Time Bandit!
Northwestern
Cornelia Marie
The Wizard - Captain Keith is such a tool bag and the biggest whiner. Seriously last season he freaked out and wouldn't leave port because he didn't have a stupid ass Cup of Noodles cup to spit his dip spit into. Toolbag.
The Lisa Marie -I guess this is a new boat but not the sister of the Cornelia Marie just similar names...
Trailblazer - I haven't heard of this boat either like the Lisa Marie so meeting the new crews will be interesting.

Springtime!!

So instead of working through my lunchhour I decided to finally blog a bit-hooray!
A few weeks ago I started gardening finally after the LONGEST winter!
So I started with the seeds that I have from germinating my own plants last fall. Basically the plants that reseed themselves are easy to spot - their dried up husks have seeds inside them.
So I took my zinnia's some petunia's and margiolds and dried the seeds in paper bags over the winter.
We had our friends from Cutting Edge landscaping do up our yard with mulch and they did such a nice job. It's amazing what some cut up trees will do for your landscaping. So I went around all the trees in the front and back yard and planted seeds. Then the next nice weekend we hit up Lowe's and I bought pansy's and some other plants.
I also ordered over $300 worth of plants from Spring Hill Nurseries - a catalog that I recevied in the mail and that included some raspberry bushes, Crepe Myrtle trees, some flowers that they say love shade, some bushes and ornamental grasses. I've also added some other plants and bushes - too many to list.
But the weather like today's (rainy and crappy) is actually really good for my plants and it does make me happy that I don't have to water anything.
I will say that I am a bit upset about my rain barrel that I bought off Amazon. It won't fill up all the way unless you cut your gutter pipe to filter into the barrel and Jason was NOT having that. So we filled it with hose water and somehow it's supposed to create enough force for me to water like a real hose? I might be missing something but it's just not working that well and I am a bit disappointed.
But so far I have seen flowers coming off my plants but nothing is really popping up from the seeds yet but more to come.
I also started my vegetable garden and planted 4 rows of corn (might be too early for them yet), tomatoes, watermellon, lettuce and cucumbers. This is my first year with a REAL garden. Last year I gardened out of some brick planters in the backyard so I'm really excited to see how much I can get going.

Rob Dyrdek

I was just one of the many people who mourned the loss of Rob & Big - in case you don't know Big got some girl preggers and had to move out of the house with Rob. So there went the show - poo on Big.
But the execs at MTV weren't done pimping out Rob just quite yet. Nor was he done making even MORE money for doing very little. So they came up with the idea of the Fantasy Factory. The premise is this - Rob buys a huge warehouse and constructs an office complete with skating park inside and has all his friends and co-workers and cousins there to be around him and basically be his amusement while MTV films their day.
Rob did get another Bull Dog though and MY GOD they are the cutest puppies EVER. It really makes me want to get one! He named this one Beefy so he has Meaty and Beefy.
I didn't realize what a dick he was though - the people that work for him like his manager and lawyer are serious people who try to have serious conversations with him and he doesn't want to hear it and just goes and does what he wants. Last week he went to look at this shithole motel off the Strip in Vegas that was disgusting and without a second thought he decided to invest in it. Not a good idea AT ALL.
But Rob has more money than he knows what to do with...he is just looking for something to keep him semi-occupied and to spend his millions on. I do envy him and could only wish for 1 day in the life of.
But if you were a Rob & Big fan check out the show - they still skate and do stupid stuff - example: Rob gets a tennis ball gun that shoots balls at 55 MPH - that was good. He also was the producer and I think an actor in a skate movie that looked pretty cheesy but I haven't seen it so I can't say definitely but...well I guess I'll hold my opinion until I rent it because I'm surely not going to spend $8 or $10 or whatever a movie costs these days on it.

Will Ferrell!!!

Ok I've been trying to embed the code for the video clip of his George Bush special but have been unsuccessful - as I suck at HTML coding and couldn't tell you what is wrong with the code on their website.
So go here

http://www.hbo.com/events/willferrell/video.html

It will be too funny - Will Ferrell playing George W interviewing himself as George W
The commercials alone are too good - Tenawesome - yep that's a word!!

Will Ferrell!!!

http://www.hbo.com/events/willferrell/video.html?maven_playerId=willferrell&maven_referralPlaylistId=0265e8254470d92dcb0d3fbb2ed37b5cf2de3f34&maven_referralObject=3644324

I gots mine

So I did get my return within the time frame that the IRS promised. Watch out!
And I did pay off a few of my credit cards which further pissed off more people I am sure.

But after all the good spending came some more and we remodeled our bathroom ourselves (mostly Jason) with my financial backing and our bathroom looks fabulous. We got a new vanity with sink and a new matching mirror (all in a lovely Espresso color) and new vinyl flooring. I was intent on getting tile until I saw how much it would be to retile our little bathroom and said no way! Then I happened upon the marvelous invention of vinyl stick tile - BRILLIANT! Yes, it does lack the quality of tile but whatever it's a bathroom.

The lawn has received some nice care with a good coating of lime and Step 1 fertilizer - I did a bit of shopping and we had a nice dinner. So all in all - thanks America for the taxes!!

Where's Your Refund?

I found this great sheet that tells you exactly when you will receive your return - that is if you don't have any "red flags" AKA got the IRS' attention...
It is a PDF document at:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p2043.pdf

Enjoy! And I'll let you know if mine comes when they say - according to the sheet I should have mine by Friday. I did even check Where's My Refund on the IRS website and it said they are reviewing it and if there aren't any problems I should expect it by March 6. But I know that's a longer estimate just in case...

Happy Shopping America - now go stimulate that economy! I'll be paying off some credit cards.
Responsibility = no fun

Thursday Morning Funny

Cat Alerts Iowa Family to Fire Started by Goal

WARREN COUNTY, Iowa --

Firefighters believe a goat kick started a fire that destroyed a home in Warren County on Tuesday.
Three people were asleep when smoke began filling Jim and Kristi Giles' home in Warren County, between Norwalk and Indianola.
"My cat woke me up and I saw smoke coming out of my fan," said John Hadley. "My first concern was getting my mom out of the house. Because, like I said, my mom is real ill. And so that's what I did. I made sure I got her out and then I know she loves her animals, so I rounded all her animals up, and by that point, flames and smoke were everywhere."
The fire continued to rage and had nearly eaten the entire roof by the time firefighters made it to the home.
Three departments tried to fight the fire in temperatures below zero.
"It's hard on the men and it's hard on the equipment," said Kevin Dingman, Assistant Northern Warren County Fire Chief.
Firefighters had to use tanker trucks to haul in water from several miles away. They said their fight to save the house was a lost battle almost as soon as they arrived.
"Once it's fully involved like this, then it's not worth sending your fellow firefighters in for something like this. I mean the house was fully involved, and it's too dangerous to send anybody in," said Dingman.
Firefighters think the fire may have been started by one of two goats. The family kept the goats inside a shed that was attached to the rear of the house.
"They put a space heater in there for the goats to stay warm. The goats knocked it over, causing a fire," said Dingman.
The goats were rescued, and so was a family dog.
The cat that warned the family of the fire is still missing, but is believed to be safe. No one was hurt in the fire.
"The animals and the people were the most important thing," John Hadley said.
The fire department called in the Red Cross to help the family, which doesn't have insurance. A relative told KCCI-TV that a fund has been established through any Bank of the West branch to help Jim and Kristi Giles.

Hamster?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnCnRuoYMxE

I know it's not funny because of the story but hey it's a hamster people!!

Putin IS a Dancing Queen

Thanks to Sissy for providing this earth-shattering newsbreak:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02062009/news/worldnews/putins_45k_abba_obsession_153870.htm

TOO FUNNY! And I believe it - I don't care WHAT his reps say.

Dirty Jobs

Jason and I are GIANT fans of the show Dirty Jobs on Discovery. If you haven't heard of it - what rock are you living under and if you haven't watched you're missing out. So since Jason's job is filthy dirty and every night he comes home covered in paint, chemicals, glue, you name it - I decided to write in on the Dirty Jobs website that Mike and his crew should go to Jason's work. So hopefully they'll get through the other 20,000 suggestions and pick Jason's shop to go to. I would definitely miss a day of work to go watch Jason and Mike Rowe work together!!

Books I'm reading

Yes you read correctly - I am currently reading 2 books. Well, technically 3 since I just can't seem to commit to Fast Food Nation. After reading the very graphic chapter on how they "kill" the cows and string them up by their feet while they're still technically alive was just disturbing on so many levels.
But on a happier note - I am reading Cold Moutain which was part of the basket that was given to Jason and I when we checked into our hotel for Christine's wedding, thanks Christine! I started reading it and was hooked! I think I tried to watch the movie a few months ago and thought it was too slow but the book is fantastic. I can't wait for the 2 main characters to get together, which you know is inevitable when you have a story that focuses on a female character one chapter, then the next is on the male character.
But while I was in New Jersey visiting mom and dad I brought the book with me and I forgot it so I had to pick another book to read before bed. So I went to the bookshelf and found The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Turns out that this was his last book and he passed away before finishing the story. It was completed by Edmund Wilson and is a story about Hollywood and is said to be one of his best novels. One of my favorite books of all time is the Great Gatsby so I will let you all know once I've finished it. It's not a very long book but definitely interesting. I might finish it before Cold Mountain since it is a LOT shorter than Cold Moutain.