So, looks like we have another addition to our household…

O.C.

She (we think) showed up on our porch about 6 weeks ago. We tried to locate her owners, meanwhile building her a little cozy bed outside. No such luck. The cold, extremely windy night last night finally put us over the edge. She’s living in our office right now, at least until we can get her checked out by a vet. After that, we’ll start the difficult task of introducing everyone to each other. Friendliest cat ever.

That’s all for now.

The cilantro plant has developed (almost overnight) a weird white pattern on its leaves. It kinda looks like a pattern on the sugar snap peas.

Sugar snap peas:

The bottom of that plant doesn’t look so good either. (It’s full and blooming on the top.) It looks like it’s dying from the bottom up.

And finally, the tomato plant is looking sad. It’s leaves look like this:

How do I save these plants?

Last night, Jay had a nerd fest planned (who needs poker when you can play video games until after midnight) so I took the time we would usually waste watching TV to get even more ahead. The result was half of tonight’s dinner being done, a ton of muffin mix premixed and a batch of yummy from scratch muffins made. Also, the kitchen is clean which makes me happier than it should.

I’m hoping that this extra motivation will make this fantastic long weekend both easier and more productive. I’d like to continue with some projects in the yard, but since it looks like we’ll probably be shelling out some serious money to powerwash, stain and seal the deck, I’m not sure that I should be spending any more money on plants. Especially ones that won’t make food for us later.

In the meantime, from a work front, the Head of my department stopped by to talk to me yesterday. It seems she’s trying to justify adding an extra person to her team, and would like for it to me be. She wanted to see if I’d be interested, what job I might want and how much I would want. No idea yet if it will turn into anything, but since the woman I’m covering for actually left, it’s been much more enjoyable. It’s not perfect, but no job is. It’s a decent way to spend a day, and I need a full time job at some point, so why not?

I’m not even sad that because the office is closing early today I’ll be missing a couple extra hours pay. I get to start my weekend early!

The garden is growing… (The big ones in the middle are sugar snap peas. Everything else is still little.)

And Mom bought us some Hostas, so they’ve found a new home in the backyard. (Pay no attention to what looks like a tree war zone. As soon as it stops raining, we’re going to clean it up.)

See! That grass has started to fill in that ugly old path.

Nothing else to report… Just working and trying to stay sane!

Well, no more. You see, I’ve decided to be a gardener. Some many even say Farmer, but I think they’re trying to make some unrelated point about my tendency to go a little overboard with things. I didn’t know at the time that by becoming a gardener it meant we couldn’t be friends anymore. Apparently you did. You’ve made the first move, and now I realize that this is WAR.

My tiny little marigolds didn’t do anything to you. But you promptly decapitated one on Monday. I thought it might be a rabbit, so I tucked cat hair through-out the garden. (What? I read it online.) So, you decided to show me you aren’t scared of a little cat hair. Yesterday, you mercilessly murdered another marigold. I could probably get over that, but the bush bean seedlings that had barely broken the ground, well, that’s too far. There is no turning back. You might not be deterred by the garlic powder now coating the garden  (although I did notice that you dug up an empty space with no garlic powder last night, and left the rest alone) but I’m resourceful. And there plenty of people who have lots of ideas for me to try.

You’d better watch your back. I’m coming for you.

Your former friend,

Heather

P.S. I know the cats are lazy and not a threat to you. They wouldn’t know how to hunt if we let them outside, which as you know, we don’t. There are other ways to win this war.

I’m not slacking. Not really… You see, I’m learning someone else’s job right now. That’s the whole premise of this gig. There’s a woman who is having a baby, and they need someone to do her job while she’s out. She’s due at the end of May, and I’ve already been here 3 weeks. The systems are complicated, but there just aren’t not many jobs that truly need 7 intensive weeks of training. The end result is that there are two people doing one job right now, so I have some down time. It’s also worth mentioning that she’s somewhat distracted - what being all pregnant and uncomfortable - and she’s also been missing work because of her 1 1/2 year old and doctor’s appointments.

I think this is the universe’s way of showing me that being a crazy work-a-holic isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be. Since I can’t fix the being crazy part, I’m working on the work-a-holic part. I spent the first year of my marriage working non-stop. I know that many people at that particular start-up, or even other start-ups, have done this same thing… but the difference might be that I didn’t mind, not really. Sure, I was tired, and I was slightly burnt out at times. But I didn’t actually realize that I was missing anything. I realize this is a sad statement on my own mentality and perception of life, but there it is.

I don’t think I’ve really ever developed my “personal” life fully. I’ve never really considered what I would do if I wasn’t working - why wouldn’t I be working? Even when I think about maybe possible having kids, it was always in the context of going back to work right away. I never thought about spending days working on my house or my yard, and certainly not enjoying it while I was doing it. Never considered what it might be like to write for pleasure for hours or days on end. The closest I think I ever got was becoming completely immersed in a video game, and even that, you aren’t present in real life.

So, I’m working on seeing what’s outside of the desk, the cube, the office. Trying to experience and enjoy things that don’t bring anything to my bank account or resume. In fact, some of these things have been taking from the bank account. I’m not exactly sure how, but my attempt at saving money on food by growing a garden has cost far more than it will save. Maybe I’ll break even on it next year. The garden is at the top of my non-work favorite things. Cooking is also on it (although you wouldn’t know it by my disastrous double attempt at dinner on Sunday).

Sadly, I’m home alone until Thursday. Jay’s at a conference for work, which should be both criminally boring and fairly fun.

“Before”

And “After”

Our hard work plus some helpful Mother Nature season changing, and it’s a pretty big difference! Our porch is so awesome now!

Then Mom and I went off to the nursery to buy the recommended ingredients for “Mel’s Mix” - a soil-less mix for square foot gardening. A helpful manager of Homestead Nursery (that place is awesome, and was awesomely crowded) steered us in another direction though. So we loaded up 6 bags of topsoil, 5 bags of Leaf-gro, 3 bags of composted manure, 1 bag of vermiculite (the only thing from the original list) and 1 bag of organic garden fertilizer. This was trip one, and all we could fit in the car. Trip Two held 4 more bags each of topsoil and Leaf-gro. So basically, I now have the bed soil ever to grow stuff. Woohoo.

I’m going to try this square foot method - which means (due to poor measuring) I have 46 one foot squares to plant things in. With the exception of the tomato plant, which will get 4 full squares, everything else is supposed to only need 1 square. (1 full square for things like Peppers and Broccoli, several to a square for things like carrots and lettuce.) I’m planning to plant a completely ridiculous amount of things for my very first garden. And even though I expect disaster, I think it’ll work out more or less. Remind me of this optimism in July, will you?

Already planted:

Hot Pepper,

Carrots,

Lettuce,

Spinach,

Snow Peas,

Sugar Snap Peas,

Strawberries,

Corn,

Broccoli,

Bush Beans,

Garlic.

I have little  seedlings still inside for:

Sweet Peppers,

Basil,

Cilantro,

Parsley

Cherry Tomato

I also have 4 additional seed packets on order from Burpee, and potatoes and asparagus still to plant. It’s cold and raining, and I’m tired. So that’s going to wait for an ambitious work night or next weekend.

That is all