doing this when i should be doing that

i'm at that stage of nearing vacation where i'm anxious
and feel like there's too much to do.
packing, laundering, procrastinating.
arranging for the cat, fish and garden
to all be tended and loved.
i feel like i have to have my whole life
caught up and organized before i go.
this is silly as i'm only going to be gone for five days.

i really should wash the kitchen floor
and balance my checkbook.
bleh.

i have to work tonight
and again tomorrow afternoon
and we fly out at 8am on sunday.
yikes.

why am i wasting time blogging?
it's an outlet of sorts, i guess.
okay, time to get something done!

-nicole

and it rained all night

two days ago i booked a flight to alaska
and i'm so excited.
august third through the eighth,
five full days with my family.
i haven't seen my little niece since last october.
and i'm bringing mah boyfriend with
so that's just going to be extra fun.

alaska has had a dark, rainy summer
and no where in the nation is gas more expensive
so tourism is hurting.
this is good news for me
as my sister informed me that everything is discounted
and we're hopefully going to denali!

i won't mind a rainy vacation.
my family, my boyfriend, my raincoat and alaska.
sounds good to me.

-nicole

gimme a green thumb

i'm a month or so into my first vegetable garden.
i was a little behind in my planting
but spring came very late this year
and preparing a new garden bed is no easy task.

i spent weeks ripping up sod, turning up the soil,
sending soil samples off to the lab,
amending the nutrients and ph based on the test results,
adding manure, coffee grounds, peat alternative
and any other good organic material i could get my dirty hands on.

after hardening them off,
i finally was able to put into the ground
the plants i started indoors way back in march
(yay short northern growing season)
and put the shorter season seeds into the ground.

i'm now the proud owner of:
basil - 2 plants
rosemary - 2
chives - uh, chives probably exist on mars, they are annoyingly hardy
spicy oregano - 1
habanero - 1
jalepeno - 5 i think
heirloom red bell pepper - 6 i think
tomatillo - 4
sundried tomato - 1
black krim tomato - 1
heirloom brandywine tomato - 4
broccoli - 4
corn stalks - 15 or so
peas and beans too numerous to count

my boyfriend has way more in his garden
(eggplant, zucchini, pumpkins, cauliflower, i could go on)
plus i have a bit of a lead problem so we kept
all the leafy greens and root veggies in his garden,
just to be safe.

alas, i'm now at the stage of pests and diseases.
my black krim tomato plant has aphids and my broccoli
has cute but voracious cauliflower caterpillars.

i'm determined to be as organic as i can
with this garden of mine
so i'm off to mother earth gardens tomorrow
to purchase a bag
of lady beetles for the aphids
and garden netting for the caterpillars.
no chemicals here, no way.
this is all new to me so with every issue that arises
i'm researching and learning the best and safest way
to deal with the problem.

this is probably waaay too much garden info for most folks
but it's most of what i've been up to lately
and obviously something i'm really excited about right now.
next time i think i'll post some photos.
don't expect too much, though.
it's still a baby garden.

-nicole

photos here and there

i've got hundreds of photos i need to put up on my flickr.
i wanted to photoshop them first but since my photoshop
skills are still very weak i think i'm just going to start
dumping photos into my flickr like crazy and then replace them
with better versions later on.
i've also got a random assortment of photos
i just emailed to myself from my phone.
please note that i purchased my phone
for its reception, not its photo-taking, capabilities : )



and a real camera photo.



there's more on my little flickr.
not much, but it's a start
and it's now bedtime.

-nicole

the longest winter

yesterday i slipped on a snowbank
and slid underneath my boyfriend's car
as i was attempting entry.
i landed on my bottom
and my head smacked hard
into (thankfully) soft snow.

i just laid there, laughing and crying,
kind of confused as to how one can go from standing
to being on the ground so quickly.

getting into and out of a car
on the passenger side in winter
is challenging and requires a certain level of skill
that obviously i don't always posses.

other than that, it's winter as usual.
oh wait, the first day of spring was last week.
it's a bit hard to tell through the piles of snow
that fell that day and the following two.

i'm finding some spring here and there.
today i resumed my compost pile,
throwing into the yard and not into the trash
my orange rind and a grapefruit that went bad.

i also recently bought a maple tree that will be
ready to be picked up the first weekend of may!
i'm gathering up my garden seeds
and shopping for a new bicycle.
just in case spring arrives.
you never know.

-nicole

mace to the face

having had no experience with pepper spray,
and having recently been given some to carry for safety,
i decided to test out the sprayer to make sure that
it was ready to go should i need it.
was it pump action or a contant stream of pepper spray?
i didn't know and thought i should.
the directions clearly stated to test the sprayer outside
but it was cold out there so i sprayed a little into the kitchen sink.
just a little.
then i decided i better rinse it down the sink
and for some reason i thought hot water would be a good idea.
hot water produces steam obviously
and steam full of pepper spray is not good.

i effectively pepper sprayed my entire household
as well as a few guests who were over at the time.
not a full blast to the face, of course,
but there was plenty of coughing and stinging between us all.
sorry guys.
sometimes i just do dumb things.

-nicole

button button, who has the button?

just in case anyone who reads this
has ever entertained the idea
that i was a cool kid,
i should inform you that one of the things that
has been occupying my time this week
is organizing my button collection.

i recently acquired a shoebox full of buttons,
some of them still on their vintage packaging.
i'm tying the matching buttons together with book-binding string
and organizing them all according to color.

very girl-nerdy.
but hey, it's winter in minnesota
and an unusually cold one at that.
i'm just trying to find things to do around the home
besides eating all the day and evening long.

never have i a wanted a warm-weather vacation
more than these past days.

-nicole