If Wishes were Horses...

then I'd have a Flock o' Horses in the backyard...

I wish August had Come & Gone...

I wish the septic system had not gone haywire causing the ruination of the hallway flooring...when we're not halfway finished with repairing the dining room flooring from the Great Washing Machine Flood '07...

I wish I could motivate myself to keep on my diet and lose this 20 pounds instead of monkeying around with the same dern 3 lbs...

I wish August had Come & Gone

I wish that pitiful Mama Dog would not keep haunting my thoughts...the Mama Dog who I saw months of ago with her adorable fluffy puppy bounding at her side...and the first patches of hair beginning to fall out from what is probably a God Awful case of mange...

I wish Mr G had caught Mama Dog yesterday...then I would have joined him early this morning to tramp through Rattlesnake Country to find her babies (because I have boots now...got 'em for Christmas)...I'm terrified of snakes and even more terrified of tramping through piney scrub during the Georgia Summer when the snakes are out & about and nearly as cranky as I am...

I wish I was in charge of What Happens to Stupid and/or Evil People...like Mama Dog's Slack-A**ed Owner...and Michael Vick...

I wish August had Come and Gone...

This Vent Session brought to ya'll courtesy of Typical Hot Humid Late Summer in Georgia...

Truly, I cannot help myself...after a lifetime of being a Georgian I ought to be able to rise above July & August...

a Few Snaps of Life at Number 17 here lately

(concrete slab with old adhesive where flooring used to be...Piper looking at the floor as if to say "this reminds me of my old drainage pipe")


Kira...our newest kitten...well, DS's newest kitten...whom I literally snatched out of a Grand Prix's engine (it wasn't runnin' at the time) at DS's workplace...and yes I got bit...poor Kira...her tail had been badly injured so she had surgery last week to remove most of it...makes my skin crawl to just think about it...but it is better than than the Mess That Was Her Tail...that's a double ugh...

Kira has a little clear c-collar to wear but is allowed to sit around without if she is being held or eating...

What an Absolute Doll

Next post, I'll share a light Sweet Potato Pie recipe with ya'll...yep, I'm channeling Fall again...

No Photos in This Post...

My Camera and our son (and his fiance and their Band of Friends) headed off to the big city of Baltimore this weekend for Otakon.

They left this morning at 3 a.m...oh for the days when my body could take that sort of abuse...working all day, going to bed somewhere around 1 a.m. and then easily rising out of bed to pile in the car and head off down the highway...after backing into my Cleveland Pear tree...and Runnin' over my Marigolds...

Yes, I did call and ask if Son did it...because there were 4 choices...the newspaper man, Son, Son's friend or Mr G...and I wanted to know whom to inform that if said tree dies, there will be a same-size replacement purchased and a Bill Presented...

Big Monkey...

Anyhoo...I don't actually think the days ever actually existed when I was good after 2 hours of sleep to head out on an extended road trip...I love my bed...and my pillows...and a good 8 to 9 hours of sleep per night...and I sort of morph into a Monster if I don't get my rest...

I managed to live like that when I worked my way through college...it was Not a Fun Thing...and it probably took at least a couple of years off my life...

I remember falling asleep during Anthropology class more than once...and crackin' my head against the cinder block wall...did you ever take those notes where you got home, flipped open your notebook to work on an assignment or study for a test and all you saw were long loopy squiggles across the paper? yep...

So I've never really (have ya'll watched El Dorado with John Wayne? well, there is this character Nelse McCloud...who is played by Christopher George...who I had a terrible crush on when he was in Rat Patrol...well, not when he was in The Rat Patrol but I caught the show as reruns...anyhoo...there is a scene where Nelse McCloud's drawls "Welllll, there Reel-Lee isn't very much I can do right now, is there Ja-son?...and that is how I am sayin' Really when I type it here...thought ya'll might want to know that...movin' along) done well with the Whole Lack of Sleep Thing...

Another Plastic Bag/Cloth Bag Update:

So....last weekend, Mr G & I did a run on H/M...and not until we were wheeling a buggy (yes, a lot of us Southerners call a grocery cart a "buggy"...because that is what they are :) of groceries Up to the Check-Out did I realize we had not brought the cloth bags...arrrrggghhhh...

I drive myself crazy...

I think we probably got about 12 or so plastic bags on that trip...sigh...

So, yesterday, doing my perishables run, I remembered my cloth bag! and I remembered to take all the plastic bags back for recycling...I fairly glowed from Smug...

another Thing I've Figured Out for using Cloth Bags....

Arrange your items on the conveyor belt so that the heavy items come down first and can be either put in the bottom of the bags or simply sat in the B-U-G-G-Y without bagging...

Put your delicate items and breads at the tail end of your Line O' Stuff...

This makes it so much easier to bag your own items without things being thrown all Willy Nilly about the place...and the cashier won't hate you because not only are you slowin' her down while you monkey around with re-arranging as you go but you're also tickin' off the half a dozen people behind you in line who are already More Than a Little Bit Cranky from July Georgia Heat & Humidity and she is the one who is going to have to deal with them after you Finally Move Outta the Way...

and you know what? if you have a Ton O' Stuff (and you remembered to bring your cloth bags), then you really can just load some of those items into the buggy as the cashier presents them to you, pay your bill, Put It In Gear and then just move out of the way to get your bags all set the way you want them before truckin' out to the parking lot...

An Aside: People who decide the check-out line, and more specifically the Pay for Your Stuff and Move Spot, is the best place to search for Exact Change in the Bottom of an Enormous Bag, Try to Reason with a Screaming Child Who Wants Something, Answer, Begin and Maintain a Cell Phone Conversation, Check the Receipt and Then Want a Price Check...AFTER THE TOTAL IS RUNG...well, all I have to say is There is a Special Place...

Just Get Your Stuff in the B-U-G-G-Y and Move...Now...before I break down weeping...

The only Sour Note: I can't find my bag of chips...unless the cashier just reflexively tossed those bad boys into a plastic sack, then I guess the lovely little Mennonite family behind me got my chips in with their groceries...and since I am not going back to the store for a lone bag o' chips, there sits my jar of salsa allll alone in the fridge waiting for my chips...

***Note of Interest: H/M (Wal-Mart) accepts other plastic grocery bags as well as their own***

Congratulations

So, Miss Mary B if you'll send me your e-mail, I'll get your package out some time this week :)



and if you want Debbie Macomber's Back on Blossom Street book, just holler and I'll toss that one into the box too :)



movin' along...



some garden pixs



These are my Beckys...I am overjoyed by these Happy Girls! In both of my previous gardens, I tried to get shastas to "do" for me...they laughed in my face...

I decided I'd give shastas 1 final shot here at Number 17...and LOOK! I love lookin' out the kitchen window at these :)



The Black Mission Fig...Black Mission Figs are borderline hardy here and this one got hit hard by our last Late Freeze...lost all of its new spring growth...but, tah-dah...the Black Mission is actually doin' better than the Brown Turkey Figs that are better suited to our area...I have 3 and this one

is, unfortunately, the best lookin' one of the bunch right now...I'm hoping they do better next year after settling in a bit...


verrrryyyyy clever of me to use the same colours of the cannas & whiskey barrel to camouflage the trash can...actually, I just needed somewhere to park those cannas in a hurry...but it worked out so well! sorry about the tatty lookin' Block o' Wood layin' there...but the driveway slopes off on that edge and whiskey barrel might just roll off into the lorapetulums...I need to get something that isn't so T-A-C-K-Y, don't I?

a ditch lily...dug this morning from a stand...there are a lot of them and we only took 2...

In Other News:

Mr G and I went for a walk this morning on the golf course just across the road...our lovely neighbor has given us permission to cross her land so we can just hop across to get in a good walk(this was the first time I've taken her up on her offer...Mr G went for the first time last week and wanted me to walk with him)...and while out walking I spotted what looks to be a citrus tree of some sort growing in the wild scrub at the edge of the course! so I'm going to keep an eye on it & maybe harvest a fruit or two for the seeds...I'm wonderin' if this is a Meyer's Lemon from a bird dropping...

and I saw wild grapes (probably scuppernogs) and a gone wild Passionflower Vine! I know that vine didn't get going from my Passionflower vine because my vine never flowered last summer...

Happy 100Th To Me..

So, in the newly hatched tradition of Blogland I am having a 100th post give-away :)

Leave a comment any time from today until next Saturday and I'll pop your name into the hat to win [drum roll sound] a Words in Stone kit and a stack of gently used books perfect for Summer Reading...

I have one of these kits sitting in the garage waiting for me to work up the nerve to try making adorable Garden Word Stone Thingies...it has been waitin' a while...Along with being Craft Inpaired, I am also Craft Intimidated...

The books are:

Shem Creek by Dorothea Benton Frank

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary Sewing Circle by Lois Battle

Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch by Haywood Smith

Chamomile Mourning (Tea Shop Mystery #6) by Laura Childs

Bet Your Bottom Dollar by Karin Gillespie (linked that one in case ya'll haven't

heard of it)

I almost threw this into the pot

but it is so darn cute I just couldn't let it go! it is also my first wall pocket...I'm plannin' on painting that screw head (that sounds vulgar) white so it isn't so In Your Face...just picked this up at the Habitat shop for a quarter...unfortunately, once I have 1 darling thing I love, I tend to become obsessed with finding more of the same...another collection I do not need...I should just yank that CUTE wall pocket off the, um, wall and send it packin'...but I won't...because Mr G would have a fit if I had a brand newly painted wall that need a hole patchin' job...

a Lecture, BTW, which I received this morning after asking for the swing arm lamp in our bedroom to be moved yet again...but since I rearranged the bedroom yesterday afternoon the lamp looked kind of silly just sitting all alone out of reach of the bed or chair...and presenting a real hazard when one tried to squeeze by to go to the far side of the bed...

It isn't like the room isn't going to have to be painted again anyway since those bookshelves came off the wall leaving holes that had to be patched...and I cannot for the life of me get the touch-up paint to match the 9 coats of Martha Stewart's Barn red...

I decided not to bring that piece of information into the conversation...ah yes, the Grasshopper can be taught...

Update on Picking 5 More Things to Do for the Environment:

I'm going back & forth over what to move forward with doing for lessening #17's impact on the planet...some things just seem like so much window dressing...others seem so drastic that I'm not sure I could make myself do them much less get the Rest of the Household on board (cloth toilet paper, anyone?)...

But this morning, I did drag 2 large cloth bags...and Mr G...to the H/M (that's my affectionate term for Wal-Mart...I'll leave it to ya'll to figure out what the H stands for) for grocery shopping...

What I learned:

1. always take 1 more bag than you think you'll need

2. go when the grocery store (whichever one you use) isn't busy...because if you turn helping out the planet into a PITA for the checker and the people behind you, you really are going to set their minds against pursuing at least this option...fortunately, we got a checker who was fine with sitting the things on top of the little spinning wheel for me to shove into my cloth bags...and I don't think we slowed her down too much...but I did still end up with 4 plastic bags (see #1)

3. if you're pushing the buggy out the parking lot anyway, don't bag things that just don't really need bagging...for instance...the 10 lb bag of rice...and the soy milk...more than a 2 things of milk in any bag is heavy enough...and I'm always draggin' home at least 3 things of milk...

4. take a partner whenever possible to help when the checker is moving fast

5. just go ahead & hand your receipt to the person at the door (if in H/M) since you'll be wheelin' out with a lot of unbagged stuff...(is unbagged a real word? or am I forging new links in our language tree?)

6. bags with gusseted bottoms (should there be two Ts in gusseted? gussetted? I have no idea...okay, spellcheck says one T) work best...

I do think the whole Takin' Your Own Bags thing works best if you are shoppin' where you can just hand over your bags to the bag boy (bag person?) and let him/her iron out the kinks the easiest way to keep things flowin' along smoothly...

and I noticed this past week...because I bought a few gifts...and did some thriftin'...that most people are pretty used to being told "no bag, please"...I think the problem arises when you wait until after your purchase has been bagged...make sure to go ahead & say it early on in your transaction...like "Hi! No bag, please"...

I'm thinkin' New Step #2 is going to be along the lines of No Plastic Allowed That Isn't a 1 or a 2...our community only recycles 1s & 2s...no 5s...there are a lotta 5s out there...Yogurt has moved onto my No-Buy list because I cannot find a yogurt in a 1 or a 2...I may have to start makin' my own yogurt...

anyhoo...I'll let ya'll know what the 5 New Things End Up Being some time here shortly...I just want to make sure these 5 New Things are Keepers...

Happy 4th of July, Ya'll

The plan was to share a photograph of some beautiful gardenias cut from the old shrub already in place when we moved in (my ability to kill any and all gardenias I plant is legendary in My Own Mind)...but the camera's batteries went ker-plunk...so instead ya'll get to see all of the blueberries I picked on Monday! all right...settle down...

I've never picked blueberries so I was just so psyched and determined to fill that little bucket (which holds, by the way, anywhere from 10 to 12 pounds of berries)...I made it to 8 1/2 pounds and called it a day...2 hours of work and I had to take to the bed early that night...man...I cannot imagine doing that for a living...I mean, I'm really really tightfisted with my grocery dollars so, yes, for $1.50 a pound, I'll stand in the sun on a Georgia Summer Day* to pick blueberries...but I got to quit and go home when I was good and ready...

Now I completely get why those dang blueberries are so frightfully expensive in the store...and maybe I'll gripe a little less when I actually can bring myself to pay for some...until my 5 blueberry bushes get off their duffs and start producing some berries...

anyhoo...I give you eight-and-a-half pounds of blueberries...(um, that's just a theatrical wording thing...no one is gettin' her mitts on those hard won blueberries)

Well...I wish I had some raspberries to throw in there to make it a Proper Fourth of July photograph...but there it is...

Pass along my thanks ya'll who have kin in the service or who were in the service...what a great gift they've secured for us all...

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*and it really wasn't all that hot...I just like to whine about stuff....