Beautiful Weekend

This was a weekend of wonderful weather and I tried to make the most of it. Today we took Tallulah to the park to swim and then to "U Wash Puppy" because she was SUPER smelly. I nice combo of fish and dog poop. Yum.
We gave her the bath of her life and then spent 20 min just brushing her out and fighting mats. But we let her air-dry since she HATES to be blow-dried.

Then we came home and Michael got to work on the pergola and I thinned out the zinnias that have over-run the patio. Unfortunately the zinnias irritate my skin. But, that's okay because after a liberal application of lotion I'm in the clear again.

I'm thinking that this evening we'll sit outside, enjoy the backyard and the wonderful weather.

The Siren Might As Well Be In My Head

It is SO loud.
We live 50 yards away from a tornado siren. And I can tell. Because it is painfully loud.
So loud that it makes me WANT to go the basement if for no reason but to dull the noise.

I'm am more worried about my brain leaking out of my ears than I am about a tornado.

In which I (surprise, surprise) complain about the weather

It's hot. July in KC hot. Every year I forget what it is like and am startled the first (or 50th) time I burn the back of my legs on the car seat. I blissfully forget about the searing pain of touching a hot door handle (seriously I need oven mitts for some of these doors) until once again I find myself cursing the summer sun.

During this heat wave we are trying to productive by cleaning out our closest in preparation for a garage sale that the in-laws will be holding later this summer and where we plan to share our crap, I mean junk, I mean very valuable items for which we no longer have a need. It appears the guest room closet served no other purpose than to hold the things we weren't ready to get rid of yet, but knew we someday would.

We also painted some swatches on the walls of that room. It's a small room and painting it should be no problem at all. While I love the strange sage-y green and cream that is EVERY room of our house, it is time for at least one room to have a change. Apparently our bedroom will never be that room - for years now I've wanted to paint it but have been vetoed every time. I think we will paint the guest room a muted yellow. It's subtle yet vibrant and should enhance that little room.

On the sewing front I have cut out all the pieces for the dress, but I'm now at a loss because the directions don't make any sense. ZERO. I've read them at least 10 times and every time I'm more confused. The plan is now to throw the directions away and just go with my gut. It is a simple sun dress, it really can't be that hard.

Prelude to Summer

Bleck, it this what we have to look forward to? No thanks!
It's nearly 6:00pm and it is just now cooling off. And cooling off is relative.

Muggy Mo

Today feels like May in Missouri. Muggy and still and sticky. It is not actually hot, but the air is so still and heavy that it seems hotter than it really is.
I'm still surprised that made it this far into May without more days like this. It has been a strange Spring.

We have been weeding the yard, mowing and trimming and basically trying to put everything back in place after the past few days of rain. It is amazing how fast the weeds, plants and grass grow in this kind of weather. I may be drooping but the garden looks great. The new Roma seems to be adapting well - hopefully it will catch up with the others soon.

I've been watching the crookneck squash and I can almost see it growing. Yesterday there was just the first hint of a blossom and today you can see three tiny squash. Every time I go back - even just an hour later I can tell that it has grown. It really is shocking and wonderful.

Now if only it wasn't so terribly muggy out.

Rainy day

Yesterday I put in the paperwork to take today off. It had been a long week and we have a very full weekend planned so I knew that nothing was going to get done around the house so I took the day off to get things done. I was hoping that is in addition to gettign things done I could work in the garden or sit out on the patio and knit. But the weather is against me. It is cold and rainy and all plans for sitting outside have been shot. I guess this means I really will have to get some work done. Here is the list:

• Hang Photos that have been sitting in frames with the hammer, nails and level next to them for the better part of 6 months. Seriously - 6 months. Though it was only in the last month that they moved from the guest room to the room where we plan to hang them.
• Photos hung! The one on the left is one of my favorite wedding pictures, the top right is me and my brother and bottom right is Michael and his brother and sister. We are all very cute. David is surprisingly blond in the picture which throws me every time.
  
  
• Clean Hall Bathroom. I cleaned the Master Bath last week, but the hall bath could use a scrubbing.
• Bathroom Scrubbed! I love my bathroom floors. The grey and yellow tile just makes me smile. And after a good scrub they look even better. I have decided that we need a shower curtain liner - no amount of scrubbing will save this one. I've been using seventh generation free and clear all-purpose cleaner - some say clean smells like lemons or pine, but to me you shouldn't be able to smell clean, so I love this product.
  
  
• Sweep Floors. I love having wood floors, but you can tell when they are dirty and they are dirty all the time. I sweep at least once a week and it still always looks like a fur ball exploded and with all the ins and outs from the yard there are little peices of grass that just have to go.
• Floors Swept. And once again I am shocked and appalled by the amount of dust and dirt that is tracked into our home over the course of a week.
  
• Vacuum. Only two rooms have carpet but there is Tallulah hair everywhere. I'm telling you Goldendoodles shed. They may be sweet and wonderful, but they shed - don't let anyone tell you they don't - they are lying.
• Carpet Vacuumed. So much dog hair over so little floor.
  
• Put Clothes Away. We have 2 baskets of clean laundry just sitting in our bedroom. But to put these clothes away I need to pack-up my winter clothes. Something I'm having trouble finding the motivation to do.
  
• Finish Baby Wrap Dress. All the knitting is done, yippee! All that is left to do is sew on the ribbons, block it and add some optional embroidery. I might skip the embroidery.
• Dress Finished! It looks so cute. I can't wait to see it on a baby instead of just a ruler. Now I just have to decide which baby shall wear it. There are so many out there right now.

• Sew Up The Test Bag. I fear I have lost all steam for this project. I really hate making muslins and this was definitely that. But I need to finish it up before I move on to making the real one so I can make sure that I like the size and strap width and length.

• Pay Bills. Technically this is already finished. I just need to track down a few stamps.

• Run My Outside of the House Errands: I'm going to map this out to take the most energy efficient route. Something I never do - I'm a backtracker.
  
• Turn in my CSA Application at the Hen House. $25.00 a week = 2 bags of farm fresh fruits, veggies, milk and meat. You never know what you'll get - but it will always be what is in season and what is locally grown. The trade off for this is that I have promised to stay away from the Farmer's Market this summer. I think it will be a fun experiment in "cooking with what you've got". I'll also get a cook book when I sign up so that will help.
• Swing by Prydes of Old Westport. They seem to be the only place that carries non-plastic food storage containers. I'm on the run from BPA. Before we even think about bringing a baby into this house (and we are not even going to think about doing that for at least another 4 months) it will be as BPA free as I can make it. Luckily we don't have too much plastic to begin with - but what we do have we will be saying "farvel" (that's good-bye in Danish).
• Visit Michaels or JoAnns for another skein of yarn. I'm making a caplet for myself and I'm short about a 1/2 skein. Sigh.
• Pick up Milk. I can alway tell when Matt's been swinging by the house - we go though milk much faster than normal. That and the big bowls are in the sink - the bowls that Michael and I never use because they are too big.
• Errands Run. Mattie joined me. At Prydes I picked up gifts for the three weddings I'll be attending at the end of the month and one small BPA free container. Then we went to the Hen House to sign up for the CSA. I like the CSA program but a HATE the Hen House. It is dark, the people are mean (seriously everyone who works there is unpleasant. At the Hy-Vee everyone is nice. They've even run to the back of the store to get cream cheese for me and did it willingly and with a smile.) and it is expensive. I'll just be running to the market section on Saturdays and getting the heck out. Plus the cookbook that came with the membership is the "Cattlemen's Guide to Healthy Beef". Seriously. Beef? I need to know how to cook the million veggies that will be coming our way this summer - not beef. Also - I didn't find the yarn..boo.
  

planted

The garden bed has been planted! Tomatoes (Green Zebra and Mystery), Peppers (Orange Bell and Little Sweet Reds), Rainbow Chard, Lettuce (Buttercrunch and Red Leaf), Zucchini, Yellow Cookneck Squash, Cucumbers, Basil, and Carrots. I plan on planting some Green Beans and Sugar Pumpkins once we build the little wall for the back raised bed. Hopefully next weekend.
We also planted flowers in the 3 front pots and the 2 small back pots. I've got one more to plant that currently has last years lavender - which to my surprise came back. The rosemary that shared the pot unfortunately did not.

Late Night Thunderstorms Are Not Okay

At 1:45am the wind really started to pick up and it started to hail a little bit. Which freaked Michael out - waking me up while he tried to find a weather update on the radio. I suggested turning on the TV because TV newscasters get all excited about the weather.
Guess what? we were having a thunderstorm! Really?
Now I'm just tired and grumpy.
Oh, and all the knitting I did while waiting for the Honda? ALL WRONG. I had to tear out and start back about 60 rows. SIXTY.
I think I need to go back to bed.

Newscasters - Freaking Out For No Reason

Seriously, is it necessary to break in to Grey's Anatomy every minute and a half to tell me that it is raining?
Calm down people.

Son of a Biscuit its cold again

Tonight I went out with the girls for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - home of ridiculously large portions and equal prices. But it was worth the splurge for the company and for the Chicken and a Biscuit - one of my favorite eating out meals. Breaded chicken, mashed potatoes, 2 shortcake biscuits, carrots and mushrooms, all smothered in country gravy. Seriously what could be better?
The only thing would have been if it hadn't been freezing again. The temperature dropped 20 degrees this morning. Yesterday I didn't need a coat and today I could have used a tuan-tuan to cut open and warm myself up in. (Star Wars reference for Michael)
Here's hoping it doesn't stay cold much longer. But it is still January so it's the snow and cold are to be expected.

Ice, Ice, baby.

Well the beautiful fat snow of Thursday has changed into typical Missouri winter weather - ICE. I woke up this morning to the sounds of frozen rain falling onto a sheet of ice. The roads are covered in a layer of ice. I'm glad we went to the store yesterday - so today we are going to stay put and work on projects. I've been knitting again and I have 2 blankets that are really close to being finished so those should be top priority.

Stay safe and if possible, stay off the roads!