Birds After the Garden

Today we decided to go to the bookstore and just kick back for a while.  When we got home, I noticed a cherry tomato from the garden laying in the yard.  A bird had pulled it off and eaten half of it before leaving it behind.  There was a second one they had munched on as well.  We decided to go ahead and pick all of the ripe veggies before the birds got more and ended up picking 3 jalapeno peppers, 4 cayenne peppers, 12 cherry tomatoes, and 6 cucumbers.  The garden is doing so well.  I have some spaghetti squash I am watching, but just haven't gotten the timing right on when to pick those yet.

Get Involved

When hubby and I moved in to our home, we promised ourselves that we would get involved with our town; and we have done just that.  We moved to a small town (population about 17,000) because we both wanted that small town feel but wanted to be close enough to the city so it would be easy for me to commute to work.  When we moved here, I was appointed to one of the city boards, Keep Hutto Beautiful, and I also took the town Citizen's University course so I could learn more.  Because of these things, hubby and I participate in events in our town almost every weekend.  Right now the Farmer's Market is going on and I am having a blast being one of the hosts.  It has allowed me to meet lots of our local farmers as well as many of the city officials. 

The reason I am writing this, is because so many people don't get involved.  They say they don't have time.  The point is, you have to make time.  I did.  I work full time (usually 50-60 hours per week) and go to grad school, but I still find time to attend board meetings once a month and go to volunteer events.  It doesn't take much - just a little effort.  Show up to volunteer events, get to know the people in your community, and make a difference.  Be an influence in your town.  I realize it is harder for those that live in large cities, but I still believe you should be involved.  It is especially important if you own property and pay taxes in a community, that you participate and have a say about what goes on in your community.  This is something that I believe strongly about and really want to encourage others to get involved too. 

So You Think You Can Dance

I am so happy SYTYCD is back.  I also saw previews that Next Food Network Star is coming soon and so is MasterChef.  Yes, I watch too many reality shows, but I like them.

What shows do you like to watch?

Frustrated

I went yesterday to the therapist for a myofascial release to see if that would help my back.  They did an evaluation to see my areas of concern, did electrotherapy, did sonogram therapy over the area, and did try to manipulate the fascia in that area, oh and gave me 2 home exercises to do (ones I had already been doing).  I didn't have a sense of relief when I left there, but was optimistic that maybe it would feel better later.  I woke up this morning to the grandfather of all spasms and my neck and back very stiff and painful.  I am going to give it through the long weekend of taking the muscle relaxers and doing stretches, but if that doesn't help, I am going to have to find someone else to see who specializes in back issues.  I haven't had a regular back doctor since my surgery, so I will have to find someone.

When It Rains It Pours

This week is turning out to be one of those weeks where you just want it to be over already.  Late Sunday night, hubby woke me up to tell me something happened to his tooth.  I was pretty asleep, so didn't remember much of it.  When I got up yesterday, there was a note on the mirror telling me to make him a dental appointment because his tooth split.  Yikes!  Well, our dentist never called back (and still hasn't), but thankfully hubby was able to get in with a Castle Dental near our home and they took care of him.  This morning, I woke up and can barely move.  My back had been bothering me over the past few days so the doctor gave me some muscle relaxers and a slip to go see a physical therapist if it didn't get better.  Well, today it is worse than ever.   The muscle relaxers are having very little impact and the heating pad, although it feels good, isn't really helping either.  I called the physical therapist and the soonest they can get me in is tomorrow afternoon.  I am ready for this week to end already.

My Grandparents Would Be Proud

I grew up in the country and my grandparents would always have a garden that would help them with their grocery needs for the family.  In fact, in later years, my grandfather would take some of his fruits and vegetables and sell them on the roadside.  As a kid, I hated being in the garden.  I liked very little of the stuff that came out of the garden, so I didn't want to help - I still had to help, but I really didn't want to.  Now as an adult, I really like gardening and wish I had paid more attention to what my grandparents were trying to show me.  I still am not a fan of all of the items that come out of the garden, but I like seeing the things I planted grow.  Today I spent my morning volunteering at the farmer's market and spent the afternoon working in our garden picking spaghetti squash, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos.  I think if my grandparents could see my garden, they would be very proud.

Butt Dialing

Remember that commercial a year or so back where the guy "butt dialed" his girlfriend?  I thought that commercial was really funny.  Well, today I saw online where a guy "pocket dialed" 911 and the police overheard his conversation....of his making a drug deal.  Check out this funny story.

The Chicago Code & Lie To Me

I heard the other day that the network is going to cancel The Chicago Code as well as Lie To Me and some others.  I really hate to see these cancelled.  Both Chicago Code and Lie To Me are shows that we really like to watch and have never missed an episode. 

Birthday & Anniversary

Today was my parents 38th anniversary and my birthday (not saying how many, but it is more than 38).  For my birthday, my orange crush day lily bloomed.  Hubby also bought me two concrete hippos and a new blue tooth for my car.

Orange Crush Day Lily

To Dallas and Back

I travelled to Dallas and back today for a business meeting.  I opted to fly instead of drive so I wouldn't have to deal with the frustrations of driving back in 5pm traffic.  The plane flight up there wasn't bad at all, but the plane flight back could have been better.  There were twins girls sitting in the row behind me who were about 7 or 8 and their parents were sitting next to me.  One of the girls was panic attacks at every little bump in the flight and the other one was getting sick.  You would think that the parents would be concerned or try to console the girls, but that wasn't the case at all.  The dad just stared out the window and the mother sat there staring straight ahead with her hands on the back of the seat in front of her.  Twice the mom handed the girl getting sick a clean barf bag, but never said anything.  I felt really bad for the person sitting next to the two girls.  Thankfully it was only a 35 minute flight. 

Bridesmaids

I rarely go see movies at the theater because they don't grab my interest enough to keep me awake.  Since I rarely go to the movies, I have never gone to see a movie on opening day - until now.  The previews to Bridesmaids looks so good that I had to go, so hubby and I went on opening day.  The movie was fantastic.  No, it is not a female version of The Hangover.  Having seen The Hangover, I think Bridesmaids may be a smidge better.  There were parts of the movie where I thought it was going to slow down and cause me to lose interest, but before that could happen it would pick back up and having me roaring with laughter again.  The opening scene with the two ladies in the deli/coffee shop and they were describing the male anatomy had the whole theater rolling with laughter.  The dress shop scene was both gross and hilarious all at the same time.  There was one part near the end where I had just taken a drink and almost choked on my soda when Megan said she had put a loaded firearm in their luggage.  Hubby was laughing so hard during this movie that he had tears rolling down his face. 

All in all, I would actually pay to go see this one again.  I will most definitely buy this movie to add to our collection.  If you have a couple of hours and need a great laugh, go see this movie.

Street Party

This evening our town had an old fashioned street party downtown.  We had vendors who set up tables to sell their crafts, we had live music, face painting, balloon art, and all kinds of fun things to do.  The turnout was great.  We are planning to have one every month through October.  I really hope it continues to catch.  It was a lot of good family fun and it was nice seeing the community to pull together.

Finch Nest

Hubby was checking out the flowers today and noticed something laying in the flower bed.  When he looked closer, he noticed it was bird egg.  Apparently it fell from a nest that is in our hedges.  He looked and there is still 3 more little eggs there, so hopefully we will have some little baby finches very soon.

Garden - Zuchinni Squash

Today we got our first zucchini squash out of our garden.  In a couple of days I have a few jalapeno peppers that will be ready to pick and I also have little cherry tomatoes, cayenne's, bell peppers, and spaghetti squash.  The cucumbers have lots of blooms, but no baby cucumbers yet. 

New Addition

We have added a new member to our family.  He is a blue fantail Betta name George (aka Fish Stick).  We have had him about 2 weeks now and he comes to the edge of the bowl when I talk to him.  I haven't had fish in a while, so I had forgotten how nice they are to watch.

Osama Bin Laden

The death of Osama and whether or not we should see the pictures has been in the new a lot lately.  I have to admit, I was one of the skeptics who wanted to see proof.  After a conversation with hubby last night, I have changed my mind.  When he told me that the decision had been made to not show the photos, I was a little irritated.  Then he asked "don't you trust Obama"?  He went on to say, that surely he wouldn't announce the death if he hadn't seen proof and showing the pictures could potentially cause more issues, so... do you trust Obama?  And the answer to that is, yes.  There is something about him that makes be believe what he tells me.  Had this news come from one of our prior presidents, I would not have had the same trust.  So, I no longer feel as skeptical and feel like I need to see proof with my own eyes.

Smoke Alarm

Why is it that your smoke alarm battery never goes dead at a convenient time?  Ours seems to always go dead late at night when we are relaxing and getting ready for bed or in the middle of the night when we are sound asleep.  This morning, the smoke alarm starts beeping at 6am.  It jolts me out of bed and sends the dogs in to a barking frenzy.  By the time I get awake enough to figure out what is happening, everything is quiet.  I look over at hubby and he is still sound asleep, so maybe I was just dreaming.  I go back to sleep and about an hour later it happened again.  This time I am not dreaming because it woke hubby too.  I get the ladder so hubby can help me change the batteries (I am too short even with a ladder) and when I look in the box of batteries, we are short one battery.  Since the smoke alarms are all connected, they still beep even is one is low, so I made a mad dash to Walmart to get a battery.  I know they said you should change the batteries once every 6 months or when the time changes, but I have it on my calendar to change them every 3 months now.  No more being jolted out of bed.