Are you there? Am I here?

Yes, I'm here... well, kinda but not really. Enjoying the holidays up north with my family. I'm not very good at keeping up on my blogs anymore, what with Facebook being so much fun and all ;) Friend me there if you want more updates on what I'm doing and reading my witty comments and observations ;)

http://www.facebook.com/kantalek

"COOL" Holiday Photos

Last weekend we went to Chris' holiday party at Gaylord Palms Resort here in Orlando. As part of the celebration, we were given passes to ICE!, a walk-through Christmas attraction hand-carved from nearly TWO MILLION pounds of ice. Here are some of the photos of the "cool" (literally) stuff we saw :)

New(-ish) hobby, new blog!

Check out some of the jewelry I've made!

Updated Crochet Blog

I posted new projects on my crochet blog :)

Happy Halloween!

Check out the dog's Halloween costumes for this year :)

Mr. Scruffleupagus

For the past few weeks, I've been enduring this facial hair "experiment". What do YOU think??

In one short month from today...

...seriously, I can't wait.

Bicycle! Bicycle! Bicycle!

I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

Queen, anyone?





As you can see, the song is relevant today. Today, Chris finally convinced me to get a bike. I don't know why I didn't listen to him sooner (but please don't tell him I said that, I don't want him to get a big head or anything :) We went to the local bike shop and got this blue beauty. It is a Motorbecane hybrid, a Jubilee. It is one of their "comfort" bike types, so it is perfect for me to ride around our little subdivision town with Chris without putting stress on my wrists (carpal tunnel and tendonitis were concerns). We rode from our house, to the local Subway and then all around our little downtown area and took the long way back home afterwards. Fun!

Did I just grow?

So, while I was swimming last night, I had this thought... "I wonder if I'm REALLY 5'3"". I don't know why I thought it, but I did. The last time I was measured for height I was at my first endocrinologist's appointment (stupid thyroid). This was shortly after I had first moved to Florida. I moved to Florida on November 1, 2002. So, let's say this appointment happened in early 2003. I distinctly remember the nurse checking my weight AND height and not speaking EITHER of them aloud. The weight I could understand, but the height? She said it was a privacy thing. Ok, whatever. So, the number she wrote down was 5'3 1/4". This was no surprise to me, I've always known myself to be 5'3". So, when someone would ask me how tall I was, my answer was always "five foot, three inches (and if I was in a silly mood) AND A QUARTER! The quarter inch matters to us shorter folks!!"

I've always known myself to be 5'3".

When I came home from swimming last night, I asked Chris to measure me. We went over to the whiteboard on the wall, I took my shoes off, and Chris marked my height on the board. I went to get the tape measure, and to my surprise, the mark on the whiteboard fell ABOVE 5'3" (and 1/4")... a "lot" considering I'm 33 years old and haven't grown since about the 8th grade (maybe 7th grade?). The reading on the tape measure was almost at 5'4"! I mean, it was 5'3 15/16". Dude. Totally 5'4"!. Ok, ok, maybe it is just a funky way of measuring. Maybe we held the tape measure wrong.
Maybe I stood funny. Maybe the whiteboard somehow make the lines you draw on it higher than where you actually wrote it (NOT!). We took the measurement again with me standing against the refrigerator and he slid a flat metal tool over the top of my head and held it there. I stepped back and measured again. 5'3 15/16"!! Totally 5'4" rather than 5'3"!

We measured again this AM. You know, you're taller in the AM than you are in the PM, right? Anyway, this AM, I measured 5'4 1/4"!

I think it is official. I'm now 5'4".

This totally changes the game.

Happy Birthday, Little Friend!

Today is the day we celebrate as Al's "Birthday". Birthday is in quotation marks because we don't really know his actual birthday. He was "about 4" when we adopted him from the rescue organization. Today is the day that we adopted him, 4 years ago. Which makes Al "about 8". So, Happy About 8th Birthday, Al Udeid! :)





We celebrated this morning just after I fed all of the dogs breakfast. I got out the PupCorn (cheese flavored) and started dumping handfuls of it on the floor, singing "Happy Birthday" to my favorite pug! :)

2,000 yards is "just right"

I'm so excited that at this point, I can do 2,000 yards in the pool and feel pretty good and not overtired afterwards :) I also noticed just this evening that when I was on the sofa, laying on my side, my thigh didn't have any dimples on the side and was pretty firm - go me!

7 Night Eastern Disney Cruise!

We're back from our second cruise of 2009. Our second EASTERN cruise too. We had a great time. Our itinerary was:

Day 1: Port Canaveral, FL
Day 2: At Sea
Day 3: At Sea
Day 4: Tortola, BVI
Day 5: St. Thomas, USVI
Day 6: At Sea
Day 7: Castaway Cay
Day 8: Port Canaveral, FL

The frogs in our backyard...

This little guy is just an example of the many frogs that we have in our backyard. Come to our house any night - especially nights when it has rained - and you will find (or hear) dozens of these little guys. When I first moved to Florida, I didn't know what that sound was that I was hearing. It sounded like screeching or something. No, I found out that it was frogs.

In the back of our house, next to the garage we have a white fence that circles our backyard. the place where the fence meets the house at the garage has a light above it. The bugs are attracted to the light, and the frogs climb up the wall or fence and sit on top, eating the bugs that gather at the light. It is kinda cute and fun to look at, but I always feel bad when we startle the frogs... they go hopping away and sometimes try to "escape" us by hopping into our garage. The only problem there is that they may go in nice and squishy and alive, but we usually find them when we move a box or something... all crunchy and dead :(

September 3, 2009 - Our 4th Anniversary

2005




2009




I love you, Babe!

3...2..1...LIFTOFF!

We watched the midnight launch of Discovery's mission last night... I really love the night launches... the WHOLE SKY lights up... seriously! You can watch on TV when the rockets start to light, and then go outside the back of our house in the driveway and watch the cypress head glow orange until finally you see the shuttle emerge through the trees. Way cool.

Here is a link to a long exposure photo that Chris took last night from our driveway on a tripod and posted on our local television station's (WESH) website. Just beautiful, isn't it?

Hysterical.

http://www.heartlessdoll.com/2009/03/top_ten_best_responses_to_when_are_you_having_a_ba.php?page=1

I. CAN'T. WAIT. FOR. THIS. MOVIE!!!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

Cheers to you, Mom! I hope you have a GREAT day! I love you!

Nuisance barking problem solved?

We have a couple of barkers in our house. It can be quite annoying, especially at 5:00 AM when a certain JRT decides he's up for the day and everyone else should be too. I kept complaining about it... so much that Chris finally decided to do something about it. Introducing the Anti-Bark citronella spray bark collar by Multivet.

This bark collar is completely painless, humane (it is SPCA approved!) and safe without any kind of side effects. It isn't one of those ones that will "shock" or "jolt" the dog when they bark. Instead, if they bark while wearing the collar, a spray of citronella comes out of the collar and sprays upward towards their face (but not in the eyes). More than anything it startles the dog and overloads their sense of smell (their strongest sense) and soon they realize that the barking is what makes the spray blast.





We tried it out on the dogs last night. We first put the collar on Al, but he wasn't really barking so it didn't really work very well. We then put the collar on Mrka and I went outside and rang the doorbell. All of the dogs bark when the doorbell is rung. When she barked, the citronella sprayed and startled her. It was really funny, actually. She looked like "WTF was that???" It only took about two times before she associated the barking with the spray. We continued to ring the doorbell and although she was VERY alert, she didn't bark.

We also put the collar on Bauer who had a similar reaction. Maybe we've finally solved the barking problem in our house?!?!

Right now, the plan is to only have it on them when we are home so we can use it as a training device...

No workout today -- BAD KELLY!

Nope, didn't do it. Didn't get up as planned to do my Monday AM workout. Didn't even work out this evening. Too tired! I woke up when the alarm went off this AM, but when I could barely reach my arm from under the covers to turn it off, I decided maybe I needed a little break.. So, here's to getting up early tomorrow and getting back on track!!!

Back-to-back Swim Attack!

Good idea or not, I did a second swim workout today. 1,200 yards. It felt good during, but I ended up needing a 2 hour nap afterward!!

First swimming workout in about 7 years...

Today we went to the new gym for the first time. They have a 25 yard pool that I desperately wanted to take advantage of. So, after signing up there, I signed up on Swimplan.com. This is a great site. It will customize swim workouts for you depending on what kind of strokes you want to do, the equipment you have, the duration you would like to swim, and your experience level. Today, I did a 1,400 yard workout! I'm so proud... and I'll be so sore tomorrow :) But, it really felt good to be back in the pool!

An awesome keyless lock!

So, we joined a gym today. Shocker, right? The main reason was so I could have access to a lap pool again. This one has a 25 (they claim) meter (although I think it is really a yard) pool with four lanes. Yippee!

But, we needed to get locks for the locker room. Chris suggested I pick up these ones, and I LOVE it!





These locks are by Master Lock and are called the Speed Dial. They're awesome not only because they are keyless, but they have this slider "button" that moves up, down, right and left and customize a sequence instead of memorizing the numbers.

I can't wait to try it out tomorrow, for my first workout!! (at the gym, that is)

Sore :)

Today is officially a "rest" day according to the workout schedule I printed from online. Waking up (about 40 minutes ago), my butt and thighs and biceps hurt! I'm thankful for the day of rest. But, I think I'll still probably take a walk or something later... that is, if it is cool enough. I'm getting my hair done today, including color, and I don't want to get all sweaty... so much that I would need to wash my hair afterward... especially not with fresh new color on it!

Taking Control!

This week I'm taking control. I'm trying to get my food intake and lack of exercise to where it SHOULD be.

Sunday afternoon, Chris and I (ok, mostly Chris) cleared out "his" spare bedroom (this means we took all the crap he had in there and junked up "my" spare bedroom, but that's ok... for now) and set up the Bowflex and made the elliptical more easily usable. We also moved the TV in there to a position that you can see it from either machine. We also dug out the dumbbells and whatnot. We also went to Publix and bought all kinds of yummy healthy food.

Monday morning I got up just before 6:00 AM (ugh) and did my first workout. This was one I printed from online, and it alternated 5 minutes of cardio and one set of a Bowflex exercise. I'm kind of liking those "fat burning" routines. I did it again yesterday too! Today was my "rest" day from those workouts, so instead of that, we walked to dinner and back. We went to our local sub shop and I got a great roasted pork sub on a wheat roll. Was quite yummy. We're also really liking the Stauffers skillet meals... you just dump the bag into a skillet and in 10 minutes it is done! Plus, they're only about 350 calories per serving and I think they're quite satisfying. Super easy solution for a work night!

Oh, and I'm also tracking my exercise and food intake via the "Lose It!" app on my iPhone. Super cool app... and it is FREE!

Wish me luck!!

Happy 233rd Birthday, America!!

How are you going to celebrate? We'll be watching fireworks at Epcot :)

King of Pop

I really can't say that I've been a fan of Michael Jackson's antics later in life, but I have always loved his music. I still do. His music was always great, no matter how many plastic surgeries he had or didn't have or whatever other kinds of legal drama was going on. It was always just good music.





I remember as a kid, the first RECORD (yes, an actual record) that I ever bought with my own money was Michael Jackson's Thriller. It came out in 1983, which would have made me 7 years old. In those days I was probably getting like $1 a week allowance, so it probably took a long time to save up the cash to buy the darn thing. I remember loving the album. I believe it still holds the record for the best selling album of all time.

I also remember going to my grandparent's house to watch MTV because we didn't get that channel on our cable. I remember seeing the Thriller video for the first time. It was epic. I remember thinking it was really LONG (which it was, of course). I loved Vincent Price's narration... what a spooky voice! I remember I didn't like seeing the zombies (never liked horror movies and still don't) that much, but was impressed by the way they danced all in unison! I remember for YEARS to come (and maybe even still now if/when MTV actually plays videos...) Thriller always being the #1 video when MTV would do a countdown show of the best videos of all time.

I used to love puzzles and get them often for my birthday or Christmas. One year, probably the same year or close to the year Thriller came out, I got a puzzle with a picture of Michael and his chimp, Bubbles. I remember thinking, "how cool is that, to be able to have a chimp as a pet?!"





I'm pretty sure I had a poster at one point that hung on my bedroom closet door of probably the Thriller cover or something... I know for sure I had one of those cheesy small vinyl purses with basically a string strap that had a screen print of MJ on the side. I think mine was blue.

I remember when things started happening that were a little weird... him grabbing his crotch at the end of a video, marrying Lisa Marie Presley, kissing her awkwardly at the MTV Video Music Awards... maybe it is MJ, the first celebrity that I really knew who he was, that got me into the whole celebrity gossip following. It seemed that there was a different story on him all the time to follow.

Anyway, despite his faults and eccentricities, I wish him a peaceful rest.

Happy Father's Day!!

To all the dad's I know... I hope you have a wonderful day today... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

To my FIL: I'm sorry we weren't able to come out to see you today, but enjoy your porterhouse dinner tonight! :)

To my own Daddy: I love you 1,000 dumptrucks... where do I get all that love, you may ask?? "from my little heart" :)

I love pierogies!

No matter how long I've been away from Pittsburgh, I will always love pierogies :) My favorite way to eat them is pan fried, then a bit of butter over them and a dash of salt! Mmmmmm :)

My lovely lunch hour while working remotely...

...I was working remotely today (meaning, working from home). I went into the kitchen to grab something for lunch about 20 minutes ago. When I walked in, I noticed that Mrka had dark smudges on her fur around her neck area like she was rolling in some dirt or something. She LOVES to roll in stuff. I got a pet wipe and started cleaning off what I at first thought was dirt/mud, only to find that it was poop. And, it wasn't just on her neck area, it was all over her body and completely mashed all into her LEATHER collar too. GRR. Then, I look at Bauer, and he too has sh!t all over him. WTF?

I'm thinking this may have been a result of this morning's VERY EARLY escapades. Around 4:00 AM this morning to go to the bathroom, and when I get up, Bauer will usually get up and follow me. Sometimes he'll also run downstairs and go outside to go too. Well, when I finished in the bathroom I started to hear barking. Concerned about the early hour, I ran downstairs to shush the dog. I couldn't get him to come into the house! Chris finally got up too and brought a flashlight and started looking in the backyard. I didn't have my glasses on, so I couldn't see very well. Turns out there was a possum or something in the back yard that must have crawled under the fence and that's what Bauer was confronting. We finally got the dog in the house, while also keeping Mrka and Al at bay. We then slid the panel into the doggie door so that whatever that was couldn't get into the house. When we got up this morning, our visitor was gone.

Anyway, my guess is that our little "visitor" left droppings that were then found by Bauer and Mrka (my precious Al was poop free). Poop and dead things are apparently irresistible to both of those guys, especially Mrka. So, I spent my lunchtime bathing all three dogs (they were due, so Al got a bath too). I also had to get the tags off of both Mrka and Bauer's collars and threw the collars away. Thankfully I have some (albeit ugly) backups that they'll wear until we can get them new (more fashionable) styles. So much for having an early lunch!

Nuthin'

I have nuthin' exciting to say... check out my crochet blog to see what I've been up to lately :)

Too...much...rain...

I was just outside to water my plants. Yes, I know that sounds crazy with all of the rain we've had the past two weeks. But, it is necessary for the plants that are on the front and back porches covered by the porch roofs.

Seriously, when the rain stops long enough for the ground to dry out a bit, I have a TON of weeding to do. Blech!

I'm so proud of myself!

I've been diligently going through the emails that I've been receiving and unsubscribing myself from newsletters and emails that I never read. Mind you, none of these that I'm unsubscribing to are the ones that end up in my spam folder. Those you should NEVER respond to in any way because then the sender knows that they have a "live" email address. I've just been trying to clean up the clutter that I never read that comes to my inbox on a regular basis... I feel like I've done spring cleaning in my inbox!

Now, if I could only harness that motivation and start working on my closet to go through my clothes and shoes...

One of my favorite things about summer...

...is FRUIT SALAD! Living in Florida, summer is kind of a yucky season. I often tell my friends from up north that it is like winter in Pittsburgh. We don't go outside much, and instead find things indoors to do. It is just way too oppressively hot during the summer months here in FL to be outside for very long. If you ARE outside for any amount of time, rest assured you will be taking a shower the minute you return back indoors. Between the general heat, the humidity and the blistering sun, I prefer the day or two of fall and then the two weeks of winter we get ;)

But, back to the fruit salad. I love summer fruit. Yesterday, I made a giant fruit salad for us to enjoy this weekend. Watermelon, (Florida) cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes, cherries, strawberries and blackberries. YUM! And it is so pretty!





The only thing about making your own fruit salad in this way is that the trash bag was pretty heavy to hoist out of the can with all of the melon rinds and other fruit scraps... so, bonus points... healthy snack AND a workout! ha!

June and July Book Club Selections have been chosen!

I'm happy to report that the June and July book club selections have been chosen, and I already own BOTH! :)

June's book club selection is Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella of the Shopaholic fame. Funnily enough, you can see the book on my book shelf in the background of this blog (yes, the background is actually my very own book shelf!). See the red book on the right hand side?





July's book club selection is Second Chance by Jane Green.





Oh, and in other news, I'm now the organizer of our book club. Fun! :)

I'm addicted to Podcasts

My latest obsession is Podcasts. I'm constantly listening to them... I listen to them in the car on my way to work, I listen to them at my desk when I'm doing work, I listen to them when I'm driving home from work (I drive a lot... 45 min to 90 min, depending on traffic), I listen to them when Chris is playing video games, I listen to them when I'm waiting for Chris to arrive somewhere that we're mutually meeting (I often arrive first - sorry, hon ;)

Anyway, here are my favorites:
The Answer B!tch - this is a podcast from E!. The host, Leslie Gornstein is an E! insider who answers questions about how Hollywood works. I have to say, it is pretty darn entertaining. I've been listening to this one for a few years now. This podcast has new episodes each week.

CRL with Vickie Howell - CRL stands for craft.rock.listen. They also stand for the host's line of yarns, Craft, Rock, Love. This is mostly a knitting blog. Howell used to host a show on the DIY Network called Knitty Gritty. But, since DIY Network eliminated their craft shows, Knitty Gritty got the axe. Howell hosted 8 podcasts, all of which were super informative about some of the fiber industry insider info. I wish she had more to download. Last week I finished my last from her.

Crochet Unraveled - This is the official podcast of the online crochet community, Crochetville. There are 4 episodes that are OK, last one was recorded on 08/13/2008.

Fiber Lust - Hosted by a SAHW/M, Kat records her podcasts complete with potty mouth and on-the-fly disorganized segments from her bed using her laptop while her husband works nights. Sound quality of the podcast is surprisingly good. I personally find this podcast amusing. It is quite self-indulgent on the part of the host who freely admits that she loves being the center of attention and probably even more, loves talking about herself. Hmm... a girl after my own heart! :)

Yarn Thing: Crochet and Knitting - I just barely listened to the first episode and it was weird. Lots of shrieking and odd music fading the segments in and out. Too soon to tell on this one, the jury is still out.

Yarn Craft - This is the official podcast of Lion Brand Yarn. This is a VERY organized podcast with regular segments and two hosts. If you can get over the Liz girl's gravely voice, the podcast is really quite interesting and informative. This is an ongoing podcast and posts episodes every-other Tuesday.

Podcasts I have downloaded and haven't yet listened to:
The Adam Carolla Podcast
The Crochet Student: Where Textbooks Meet Yarn
CrochetCast
Crochetlocket: running with needles
The FiberCast
Getting Loopy! with Mary Beth Temple
Imprint: The #1 Twilight Podcast
Stash and Burn
Stitch Stud and his Bride
Yarn Talk

Lonely Blog

This blog is very lonely. I don't update it very often, even though I continue to read all the time. My apologies. Lately, I've been working to finish the Twilight series. Most people think I'm crazy for not finishing these books in a week or less, or some other such crazy time frame. The truth is that I've been very busy with work, and then when I'm home and relaxed, even the Twilight books have been putting me to sleep. So, I've been spending the bulk of my at home idle time crocheting while watching TV. But, as of around 10:30 PM last night, I finally finished Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer.





By far, this has been my favorite Twilight book. It is really funny because there were parts of it that I complained about and hated... but in the end it was truly my favorite of the series. I would say that I'm grief stricken now that I've finished all of the books in the series, but I have a little bit of a reprieve in that I'm already now reading the pdf version of Midnight Sun made available on the author's website. After reading the author's notes about the partial book, I'm saddened for her that someone had leaked it without her permission, and will read the book with an open mind (as it is an unfinished work). I really do hope that the author is able to overcome the violation of trust that lead to the book being leaked before it was ready and eventually continues to write about the Twilight saga. It is a wonderful escape for myself and I know many others who have read and love these books.

My May book club meeting is fast approaching, and I haven't read that book yet. I'll be at Barnes & Noble later today to buy the book since it is not available on the Kindle. May's selection is Naked Came the Manatee by Carl Hiaasen.





Speaking of Barnes & Noble... when I just went to their website, I found a new Jen Lancaster book! I had no idea she was writing another! The Twilight rock I've been living under has obviously been all-consuming. Apparently, Pretty in Plaid was just released on May 5th, this past week! I'm having a vision... I'm seeing my bill at Barnes & Noble going up by about $15 today... and yes, I want this book in physical form (as opposed to Kindle form)...

I Heart Mom

To all the mothers I know, I hope you have a very special day today filled with doing things you simply love.

To my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law, it was great to see you yesterday!

To my own mom... I send you 10 dumptrucks full of love this Mother's Day!

New roses + bone disappearance conviction!

The bone stealer was caught! In my last post, we saw Al, a sensitive pug who was mourning the loss of his bone. Now, we see that it is official. Bauer stole it. Count the number of bones in his mouth... I say we have our culprit! I only gave out three bones. Mrka still had hers, Al was missing his and two show up in this turkey's mouth:





Here are some roses from the new bushes in the garden:

I LOVE Totino's Pepperoni Pizza!

Yes, that cheapo pizza with the crunchy crust... but with GOBS of extra shredded cheese added by moi. Only 5 minutes until the oven timer dings!

More roses - just words, no pic yet!

This evening, I bought some more rose bushes... FYI, Lowe's in Orlando has them as cheap as $7.99! I bought five new ones... a light pink, a blush with light pink edges, blush with dark pink edges, a bright pink one, and an grafted one that has pink and red. I cut some of the blooms and shoved them into the same vase as the others. I don't want to get the camera out and take a pic, maybe I'll do that tomorrow :)

BTW, YAY, THE WEEKEND IS HERE!

A pug and some roses...

The roses are growing like crazy right now, and I keep taking the blooms that are opening and cutting them to bring inside. They smell so yummy and are just so pretty to look at! Here are some yellow ones from my garden...





While I had the camera out, I snapped this cute picture of Al. He was sitting with his bum on his beddie, pouting and all dejected because Bauer had just stolen his raw hide bone.

Garden Roses

Although I should probably put this on my garden blog, I just couldn't resist sharing this on my main blog :) Here is a trio of roses that I cut from our garden just a little while ago and put in a vase inside for us to enjoy :) I think I'm going to do this with all of our roses as they open. They're so fragrant and pretty! Today, I only had red ones opened, but we have some yellow and white rose blooms that will likely open later this week!

New layout...

...what do you think? Personally, I'm going to let this one simmer a little while...

Non-crochet Baby Shower Stuff

We had a baby shower at work this week, and I think I am now unofficially/officially the baby shower coordinator for our team. In addition to the crochet gifts I made from myself (as opposed to the team), I also created a diaper cake centerpiece and also made cupcakes with baby faces on them!

I learned to use a carpet shampooer today!

Yup! That's true. The woman who does anything possible to NOT have to ever clean, actually picked EVERYTHING up off her floor in the master bedroom (which is quite a feat when you live with Chris - his side has all kinds of crazy crap all over the place, but he kindly got most of it up off the floor prior to my cleaning) and FINALLY learned to use our carpet shampooer! Geez, after 3.5 years of marriage, and living in this house, you would have thought I would have learned to use it sooner. After all, Chris had it long before he ever met me... I had avoided it like the plague prior to today. Seriously, I think I was afraid that maybe by using it my hand might fall off or something.

Anyway, what a difference it made! Geez, with three dogs, our carpets were gross. We would clean up the messes with spot cleaners, but they would always leave something behind. So, I did our master suite, the hallway, "my" spare bedroom, and the stairs. Chris helped... he did the regular vacuuming prior to me using the shampooer. Oh, and another thing I found out... you should change the bag inside the regular vacuum *prior* to the bag filling up and weighing almost 5 pounds :) I can't remember the last time I changed that stupid bag. I can't remember the last time I used that stupid vacuum!

When I lived at my old apartment, I had a problem where there was a small separation between where the sliding glass door was and the wall, and that crevice was just big enough for bugs to get through... palmetto bugs (read: COCKROACHES! EW!) I used the vacuum to sweep them up rather than squish them until the maintenance team could fix the hole. What did you want me to do? I lived alone! So, when Chris changed the bag on the vacuum, I was half expecting to see a colony of palmetto bugs come marching out. Thankfully, that did NOT happen :)

Happy Easter!!

New blooms in the flower beds...

When I took pictures of the garden last, these blooms weren't open yet. Here are some more daisy-like flowers. We have 8 of these in the front flower beds, four on either side of the sidewalk:





...and the first gardenia has opened... and smells heavenly! This bugger is growing like crazy and is looking REALLY healthy.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We love you!

Is 40 violet plants a lot?

Yes, I said FOURTY. I counted them today. I have an obsession (I guess I'm putting that mildly) with violets. They are my favorite indoor plant, and thank God I have a knack of growing them! Right now, many of mine are in bloom, so here are some photos:

COLLECTIONS...

These are the violets on plant stands in our family room:




Violets on our kitchen windowsill:




Violets on our master bathroom windowsill:




Violets on the ledge of our master bathroom tub:




Violets on the ledge between the counter and tub in our master bathroom:




INDIVIDUAL BLOOMING VIOLET PLANTS:






















BLOOM CLOSE-UPS:





















Oh, and the 40 violets? That hat does NOT count all of the ones I'm trying to propagate on the back porch...