Although i don't usually hit more than 1 grocery store a week (too much gas spent on driving), there are 4 grocery stores i frequent: Stop & Shop, which used to be my "main" store, Trader Joe's (it's the furthest out of the way, but great food items), Shop Rite (good prices, but also a bit out of the way) and Expect Discounts, a discount supermarket with a large Latino customer base.

Stop & Shop was my primary source partly becus, at 3 miles away, it's the closest. There's also one just a 1/2 mile from my office.

But with grocery prices ever rising, I'm forced to reexamine the prices of everything. About a month ago i started another price book, really just a list, organized by category (dairy, canned veggies, fresh produce, frozen, grains, beverages, etc.) of prices of those items i most regularly buy at all 4 stores.

(In December, i'll be going in on my mother's Costco membership, splitting the $50 membership cost with her, so that'll be yet a 6th store to have to track prices at, but she says there are bargains to be had, and i know that in years past, the savings on a single box of kitty litter alone (40lb box) paid for that annual membership fee.)

So as of late my I shifted allegiance more so to Expect rather than Stop & Shop. Fresh produce, for instance, was ALWAYS cheaper, yet becus not all the bins are refrigerated, a lot of the produce is over-ripe, so you have to be careful. I felt pretty confident Expect had the best prices.

Shop Rite, I knew, also had good prices, but becus it's sort of out of the way, requiring me to plan ahead and bring those refreezable gel paks during the summer, i only did my grocery shopping there a handful of times.

When my mom came over for lunch yesterday, she dropped off the Shop Rite circular, which i pored through. Actually, i already get their circular emailed to me, but becus it comes out on SUNDAYS, by which time i want to have my running around errands done with, i don't often look at it. (Stop & Shop, on the other hand, sends out their circular on Thursdays, and that's when their sales run, from Thursday to Thursday, so it allows me to plan my shopping ahead of the weekend.)

Well i was quite surprised to see that in some cases, Shop Rite prices beat Expect's. Take ketchup. I happened to have just bought ketchup at Xpect, a 1 lb, 8 oz bottle for $1.18. I thought it was higher than before but ASSUMED that since everything was going up, it wasn't out of keeping with anything else. Well, Shop Rite's price was .99 for a much larger qty, 2 lb, 4 oz bottle. Imagine that!

I would not be at all surprised if stores like Expect jack up prices sneakily on certain everyday items and hope it won't be noticed becus they are already the cost leaders on more major stuff.

I thought i was getting a "deal" at Xpect when i found 2 lb boxes of pasta at .80 a pound, but Shop Rite had the usual 1 lb. boxes on sale at .74 a pound.

Not everything at Shop Rite was cheaper. I bought a 2 lb. bag of pre-cooked frozen shrimp at Stop & Shop for $6.99, while the same item cost $9.99 at Shop Rite.

Until food prices stabilize (and that won't happen til oil prices do), keeping an accurate price book will continue to be a challenge.

But it's gotten to the point where with most food items, i won't buy them until they go on sale. Like, i really prefer Pepperidge Farm dark German wheat bread, and when it's offered at one-third off, i stock up and buy 4 loaves, freezing or at least refrigerating those i'm not using. When i run out, i refuse to purchase at the normally much higher prices, so i do without. I've been craving dark German wheat bread but haven't seen it on sale lately. Well, Arnold bread is on sale at Shop Rite for $1.99 so i may get a stand-in loaf there.

I do the same thing with Lean Cuisine entrees. They're handy and easy to bring to the office for lunches, but their normal price is too high, so i wait til they go on sale at $2.50 each. When they don't go on sale, i DON'T eat Lean Cuisine, period.

My spinal tap of 2 weeks ago came back completely normal. It actually irked me that i went through so much pain for nothing. I guess it's good becus it indicates the Lyme bacteria hasn't entered into my central nervous system. But i'm still worried becus my headaches continue, but maybe not daily. I did go a full week with no headaches, i believe that was just after the spinal tap. The doc saw that as a hopeful sign and said let's wait 2 weeks and call me back after that.

I don't know what the "next step" would be if i'm still having headaches so i'm really hoping they abate on their own. I am following an herbal protocol (cat's claw, Japanese knotweed and andrographis) based on a book on curing lyme herbally. I figure it can't hurt and maybe can help. I was even able to contact the author to make sure his protocol was safe for someone with MS, since all 3 herbs are immune boosters (as well as anti-bacterial, anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory) and with MS, the immune system is already working in overdrive. I am into the 2nd week of a 5 week ramp-up in dosage, and then you're supposed to continue for at least another month, preferably 8 to 12 mths total! I doubt i'll do it that long but let's see if there are any improvements.

I carpooled last week 3 days with my neighbor and it worked out well. I was tickled as could be to see my gas guage had moved only slightly due to the decreased driving. Next week he's on vacation, and the week after that i'm out for 3 days, but as he said, any amount we can carpool together is a "bonus." I just don't think i want to continue it after Sept. 1 when my summer hours end, becus it'll mean i'll have an extra half hour to kill in the a.m. AND at day's end. I can deal with an extra half hour (when he drives, i use that extra half hour to walk closer to him, for exercise) but to add a full hour to my own day just seems like something i dont' want to do. But who knows, if prices keep rising i may be forced to think creatively of how to use that time enjoyable and effectively.

I don't know why, but i dragged out my financial paperwork today. It's a murky, damp and humid day, so it's just the kind of thing I like to play around with.

You see, I've been tracking my net worth for 20 years now, and tracking my expenses, down to the penny, for 12 years now. (That is truly amazing, and have never considered stopping because i can cull so much valuable information from these records.)

I started out at age 28 with a net worth in 1987 of $11,314. I was living in the basement of my sister's house and was already saving for my own house (something i would accomplish 8 years later with a 45% down payment). Yes, i did it the old-fashioned way, waiting and saving, not going out to get a sub-prime mortgage with 0% down.

20 years later, I had (excluding my home) a net worth of $437,069 as of 12/07; that number's much lower now due to the major stock market gyrations we've been seeing of late...or should i say, downward spiral?

In 1987, my net salary was $16,843. I was working for a non-profit conservation organization. Aside from a $4,500 savings account, my investable money was tied up in laddered 6-month and 1-year CDs which at the time were earning over 8%.

These days, the bulk of my $$ is in T. Rowe Price mutual funds, about 85% stocks and including low-fee index funds for bonds and international stock. I was shocked to see i took a $23,000 hit for the month of June alone. I tend not to panic in times like these, though I can't help but feel jittery even as i continue to buy stocks through both my 401k and on my own in taxable funds.

Here's a rundown of how my networth has increased over the years. Aside from a bull market for a number of years, i also benefitted from 2 separate inheritances that totaled $65,000 as well as a one-time stock option sale that netted me $40,000 after taxes. With the inheritances from my grandparents, I spent a few thousand on furniture but saved most of it.

My salary never exceeded $75,000 except for the year i sold the stock options, which is taxable income. I was laid off on 3 separate occasions, and each time this happened, it temporarily suspended my savings; even after you get a job, there's usually a 3-month waiting period before you can begin contributing to a 401(k).

So,i had a mix of good fortune balanced by some tough times of unemployment, probably somewhat typical of many people.

All figures are for end-of-year. My best years for increasing my net worht were 1991 and 1999.

2007: $437,069
2006: $398,069
2005: $345,604
2004: $313.769
2003: $276,105
2002: $230,166
2001: $237,553
2000: $228,820
1999: $209,638 ($30K inheritance & stock option sale)
1998: $121,729
1997: $107,829
1996: 85,381
1995: $58,057 (house purchase)
1994: $121,655
1993: $100,574
1992: 61,713
1991: $69,668 ($35K inheritance)
1990: $23,467
1989: $13,676
1988: $14,818
1987: $11,314

So what do you think? Will i make it to a million in another 12 years?

Aside from $ talk, i did see an interesting movie today with H. The Rape of Europa. It's a documentary based on a book by the same name, about how Hitler, who considered himself a great artist, wanted to bring together a vast collection of great artwork, and how he ransacked the finest galleries in Europe to do so as the war raged on. It's one of many lesser known facets of WWII.

Priceless works by Rembrandt, Michaelangelo, Vermeer, Renoir and others were looted by the Nazis and transported to Lintz, Germany, Hitler's boyhood hometown, where he envisioned reshaping the town into a prestigious German city rich in art and culture. After the war, the Americans helped recover much of the stolen art which was hidden away in castles and small country towns, but to this day, much of the art has never been found.

After going through the contents of my glove compartment box about 5x, opening up numerous maps to see if it could have fallen inside one, and no luck. I went back in the house and kept THINKING about it and where in the world it could be. Then i remembered how sometimes, when there was so much stuff jammed inside the glove box, some papers somehow fell into the crack BEHIND the glove box.

I went back to the car, figuring it was worth a check. I opened the box and reached my hand in behind it, pulling out first one (expired) coupon, then another, then another. I fished around and pulled out: MY REGISTRATION! Hooray. Saved myself $20 and potentially a whole lot more trouble.

It was a nice long 3-day weekend, with another one to look forward to coming up. I alternated between busting my butt working in the yard and the sweat dripping down my face and stinging my eyes, to enjoying the screened porch and reading a few mags like Vegetarian Times and a little cooking. Whipped up another blueberry/banana/yogurt smoothie.

Nothing really worth reporting, although the birds this time of year are really noisy. I watch with amusement as the baby birds, at this point nearly indistinguishable from the parents, sit in the branches of the dogwood tree where the sunflower seed tube feeder is and "shiver" their wings and squeak and squawk until the parents feed them, although they could easily get it themselves. I say "shiver" becus that's exactly how i can spot a baby begging for food....they shake all round with their wings. I guess in the bird world, that makes them adorable and endearing. Each year i notice which bird families have expanded. This year, it's nearly all of the locals, but i am seeing a lot of blue jay and titmouse babies.

The woodchuck is doing a number on my astilbe. He's still a little guy and seems to be livind behind a giant tangle of forsythia running along the back. I shoosh him from the porch when he gets too near the house as i don't want him to get any closer to my favorite plants, or, god forbid, down to the front yard where my veggie garden is.

the screened porch is a great spot to watch birds and other wildlife since it's usually darker in there and they can't see me.

Yesterday and today i picked a bunch of snap peas and enjoyed them in my meals. I see tiny green tomatoes on the plants and also tiny little zucchini. Yippee.

When i planted everything, it seemed like i had plenty of room but of course now things have grown huge and i can hardly walk around in there. Well, once the snap peas are spent, maybe another week or two, i can pull them out and make some more room to get around in.

The deer having been making their way to the side yard daily now becus small green apples are dropping from the apple tree. I berlieve it's the only remaining producing apple tree left. At one time i had 4 or 5, but one came down in a storm and 2 or 3 others are diseased and not doing well. However, i still have a few crabapples around, tho they too are diseased.

I pruned a lot of deadwood out of the snowball hydrangea treee and used my electric trimmer to trim back the 20 foot row of forsysthia, and also trimmed, while i had it out, 2 large spireas and 2 azaelas. Then i swept and raked all the trimmings, put them in the wheelbarrow and dumped most of it behind the toolshed.

I worked first thing in the am, around 8 am, until it got too hot to work, around 10:30, then went out around mid-day when it got cloudy and looked like a thunderstorm. Each time i'm careful to don my kneehigh rubber boots (tick prevention) and then i take them off before i step in the house.

A month or so ago my friend H. finally found a p/t job. She didn't want to work full time and i can't say i blame her. I believe she's about 65 now, but she has a lot of bills and takes care of her 95-year old mother, who lives with her. for a very long time she has been having problems with her mother, who has very high blood pressure but doesn't like to take her meds and when she doesn't, she gets paranoid and believes H. is trying to kill her. She won't eat the meals that H. makes becus she thinks H. is trying to poison her. Her mother has called 9-1-1- several times. It is a shame that at that age in life, she seems so unhappy and agitated. (She may have dementia as well.) She is much more manageable, H., says, when she takes her medication. I think the time may have come when she might need to consider putting her in a nursing home. I really don't know H. manages to be so even-keeled and calm about things.

I've been hearing firecrackers here and there, the big lead-up to the 4th. It's not something i especially look forward to; my cat doesn't like it and i feels orry for the wild animals out there in the woods.

Tomorrow is the 1-week mark since my spinal tap, so i need to call the doc's office and see if they have the results. The funny thing is, my only symptom, the headaches) have disasppeared, save for the a.m. before the spinal tap. But since 2 days before the spinal tap and except for that day, i haven't had headaches at all. I'm wondering if maybe the oral antibiotics actually did work or if this is just a temporary respite with the Lyme going underground, as it were, in my system. It is a relief not to have to deal with them and actually, i feel 100% fine. I sure do hope i don't have to do the IV meds. 3 weeks with a tube taped to your arm is one big pain. How can i garden? I'd get it dirty. How can i shower? (With that arm held up and away.) Just a pain to deal with and after a while that thing will start to get really sore in my arm. (I know, i've done this before with the MS.)

Thanks for all your kind comments to previous post. I haven't been posting that often, but I do feel like i have friends here.

So i'm guessing i was bit sometime in late March or early April, when the tick nymph is practically invisible, the size of a period in this post.

I didn't see the doc, at my physical, until i'd been having nearly daily headaches for about 3 weeks. I thought initially i was just staring at my computer screen too much. Then it was another week's wait for the blood test, which confirmed Lyme Disease, then another 2 days before getting the meds becus my doc didn't want to be bothered on a weekend, then 6.5 weeks on oral antibiotics, which did not stop the headaches.

Then i was referred to a neurologist who ordered a spinal tap which i had last week. (Not fun, let me assure you.) Now i'm waiting another week for the test results, which, if +, will mean another 3 weeks of daily IV antibiotics on an out-patient basis at my local hospital.

In the meantime, I've started a supplemental herbal treatment with 3 herbs which cost me about $120 for a 2 month supply. (I'll need more than that, but that's to get started.) I figure it can't hurt. It's what my sister used, the one who is anti-modern medicine, to cure herself of Lyme. I'm skeptical of that, but as i said, it can only help and i already have enough health issues that i don't need one more chronic problem.

All this s*** from one tiny tick.

Thing is, i can't imagine giving up gardening, and i already was doing plenty to protect myself (DEET spray, boots, hat, tick check, baths). However, I can do more to avoid the shady, brushy perimeters of my yard which is prime tick habitat, as opposed to the sunny lawn areas. I had been making great progress just clearning out lots of brush and tree branches that had accumulated over the years and didn't break down as much as i imagined it would/should. Anyway, in the process of clearing out tick habitat i got bit by a tick. Hmph.

In other news, i've had great success selling miscallenous items on Craig's List, which i think i've mentioned before. Thus far, i've sold:
* complete set of golf clubs
* Owl nest box
* arched wood garden bridge
* mini refrigerator

Still available are: sleeping bag, rollerblades, girl's ladybug beaded keepsake box, a tennis racket and handcrafted drum.

I noticed as i've been selling stuff that i seem to have collected a variety of sports equipment that was largely a waste of money. The golf clubs i bought mainly becus the man i was dating at the time played, but personally, i've been exposed to the game before and never really took to it. $200 wasted, but at least i got $100 from selling them.

The rollerblades i bought a decade ago, always thought it'd be so much fun to do once i practiced at it, as i loved rollerskating as a kid, but they've been sitting around collecting dust and as i approach 50 i think i should avoid injury-prone sports, and this would be one of them. $225, down the drain. The problem there is that you need to blade on asphalt that's in very good condition; the roads and parking lots around here are full of major cracks, which can send you flying.

Anyway, i'm kind of hooked on craig's list now. I just couldn't rev up the time or enthusiasm to learn the complexities of ebay, plus who has time to run to the PO to ship stuff? Craig's List is absolutely free, plus the buyer picks up. It couldn't be easier, and you can post pix. So i'm still mentally looking around my home for items i think could sell. I like to lighten my load; the less "stuff" i have around here, the better i feel.

My Albanian mason finished up my brick patio expansion in the backyard. It looks quite nice.



I still have to clean up back there, pulling weeds, putting in a few new perennials from elsewhere in the yard, then mulching. But you get the idea here. The pathway leading to the right connects to my main (original) patio behind the hitchen. So now you can walk from this end, from the screened porch, all the way to the kitchen end, and there's a nice square border around the dogwood tree.

He tried to talk me into redoing the original older section of the patio, which now looks quite worn out compared to the new section,but i simply can't afford it. He was a nice guy and i enjoy giving work to immigrants trying to buy into the American dream. Most of these tradesmen work very, very hard.

Today was a day off for me, thank God, i was in need of one, so i had the plumber come and fix the leaky toilet. Yeah, i broke down; killed me to pay someone to come and do that, but i'm inept. To make it more worth the cost of his visit, and to console myself after learning i'd have to have a spinal tap, i had picked up a new gorgeous kitchen faucet at Home Depot. Quite lovely brushed nickel finish. In fact, it's so lovely, i think i'll take a pic of it to show you....



So he took care of both things today; i also decided to get my oil tank filled up today. I have always done the fill-up for the coming winter during the dead of summer when prices drop, but in this economy, nothing works like it used to. I couldn't decide whether it'd be cheaper to get it now or perhaps wait til July/August. My gut told me do it now. So I got it at $4.24 a gallon for a grand total of $815. (The next day it jumped to $4.50 a gallon.) If i keep temps at about 62 in the house and wear sweaters, that will get me through about half the season. Depressing.

With these major expenditures, I declare that's the end of all MAJOR spending for the remainder of the year. No more major home improvements.

I had planned a few days kayaking with dad on the Jersey shore in mid-July, but my iv treatments may interfere with that, so i'll have to play it by ear. Thus far, i haven't scheduled any vacation time and i'm sorely in need of an extended break but more than that, i need to have FUN. That's rather hard to do when you're not married and not dating anyone. So i've been spending most of my weekends working in the garden/yard/veggie garden, reading, enjoying my porch and the cat. I still want to take my mom to a local botanical garden/musuem; we were to go today, but it's just too muggy/hot today. Aiming now for next Friday, which i also have off due to the holiday.

Thus far my teeny garden yielded 2 huge bowls of salad and a handful of snap peas. But things are really taking off now with tomatoes and zucchini(?) thriving in the heat. There are many more snap peas, but they're still small.


With prices rising as they are, I'm going to have to pull back from buying organics whenever possible. It's just too much. Having tallied up my month of June expenses a few days early today, I eyeballed a snapshot of my YTD. There are just 2 expense categories I'm happy about.

My average monthly electric bill YTD is just $65. And my car insurance is holding firm at $378 annually (9-yr-old car with no collision). Oh, and basic cable costs me just $16. Every other category seems to have spiked.

Food, of course, is a biggie. My average monthly food expenditures YTD are $231, pretty high for one person, no? Because i've kept track of my expenses for years, i can easily compare this to last year's monthly average. Turns out 2007 monthly average was $225, so i'm really not spending any more than last year at this point. That's a little surprising, though I have begun to favor the discount Latino supermarket rock bottom prices over S&S. It's an 18-minute drive compare dto 3 miles to S&S but i try to fit it in when i have other errands in that area, which is often.

Another expense category that makes me cringe is gasoline. Last year, when i worked a mile from home, my total spent on gas was $515. 2008 YTD i already spent $688, so my annual figure will be double last year's total. Sigh. I seriously research getting a scooter, but ruled it out since i could only use it on good weather days and not in winter. Plus, it would cost about $4,000 and i anticipate getting a new car in 2 or 3 years. That new car purchase will be a Prius or anything comparable that's on the market at that time, so at that point, the scooter woudl be redundant and so I'm not sure spending $4,000 to save $$ for just 2-3 years is worth it.

Here's another interesting comparison. I feel like i'm spending a lot on health insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses this year. I am paying more for my health plan, but i am getting better coverage, namely, dental and vision that i didn't have before.

Let's compare:
2007 total spent on premiums: $240
2007 total spent on out of pocket: $1,198

2008 (6 mths) YTD total spent on premiums: $408 (annual will be about $820
2008 (6 mths) YTD total spent on out of pocket: $696 (mostly the Lyme and new eyeglasses)

So my premiums are much higher this year than last, and total out of pocket remains to be seen. Aside from whatever remaining out of pocket i have to pay for the spinal tap and IV treatments, I don't foresee much more; all my usual checkups are done for the year except gyno.

Average monthly spent on clothing YTD: $69. I want to reduce that. Clothing costs a lot and is a waste of $ when i have so much in my closet.

I seem to have "lost" my car registration. I may have tossed it accidentally when i was "cleaning out" my glove compartment box which is always jammed with napkins, coupons and unused maps. I can either wait til i get the registration renewal in the mail next July 2009 and risk getting stopped by a cop, or pay $20 to get a registration duplicate by mail. Which would you do? I've become such a penny-pincher and I hate all unnecessary expenses.

Stop & Shop had a sale on pints of blueberries at .99 each (limit 2 per visit) but i managed to grab a total of 8 pints becus the season is short and i won't pay more than .99. I sometimes freeze the extras for use later in the season, but my freezer is packed. So i've been eating LOTS of blueberries in recent days. Today i made a blueberry/banana/yogurt smoothie. It was pretty good. And i had blueberry pancakes for breakfast. That was good too.

This has been a bad summer so far in terms of carpenter ants finding their way into my house. I've got protein-based and sweet-based ant poison you sprinkle around, mostly outside, but it's a waste to apply it if it's gonna rain soon, and this season seems we've had thunderstorms every other night. ants love that kind of weather. Damp, humid, hot. Carpenter ants are so disgusting. I'm afraid to walk barefoot in my house cus you never know where you might see one.

Today will be the equivalent of a rainy day for me; too hot to venture outside with temps up to 94 forecast, and humid. I'm not minding too much. I've got 3 ceiling fans a-whirring and I'm spending the day as follows:

1. hand washing a few delicate tops in the sink, the kind of thing i never get to

2. catching up on reading

3. maybe i'll whip up a risotto for lunch

4. watching my Netflix movie, Maxed Out, about excess credit card usage. The documentary came about as a result of a lawsuit the Ohio state attorney general brought against Citibank and a sandwich shop which got students on college campuses to sign up for credit cards by enticing them with free food. The suit was dropped against the sandwich chain in exchange for their cooperation in making the film. I learned about this as i was researching a story on aggressive credit card marketing tactics on college campuses. It was never something that was done when i was in school in the late 70s/early 80s, but it apparently really got to be a big thing by the late 80s and from what i've read, every major university has "affinity" relationships with credit issuers where the credit card companies pay big bucks to the schools (a great source of revenue for budget-trapped schools) in exchange for exclusive rights to market to college students. It's really an invasion of students' privacy, as the schools hand over their complete contact information.

Last night i pulled up 3/4 of my little lettuce plants. I figured the heat would make them bolt so i might as well enjoy them now and give more room to the heat-loving veggies which are suddenly growing with great vigor. So i had a great organic lettuce salad with cherry tomoatoes and cucumber slices. I will pull the remaining lettuce today and repeat same. I finally got around with throwing a bag full of grass clippings around the veggie plants as a mulch. If i see a problem with slugs developing, i guess i'll have to remove it, but otherwise, these plants will dry up quickly.

Guess what? If you read my post of 2 or 3 days ago of the baby bluebirds up and atom, out of the box, and of my relief that i could reclaim my front yard without disturbing them, well, they're baaaaaccckkk. I don't know if it's the same adult pair or a different pair, but i saw a bluebird going in and out of the box; i didn't have my binoculars with me, but it appeared it could be building a new nest, as i had obligingly cleaned out the former. Well, god bless 'em. May the world be filled with bluebirds.

They're calling for temps int he 90s all this week, and tomorrow will be the worst at 97 (with humidity, feel like 105!). I'm wearing shorts to the office tomorrow. I feel a little funny doing so, but the guys have been wearing baggy denim shorts and t-shirts for a few weeks now. I will try to dress a bit neater than that, but shorts it will be!

Rising oil prices have been on my mind. If you're not regularly thinking about it, I wouldn't understand why unless you're very wealthy.

The problem is my 48-mile daily commute (RT). I've looked into our local Metro Pool, which matches up people who want to drive together, www.nuride.com, the trains, even buying a scooter. Working from home right now is not an option, though i plan to re-request it again at my 6-month review. The trains and scooter aren't practical for me and i couldn't find a rider through the 1st 2 programs.

Then I spoke with my neighbor who lives behind me (the ones whose dog was killed by coyotes). I spoke with the wife, L., whose husband S. commutes in daily to the same city I do, but he's about 2 miles north of where i go on the same highway. His hours are a little different; he gets out a 1/2 hour later than i do. (When my summer hours end, he'll also have to be at work a 1/2 hour earlier than me.)

She said she'd talk to him and have him call me if he was interested. That was last weekend and i was disappointed that he never called. Then i ran into her today walking her Shepherd and a new golden retriever puppy she got. She mentioned that her husband was "open to it" and just hadn't had a chance to call me back yet. I'm psyched!!!

My proposal to him will be that we share rides 4 days a week; he drives 2, i drive 2. (Downside: we'd have to allow an extra 10 minutes for him to drop me off on days he drives.) And since i get out of work 30 minutes before him and becus i love walking and fitting in exercise, i would make it a habit to begin walking north on the secondary (4 lanes) highway we both work on. I'm not sure what point i could reach in 30 minutes, but once i tried it that could be our predetermined pickup spot when it was his turn to drive. It would shave a little bit off his drive. It's a very busy roadway filled with offices, retail, gas stations, etc.

And as for me dropping him off and picking him up, it wouldn't be a problem at all since his office is on my way. So i'm really hoping he calls and we can work something out. Though even doing this, we'd both only cut 2 days worth of driving from our costs each week. Well, hey, that's actually a 40% savings, so it IS significant. I would JUMP to do that becus i see no other way to cut my gas expenses. He and his wife both drive gas guzzlers so it could help him even more.

One more thought: he's so tall i hope his head wouldn't hit the ceiling of my Honda. He might not like that.

Blistering heat today. Not sure what i'll do with the day besides my a.m. eye doc appointment. Maybe I'll try to continue piecing together that cabinet that R. helped me with yesterday. And maybe I should pick most of the tiny lettuce i've got since this heat will make it bolt (turn bitter) for sure.

To help everyone on the east coast stay cool today, picture this:



(That's my toolshed you see in the nor'easter of '06.)

Today was my 1st of 6 Summer Fridays....

Last night after getting home, i gazed upon the long and overgrown front lawn and wondered what was going on with the bluebirds, as i hadn't seen any activity for 2 days. I decided to venture a look. I was a little anxious about doing so. Those babies which are born first have a better survival rate than eggs that hatch a day or two later, as the biggest gaping mouth gets the most worms.

Sometimes,sadly, a baby bird will starve to death. I found that to be the case once with a wren nest that had been built in a hanging flower basket by my front door. When they finally vacated, i took the pot down and sadly discovered one dead baby bird.

Another problem that can affect the mortality rate of baby songbirds is blowfly larvae. The blowfly lays its eggs in the bottom of the box, underneath the nest, and the larvae crawl up and attach themselves to the legs of the baby birds. They are parasitic and can weaken or even kill the babies. My bluebird guide, written by a local bluebird fan, instructs you to dust the box with Rototene within 2 days after the eggs hatch; this will kill the larvae. I just couldn't bring myself to disturb the nest at all.

But...here's the good news....I stepped to the side of the nestbox just in case something flew out suddenly. Then i gingerly lifted up the front door of the box and was very relieved to find nothing there. Everyone had successfully fledged. In fact, the white pine needle nest was so clean and tidy, you might think no birds were ever there; not an eggshell to be found. They were there, though, becus you could hear the babies chirping all at once when the parents brought food. And, there was quite a lot of white bird poop on the side walls of the nest box, leading me to think it must've gotten very crowded in there as the birds grew.

Although i had hoped to see a bevy of bluebirds in the yard learning how to catch insects from their parents, I'm glad they all made it out alive. Just wondering where they went, is all.

So last night i mowed about half the lawn, and i finished it up this afternoon. Now i can spend as much time in my veggie garden as i want, and i don't have to worry when the neighbor's cat comes to greet me. However, i did promptly clean out the box and clean out that poop; sometimes, bluebirds will nest a 2nd time in a season, and if they return, they will be welcomed with plenty of meal worms from the bait and tackle shop.

I had a nice visit this morning with my friend R., who after years of biopsies that indicated nothing, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He is 60. He had a bunch of tests that showed the cancer has not spread elsewhere in his body, so that is very heartening news. He still has to have radiation, and wants to go with a new technique of delivering radiation, but the insurance company is balking at paying for it (why the f*** do we pay for insurance if we can't count on it when we need it?)so his treatment will be DELAYED until the hospital and insurer come to terms. IDIOTS.

R. has invited me to join him for a 6-day trip to southern Utah in October. Well, sort of invited me. You see, he'd gotten the tickets (earned thru rewards and frequent flyer miles) and scheduled the trip while he was still with his wife. Now, they're divorcing, for the 2nd time. Becus he still cares about her, he's asked her to go 1st, and let me know that; i guess she hasn't given a definitive answer yet but i don't know why she has to think about it. It's sort of messing with his head when she comes to visit and play with the dog they bought jointly. He still has feelings for her; she'll give him a hug but clearly she wants out of the marriage. Meanwhile, she's wracked up $18K in credit card debt.

But anyway, I'm thinking, i would like to go on this trip. I've known R. for over 20 years now; we dated seriously when we 1st met. It's strictly platonic now; we'd have separate rooms. He can be very difficult to get along with becus he has a very controlling nature. But i have wanted to go to the string of nat'l parks in southern Utah for many years...Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park, Zion.... I was there when i was about 5 years old.

I was just wondering the other day, after hearing on the news how expensive flying has become, if i would ever travel again as i did in my 30s. It's something i've really wanted to do but i haven't always had someone to go with.

R. offered me a ticket for $100; when i said i thought that was a very, very reasonable price, he explained he didn't actually have to buy the tickets and said maybe he would charge me $200! (Well, i'm sure i can get him to agree to $150 and it'd still be a good deal for me.) We'd split all other costs down the middle.

If i did the trip my way, i'd hike and photograph every day. But R. is not a hiker and it's partly his sedentary lifestyle and poor diet that contributed to his prostate cancer, IMO. So traveling with him could be very frustrating for me, Ms. Outdoorswoman, becus i know i wouldn't be able to do all the things i'd want to do on that kind of vacation. It would be an exercise in patience and compromise, that's for sure. I know R. pretty well. We are fast friends, but polar opposites in many ways. He is a diehard Republican; I will always be a liberal. We are both frugal, but he is too extreme to the point of exasperation. I like to physically challenge myself on my vacations, eat good meals (mostly vegetarian) and stay at a nice inn; he would rather drive through a park in a car, only eats pizza and burgers and would rather save $ by staying at a Motel 6. Sigh.

But i'm feeling a little perturbed to be sort of put in a waiting pattern. I don't mind him telling me i'm his "backup" person in case his ex-to-be says no. But i don't think it's fair to keep me waiting all summer and not being able to plan on it or not. I have a feeling he would just keep it open with her in the hope she'd eventually say yes, and i have a feeling she'd delay telling him anything becus I don't know, that's just the way she is, not cutting the cord completely and continuing to string him along.

So i think i'm going to ask him to give her a month, say, end of July, to make up up her mind and that i would like to know by that time whether i'm going or not. I think that's a reasonable thing to ask. If he can't agree to that, i don't think i'll consider it anymore.

On an entirely different note, my mother has had a string of successes lately with her art. I think i mentioned here before she's exhibiting now at the company I work for, and several of my coworkers have complimented her work. Tonight she told me she won Best in Show at the local Arts Society in my town. It's a $500 cash prize. Nice going, Mom.

Here's some of her work. She works in a LOT of different genres, though all contemporary.






This a mural on my living room wall.



So when R. visited with me today, he took pity on the "assembly required" cabinet that lay in a hundred pieces on my living room floor. It sat like that for over 2 months now; i got stuck early on trying to figure out how to attach a metal slider to a drawer in the cabinet. He helped me finish the drawer and that alone took an hour. I'm eternally grateful for that. He had the dog with him in his car, so we went to Starbucks and then just sat in the car and talked.

Afterwards, i made a trip to the dump (with yet another pile of sticks and cut up branches), Stop N Shop and ok i spent about $55 on 3 summer tops and a pair of shorts at TJ Maxx. The guys at my office are already wearing shorts, so while i often freeze there with the super-efficient AC, i want to wear shorts too!

My best friend at work is a real sweetheart of a guy who went out of his way to help me get settled when i first started the job, and how i sit next to him. We have the same job so we talk all the time and commiserate. I was so surprised to learn he's a former actor; he freelanced, and stopped doing it when he got married and started a family, but as recently as 2006 he was in a variety of shows including Law and Order and a number of movies. He mostly played cops and detectives. He's got that kind of 'look.'

After my success selling a refrigerator, I've re-posted an Indian drum (still no luck) and a sleeping bag used once in Alaska as well as a women's set of golf clubs. Just things around here i really have no use for. I had a few people who tried to talk me down in $ for the drum but i know i had a fair price on a very unique item already, so i'd just as soon keep if i don't get the $ i wanted.

Had to go back to the doctor Wednesday as my pretty much daily headaches are still with me, after 4.5 weeks on antibiotics. They were a little concerned i was still having headaches, as they said that Doxycyclin is the "gold standard" in treatment for Lyme Disease. But they said some people take a little longer than 3 weeks. So I'm continuing for 2 more weeks on them. If i still have headaches after that, they're going to send me to a neurologist. Uh-oh. I really hope these meds work.

Tomorrow i'm seeing a new optometrist and am anxious to get new lenses for my glasses, whether i need a new prescription or not. Both lenses somehow got major scratches right smack in the center, and i'm tired of viewing the world in a slightly blurry manner. I really liked my other optometrist, but he is no longer accepting the vision plan i got with the new job. I've checked out the benefits of both my vision plan and the dental plan and for the small $4 per paycheck deduction taken every 2 weeks, it's really worth the cost. A dental visit and cleaning here runs about $125, which is more than my annual payments. There's no deductible on routine cleanings, so the whole thing should be free.

This is a view of the north side of my house. What you see is just a walkway connecting back yard to front yard. Doesn't look like much (The Jungle is the fenced in area to left) but the big achievement here was pulling out (by hand) a well established bed of pachysandra along the house. I'm sure it was planted here about 30 years ago by some well-meaning owner who figured it was maintenance-free and stayed green in winter, which is true, but it's also a haven for mice and moles, carpenter ants and ticks because it's a moist environment that stays damp, perfect for ants and ticks, my nemeses. I'm still on meds for Lyme Disease. So anyway, it was a lot of work, and then i mulched. There are a number of lovely ferns there which you really can't see here. The tall shrubs on the right side look overgrown, i know, but they are rhododendrons and mt. laurel which are great in bloom.

I read so much about the economy, personal finances and money management daily; it's part of my job. (I haven't said too much about the website I write for, since when it launches in another month or so, it will feature my byline on stories as well as my photo, so i've been a bit conflicted about sharing all about that as i'd essentially lose my anonymity here if i share the URL.)

I try to apply as much as i can from these articles to my own life. For instance, I've read with interest about how many people are selling off personal possessions as a way to raise cash. I decided i should try to do the same. I've learned (the hard way) that once you convert money into material objects, it's very difficult to convert those possessions back into money. If you do sell them, you'll never get full value. So i try these days to be more careful to begin with before parting with cash.

I've tried tag sales in the recent past, but honestly, you can sit out there all day long and make maybe $100 or a little more. I don't like to haggle, so i priced my things very cheaply to start with and was privately annoyed that 1) people still wanted to haggle anyway and 2) lower prices didn't seem to move stuff any quicker.

I don't have time to learn the ins and outs of eBay, popular as it is, and having to package and ship every item out, with an extra trip to the post office, doesn't appeal to me.

So i recommend Craig's List. It's FREE, for one thing, and i only sell to those locally who can pick up.

When i had my surgery 2 summers ago, my then boyfriend very generously and somehwat impuulsively bought me a half fridge. It was a Magic Chef, stood about 3 feet high. I wasn't supposed to do the stairs much, so i pretty much lived on the 2nd floor of my home for 3 weeks, and yes, that Magic Chef came in handy after we stocked it with food and drinks. It was quite a nice appliance, with a stainless steel front door. He got it on sale for about $100.

But that fridge has sat in my spare bedroom these last few years, and T. and I aren't together anymore. The fridge isn't too heavy, but its bulky size meant i wasn't going to try to carry the thing down my narrow staircase. I really had no use for it and i kept it unplugged so i wouldn't waste electricity.

So that was the first item i posted on Craig's List, with a photo. I sold it yesterday to someone right here in town for just $65, a very good price considering i used it exactly 3 weeks. It was a little bothersome to have to deal with 3 others who expressed interest, made plans to come and then i heard nothing. That just goes with the territory, i guess. So it worked, IMO, much better than eBay with its shipping costs, or even a classified ad in the local newspaper, which would have cost me $5 or $7. Success!

I also posted a native American Indian drum i have. It has a beautiful sound.



I like it, and still like native American Indian pottery and other things, for example, but i really don't use the drum. Actually, i used it for a time as a coffee table after putting a round piece of glass on top of it. I had one guy who wanted it but he's about an hour drive, so we kind of left it open that the next time he's in my area kind of thing. But i think i'll repost that drum again, since postings expire after a week.

I've been mulling over what else i could post on Craig's List. Obviously junky stuff is not going to do well, and of course a picture is essential. But anyway, i can't tell you how satisfying it was to pocket $65 cash (enough to pay my electric bill for a month) and gain more space in the spare bedroom.


This is just a view of the backyard, which i liked becus it captures the beauitful red maple in the background, the rhodi in bloom.


I started another price book for groceries at FOUR area stores i shop at. It's all out of order, though, so today i plan to organize it by food type. I'm not sure how useful it will be, or for how long, since prices seem to be continuing their upward trajectory.


This (white) viburnum in bloom is what i consider my biggest success story as far as planting go. I bought it, mail order, as a 2 foot high stick and as you can see, it's now about 12 feet high and as wide. It's spectacular in bloom and then it gets these berries which are so relished by the birds they're picked off before they even ripen.

Yesterday was a nice mix of relaxation and a bit of work. Since i get up now for work at 5:50 a.m., i'm used to an early start, and lately i've gotten into the habit of getting out the door by 8 a.m. to run my errands while crowds are still light. So i did my grocery shopping, gassed up the car for another week ($4.19 a gallon) and returned some DVDs at the library. That was my ONE single trip i'm allowing myself per weekend.

We were expecting major thunderstorms all day, but they didn't actually arrive til after dark. I read my Kiplinger's and Money, made a yummy garlic shrimp and orzo over salad greens and that's about it. I had fenced off a portion of my strawberry patch to ward off woodchucks. (I've seen a baby in my yard twice now.) But i realize the numerous chipmunks, cute as buttons, are the ones who will really do a number on the berries. You know, one bite out of each. So me thinks i need yet MORe fencing to try to keep them out; maybe i'll try my netting and just drape it over the berries, but i think chipmunks could gnaw through that.

The veggie garden's coming along nicely with no signs of critter intrusions. The peas are growing well tho i still don't think they've flowered yet. They all got a slow start as we had some cold weeks there for a while.

The baby bluebirds hatched a while back, not sure exactly when, but i watch as both parents fly to and from the box to feed them. According to a little booklet i have from a local bluebird expert, each baby needs to be fed 40x daily. I'm just a little concerned becus i don't see nearly enough activity (40 x 4 eggs - 160 daily feedings) to back that up, so i hope they're all well. The bluebird expert i mentioned instructs you to be regularly checking the box to monitor when the eggs hatch, to dust the bottom with Rototene to kill blow fly larvae which are parasitic and attach themselves to the legs of the tiny bluebirds, sometimes even killling them, but i just can't bring myself to do that. I'm always afraid i'm bothering them too much, and i know last time i mowed the parents were divebombing me, obviously upset i was so close to the box.

So i decided not to mow my front lawn again until the babies fledge. that's supposed to take a total of 2-3 weeks, depending on food supply, and of course i don't know exactly when they hatched, but it's been at least 1.5 weeks now, if not 2. I'm fighting the urge to mow as the lawn is getting long.

So, the local woodchuck population seems to be thriving. Which is ironic, since last week my neighbor who lives behind me up on the hill had thier Golden Retriever killed by a coyote. Yes, a golden retriever, an 85 pound dog which was with their German Shepherd.

She called me and other neighbors to warn them to keep their pets inside. She'd let them out at 6:15 a.m. before work and only the German Shepherd returned. They found the body not 15 feet from their house, in a wooded area.

They called local animal control and the state, all of which have a more or less hands off policy about wildlife; learn to live with them, basically, which, tragic as this story was, i kind of agree with. Dogs shouldn't be allowed to roam freely, or cats either, IMO. My sister, who keeps chickens, has had her share of problems with packs of roaming "pet" dogs that killed her chickens just for fun. And cats, as natural predators, really do a number on the sonbgird population, baby rabbits or anything small enough to kill.

So my neighbor called the press, and 2 papers featured prominent stories. According to the paper, coyotoes don't hunt in packs, so it surprised me even more to think that a single coyote could kill such a large dog. I'm wondering if it was perhaps a mother defending pups or a territorial thing. Also, the dog, if it spotted the coyote in the distance, would likely have gone running toward it as you know how interested dogs are in meeting other dogs. The coyote could have attacked then.

Summer Fridays have arrived at my office. So now thru end of August I'll work 8 a.m. to 5:30 pm, a long day. My full lunch hour is now 30 minutes as well, but in return I'll gt 6 of the 12 Fridays this summer off. And on thos alternate Fridays I do work, I can expec to get out a little early, like 3 or 4 pm, so it's really not bad at all.

Come fall, as the days get shorter, we'll go back to our 8:30 to 5:30 pm routine and full hour lunches.

On Friday, when i left work around 3:45 p.m., i stopped at a bike shop to pick up my Trek hybrid mountain bike. I hadn't used it much in the past few years and it needed a new back tire, new front brakes and general cleaning/greasing. That cost me $118. Steep. But in my quest to save money on fuel, I really like the idea of trying to use my bike more, not for exercise, tho that's a bonus, but for simple transportation. That's really hard to do where i live because there are many hills everywhere you go and lots of traffic and busy roads. So where can i go on my bicycle, from a practical standpoint? Well, i did make one pleasant trip, about 15 minutes one way on a fairly safe road to the bait and tackle shop to get grubs for the bluebirds, but that's not a trip i'll regularly make. I can also peddle to the library rather than walking; that's a 10-minute bike ride. Also within range and relative safety is an over-priced supermarket i don't frequent and the bank. they are supposed to start building a new supermarket across the street from the other one. I haven't seen any activity there at all tho they reported a while ago in the local papers they planned to open this fall. I wonder if the current economy/tight credit is affecting their timetable. I hope not. This is an unusual family-owned supermarket and would be the third in the area. I haven't shopped at their other stores more than a few times, but their prices seem "decent," or perhaps comparable to Stop N Shop if you look for the specials, so i would shop there before i went to Big Y.

My neighbor's golden retriever was killed boy coyotes a few days ago. She called to warn me, although i never let my cat outdoors. The dog was with her German shepherd. She let them out, as customary, at 6:15 am, before going to work. The shepherd came back alone, very agitated and the hair standing up on its back. she went looking for the dog with the other one, and they found it not 15 feet from the house.

She called the police, the state DEP and no one really wanted to do anything about it. (It's illegal to discharge a firearm anywhere in the borough, which is the center and most densely populated part of my town.)

My neighbor also has 2 cats. One wetn missing quite some time ago and was never found. We all know coyotes are in the area and i have heard them barking at night. Unbelievably, she didn't sound sound like they were going to start keeping the other cat inside. Her husband, she said, felt it was "cruel" to do so. Not as cruel as allowing your pet to be mauled to death!!! Geez. I just don't get it.

So tonight around dusk i heard a single shotgun blast. I'm sure it was my neighbor's husband, taking matters into his own hands. It would've been easy enough to throw a piece of meat out in a certain spot and then wait for them to show up and kaboom.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On the one hand, i'd be super upset, as she was, if something like happened to a pet of mine. On the other hand, they choose to live in a heavily wooded interior lot. Can you reasonably expect to shoot and kill every wild creature. I don't know. Maybe they'd do better in a condo. Of course, that's how my sister views things. When a woodchuck threatens her garden, she gets her shotgun. My sister can be inhuman at times.

My garden may also be destroyed by a woodchuck here. So far, nothing's happened, but the fencing is flimsy, to say the least. I'm in the prcess of reinforcing it and since my mother trimmed my hair yesterday, i kept the clippings, cut up an onion mesh bag and tied up 5 small satchets of human hair en onion bag. I hope essence of me will keep them at bay, tho no use putting it out yet as tomorrow they're calling for rain.

I cherish my time off and this weekend was great. Worked myself ragged, i must say. I still have Lyme, and since headaches are still with me on and off every other day, or every day as the case may be, doc gave me an additional 10 days of antibiotics on top of the 3 weeks i've already completed.

I'm getting concerned that this is still lingering. It's not a great thing to be on antibiotics long-term. Now i've had to start dosing myself with acidopholus and cranberry juice to avoid getting a UTI, something my doc (of course) forgot to tell me and something i suddenly remembered just when i thought i was getting one.

Had my mom over for lunch yesterday. She brought a yummy chicken salad and BROWNIES. I contributed a green salad and a garden in bloom, which she thoroughly enjoyed. My baby bluebirds have hatched inside the box. You can hear them go nuts when one of the parents brings them a nice juicy grub, a cup of which i conveniently put on top of the nestbox (with velcro) after a bike trip to the bait and tackle shop. My mother had kept complaining that never in her life had she seen a bluebird. Well, i kept looking for them all afternoon while she was here. Finally, from my upstairs office window she sat there and with the binoculars i kept saying look there! No, look there! On the birch tree. Look, in the pine. Finally, she saw them, oohs and ahs all the way around.

I'm still planning a trip to the Asian botanical gardens soon.

Our summer hours at work start tomorrow, so that means i get up a 1/2 hour earlier each day, cut my lunch hour in half and in return i'll get every other Friday off through end of August. It's so worth it. Even on those Fridays i do work, i'm told i can cut out around 2 or 3 as long as no one needs a writer....

speaking of writing, did a bit of freelance today. I was glad to finally do it as i'd been procastinating. I'm not officially doing any more freelance, but this was a brochure i'd written last year, there were delays in the condo project and now it's on and they needed some adjustments in the copy.

I partially fenced in my strawberry patch, which is now in bloom. I don't think it will stop either birds or chipmunks, of which i have plenty, but perhaps the woodchuck, since there's so much else to eat around here (anything green is on his palate) so why work for your supper if you don't have to?

My tiny veggie garden is bursting with little growing things. Peas are furthest ahead thus far, but haven't yet bloomed. Also in there are garlic, peppers, tomatoes, beans, zucchini, cukes and i think that's it.

I completed some fencing reinforcements on just 1 of the 4 sides of the already fenced garden. It's a wire mesh fence, 3 feet high but one foot is buried and the bottom 6 inches are turned in an L shape outward, to deter digging woodchucks. I hear they like peas and beans. It's an awful lot of work to not just dig 6 inches down, but then 6 inches outward. But i can't imagine losing it all, in a single night, after all the work i've put into it. Anyone who's dealt with a woodchuck knows what i'm talking about.

My friend R. has prostate cancer at 60. He had abunch of tests last week and will learn probably tomorrow if it has spread. Not good. He is being very stoic about it and outwardly calm but it has to be nerve-wracking. He is a somewhat fatalistic person, partly becus he's going thru a divorce now and is very unhappy about it.

I calculate that at about $125 a month, i will be spending (based on today's prices, which obviously won't remain at this level) nearly $1500 a year on gas, and that's strictly for commuting.

I have looked into:
* Trains: no train station in my town and a 15-minute ride makes this somewhat inconvenient, plus i hear there's a 1-year wait list for parking at the station. Obviously, our infrastructure is lacking, always had.

* Metropool and nuride.com: matches you up with fellow carpoolers, but those i called either were already taking the train or were no longer working at former job. The chances of finding somehwat with the same hours as me and who lives near enough that i don't have to go way out of my way to share a ride are like looking for a needle in a haystack

* New car? Doesn't make sense; i only have 90,000 miles on my current 9-year old honda; with my roof rack, i'm guessing i get about 32 mpg, not fantastic, but paing $21K for a new Prius wouldn't make sense. (I hear that by 2010, 2 years from now, 3 car makers will have plug-in hybrids that get 100 mpg. You can go about 40 miles on a charge, and then if you have to further, the gas kicks in but even then it's not costing you much becus the gas is used to recharge the battery.) THIS is what i'm holding out for.

* Vespa scooter. These were tempting; they get 70 mmpg but 1) you can only use them part of the year 2) not good in rain 3)i'd have helmet hair and 4) they're dangerous with crazy drivers out there

* the only other option left is to once again ask my boss to work at home1-2 days a week at my 6 month review in july. He said no when i interviewed for the job. But times have changed. Though his commute is even longer than mine, so perhaps he has no sympathy. I ran the idea by someone else in my group who greatly doubted he would go for it, which annoyed me to hear him say that, but i'm not sure if it's his natural pessism or if he's speaking from experience.

Oh, yes, the yardwork. I never, ever realized how INVASIVE forsythia can be. It's on the west side of my house and branching out into a narrow grass walkway and needed to be cut back. It had spread from a huge area of it and i realized it had all but killed a nice mountain laurel by covering it with arching branches. I cut and hacked and cut and hacked, hauling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow (at least 6 trips) of clippings to behind the toolshed. My god, the work. But it looks so much better. I dug up maybe 5 rooted clumps but there wes 1 i was afraid to go after cus it was too close to the mountain laurel. The mountain laurel has maybe 6 sets of green leaves on it. With the added sunlight, i hope it will sprout more and return to the land of the living.

Last week I learned i do indeed have Lyme disease. Not too surprising, given all the outdoor work i've been doing. So i'm entering the 2nd of my 3-week antibiotic regimen. The only symptom i have had is pretty much constant headaches that never really go away. Once i started the meds, they went away, but now they're back, so i think this thing is still very much in my system.

I just feel discouraged as i am very much aware of the high risk of Lyme in my area. When doing yardwork, i tuck my pants into my nearly knee-high boots and when i'm doing lots of heavy duty yardwork, i also spray the boots with Deet (Off). I also put my hair back in a pony tail and when i've done for the day, soak in the tub. And still, i got Lyme.

Been here 13 years and this is the first time for Lyme, 2nd time for a tick-borne disease. (I had erlichiosis 2 years ago.)

I never saw a tick on me or the rash....

Today was a quiet Mother's Day. Had my sister and mother over my place for lunch. Pasta shells with celery, green pepper and sun dried tomatoes with olive oil and a little mayo. Sis brought a salad fresh from her garden. I also made DELICIOUS cheddar Bisquick bisquits.

I was going to take my mom over to the farm ice cream stand but it was just a little cool for that.

Didn't get quite as much done this weekend as i normally would, and even today i came in the house around 6 pm, which is so unlike me. Usually i spend every spare minute outdoors, but i just don't feel energetic. Saturday i did a fair amount, a dump run with some rusty old barbed wire i cut from the property line between me and my neighbor. It's been there for year's, my neighbor's, and i just decided to cut up what i could see and bring it to the "Metal" section at the dump. Also brought another pile of sticks and branches with the usual trash.

Filled up the gas tank at about $3.89 and bought $85 worth of Stop N Shop groceries, a lot for me, but i stocked up on Lean Cuisines, which are half price this week and very convenient for my workday lunches. Also got 3 loaves of Pepperidge Farm German dark wheat bread, also 1/3 off.

My sister gave me some pepper, broccoli and lettuce seedlings, so i planted all those after they left this afternoon.

I spotted a woodchuck in my backyard this weekend, which was very upsetting becus i had believed them to be gone this year and they are terribly destructive, more so than deer. They willl decimate an entire garden in an evening. My small 6 x 6 veggie garden is fenced, but with the flimsy netting and posts that i think will deter deer, but i am sure the woodchuck could dig under it. My only hope is that there is so much ELSE to eat in my yard that he won't be particularly attracted to the garden, but i really don't know. I've put so much work and hope into it already. I'm considering digging a trench around the entire garden and laying plastic fencing vertically, then horizontally, so that he cannot dig under. But that's a lot of work.

Did a focus group one night last week. Went there right after work; it made for a long evening, but it was $100 cash so i felt it was worth it.

I have some freelance work to do, meant to do it this weekend but once i got into the document i realized i needed more info from the client, so will have to wait for a response back before i can begin. Doing it on a weekend is vastly more preferable to me than being tired and forced to work on it after my regular job.

Still waiting to get a price from the contractor about enclosing my screened porch with windows. His daughter was graduating from college last week. I should hear this week.

The yard is beauitful. My neighbor complimented me on it. He even shut off his rider mower to walk over and tell me as i worked in the side yard. He's the guy who loos like Norman Rockwell, tall, thin and usually with a pipe in his mouth.

The dogwoods are in bloom. I have about 4 white ones and only 1 pink one left. The azaelas, fuscia and salmon colored, are in bloom while the big white ones in back are about ready to burst open.

In the coming weeks i'll see the rhododendrons and mountain laurel.

Bluebirds still seem to be occupying the next box. If you keep from walking in the front yard and perhaps just sit on the front stoop, you can see the male hang out, first on the lower branch of the birch, then on the metal pole/support for the clematis, and at times on top of the box itself.

the hummingbird has also returned for the season and has already settled into the routine of sugar water visits about every 10 minutes or so. Also saw a rose-breasted grosbeak at the feeder, so it's certainly worth it to continue feeding them in the summer. You never know what you'll see. One year, it was a blue indigo bunting, even more spectacular than a bluebird, IMO.

As far as i know, i haven't gotten my IRS refund yet. My sister said the IRS site will indicate what week checks are mailing for certain SS numbers, so i will have to check that out.

The personal challenge i have set myself is to make only ONE car trip per weekend. Yes, I can consolidate errandsd as much as i want, but ONLY ONE trip. So that trip was Saturday, and it was on the way back from grocery shopping that i realized i'd meant to stop at the bait shop for meal worms for the bluebirds, but with frozen Lean Cuisines in the car, i was reluctant to stop, so i didn't.

After unloading the groceries at home, i decided what the heck, let's be adventurous, and i got my unused bike from the basement, filled the tires with air and pedaled down to the bait shop, about a 15 minute pedal each way. Not bad at all and i was feeling very satisfied that i saved the gas. Even surprised that the back tire held, cus there was a patch that looked scraped up and i should really replace it when i can.

Yesterday i was less productive than usual. I started off well, leaving the house by 8:15 am to hit Home Depot to return a clothesline (got a different one), then to Lowes to return a $7 hose nozzle (got a different one for .67) and then to Borders to pick up a DVD for someone i work with who couldn't find this movie near where he lives. Oh, and then dropped about $45 on groceries at Xpect Discounts. I got a box of 7 grain kashi grains for $2.48. When i got home, i realized i already had a box and since this store has price stickers on everything, i saw that the older box cost just $1.98.

I also noticed that at the same store, which is still dirt cheap compared to mainstream supermarkets, the pasta, which i got for ages at .69 a pound, is now selling for .99 a pound.

Prego pasta sauce is still a bargain there for $1.50 a jar.

Yesterday i made a 3 bean salad with canned beans (yellow, green, kidney and chickpeas), plus a chopped up fresh red pepper, plus some vinegar and sugar. Pretty good.

Mostly eating non-meat meals these days. Can't imagine what my food bill would be if i were buying red meat.

I had a hankering for peanut butter yesterday as well, so i made a peanut butter/sesame oil sauce over rice noodles. Umm, think i need to thin out the peanut butter more with water or something, cus it didn't spread as well as i'd like on hot pasta and it was quite filling. In fact, i skipped dinner after having that at around 3 pm The rice noodles became sort of a congealed glob after cooling so i hope i can still eat the leftovers.

I'm frustrated by 3 or 4 projects around here that aren't seeing much progress. One is a broken toilet. The water leaking noise seemed to be caused by the rubber flapper that fits over the drain; the old flapper rubber was basically disintegrating, so i thought for sure that was it. The 1st new flapper i got did not appear to stop the leaking noise so i got another one which requires you to completely drain and dry the tank so you can put an adhesive seal on the drain opening before putting on the new flapper cover, but when i was sopping up the last of the water, i could see water movement around the base of the other toilet valve where the water comes in. The water kept slowly seeping back in so i couldn't install the flapper. Maybe i need to replace that other part as well. I'm wondering if this has reached the point of being beyond my comprehension but i hate the thought of having to spend $100+ for a plumber and what will surely be a 10-minute fix.

Last night NASCAR racing had ursurped Cops on TV, so i spent a few hours of my saturday night stripping wallpaper in the bathroom.

I had a contractor over here last week to price a big job, though i have a fair amount of hesitation about proceeding with it. I wanted to know how much it'd cost to enclose my screened porch, which i enjoy so much. By replacing the floor to ceiling screen with a low (2 foot) wall and the rest of it vinyl windows with screens, i could likely extend the time i spend out there, instead of May through September, probably April through October.

So the cost would be putting in 4 very large vinyl windows, the kind you slide open from side to side, plus a 5th window on another wall that looks into my bathroom. It's the only non double-pane window left in the house, the original window from 1930; i'd like to replace it with a double hung with frosted glass so if someone's in the bathroom, you have privacy but without giving up the light that comes in from the porch.

It's a project i could afford to do, but i guess with the general state of the economy, i feel generally uncertain and anxious about expenses. Maybe partly becus it's just my single income. I've always operated on a pay as you go basis. In other words, i never borrow money, just defer a purchase until i save up for it. (I would just take the $ out of savings.) The downside of that, of course, is you may not get to enjoy something you've wanted. I figure if i stay in this house another 5 years, which i think there's a good chance will happen, it would be nice to enclose the porch now so i could enjoy it for that time, and of course, get some of that $$ back if and when i sold the house.

I don't plan to put heat in the porch, though once it's enclosed it would be easy to do and call it a sunroom. But to do that i'd probably have to let the town know i'm doing that, and then i'd pay higher taxes, so i'm happy to just enclose the porch. I havent' gotten an estimate from the guy yet.

My other concern about doing this job is that right now, when you're on the porch, you really feel like you're outside, probably becus the screen goes floor to ceiling. If i enclose it, i don't want it to feel like a room and i don't want to lose that outdoor feeling.

My friend and neighbor H. has a sunroom that this same builder did, so i'm going over there in a little while to really closely examine his workmanship. I've been in the room before; it's perfectly nice, but it does feel like a room, so i want to check the size of her windows for comparison.

I've been a little upset with my PCP. I had a physical a week ago and i suggested that maybe since they were taking my blood they should check for Lyme Disease, since i've been doing a ton of yardwordk, Lyme is rampant in my state and i'd been having nearly daily headaches. He agreed i should. He said he wouldn't call me prior to my followup appt. unless i tested positive, as of course we wouldn't want to delay treatment. So Friday when i got home from work at 6:15 pm, there was a message from the doctor at 6 pm saying i'm calling about your bloodwork results. Call the office on Monday.

I'm assuming my test results were positive. So why the heck didn't he give me a way to connect with him so i could get a prescription? I could have gotten started 2 days earlier, and apparently becus he didn't want to be bothered on a weekend, he didn't think it important enough. That's really something. I'll need to confirm that's the case, but if it is, i'm just about ready to stop seeing this guy after about 15 years. He's inconvenient anyway, with no weeknight or weekend hours and ALWAYS a 30 to 40-minute wait when you arrive. I'm really upset about the Lyme though. It seems irresponsible to me for a physician to let that go.

Well, i've been jabbering about all my yardwork (and lovin' it, too), so i snapped a few pix this a.m. Keep in mind it's an overcast day with rain on the way.


This is the "North Slope."

This is one of the beds in the front yard; those reddish things shooting up are some peonies that do very well here. The deer don't bother them and i get some spectacular magenta blooms. You can also see a copper birdbath, which is solar-powered, by the way and features a small fountain when it's sunny out. There's also a small pagoda i recently got.


This is the new veggie garden i put in, in the FRONT yard cus that's where all the sun is. It doesn't matter at all as my front yard is just as private as the back, so no one will see it anyway. It's small, about 5 x 7, and i just planted 2 tomato plants, cucumbers, stringbeans, snap peas and zucchini. My hose BARELY reaches the spot, as it's about 75 feet from the house. I hope that lightweight deer fencing will hold. If a deer rammed it, they could easily knock it down. The right side is a little temporary until i figure out what to do with it. I need one end that i can easily open and close so i can get in there for weeding, etc.

Note the wheelbarrow; that's the new (used) one I got from the guy i gave my locust wood to. It's very sturdy. In the background you'll see a large burning bush. I mean, it's huge. Turns red in fall. I want to cut the right side of it way back becus it's blocking the view of 2 very nice evergreens that have finally reached an impressive size. Problem is, i won't be able to prune the top of the burning bush, even on a ladder.


Nothing much to see here, just the massive stump of the black locust. The bluebird box is inhabited, but i'm not sure how permanent it is. Between my frequent presence working in the yard after work and on weekends, plus the neighbor's cat who comes running for a rubdown when it sees me and some crows that might be nesting in a huge white pine nearby, i'mnot positive those bluebirds are staying. They'd defintiely like to, but i'm just not sure how tolerant they are of activity so close to the nest.


This is in area in the back that i planted with rescued lungwort. I say "rescued" becus it had it's back to my asphalt driveway with pachysandra closing in. The rock sculpture is what i call a cairn, which they may use to mark hiking trails, but i like it as a garden accent that costs nothing to construct.



This is a dormant clematis coming to life. Now if i had "cleaned up" the garden too much and pulled down those dead-looking vines, I wouldn't have the spectacular mass of blooms later in the spring. All those vines are very much alive.


Lest you think i have nothing left to do, behold, the Picket Fence Garden. For some reason, this always ends up last on my list. Maybe becus i can't decide what to do with it. It's a pretty large enlcosed area. I raided it for plants when i thought i was moving to T.'s, but there's still lots of good stuff in here: 3 dwarf cherry trees, a willow, about 5 blueberry bushes, wild strawberries that are migrating to my brick patio, a gooseberry that's also expanding its turf, a bleeding heart, a few hostas, salomon's seal, jacob ladder, day lily and who knows what else.

It's just a mess in there. Prickly brambles keep popping up there and i yanked out what i saw (with gloves) a few weeks ago cus they'll RAPIDLY take over. The weeds just always take over if i tidy up in there and i can't seem to keep up with it with all my other yard duties.

So let's see, this weekend i was on my usual frenzied schedule to accomplish AS Much As Possible.

I took an early a.m (8 a.m.) trip to Lowes to see if they had a longer reetractable clothesline than th 20-footer i got from Home Depot. They didn't, so i just bought a 100-foot clothesline rope. I'm afraid the rope will stretch too much when i hang clothes, but we'll see. I also picked up some plastic fencing there and a nozzle for my hose, which i plan to return for the $7 it cost when i found a plastic but perfectly workable hose nozze at Xpect Discounts for .69!

I transplanted the rest of my seedlings arrived in the mail. Two hardy fuscia, one of which is dead (will call Spring Hill about that), the remaining blackhaw viburnum and 2 corkscrew willow.

Then loaded up just a little bit of trash and a whole lot of broken up tree branches and sticks, crammed all in my trunk and back seat, and away we went to the transfer station to unload.

Went to get a prescription filled and ended up spendign $22 on a long-sleeved t-shirt that says my town's name on it. (I'm very patriotic about my town.)

Rest of the day i continued yardwork, planting what i mentioned in the veggie garden, which is really an attempt to get fresh, organic produce and fight rising grocery costs.

I was very surprised last night to get a phone call from the manager of my local Stop N Shop. I had emailed Stop N Shop corporate complalining that they had a very limited selection of organic produce and they passed my message on to the local store. He acknolwedged they have serious supply problems and basically chalked it up to there not being enough large-scale organic growers who could supply a 500-store chain. I had suggested local growers (my sister, for instance) but i think the paperwork involved in doing that would be too involved to keep track of numerous small scale farmers, all of whom would only supply a part of the total offerings at the store.

As long as the woodchuck stays away, i have a chance to actually harvest something. Altho i've had even cute chipmunks gnaw on tomatos, so i'm not positive.

Had a physical on Thursday. We agreed that since they were taking blood anyway, they should test me for Lyme disease, too. I've been having somewhat continuous, low grade headaches which sometimes continue into the next day. Lyme disease in my state is an epidemic.

My friend and neighbor H. called to ask me a favor, to bring a repotted snake plant back into the house. Not a biggie.
She knows I'm Ms. Muscle Lady.

Vacuumed the upstairs here; it really needed it. Was thinking i might be able to squeeze in some lawn mowing, the 1st of the season, if the grass is dry. It sprinkled a little last night.

The forecast for Friday looked so good, i couldn't resist. I took that day off from work, the 2nd day off in my 3 months at the new job. I only get a stingy 2 weeks and 2 personal days, but it was soooooo worth it. This weekend was picture-perfect weather.

Friday's project: do something about the many branches, either dropped during storms or pruned, accumulating in growing piles along the perimeters of the my property. I always figured, well, they'll decompose eventually. Surprise! They don't! Not in 13 years! And the place was looking more and more like an impenetrable jungle and tick haven.

So i began dragging out the larger tree branches and cutting them into manageable 3 foot lengths with my bow saw and loppers. I put a giant tarp in the trunk of my car and crammed as much brush in there as i could, then made 1 trip to the transfer station.

Went back home and continued in this mindless, but satisfying vein until i had built up 3 more pilies of 3 foot long tree branches. I'll plan to bring a load with me each week when i make a trip to the transfer station.

Yesterday a.m. at 7:30 a.m., a guy and his brother came over to take the rest of my cut up black locust as firewood. I had posted an ad on Craig's List saying i wanted to barter for a wheelbarrow in good condition.

He wrote back saying he didn't have a wheelbarrow but would be happy to buy me a new one. COOL. In a later email, he said he'd gotten my wheelbarrow. Then when he showed up, he said he didn't have it but would have to wait til the hardware store opened. I became instantly suspicious, thinking he was going to try to just take the wood and not come back. Besides, he had told me in the email he had already gotten one for me. Oh, it had a bad tire, he said, and i want to get you a new tire. Hmm, i thought. He said he was buying a new one so how could the tire be an issue? As a precaution, i took down the license plate of his truck as he was loading it. They made 3 trips here to load up wood, so i think he got a good deal. Anyway, they left me a wheelbarrow. It wasn't new, as it turned out, but it's perfectly fine, and what i'd asked for in the 1st place so i'm happy.

Old BF T. called to ask me if i still needed the dead apple tree cut down. (He wants the wood.) I said yes, so maybe he'll be up next weekend. At least with smaller trees, it doesnt' seem too hard to get the work done becus everyone's interested in firewood these days with the cost of heating oil. Maybe next time i can barter some wood for a pair of wire cutters. My neighbors still have old barbed wire running along a stone wall separating our property, and i don't like it there. An animal could get snagged on it; it's really a hazard.

A little later yesterday, friend M. came by and we did a 5-mile hike nearby. It took me several hours to recuperate from that, but i managed to rally and by 4:30 p.m. i was out in the yard again, this time mulching my giant rhodie and sweeping the debris left over from the wood in the driveway, etc.

Today's mission is to get out of here in just a little while (it's only 7:15 am) and run a few errands, mainly getting a crateload of annuals for all my pots and to get a retractable clothesline from Home Depot. The one i've had for about 5 years now ripped off the house under the weight of 2 wet quilts. I love that clothesline.

I am going to plant a vegetable garden. It was like an epiphany. I have 1/5 acres and in 13 years have never had a decent veggie garden beyond a few potted tomato plants!!! Why, you ask? Mainly becus of resident woodchucks, who are just as bad if not worse than deery, IMO. But after a large evergreen on the north side came down in a storm and a drainage pipe was put in that area, the secret woodchuck den was uncovered (with a front door and a back door) and the whole area, which was hidden by brush, etc., is now fairly exposed. So i don't think he or his ancestors who living there.

that means that perhaps a fenced garden could thrive here. And do you know where i'm going to put it? Smack dab in the middle of my sunny, sunny front yard.

In the past i'd tried veggie gardening in my picket fence garden, which is already protected, but i'm a little leery of continuing to do that because it's very close to the house, about 10 feet away, and i'm worried about paint chips that may have settled in the ground there. If i'm going to go organic, and that is a large reason for my own garden, that and the rising cost of fresh produce, i should make an effort to keep it healthy. So the front yard it shall be. The front gets a ton of sun and it's a good 30 feet from the house, so no paint chips.

It'll be narrow and rectanngular so i can easily walk around for weeeding purposes. And that way, too, if i want to continue to elongate the garden over time, i can do so. Nothing too crazy...snap peas, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, stringbeans. the hardest part will be digging up all that sod. Better get going.

Yesterday, we were supposed to visit some Japanese gardens but cancelled our plans due to expected rain. Of course, the day was bright and sunny. Today, I planned to do yardwork, and it was rainy and chilly. Go figure.

When i invited H. to the asian gardens, she was very interested. The only weekend day they're open is Saturday, so that's when we'd need to plan our visit. Since H. spends most every Saturday shopping with her friend N., I wasn't too surprised when she asked me if it was ok if she invited N. to join us. I told her it was fine, though privately my enthusiasm for the outing just went down a notch. I met N. once before and she's nice enough, but i sensed it would change the caliber of the trip, actually requiring me to be social and "Chatty Kathy" when i'm not that way at all. The thought of just going to these gardens by myself was looking more and more interesting. I really just want to wander the grounds and take in the design with my camera and bring home some ideas for my own gardens.

N. is a big shopper; she's married and i guess has money to burn. but my friend H. is living on Social Security in a house that's falling apart. I really can't speak for N., and i hate to say this about H., but she's the kind of person who doesn't really have many hobbies. the only thing she does with her time is, you guessed it, shop, drive around wasting gas, and that's it, unless i get her to walk with me, which is happening less and less. She really shouldn't be shopping at all, becus you know how exposing yourself to nice things makes you end up buying something. I'm not a big social person and sometimes spending more than an hour or so with certain kinds of people, usually the ones that talk a lot and require a running dialogue, simply WEAR ME OUT.

But with the weather forecast we all agreed not to go yesterday. Instead, i went to get my oil changed and snow tires off at the car dealer. I was miffed to have to sit there 2 hours just for that, while it was 70 degrees outside. I was a woman with things to do! I wandered the lot looking at all the shiny new Hondas and came away with the general impression that Honda, which has always been known for reliability and fuel economy, was slipping in the latter department. I know they revised the mileage ratings a year or so ago, but still, only 26 mpg?

Yesterday's mission was to dispose of some large hemlock branches that sat for the past year where they fell, north of the house. I took care of the branches, then decided to pull out (with gloves) all the bramble that was taking root there and getting in my blueberry patch. The stuff has very long root systems. I didn't want animals to step on the sharp prickers, remembering that the neighbor's neglected cat had a slight limp. i decided to cut up the bramble branches with a pair of clippers into 5 or 6" pieces so i could fit them neatly into plastic bags for disposal at the transfer station.

That little chore took me 3 hours, and by the end of it i was so sore, just from standing, bending, standing, bending. So i've got 2 bags of the stuff for the dump, along with a small pile of 3 foot wide branches and a tarp full of just brush. It's stuff that's accumulated for 13 years, and it's high time it gets cleaned out. At one time i figured it would all eventually decompose, but that process is a very slow one, and in the meantime i've created quite the haven for ticks. So getting rid of brush from the perimeters of the yard is on the To Do list this year.

Last night I watched "Talk to Her," a foreign film via Netflix. Very good, very different, with some sad and one hilarous part, too.

This a.m. i went to the giant flea market about 20 minutes from here, gassing up the car at the cheap station on the way. Damn. Within the first 5 minutes there i found myself reaching into my pocket for $12 for a framed piece of marquetry, which i have a soft spot for since my grandfather was a marquetry master. This piece looked like a view of some Swiss alpine village. The frame was garbage, and when i got it home i realized there was no way to separate the frame from the art which i wanted to reframe. Well, i guess i could take a hammer to it and carefully try to separate the 2. I also spent $10 on a "berry bucket," a small wood bucket with iron handle and painted a distressed green. That and the $2 for admission made the grand total to $24. Damn again. I suppose i shouldn't be pointing fingers at H. when i'm doing the same thing.

I arrived home to a chilly house (59 degrees) as i only have an eighth of an oil tank left and hope to save it for any future chilly nights. I don't want to refill til late summer as i'm counting on cheaper rates then, though who knows, really.

For lunch i made curried quinoa with chickpeas, shredded carrot, garlic, scallion, raisins and toasted pinenuts. then i dozed off for maybe a half hour. Oh, sweet luxury.

I also ordered some new wallpaper for the downstairs bathroom. It was difficult deciding on just one pattern, but i settled on a distressed marble look in the tan family. The color scheme in this bathroom has been blue and white, but this particular blue is not one i like, sort of like a royal blue. So with the new wallpaper, which will match the yellowish tones in the vanity sink (i think), i will repaint the cabinet and woodwork/trim.

I cancelled my subscription to the NYT, saving myself, afte rthe low intro rate had expired. $11 a month. Any time i can eliminate a recurring expense is a very satisfying experience. I will miss curling up in bed with the Sunday Times, but that was something of a fantasy, cus i rarely had time to read it all at once. I ended up force-reading it in bits and pieces, feeling "pressured" to do so since i'd paid for it. Now with the warmer weather is the time to eliminate it. I noticed that while i can access my account online, they won't let you cancel online. That's becus they want a phone rep to try to talk you out of cancelling, and that's exactly what he did. He suggested i just do a 4-month vacation hold, which i actually was tempted to do, but dollars and sense reigned and i stuck to my guns.

Netflix, on the other hand, i have no plans to cancel. I wish they had a plan that offered more than 2 movies a month but NOT "unlimited" numbers, as that, again, would make poor neurotic me feel "pressured" to watch them and return them as quickly as possible to "get my $'s worth." Anyone out there know what, for them, is the maximum number of movies you can watch in one month if you watch and return them as soon as you get them? I'd be curious. I'm guessing about 4 or 5.

Now i'm debating in my head whether i should try to do more yardwork or if i should bake something with sour cream and canned pineapple, 2 items i want to use up.

Mom called to tell me about her troubles separating an avocado pit from the avocado. And to offer me some salad dressing from Costco that she liked, but i am wedded to Paul Newman's balsamic vinegar for life.

I really felt like i could use a mental health day after "nose to the grindstone" for the past 3 months, so on a whim, i asked yesterday to take today off, knowing the weather was going to be great.

Here's what I did:
* did a dump run
* grocery shopping
* picked up birdseed on sale at Agway
* LOTS of yardwork (raking, sweeping, rolling the LAST of the cut up locust tree off my lawn and into the driveway)
* Mom came over for a brief visit
* 2 loads of laundry and hung them out to dry
* posted a craigs list posting looking to barter my firewood for a wheelbarrow
* enjoyed the screened porch with kitty
* cancelled my NYT subscription; it's great in winter, but i have no time to read it anymore....this always happens...
* put screen inserts in 2 doors and a window
* vacuumed out my car and wiped down the inside

Thirteen years ago i got a Rubbermaid wheelbarrow from Home Depot. It's served me well all these past years. Two years ago, my boyfriend broke off one of the wood handles on it. And apparently Home Depot no longer stocks replacement handles. But i found i could still use the wheelbarrow. Then, a few weeks ago, the 2nd handle broke off too! It was a case of one too many times being left out in the rain.

I've got a ton of yardwork and am still using it by simply grasping onto the rim of the bin, but it's doing a real number on my back.

This a.m. i posted on freecycle for another wheelbarrow. I've mostly given things away there so i don't expect success in finding someone who has one and doesn't need it, but am willing to give it a shot.

The other problem is that i'm not sure getting another one, used or new, will fit in my trunk. But i'm not very good at putting things together myself. Usually i end up with a wobbely bookcase or a wobbely anything. Sigh. I REALLY need a new wheelbarrow.

Yesterday, the weatherman got it all wrong. It was a beautiful sunny day. So i got a lot done in the yard. Most of the black locust wood is in the driveway, and my sister made a 2nd trip to load up her pickup. The sawdust and mess is all raked up now and i already started filling up said wheelbarrow with mulch (I have a Mt. Everest of mulch sitting by the driveway with remains of the pine; the pile is about 7 feet high!) and carting it around to mulch various perennial beds in the front. This all takes a ton of time. Shoveling mulch in, then shoveling it out, and edging the bedds neatly first with a hoe before that.

I opened up the screened porch for the season, first washing down the floor, which gets all sorts of grit and grime from the winter, then moving in my bamboo rug and assorted furniture and windchimes. The cat loved it after a season of breezeless air. We sat out there for a few hours in the afternoon sun. I filled up the hummer feeder too, for early arrivals.

I re-erected my bluebird box, hoping that this year, bluebirds will indeed take up residence. Usually, it's wrens in there, but i moved the box away from the brushy perimeter of the yard more to the center of the lawn, a relocation bluebirds would approve of.

Let's see, i also built a cairn with some fieldstone i have but need to relocate it to its final resting position. It's a decorative feature that i'll put near or in my perennial beds.

A small Japanese pagoda arrived in the mail, and that, too, will go somewhere in the garden.

I was patting myself on the back for having gotten thru this winter heating season with just 2 oil fill-ups. I checked just now to see what exactly that cost me, and I believe the 2 fillups cost me $816, which seems like a lot, not a little. Comparisons, anyone? My space is 1650 sf.

Everything is still pretty mucy dormant here, so i have yet to learn whether the bulk of what i transplanted to get out of the way of the chainsaws here a few weeks ago survived my shovel & transplant work or not.

Aside from a group of 4 deer, i don't see much wildlife here as most of it is nocturnal. (I did see a few turkeys a week ago.) But i was delighted yesterday a.m. to see a very white opossum looping thru the backyard, and that made me wonder if that was the critter enjoying all my handouts. I assumed it was the deer relishing the leftover table scraps and cat food which i put out many evenings and which vanishes by a.m.

Last night's offering also was gone this a.m., but i caught a cardinal picking at the remains, no doubt the squash seeds that went in there, along with some stale cheesecake. I'm wondering if this could possibly be an albino opposum or if they start out with white hair when they're born. I suspect it's the latter. Most possums i've seen have gray hair. They're really pretty special animals as they're in the marsupial family. Like kangaroos, they carry their young in a pouch.

Well, yesterday's errands got postponed when the weather turned sunny, so i'll be running out to do those shortly. Groceries, Walgreens, filling up the gas tank for the week ahead at the cheap place.... I was planning on going to the flea market too, but it's a bit of a marginal weather day today, and since the flea market is now on thru october, i might as well wait for a nicer day to do it.

Oh happy joy.

The electrician showed up yesterday, an hour late. He called Thursday night to give me an estimate, so Friday when i got home from work i was planning to remove the wallpaper, which needs to be replaced anyway, at least from the back wall where the light fixture will go. Unfortunately, i could not find my scraper, and the local hardware store was closed, and Home Depot was too far to go at that hour (7 pm) So i used my scouring tool, then a damp sponge, and proceeded to remove said wallaper with my fingernails.

Here's what it looks like.



A large rectangular mirror goes below the fixture; the electrician spackled 2 holes in that space, so i had to let that dry overnight, and he's coming back today to help me put the mirror back up and to get paid.

When he drilled the hole where the mirror goes, we could see that there was another wall behind it with a space of about 4 inches between the 2. The original exterior wall had some old wallpaper on it.

I've known that a lot of the wiring in this house was done by an amate