Happy 2nd anniversary, dear!

It has been a good year.  I hope that we have many, many, many good years to come.

I love you!

That would be the boat, and not Ivory Soap.

(That was the punchline of a lot of my Grandpa’s rambling stories/jokes when I was little.  “{story goes here, and then at a dramatic turning point}…. “it floooooaaaaats…. it flooooaaaats…..” “What floats, Grandpa?” “IVORY SOAP!”  This was hilarious when I was five.)

Anyway, the weather was beautiful this past (as in last) weekend, so John and I spent most of it outside and working on the boat.  Among other things we got  lot of work done varnishing various bits of woodwork.  It was actually so hot out, that the varnish was drying almost as quickly as I could paint it on, so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time waiting between coats.  (I also got a sunburn from that much time out in the sun, big surprise.)

We got a bit behind in the boat work lately because of all of the rain and storms.  Fiberglass takes forever to cure if it is damp out, and you just don’t want to try to varnish anything at all if it is significantly humid.  So we really took advantage of the hot, dry days.

Sunday morning we packed up the boat on the trailer, and went to a boat launch on the Little Miami River, about 10 minutes away from our house in Miamisburg, for its first launch.  (There was no champagne involved, however.  We will save that for when the boat is actually done.)  We needed to float the main hull (loaded down with all of the rest of the gear) and then the pontoons so that we could measure the waterline and the draft.  All of that so that John could do the necessary calculations to figure out the correct angle and drop needed to attach the pontoons.

We are getting closer to being done.  And we have a deadline, since we have plans to go sailing with John’s family in late July, early August.

Last Monday I was wearing a sundress and complaining about the humidity.  This Monday it is cold and rainy and I am wearing jeans and long sleeves.  Ah, an Ohio spring!

Last Monday I also took the day off for my birthday (I have a personal policy of not working on my birthday if I don’t have to) and spent the day puttering around the house and reading out on the deck.

(According to the bible, man is allotted a span of threescore and ten, which means that I am halfway there now.  However, I do plan on outliving that span by a good number of years.)

Then John and I got dressed up and went out to dinner at The Pine Club when he got home from work.

After dinner he gave me my present – a CAS/Hanwei Tinker Longsword (carbon alloy steel) sharp – that I can use for cutting practice.  So of course we had to go outside right away and set up a pedestal so we could try the edge against some plastic water bottles (which are apparently very good for that sort of thing).   Turned out that it still needed sharpening, but I think that I am going to very much enjoy it… cutting practice should really tighten up my stance and form on the master cuts.

It was a good day.

John and I skipped the silver bells, cockle shells, pretty maids, and just used actual plants.

Last weekend in between rainstorms we tilled and enlarged the garden, extending it all of the way out to the southern corner of the house.  So now the garden is about 1/3 larger then it was last year… about 10 feet by 25 feet total.

This Saturday we did the planting.

• Rosemary (2 plants)
• Basil (6 plants – we really go through a lot of basil)
• Sage (2 plants)
• Greek Oregano (2 plants)
• Tomatoes (20 plants)
  • San Marzano (2 plants)
  • Mr Stripey (2 plants)
  • Black Prince (4 plants)
  • Lemon Boy (4 plants)
  • Better Boy (6 plants)
  • German Queen (2  plants)
• Green Bell Peppers (“Big Bertha” variety – 4 plants)
• Yellow Bell Peppers (2 plants)
• Sweet Banana Peppers (4 plants)
• Jalapeno Peppers (“Mucho Nacho” variety – 4 plants)
• Eggplants (6 plants)
• Zucchini (3 plants)

Heirloom tomato varieties have the best names.

We had some really grandiose plans for this years garden.  With the expansion we were going to try all sorts of new things – like garlic, snow peas, and green beans – but were unfortunately limited by what kind of seedlings were available in the three different garden centers that we went to yesterday.  No one had garlic or snow peas (or any kind of peas) or green beans.  And we even had trouble finding eggplant.  We only found it at one place, and ended up almost buying them out since they had only one tray of seedlings.

There are some definite trends as far as what is readily available with respect to vegetable seedlings goes… this year seems to be all about sweet potatoes (seriously, every place had a ton of them and I don’t remember seeing any at all last year) and green, leafy stuff like kale and spinach and arugula.  One place even had Brussels sprouts and cabbage available.

Next year we still want to try the snow peas, and garlic, and green beans, and maybe some other stuff as well, so we will have to remember to start a couple of trays of seeds sometime in February.

I was born on a Mother’s Day.

Depending on how you look at it, that has got to be either the best (you get to become a mother on Mother’s Day!) or the worst (you get hours of agonizing labor!) gift ever.  Either way, it is all uphill (or downhill) from there.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom, and Grandma, and Granny.

I love you all.

Since it actually stopped raining for a little while yesterday, John resumed his early morning walk habit.  When he got home, he told me (I was making coffee) that for the last third of his walk he had been joined by a very large and very friendly black lab, which had followed him home and was currently hanging out in the garage.

Of course, I had to check.  And there was indeed a black lab in the garage, and he was very very large and very very friendly, and he just shouldered his way past me and into the laundry room like I wasn’t even there (and trying to shove him back out the door, while calling to John to “help me”).  I hung on to the dog’s collar (no tags, but very healthy and well fed looking, so not a stray) to keep him from getting into the rest of the house, while John came and closed the door between the laundry room and the front hall.

The dog just wanted to be petted and fussed over and possibly to be fed a treat.  He just wanted to be friends and didn’t seem to particularly care that we were strangers and that our house was not his house.

It took a few minutes to coax (drag) the dog back outside and into the garage.  He hung out there for a while after that, occasionally scratching at the door from the garage to the laundry room, to check to see if we had maybe changed our minds about letting him in.

Throughout this?  Percival was freaking out (he does not like dogs) while Merlin remained largely indifferent to the excitement.

And then Percival had to be bundled into his carrier to go to the vet for his annual checkup.  Fortunately by the time I had to take him out to the car, the lab was long gone, presumably back to his own house.