7-6-08

Nuttin much going on around here, just wanted to say HELLO! to y'ins...

We had a great time at my sister's on the 4th. Yesterday we left the state w/out the kids. How great is it to have kids old enough to leave home? (We live close to the state line, we didn't go that far.) Today we've gotta return Redbox movies... otherwise nothing going on. We did have a surprise visitor. A friend who moved to Florida stopped by today on his way to his grandparents. It was good to see him again.

This weekend's Redbox selections:
10,000 BC - interesting, but long. I wasn't sure what to expect. I liked it.
Drillbit Taylor- was cute; my freshman son laughed his ass off... wasn't that funny if you ask me.
Vantage Point- Didn't really get to watch it. Hubby liked it.
The Spiderwick Chronicals- Didn't really get to see it either; kids were glued to it.

Hubby's in the garden picking beans. We picked the first round on the 4th and gifted them to Mom. Now to keep the deer from eating them...

Have an OSM day!

Happy 4th Y'all!

Happy Independence Day America!

Tonight was our little slice of Americana celebration. Of course we were getting this yucky misty rain while we were walking the festival so I ended up putting a hat on over my freshly pressed hair... which curled up anyway. ...I'm a Yankee Doodle Daaaaandy, a Yankee Doodle do or die...


Iffin you'd like to read up on a local notoriety, click HERE. It is the oldest consecutive celebration of the 4th of July you know. ;) I know I've gone nearly every year that I've been on this planet. I remember the year we played rummy on the hood of Mom's silver Vega until it got too dark while waiting for the fireworks to start the best. It isnt a big, flashy fireworks display either. It's simple and down home and so... Americana. :)

The kids were sooooooooo osm!!! I really had a fantastic time. And this was the first time we allowed the kids to take off on their own. They didn't let me down, they were back by the time they were told to be. They're growing up and I might as well face it sooner than later. I guess, of sorts, it was their own independence day?

This year we'll be celebrating with a cookout and fireworks at my sister's. However you celebrate, or don't, have a safe, happy, OSM Independence Day!

Ruh roh...

aka dammit! dammit! dammit!!! For the first time in the umpteen years I've been using my local phone company's internet service, we're nearing total meltdown. Their server went down sometime Saturday night and I was without until late Monday afternoon... and then it was back down... then back up. According the the office, all is up and running soooo the problem is probably my (their external) outdated modem so they're sending someone out tomorrow with a brand spankin' new to me one. I'm hoping it works. In the meantime I've been having waaaaaaay too much fun playing Zoo Tycoon and fighting back the dust bunnies. And hippoes. And sasquatches. Don't want them to carry away service guy. At least not until my internet is fixed. *giggle*

Have an OSM day. Night. Whenever and however you want to look at it. :) It will prob be tomorrow afternoon before someone makes it out this way, so.... wish me luck in the morning. Tomorrow is Pogo day dammit.

Green Thumb: Just Add Rain

We finally got some much needed rain. First it stormed Thursday night- we got rain, but it came down brutally fast. Yesterday we had an early afternoon storm, but it had more rain and it didn't beat the garden to death. I'm sure the tomatoes especially appreciated that. Quite a few sustained injuries when hail fell last week. And then it rained, a lot, last night. One thing I learned a long time ago about gardening is that you can soak a garden with a hose but it doesn't work like a good rain. Rain seems to make everything grow insanely. We have two tomato plants with fruit- the grape tomato and the golden jubilee. The tomatoes on the yellow tomato plant are bigger than a golf ball. The cabbage is starting to form heads- its so pretty... whoda thunk cabbage could be pretty? And the beans..... well the beans are competing with the corn to see which can grow fastest. We should be picking beans soon. The flowers are finally starting to fill out so the beds are looking very nice. Now to get them mulched before the grass and weeds take over again... its a losing battle. Even with Mims' help. We need to deadhead plants today so they'll continue to bloom.

The picture is of the bougainvillea that Mom bought when I went on my flower shopping spree. I took it with my camera phone. Isn't it lovely?

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Have an osm day!

When gas is $4.09 a gallon...

...load your kids up in your van that is getting really crappy MPG and drive around all day...

Hubby went in early this (well, yesterday now) morning and got off early. After picking him up and returning the Redbox movies nobody was ready to go home... so we just drove without purpose and ended up at Monroe Lake near Bloomington. Indiana. IU and all that stuff. BTW, Z's eyes about bugged out when he saw just a part of the campus. I don't think Mr Big Man was feeling so big. Four more years...

Ok, back to Monroe... I remember going there when I was a little girl- maybe 5? Mom's whole family went. The only thing I really remember was playing at the beach (which one remains a mystery, this lake is HUGE) and Papaw taking us out on his boat. I don't think I ever went so fast in my entire life. I felt like I was flying.

Not planning ahead for our little excursion wasn't a bad thing. All of the beaches were closed because of the high water. Remember all the flooding central Indiana had a few weeks ago? It's still evident at the reservoir. However, I do wish I would have packed a picnic lunch. All the same, the best part was checking out the tailwater. That's the Army Corp of Engineers fancy way of saying water shooting out a huge culvert that runs under the dam that we drove over. Talk about extreme whitewater... Goofy daughter thought it would be fun to play in it... I asked her if she had a death wish. I do have to admit, the thought of taking a raft through there did sound thrilling.

I thought I would never get Nano to go down the stairs that lead to a fishing area at the mouth of the big fancy tailwater thingy. Sis and I went before we walked over to the thingy and she got soaked (see first picture.) We were nowhere near the bottom of the steps- she was 2 steps from the first fully submersed one and you can see how she was splashed. Reminded me of visiting the Atlantic Ocean. He finally succumbed to peer pressure, and had hella fun running away from the water as it splashed madly at us.

Nano's favorite part of the trip was..... OMG I cannot believe he is MY son... was seeing how many drop pots he could tour. If he saw one, he yelled to go pee. Silly Nano. If you look closely at the speck at the 'rest room' you'll see Hubby giving Nano the "WTF?!?" gesture... Ah, good times.

I really regret not grabbing my camera before we left. Its funny, I honestly did consider it... and then dismissed it. I took the pics with my camera phone.

We had a picnic supper. We ate it as I drove towards home after an interesting, extravagant day of wandering Indiana.

Now, does anyone have some sleeping pills? It is now 1:07a and I am no where near sleepy...

Make it an OSM one! :)

PS: Indiana's largest lake, near the Indiana University campus, features a scenic stone-bluffed shoreline and wooded hills. Monroe Lake is located in south central Indiana. The lake was completed by the Corps of Engineers in 1965. While this area of southern Indiana is known as the "The Limestone Capital of the World," at one time it also had several salt deposits, creating a lucrative trade by rafting the mined salt down the creek that would one day become Monroe Lake. Hence the name, Salt Creek.

Monroe Reservoir is 10,750 acres water with 23,952 total. Lake Monroe has three state recreational areas: Hardin Ridge, Paynetown, and Fairfax. The lake is served by a full service marina.

Monroe Lake was authorized under the Flood Control Act of 1938. The Louisville District of the U.S. Army Corps. Of Engineers designed, built, and operates the project to reduce flood damages downstream from the dam. The dam is about 10 miles southeast of Bloomington, Indiana, on Salt Creek, a tributary of the East Fork White River.

When heavy rains occur, surface water runoff is stored in the lake until swollen streams and rivers below the dam have receded and can handle the release of the stored water without damage to lives and property. (ripped off from www.lake-monroe.com)

PS...

Ok girls.... grab the remote, a box of tissues, some butt food and hit the couch. I absolutely LOVED PS I Love You. I laughed, and cried. And just when I thought I was gonna all out bawl, I laughed again. So sweet. Funny. OSM movie. :sigh: I want to watch it again. Alas it has to go back to Redbox. It should have went back today but I hadn't watched it yet, and I really did forget to return it. I'll definately add it to the must own list, then watch for it to be released used at my favorite video store.

I called around this morning and found a food mill in stock. Woot! Woot! It will be most excellent when the tomatoes are ready to be canned. My sister donated a box of jelly jars to the cause. I reckon I am committed now, like it or lump it. I plan on starting in the morning. As soon as my freshly bleached kitchen towels are rewashed and dried. And the dishwasher is emptied then filled with canning paraphenalia. Did I even come close to spelling that right? It's late, I'm tired, and my eyes are puffy from crying at a movie.

Being a sap is fun, dammit. THHHHHPPPPPPPPPTTTTT!

Ok, have an osm night.

Two gallons of sour cherries...

... can you guess what I am going to do with them? I'm going to attempt to make jelly! I've never made anything 'home canned' so this will be interesting. I would make freezer jam but I have no place to freeze it.

Sissy made me smile when she came in with a gallon pitcher nearly full of them. She said she could almost hear Grandpa (Claude) playfully hollering at her to get out of his cherries. They've since picked another gallon... and who knows how many they've eaten between the tree and the kitchen.

If it goes well, I want to make some mint jelly too. Sounds gross, but I LOVED it when I was a kid. Grandma used to make it. Every overnight visit with her meant toast and jelly for breakfast. She made the best jellies.

I'm off to watch a movie with Hubby. Hope your weekend was OSM!

keep rollin' rollin' rollin'

(Limp Bizkit tune if you were wondering.) Yard is mowed. Well as mowed as I'm going to get it. Hubby has to do the front. I chopped up the water hose and said screw it. He also has to do the bank. And around the beagle because she's started digging again. Maybe she'll get the moles, the billions of cats around here wont.

Nuttin much else going on. My sister will be here at some point. She's stopping by on her way back from taking my niece to the orthodontist. Dunno when hubby will be in from work. Kids are behaving (GASP!) so I might stretch out a bit before Bug gets here. Bug is my sister ;)

Have an OSM day!

Holy crap...

... my feet are COLD!!! Teach me to go to the clothesline barefooted just days before the first day of summer, eh? It's like 65 out this morning with a heavy dew. Hey, that means I washed a load of laundry, eh? Shhhhhh don't tell anyone.

Sit down and have a cuppa with me :)

Have an OSM day.

trippin' down memory lane...

...with my eldest child in tow. How damned cool is that?

Waaaaaaay back when cd's first hit the music scene, back when Hubby and I were barely dating, we had this sickening obsession with collecting the shiny round things. Thank God for the digital era. We have more compact discs than we know what to do with.

Noodles, I smell pot... I'm driving down to the bario, going 15 miles an hour because I'm already stoned. Give the guy a twenty and wait in the car, he tosses me a baggie then he runs real far. I take a hit but it smells like a clove, oh f*ck I got a baggie of oregano. This ritual is killing me but I guess it could be worse, it could be methadrine... (the Offspring- Mota) [as a side note- I vividly recall my scrawny, quiet, passive husband jumping in the mosh pit at an Offspring show while my friends tried to buffer my pregnant (with Jake) belly from moshers thrown from the pit. Good times, people. Good times.]

I let my Zune pass lapse so I've had maybe two dozen tunes on the Zune for a couple of months... and well, mowing gets boring with the same soundtrack... driving does too. Free radio has really went to shit- and I can't stand commercials and chatter- gimme rock. So Z decided to sift through the old CD collection and pulled out a few here and there. I'm one of those when I get a CD I play it to death- to the point I don't know if I will ever hear it again, and if I do- how many times will I listen before it becomes a favorite of the skip button? So we've played some Offspring (apparently so), Godsmack, Def Leppard, Stone Temple Pilots, Metallica... on and on. I guess its been awhile since I listened to Def Leppard (a total favorite of my wild days) so it was nice to hear that again... and the Zune has some semi-fresh tracks.